New Delhi, July 11 -- For most folks on the Amazon Alexa bandwagon (my parents included), the Echo speaker takes on many roles throughout the day: setting alarms and reminders, settling dinner table debates with random trivia, streaming old classics while sipping tea, and switching off everything from the TV to the water heater through a collection of smart plugs scattered around the house.

The Echo Studio always has had one more role to play, ever since it first launched in 2019, and that is putting the speaker back in 'smart speaker'. Seven years on, the second generation Echo Studio ( Rs.23,999) doubles down on that promise, but does it justify the premium when cheaper Echo devices already do such a competent job of handling Alexa's e...