Amazon Echo Spot review: An alarm clock for the 21st century

Alternative retailers: £79.99 at Currys, £79.99 at Argos
Our rating: 8/10
We like:
Modern design
Decent sound quality for small rooms
Useful Alexa integration
We don't like:
Reflective display
No audio jack
Limited use for the screen
What is the Amazon Echo Spot?
To badly paraphrase Dickens, the Amazon Echo Spot was dead, to begin with. The retail giant released its original bedside table smart speaker back in 2017 before discontinuing it rather swiftly. Then, in 2024, it was resuscitated with a brand-new look and a significantly cheaper price.
Seven years is a long time in technology and despite sticking with the original vision for a compact smart alarm clock, Amazon has made a few changes along the way. Most importantly, the reedy 1.4-inch speaker of the original model has been replaced with a larger 1.73-inch driver. Amazon has also belatedly realised that sticking a camera on a device that sits in the bedroom could be construed as creepy, so that's been jettisoned. The screen is smaller, too, designed for illustrative icons rather than streaming the latest TV box set.
Otherwise, the concept remains the same. This is an Echo designed to replace your old-school alarm clock, making your morning routine easier with alarms, radio stations and the time all at your disposal. Because it incorporates the Alexa voice assistant, you can also find out about the traffic and weather, which is undoubtedly useful information when deciding what to wear (or whether to get out of bed at all).
At £79.99, it's £40 cheaper than the original Echo Spot, making it a tempting addition to Amazon's smart speaker lineup.
How we test smart speakers
The best way to test smart speakers is to live with them for an extended period, listening to a variety of different musical styles and testing the extra functionality and features.
With smart speakers, the 'smart' is just as important as the 'speaker', so providing them with pop quizzes can be quite instructive, both in terms of how well the device understands spoken instructions and how intelligently the voice assistant answers.
I've been using smart speakers since Amazon released the cylindrical original Echo in the UK back in 2016. In the intervening years, I've reviewed most of the leading models from both Google and Amazon, so I have a strong idea of how to get the best (and worst) out of them.
Visit our Who We Are page to learn more about Telegraph Recommended reviews.
Design, setup and usability: 8/10
Setup, as with all Echo products, is a doddle. You simply connect the speaker, open the app and follow the instructions. Once completed, the Echo Spot will display the time and be ready for further instructions. If you've used an Echo speaker before, this will be second nature, but it's intuitive enough for newcomers to figure out, too. Just use a wake word (by default: 'Alexa') to get its attention and then make your request. 'Alexa, what's the weather today?' as an example.
With a headlamp shape and a flat front, the Echo Spot models itself more on the Echo Pop speaker, rather than the all-conquering Echo Dot. Here, it's necessary, as the front includes a 2.83-inch touchscreen, which covers the top half of the speaker.
Or at least, it seems to, as it's actually an optical illusion. The black background masks the fact that the screen part is a mere 320 x 240mm rectangle, but it works well for its purpose. You can't stream the latest TV box set, like you could on the best Alexa smart displays, nor would you ever want to.
Instead, this small display is used for helpful illustrative icons and text: weather forecast icons for when you ask what it's like outside, or the name of the current track playing, along with album art. It's mostly unnecessary and it does feel like Amazon is still trying to find a purpose for screens on smart speakers, but it's nice to have something to look at as you're barking orders at it.
All in all, it's a simple design that will blend into most bedrooms. However, I do have two minor quibbles. Firstly, the screen can be quite reflective in direct sunlight, so finding the right spot for it is important. Secondly, the original Echo Spot had a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting to another speaker. That has been removed, though you can still connect to another speaker via Bluetooth if you want.
Sound quality: 7/10
Despite its diminutive size, the Echo Spot packs a surprising punch. The 1.73-inch driver is a big improvement on the original Spot's 1.4-inch speaker, which was only good for radio and audiobooks. Here, you can listen to music quite comfortably, with audio that feels almost as punchy as the Echo Dot.
