Take a look at the new Amazon Echo

Alexa is back with a brand-new Echo smart speaker -- and a much lower price point. Click through and we'll show you everything that's new.

The new Echo is shorter and slightly wider than the original.

It also ditches the volume ring of the original, and replaces it with the volume buttons of the Echo Dot.

The new Echo also features an aux-out jack for connecting it with external speakers -- another similarity with the Echo Dot. You can also connect with your existing audio setup via Bluetooth.

The Echo now comes in a variety of new designs, complete with removable "shells."

By default, you get a fabric shell in your choice of three shades of gray. For an extra $20, your Echo can come in a hard-bodied silver shell, or a woodgrain shell in oak or walnut.

To remove a shell, just press through a hole in the bottom to push the internal hardware up out the top.

With the new, squat stature and the interchangeable shells, the Echo seems designed to compete more directly with the Google Home smart speaker.

The new Echo isn't launching with any new, major features or integrations. Instead, Amazon gave Alexa's smart home controls a tune-up, with new "routines" that let you trigger multiple devices with a single command. You'll also be able to tell your Echo devices what rooms they're in, so when you say "Alexa, turn the lights off," she knows to turn the lights off in that room. All of the refinements are coming soon via app update.

The new Echo's speaker is very similar to the original, and it sounds similar, too. We had a hard time telling the two Echoes apart in our tests.

The new Echo starts at $100 -- down from $180. That's a big price cut for a device that's demonstrably better than the original. Read our full review to see if we think it's a must-buy.