I have six Amazon Echo smart speakers in my home and have tested many more, but my favorite is the Echo Dot with Clock. I love that the fabric-covered LED dot-matrix display makes the time less noticeable, and that it emits a soft white light from my dresser through the darkness of my bedroom with blackout curtains. (This is definitely better than asking Alexa for the time.)
So I’m sorry to break the bad news: Amazon has stopped selling dots with clocks in favor of more expensive, less aesthetically pleasing models.
Amazon didn’t tell us why it disappeared. At first, I mistakenly thought this might be due to a hidden flaw—my own Echo Dot with a clock started mysteriously freezing a few weeks ago, becoming completely unresponsive to voice commands and leaving images stuck on the display. Resetting multiple times didn’t help.
But after I managed to convince Amazon to credit me with the Echo replacement, it started working again. (I had to hard reset it and then go through the setup process many kinds of times in the Alexa app to make it work properly.
When I went looking for a replacement $60 Echo Dot with clock, I was surprised to find that Amazon no longer had it in stock — when I checked, only the refurbished model was available, although the blue model is on sale again today at Amazon and Target . So I opted for the company’s spiritual successor: the $80 Echo Spot, which replaces the dot-matrix display with a screen.
But despite the higher price, I found the Spot to be less suitable for my purposes. While its screen isn’t too bright for a dimly lit bedroom, it no I call it something visually pleasing. It never lets me forget that I’m staring at a cheap screen. Also, the entire screen tilts up, presumably for nightstand use rather than my tall dresser. There are no nightstands in my bedroom.
My colleague Jennifer Pattison Tuohy is currently doing a full review of the Echo Spot, and she likes it better than I do!
But she said it doesn’t sound as good as the Dot (although the audio is more directional), and it still doesn’t let you do basic things like setting an alarm with touch like you can with other smart displays. The main advantages are music playback control and the ability to display time, date, temperature and weather simultaneously.
Now that my Echo Dot with Clock is working again, I’m returning the Spot—and the money Amazon loaned me.
