A great nightstand companion, but there’s another Echo you should consider

Looking for a smart speaker to place next to your bed? Smart idea; they’re great for things like alarms, audiobooks, white noise, and weather reports. I like Amazon’s Eco Pop for this purpose, mainly because I prefer its design to that of the better known ones, Orb-like Echo Dot – but the latter is also a solid choice, especially if you choose the Eco dot with clock. Now comes a kind of hybrid; the Echo Spot looks like the Pop, but with a screen taking up roughly the top half of the front. This lets you quickly view the time, weather, song titles, and more. Before you find a place for Spot, however, you should consider some of its limitations. Here is my review of the Amazon Echo Spot.

Amazon

VERDICT: With its pleasing design and Alexa-powered versatility, the Echo Spot makes a great nightstand companion. But its limitations and relatively high price justify choosing a different Echo device.

Pros

• Good printed setup instructions
• Impressive sound quality
• Clear, ad-free screen
• Can detect motion and activate Alexa routines

Cons

• Very limited screen in what it can display
• Viewing angles are not good
• Does not have built-in Eero Wi-Fi extender found on other Echo devices

$45 on Amazon

Amazon Echo Spot: setup and design

This is actually Amazon’s second Echo Spot; The first-generation model debuted in 2017 and was discontinued a few years later. It was a little smaller, with a screen that took up the entire front and an integrated camera just above it.

This model eliminates the camera (something that really wasn’t necessary in a sophisticated alarm clock) and cuts the screen almost in half, to better make room for the front speaker.

The Spot comes in white, blue or black. It has a rounded body with three buttons on the top: volume up, volume down and microphone mute. If you’re wondering why there’s no snooze button, it’s because the entire device is a snooze button: when an alarm goes off, just give it a light tap anywhere on the top.

Setup is very easy, especially if you already have the Alexa app on your phone. You can scan the QR code that appears on the screen when you connect the device for the first time, or simply open the app and wait for it to detect the Spot. I opted for the last option; a tap or two later, it was added to my Wi-Fi network and ready to use.

Beyond that, the only real setup requirement is choosing from six stylish watch faces and six available accent colors. (Unfortunately, only two of the faces show weather data, and only one includes the date.)

As easy as this all was for this seasoned Echo user, I commend Amazon for including a brief but detailed setup guide to ensure tech newbies enjoy smooth sailing too.

Amazon Echo Spot: features and performance

Anyone familiar with Amazon’s Echo line or hands-free voice assistant Alexa knows all too well what the Echo Spot can do. She is a smart speaker, capable of responding to all types of questions and commands. You can request a news briefing or weather forecast, ask to play music or a podcast, request a lamp to turn on or off (with the required compatible smart bulb or plug, of course), and much, much more.

I find many of these tools invaluable; It’s now second nature for me to ask Alexa about the outside temperature or turn the air conditioner down a few degrees. When I’m in the kitchen, I ask her to play a podcast or my Spotify “Meal Prep” playlist. We hope that if Amazon really starts charging for more advanced Alexa featureswhich has been talked about for months, leaves these basic features free.

The Spot’s 2.8-inch screen is small but sharp, easy to read from across the room—although it’s harder to see from an angle. That means if you want to see it clearly while you’re lying in bed, you’ll want to point it directly at you – but you might not be able to see it when you’re awake either.

You can manually adjust the brightness setting or let an ambient light sensor adjust it for you. I was worried it wouldn’t get dark enough at night – I like my room dark – and unfortunately that was the case. Fortunately, there’s a Night Mode setting that makes the screen much darker; it can be activated automatically or at scheduled times.

This is not a full smart display like the Eco Show 5. Spot can only display a few things I mentioned earlier: time, weather, song titles, etc. It can’t show the feed from, say, the doorbell camera, nor play videos. Granted, I don’t need to watch Netflix on such a small screen, but I wouldn’t mind being able to glance at a security camera feed to see if there’s something out there that needs my attention.

Like the Echo Dot, the Spot has a built-in motion sensor that you can set to activate various Alexa routines. For example, it can be set to turn on a light or adjust the thermostat when it detects you entering the room. That’s quite nice.

However, one Dot feature that’s missing here is built-in Eero Wi-Fi; the Spot cannot function as a Wi-Fi range extender for an existing Eero home network setup. I really like this capability, but if you don’t have an Eero system, it’s obviously not a big loss.

Between the Echo Dot and Echo Pop, Amazon has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to produce decent sound from a small device, and the Spot is no different. Whether you’re listening to a bedtime meditation or some music while getting dressed, the speaker delivers clear, crisp audio that can get loud without distortion.

Amazon Echo Spot: We have to talk about the price

The Echo Spot has a list price of $80, which seems high when you consider that the Eco Show 5 — which has a larger screen and speaker and a built-in camera to boot — costs just $10 more. Granted, the Spot’s starting price of $45 seems much more reasonable, and Amazon routinely discounts all Echo products, so it’s a good bet you’ll see similar sale prices in the future.

That said, the Echo Show 5 is, as of this writing, only $50 off. It’s a much more capable device, perhaps overkill for a nightstand, but almost certainly the smarter purchase of the two.

Yes, the Spot is cuter and takes up a little less space, but if you want a nightstand smart speaker that also includes a screen, I can only think of one reason to choose the Spot over the Echo Show 5: The latter can get a bit annoying with ads (particularly for Amazon products and services). Even after turning off everything except time and climate, they come back into the mix. The location: No ads.