Amazon’s Echo Spot is Back with a Fresh Design and Improved Display

The Echo Spot is now being dubbed a “customizable smart alarm clock,” and the accompanying feature set and design updates stick with the general formula of a half-circle. Central to the experience is the front display. Unlike the original, which boasted a circular screen with thick bezels, Amazon opted for a 2.83-inch touchscreen that lives on the top half of the device, forming a semi-circle.

Here, you’ll see the time and date at a glance, but Amazon has also developed a variety of clock faces to choose from, as well as special visuals for core functions like alarms, music playback, and displaying the weather. The team behind the Echo Spot designed illustrations for many forecasts, like a shining sun, storm clouds, or even a snowflake.

To better fit your space, you can customize the visual interface to six colors: orange, violet, magenta, lime, teal, or blue. Below the display is a 1.73-inch front-firing speaker hidden behind a mesh grille, similar to the one inside the 5th Gen Echo Dot or Echo Dot with Clock. This means the sound should be pretty solid for the bedroom. There are microphones on board so that Alexa can hear your requests, and there is a button to mute the microphones on the top, sandwiched between a volume up and a volume down button.

Unlike the Echo Show 5 or Show 8, which some use on a nightstand, the Echo Spot does not have a built-in camera, so any privacy concerns should be dispelled. Regarding audio recordings, you can still delete those Alexa requests or queries via the Alexa app on Android or iOS. It has a sensor for detecting motion, so you can tap the top of the Echo Spot to dismiss alarms in the morning.

Overall, the Echo Spot seems like a well-rounded device designed to succeed as a smart alarm clock. Amazon has focused on designing the interface around the most common queries and shipping it with several clock faces to choose from. It also looks quite similar to the Echo Pop or Echo Dot, even down to the colors, as the Spot comes in Black, Glacier White, and Ocean Blue.

The Echo Spot costs $79.99 / £79.99 / AU$149, but if you’re a Prime member in the US, you can score it for just $44.99 through July 17, 2024. Amazon dubbed that discount as a celebration of Prime Day, and hey, alongside some spectacular deals across the site, launching a new smart screen is a fun way to join in on the party.