I’ve been looking for a good voice-activated alarm clock for years, and with Amazon’s latest smart speaker, I think I’ve found it. The Nest Hub is too big for my nightstand and the Echo Show 5 is too bright, but the new Echo Spot ($79.99) is perfect.
While the Spot isn’t perfect, its small footprint, minimalist screen, impressive sound for its size, built-in voice assistant, and quick responses meet most of my needs. These features make it a good option if you want the benefits of a smart speaker and some basic visual information in your room without the distractions of a big screen.
A follow-up to the original Echo Spot, which was discontinued in 2019, the new Echo Spot ditches the camera, which was our main gripe with the previous version. It also swaps out the fully circular display for a semi-circular one that displays the clock. While that display is a bit on the small side (and slightly cheap-looking), overall the Spot is a capable smart alarm clock at a good price, especially when it’s on sale.
Amazon Echo Spot (2024)
$79.99
Good
Alexa Quick Answers
Clear and bright display
Good sound for its size
No camera
No visible advertising
The bad
Unable to set alarm using screen
The “stop alarm” button is tiny
Smart home control relies primarily on voice
No backup battery
How we rate and review products
Small screen, big personality
An Alexa-powered smart speaker, the Spot takes the design cues of the Echo Pop with its flat, circular front, but adds a small 2.83-inch display above the speaker’s grille. It’s a touchscreen that displays a clock or various animations when playing music, checking the weather, setting timers, and controlling smart home devices. It’s very responsive to touch, though it’s limited in terms of what you can do with it.
The Spot also responds well to Alexa voice commands with minimal lag and can trigger Alexa routines with presence detection using an ultrasonic sensor. It’s a Bluetooth speaker (there’s no line out) and an Alexa Matter controller (over Wi-Fi), but unlike the Echo Dot, there’s no temperature sensor and it doesn’t act as an Eero mesh Wi-Fi extender.
The new Echo Spot (right) is surprisingly bulky and larger than the original Spot (left).
The Spot’s screen is primarily designed as a clock, displaying just enough information to be useful and not too much to be annoying. Instead of the rotating content you find on Echo Shows that sometimes play ads for Amazon’s services, the Spot simply displays the current time and the time your next alarm is set for. There’s also an option to display the weather and date.
The screen is small enough that it doesn’t get in the way at night, thanks to a night mode that switches to a simple red LED display. It has six fun daytime watch faces, though two of them look a bit squashed into their small rectangle. It would look better if the screen took up the entire top half-circle instead of just two-thirds of it. That could have allowed for the Echo Show Sunrise wake-up feature that gradually brightens the entire screen.
The Spot will have too much screen for you if you like the no-frills LED matrix look of the Dot with clock
The Spot’s small screen means the clock disappears or becomes very small when it’s used for anything other than a clock, which can be annoying. When it’s playing music, it shows a graphical visualizer and playback controls. When listening to a book, it shows the title (oddly, no controls), and for timers, it shows the countdown. If I want the full-screen clock to show while I’m doing one of these tasks, I have to say “Alexa, go to Home” or swipe down and press the Home button.
This shows that the Spot isn’t a smart display, but rather a smart speaker with a display. It’s closer in function to the now-discontinued Echo Dot With Clock than the Echo Show 5. I found the Spot’s display easier to read on my nightstand than the Dot’s, and I liked the extra control options, but if you prefer the no-frills LED matrix look of the Dot with Clock, then the Spot will have too much screen for you.
1/4
Night mode is a simple red digital clock face.
1/4
Night mode is a simple red digital clock face.
The Spot’s touchscreen lets you control basics like music playback and smart home devices. But while it displays a button to turn a light on or off and a slider to adjust the brightness of a lamp, for example, I have to use my voice to make those commands appear. I also couldn’t use the screen to set an alarm on the Spot’s display. Again, I had to use my voice or the Alexa app. That seems like a failure for a device designed to be an alarm clock.
The Echo Spot has a similar shape to the Echo Pop and the same physical buttons: volume up and down and mute.
