The Echo Dot Max is the Alexa+ speaker I’ve always dreamed of – but these 3 features would make it even better

When Amazon announced Alexa+, I was rather impressed with the demonstrations and immediately wanted a new flagship speaker to go with it. Seven months later, Amazon unveiled its new line of Alexa+ Echo speakers – the Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio – and I was over the moon.

The new line of Echo smart speakers is Amazon’s most powerful yet, and not just because of its Alexa+ smarts. Its remodeled sound system packs 360-degree spatial audio with a bass boost (3x compared to the Echo Dot 5th Gen) and introduces support for Dolby Atmos, which was one of my biggest hopes for the next era of Echo speakers.

So far, I really like what I see with the Echo Dot Max - even its resemblance to the Death Star is rather quirky. Despite this, there are three additional features I initially hoped for but didn’t make the ...