Amazon’s Echo Spot turns a traditional nightstand alarm clock into a smart speaker with a screen you can view from bed. The 2.83-inch touchscreen displays the current time, weather forecast, and song titles right away, and the 1.73-inch front-firing speaker delivers surprisingly full sound in a bedroom. Alexa manages alarms, timers, music, and smart home operations via voice commands, and it has no camera, which makes it a good choice for a bedroom.
A small smart alarm clock and speaker with a touchscreen and no camera
The Echo Spot works as an alarm clock, smart speaker, and small smart home controller in one compact device. You may tailor the display to suit your tastes and preferences, snooze the alarm with a simple tap, play music from your preferred streaming services, and control lighting and thermostats within your house, all using a product that takes up virtually no space on a bedside table.
The screen is designed to provide information quickly. Along with the time being displayed on the screen, you can select from six different clock designs and six different color schemes, including blue, orange, violet, lime, magenta, and teal, to match your room and personal preferences. In addition to showing the weather, timer, and reminder information, the display also shows the name and cover art for the song currently playing.
Managing alarms is also much simpler now. Once an alarm goes off, tapping the top of the Echo Spot lets you snooze it, and you can choose from alarm sounds made specifically for this device. There’s also a feature called “Night Mode,” which dims the display so it doesn’t illuminate your bedroom while you’re attempting to sleep.
The 1.73-inch speaker delivers more bass than you’d expect from such a small unit, and it’s clearly audible for music, podcasts, and audiobooks. You can listen to content from Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, and many others. You can even use stereo pairing with two Echo Spot units to create a broader sound area.
It also supports built-in smart home control. Using the Echo Spot, you can tell Alexa to turn off your lights or simply touch the screen to change your thermostat temperature. If you have Matter-compatible products, the Echo Spot works with them. Since the Echo Spot uses motion detection, walking into your bedroom can start your morning routine of turning on the lights and listening to the news with Alexa Routines.
The Echo Spot is designed with privacy in mind. Since it has no camera, you don’t need to worry about a camera sitting in your bedroom. Amazon has built multiple layers of privacy protection into each Echo product and includes an option to turn off the microphones.
The rounded design of the Amazon Echo Spot gives it a warm look, and it seems to fit in a variety of places around your home, such as on a nightstand, desk, or kitchen counter. The Echo Spot is relatively easy to install, with setup instructions provided through the Alexa app. Once it’s working, you have access to a digital alarm clock, a smart speaker, and a remote control for your smart home, all contained in one product.