Technical characteristics of the Echo Spot
Price: $79.99
Colors: Black, white and blue
Size: 4.5 inches L x 4.1 inches D x 4.4 inches H
Screen: 2.83 inches, 240 x 320 px
Processor: MT8519
Speaker: 1.73-inch front-facing mono speaker
Microphones: Two
Wi-Fi: 2.4 and 5 GHz
Smart home connectivity: Wi-Fi, BLE, Sidewalk, Matter, Alexa
Otherwise, the Spot’s alarm function is very good. There are a wide selection of alarm tones, including a classic one. I can also say “Alexa, wake me up at 6 a.m. to Taylor Swift” or ask it to wake me up to a specific radio station. Plus, I can have my bedroom smart lights turn on with the alarm or start an Alexa routine.
Unfortunately, the snooze and stop alarm buttons on the screen are tiny, too small to easily press when you wake up with bleary eyes. But using your voice or tapping the top of the Spot to snooze works just fine. Also, there’s no battery backup, which isn’t easy to find on any smart speaker/alarm clock, but it’s an important feature for my family.
As for audio, the Spot’s 1.73-inch front-facing mono speaker makes it a good speaker for listening to music, sleep sounds, or an audiobook in bed. It’s not as bulky as the Dot, but it delivers clearer vocals and richer sound than the smaller Echo Pop.
The Spot also works with Alexa audio calling, and I can use it as a home intercom with Alexa Drop In, which is useful when I want to tell my teenager to turn down his music. It’s the only dedicated smart alarm clock I’ve tested that has this feature. There are a number of third-party smart alarm clocks with Alexa built-in, but none support Drop In.
I’ve tried a lot of devices as smart alarm clocks, and I like the Spot’s size and small screen for my nightstand. Clockwise from bottom left: Echo Dot with clock, Echo Show 5, Echo Spot (first generation), iPhone 15 Pro in sleep mode, Nest Hub (second generation), Echo Spot.
This is not a smart display
As I mentioned earlier, the Spot isn’t really a smart display (even though that’s what Amazon calls it). You can’t use it as a digital photo frame or video calling device, or watch a live feed from a security camera or video content on it. But I didn’t miss any of those features in a bedside device. If they’re important to you, consider the Echo Show 5 , which can do everything the Spot can plus all of the above, but is bigger and brighter with its larger screen.
Overall, I like the direction Amazon is going with its new Echos, creating more defined use cases for its smart speakers and displays beyond streaming music and setting timers. First, there was the Echo Hub, a smart home controller; now, there’s the Echo Spot, a smart alarm clock.
While $80 is steep compared to the Echo Dot’s $50 price tag, you get more features with the Spot. Plus, if you can find it on sale (like the recent deep discount for Prime Day), it’s an easy buy. There’s still room for improvement, but if you’re looking for a better voice-activated smart alarm clock, the Spot deserves a spot on your nightstand.
Photography by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The Verge
AGREE TO CONTINUE: AMAZON ECHO SPOT
Now, every smart device requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it, contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we’re going to start counting exactly how many times you have to click “agree” to use the devices when we look at them, because these are agreements that most people don’t read and certainly can’t negotiate.
To use the Amazon Echo Spot, you need to download the Alexa app for iOS and Android. An Amazon account is required to sign in. By signing up for one, you must agree to its terms of use.
Then the setup is done on the device, where “by continuing, you agree to Amazon’s Terms of Use and all terms found here.” You can explore the documentation at this link, but below we’ve listed the 17 terms you need to agree to:
Alexa Terms of Service
Amazon Terms of Use
Amazon Privacy Policy
Children’s Privacy Disclosure
Interest-Based Advertising
Amazon Prime Terms
Amazon Music Terms of Service
Kindle Store Terms of Use
Audible Service Terms of Use
Amazon Dash Replenishment Terms of Use
Amazon Kids Plus Terms and Conditions
Amazon Photos Terms of Use
Amazon Device Terms of Use
Amp Terms of Use
IMDb Legal Information
Amazon Video Terms of Use
Amazon Fire TV Terms of Service
Additionally, you can choose to set up Voice ID and Amazon Sidewalk. You can find more information on the Alexa Privacy Hub and on the Alexa and Alexa Devices FAQ page.
Final balance sheet:there are 17 mandatory agreements and two optional agreements.
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