Amazon (AMZN) has unveiled a slew of new products and product updates aimed at expanding its considerable reach in people’s homes. Chief among them? An all-new Echo speaker.

Available for sale Wednesday for $99 — $80 less than its predecessor — think of this year’s all-new Echo as an evolved version of the first device, which Amazon initially released back in 2014.

I spent 30 minutes with the new Echo, Echo Plus and Spot and walked away with several impressions:

It’s a svelter, better-looking device

The all-new Echo is all about choices.

Where the first Echo came in just two colors — black and white — the new Echo strives to offer at least six colors, including charcoal fabric (black), heather gray fabric, oak finish, sandstone fabric, silver finish, and walnut finish.

The fabric-covered speakers, in particular, looked like a major upgrade from the first Echo and seemed particularly slick, especially given that they’re much shorter, too. I wasn’t a fan of the faux-wood veneer options — those just struck me as less premium-looking — but they could very well appeal to others besides me.

It sounds better

During Wednesday’s announcement, Dave Limp, Amazon SVP of Devices and Services, emphasized that one of the biggest upgrades to this year’s Echo speaker is in the audio department. An all-new audio design promises a new tweeter (or treble speaker) and subwoofer for improved sound. Also, newer “far-field” technology with noise cancelling should allow better voice recognition so Alexa can understand your commands from farther away.

“A kitchen is a very tough acoustic environment; a living room is a very tough acoustic environment,” explained Dave Limp, Amazon SVP of Devices and Services, of the company’s reasoning for introducing the improved design.

Amazon’s demo area on Wednesday crawled with reporters — not exactly an ideal environment to test out speaker audio — but a few minutes of streaming tracks, like Imagine Dragons’ “Believer” from Amazon Music, proved that the sound is indeed better and louder on this Echo.

Will the all-new Echo’s all-new audio blow away audiophiles? No. But it will fill a small-to-medium room, easy-peasy.

Also announced? The $149 Echo Plus, which also promises improved audio and a built-in “smart home hub,” which lets you easily connect smart devices around your home — compatible lights, locks, and switches, for instance — just by saying, “Alexa, discover my devices.”

It looks … a lot like the first Echo

You’d be forgiven for having a feeling of deja vu upon seeing the Echo Plus, which is available for pre-order and ships October 31. At first blush, it looks virtually identical to the first Echo speaker that debuted in 2014, although you can order this one in black, white, and silver. It also comes with one Philips Hue bulb, as a way for users to get quickly acquainted with the Echo Plus’s “smart phone hub.”