Amazon Echo Spot Returns as an Alexa-Powered Smart Alarm Clock

Amazon is bringing back one of its first and smallest smart displays.

The orb-shaped Echo Spot came out seven years ago as a more compact, clock-radio-like alternative to Amazon's Echo Show devices. It hasn't seen any updates since 2019, and has been unavailable as Amazon released smaller Echo Shows and the Echo Dot With Clock. Now the Echo Spot is making its return.

The new Echo Spot sits between a smart speaker and a full smart display. It features a semicircle color LCD screen for showing the time, weather, and even album art, but it doesn't seem nearly as multifunctional as the video-playing touch screens on Echo Shows. Voice control with Alexa is the main focus of the Echo Spot, much like the Echo Dot With Clock, though it appears to have some limited touch control for smart home devices.

The screen only takes up half of the front of the Echo Spot; the other half features a grille for the forward-facing 1.73-inch speaker driver, the same driver size as the Echo Dot. Unlike the Echo Show line, the Echo Spot lacks a camera for video calls, though it does support voice calls.

We really liked the first Echo Spot for its tiny form factor. It was the only Echo smart display to get a circular screen, and it remains so because of the semicircular shape of the new Echo Spot's screen. The original also had a camera, but removing the camera on the new model doesn't seem as much of an omission as removing it from a larger Echo Show; since the display is less than 2 inches, it isn't comfortably sized for video calls.

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The new Amazon Echo Spot will retail for $79.99 after a promotional price of $44.99 through Prime Day (July 17). The official retail price is lower than the first Echo Spot, which launched at $129.99, and a bit less than the Echo Show 5 smart display ($89.99). Check back for a full review of the Echo Spot soon.