I shed a few tears when Amazon discontinued the Echo Spot in 2019. The weird little smart alarm clock may have been a little problematic, but the Echo Dot with Clock was never quite the Echo Spot replacement I wanted. While the Echo Spot received mass complaints of flickering screens, and customers quibbled about its unnecessary low-res camera, it still had its place.
But Amazon brought it back with vengeance last year. The ecommerce giant re-launched a new and improved Amazon Echo Spot, complete with better sound and – yes – no invasive camera.
The 2024 Echo Spot essentially pulls together the best bits of an Echo Show 5 and an Echo Dot with Clock, sitting in between the two devices in terms of form and functionality.
Since the original Echo rolled out all those years ago, Alexa smart speakers have become the centrepiece of most smart homes, and Amazon has since made one for every room, from the kitchen to the bedroom. There are so many models now that it can be hard to know which to choose.
As for the Spot smart speaker, it’s £40 cheaper than the original model, costing £79.99, but still more expensive than the popular Echo Dot. So, is it any good? And where does it fit in the home? As a senior tech critic, I’ve taken the latest Echo Spot for a spin to see how well it stacks up.
How I tested
I place my Echo Dot with Clock just about everywhere in my home, asking it to deliver weather reports, set timers, play music, podcasts and read the news. But for the purposes of this review, I replaced it with the all-new Echo Spot. Was it easy to use? Did it sound good? And how good is that display? I’ve put it through its paces with the testing criteria below.
- Display: I tested the miniature smart speaker’s bright LED display, considering its resolution and size for both basic tasks like video calls and checking the time, as well as more immersive functions like watching TV shows.
- Portability: I moved it from room to room, trying it in different positions to test how easy it is to move with you through the house, throughout the day.
- Features: I tested out its features, from the little animations and music and sound quality, to the strength of the microphone for video calls and Alexa voice command.
- Connection: A bad Bluetooth connection can be frustrating, so I assessed whether the Echo Spot ever dropped connection, and I also tested the range of the device.
- Battery life: A good speaker should last for hours, so I made sure the battery claim (up to eight hours) from Amazon lined up with real life.
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Amazon Echo Spot smart alarm clock
Dimensions : 10.41 x 9.65 x 9.14cm
Weight : 419g
Release year : 2024
Why we love it
- Good amount of microphones
- Decent sound
Take note
- No indoor temperature sensor
This Amazon Echo Spot kind of looks like the cheapest Echo in the range (the Echo Pop), but slightly chunkier and heavier, and with a screen that takes up roughly three-quarters of the top. It looks better-built than the Echo Pop, however, and feels stronger and sturdier.
While the 2.83in screen looks like a semicircle, it’s actually rectangular with a bezel that just makes it look like a semicircle – clever. It comes in three different colours – black, white and blue, but you can personalise the screen to an extent. The options are limited and don’t all look vastly different from each other, and it’s a shame there aren’t more. I’d love to be able to upload our own clock faces or have a wider variety of colours.
If you swipe down from the top of the screen and head to the settings, you can choose from six different clock faces and six colour themes. They all look broadly the same, but I liked the one with the little weather icon the most. I was able to set up a routine so that the screen gradually lit up when our alarm was about to go off in the morning, similar to a sunrise alarm clock.
It’s responsive and shows just enough information when you’re having a quick glance to check the time, ask about the weather or calendar events. When you ask for the weather, Alexa will bring up the right information at the right time. When it’s telling you the temperature, it will show the exact degrees, with a nice little pictogram of the weather (sun, in our case), and rotating to a visual indicator of the highest temperature and lowest temperature. Think of it as someone talking you through a quick weather report, with imagery that goes with it.
When I’m playing music, it shows the artist and song, as well as the album cover, and lets me pause, skip and go back a song using the touch screen display. Want to turn on your smart lights? Ask Alexa, and it will bring up a light switch that you can toggle on and off on the display. It’s pretty seamless.
Like the Echo Pop, it features a slanting fabricated speaker front and a plastic rear. Unlike the Echo Dot, however, it’s directional and is designed to be placed in a corner or beside a wall so that you can view the screen. It does sound better than the Echo Pop, however, featuring the same 1.73in speaker as the 5th-generation Echo Dot.
There’s a good amount of bass, and it gets loud without rattling the speaker on the inside. Decent audio, with strong vocals, we still prefer the audio on the slightly more expensive 4th-generation base Echo, but it’s good for its size. I enjoyed that it had four microphones instead of three, because it meant not having to shout across the room to get it to listen to me.
There are three physical buttons that turn off the microphone and adjust volume. While it can’t make video calls anymore, I found it a pretty useless feature on the old model anyway, given it had such a diminutive size. Working with Alexa, I was able to set alarms, ask inane questions and program routines. It was snappy and fast, with no waiting in between responses. I could drop in on other Alexa devices and make audio calls, too.
The only thing the Echo Spot is missing is a temperature sensor, which the Echo Dot has. It’s mainly useful if you want to connect your smart home to your Alexa, so that it can turn on the fan or the radiator if your indoor temperature reaches a certain number.
Buy now £79.99, Amazon.co.uk
The verdict: Echo Spot
The Echo Spot straddles the line between an Echo Dot and an Echo Show. Featuring a bright, animated display, it makes it really easy to see things like the weather, time and songs at a glance. Customisable and quick to answer questions, it’s a nifty little alarm clock that looks smart and has decent sound quality. It is £20 more expensive than the Echo Dot, however, so if you don’t feel like you need a display (though it’s genuinely nice not having to use your voice to view the time), then the cheaper Dot might be a better purchase. Overall, I’m just glad the Spot’s back. The Echo Show sometimes feels a little cluttered, and the Spot feels nice and pared back in comparison.
Looking for more recommendations? Read our guide to the best Amazon Echo smart speakers
