Amazon Echo Spot: A smart alarm clock that works as it should. Is it enough?

The touchscreen of the Amazon Echo Spot allows the user to turn off an alarm physically, just like an alarm clock
The touchscreen of the Amazon Echo Spot allows the user to turn off an alarm physically, just like an alarm clock

Summary

With its neat design and touchscreen display, the Echo Spot is a handy device. But it is 2025, and we need more

Amazon has a wide range of Alexa-enabled smart speakers, but the new Amazon Echo Spot ( 8,999, currently at an inaugural price of 6,499) isn’t positioned as one, falling somewhere between a smart speaker and a smart display. Let’s find out what it does.

Design details

The Amazon Echo Spot has a compact design with a spherical top—it resembles a half-sliced egg, although it is significantly larger than one. The flattened base has a rubber rim at the bottom to keep the device stable on your desk or nightstand. There are three buttons on the top: volume up, volume down, and a microphone button to toggle the microphone on or off.

It’s a simple, minimalist design that follows the Amazon Echo’s familiar design language and blends into any décor. On the front, there’s a speaker mesh that covers the lower half circle, and on top of it is the small 2.83-inch touchscreen display. It’s not large—and there’s limited functionality. You can’t stream videos or make video calls using that screen. You also cannot display live feeds from security cameras or smart video doorbells on the Echo Spot. And that’s alright since it’s not a smart display, unlike the company’s Echo Show lineup.

Also read: Stop being trendy, create spaces that reflect your personality

The Echo Spot’s screen works well as a clock, with a choice of six different clock faces. And there’s a bit of character as well. The screen offers colourful visual cues, like when you ask Alexa for weather or when it is streaming music. It also offers touchscreen controls for music playback. When you give voice commands for smart home devices, the display offers related controls like an on/off button or brightness slider for lamps or speed control for a smart fan. The Echo Spot offers clear, room-filling sound. It won’t suffice the need for an immersive audio streaming experience or for a party but it delivers loud enough audio for casual music streaming or listening to podcasts.

The Echo Spot packs in an ultrasound motion sensor allowing you to set up automated actions, like turning on the room lights when you enter. There’s no temperature sensor though, which Amazon has offered in other similarly priced devices like the Amazon Echo Dot ( 5,499).

Same old, same old Alexa

Aside from the display, the Echo Spot does everything that any other Amazon Echo smart speaker does—set alarms and timers, get weather updates, seek information from internet, play games, stream music, and control smart home devices.

And that’s that. While Alexa has been quite a popular interface for smart devices, especially because of thousands of plugins (“skills") available for myriad fun and productivity scenarios, it’s not the smartest virtual assistant today. With Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini transforming our expectations of digital assistants on the web and on smartphones, Alexa is quite evidently dated. The next generation of smart speakers will quite possibly come with AI assistants, but there isn’t one on the market yet, so Amazon’s got some time on its hand.

Alarm clock with smarts

The Echo Spot is positioned as an Alexa-enabled smart alarm clock, and it does well as one. I have an old Lenovo Smart Clock powered by Google Assistant, and even though I have newer smart speakers at home, I continue to have it on my nightstand because of the ‘clock’ features.

While most of the clock and alarm features are fairly standard—set up alarms, increase alarm volume with time, wake up to a music playlist instead of an alarm sound (my wife doesn’t get my fascination for jazz every morning though; your mileage may vary), set up routines to have news or weather relayed to you when you wake up and so on. But the kicker is that like traditional alarm clocks, you can tap on top of the Echo Spot to silence or snooze an alarm instead of speaking to it or using touch controls while having just woken up and being in the middle of a yawn.

Additionally, the display on Echo Spot supports adaptive brightness and automatically adjusts to ambient lighting. There’s also a night mode that dims the screen and changes the colour display to red accents. This makes it a perfect companion device for one’s bedside.

Time piece for kids' rooms

The cool, playful animations on the display on Echo Spot makes it a great device for children’s rooms. My seven-year-old plays a lot of quiz games on other Echo devices at our home and checks the weather a zillion times a day (maybe he’s already worried about climate change) but enjoyed his interactions with the Echo Spot more because of the cool visual feedback. The touchscreen gives the child more control. Of course, like other Echo devices, you can call the Echo Spot in your child’s room from other Echo devices at home or via the Amazon Alexa app from work to check in on them or ask them to join you for dinner.

Should you get one?

The new Amazon Echo Spot is a great device for your nightstand. It is also a good entry point if you’re looking to pick your first smart speaker. The inaugural price of 6,449 sweetens the deal.

For its full sticker price of 8,999 though, the new Echo Spot is a tad expensive for what it offers, unless you use it for exactly what it is positioned as – a smart alarm clock, or a kid’s companion device. Because otherwise, you might want to opt for the older Amazon Echo Dot that offers slightly better audio and includes a temperature sensor as well.

Also read: Gadgets to make your home a more interesting place in 2025

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