Motorola’s $150 Alexa Moto Mod is available for preorder on November 7th Amazon’s new Echo is smaller and costs $99

Motorola’s Alexa speaker Moto Mod for its Moto Z phones — officially known as the Moto Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa — will be available for preorders starting on November 7th for $149.99. The attachment will be available a week later on BestBuy.com and Motorola.com, starting November 13th, and will come to Verizon a few days after that on the 16th.

As noted when Motorola first announced the Moto Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa, it’s worth remembering that you can just buy an actual Amazon Echo for $99 (or a $129 Echo Spot, or a $149 Echo Plus), and get a device with better microphones, a larger speaker, and compatibility with more than just a handful of Motorola phones.

But hey, it’s your call.

Amazon’s new Echo is smaller and costs $99

Amazon introduced a second-generation version of the Echo today with a dedicated bass tweeter and a modified, shorter design. The new device looks to be about half the size of the original Echo, is cloth-covered, and goes on sale today for $99. The company is also selling a three-pack for the first time, offering multi-room audio for $250. To qualify, you’ll just need to add three Echos to your cart and Amazon will deduct $50 off the total.

Multi-room audio has been a major request of Echo users nearly since its inception. The introduction of audio that can stream to multiple devices simultaneously means that Echo now poses a direct competitive threat to Sonos. It will also offer a low-cost alternative to Apple’s forthcoming HomePod.