To be clear, this isn't the way that most audiophiles will want to listen and the sound can get a little reedy and somewhat muddy in the mid-range. Audio also tends to distort unpleasantly at louder volumes, but that's not what it's designed for. This isn't a party speaker and for smaller rooms, it's rather good.
Voices are crisp and clean, which makes it an excellent bedside radio or audiobook player if you like to fall asleep or wake up to audio. The Alexa voice assistant will happily play the full suite of BBC radio stations, or many UK commercial stations including LBC, Absolute Radio and Heart.
Voice assistant: 8/10
All of this is controlled by the Alexa voice assistant and as regular users of Echo smart speakers will know, it's brilliant until it's not.
What I mean by this is that, as long as you phrase things exactly the way Alexa understands, you'll find it extremely helpful. Phrases like 'Alexa, turn on the bedroom light', 'Alexa, what's the weather like?' and 'Alexa, continue my audiobook' will almost always elicit the desired response and it still feels kind of magical. Simple trivia questions, like asking for world capitals or the answers to sums, are also batted away with ease.
Deviate much beyond this, however, and its limitations become more apparent. You have to be specific when you have a particular artist, song or album in mind, for example, and even that goes out the window if a song happens to have the same name as the album it's featured in.
It has improved over the years and the beauty of the Alexa software is that it will continue to get better without you having to switch hardware. But, at the time of writing, you'll still occasionally come across answers that are unhelpful enough to send you back to a screened device.
Connectivity: 8/10
Like all other affordable Echo devices, the Echo Spot works with both iPhone and Android smartphones via the Amazon Alexa app. However, other than adding extra functionality to your device (smart home devices and apps), you won't have to use it much once setup is complete.
Instead, the Echo Spot connects directly to your home Wi-Fi for most of its functionality and it supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bandwidths on 802.11ac networks. If your internet goes down, the Spot will largely stop working until it's resolved, other than showing the time.
Perhaps the most important connectivity is to other smart home devices. Technically, this is done through the Alexa app rather than the Echo Spot itself, but it supports interactivity with a huge array of smart devices from light bulbs to thermostats. The Echo Spot does a great job of controlling them, not only allowing for voice controls ('Alexa, set the thermostat to 21 degrees') but presenting a dial to adjust with touch controls, too.
If you want stereo sound, you can pair it with another Echo but it has to be the same model which would look a little strange in the Spot's case. For a more sensible way of getting better audio, you can connect the Echo Spot to a different Bluetooth speaker, but devices that require a PIN code aren't supported. Sadly, there's no stereo out jack for a wired connection.
Music streaming services: 9/10
You could do a lot worse than Amazon's own Music Unlimited service, which all Echo devices will push you towards. It has a library of over 100 million songs and while it usually costs £10.99 per month (or £9.99 for Prime members), Amazon lets you attach it to a single Echo device for just £5.99.
Graciously, Amazon doesn't force you to use its own streaming service and you're rather spoilt for choice on Echo devices. The vast majority of owners will favour Spotify, with its enormous catalogue of over 100 million tracks and five million podcasts and audiobooks.
iPhone users may prefer Apple Music, which keeps things strictly to music, without any extras like podcasts. Tidal and Deezer are also supported, which means the only major omission is Qobuz.
Whatever you choose, just make sure you set it to be the default music player in the Alexa app, otherwise you'll have to specify the service you want to use each time: 'Alexa, play 1989 by Taylor Swift on Spotify', for example.
Technical specifications:
It may seem that the Echo Spot versus the Echo Show is a more sensible comparison, but without support for video playback, the Echo Pop is a better comparison. It's a similar size to the Echo Spot, so handy for bedside tables, but it lacks the screen and clock, making it £35 cheaper at £44.99. It has a slightly larger driver, though sound quality isn't noticeably improved in my experience.
Telegraph verdict: 8/10
The Echo Spot is a charming little smart speaker for those who trust Amazon enough not to be weirded out by having a microphone in the bedroom. While the screen feels a little superfluous most of the time, it looks chic and being able to get the time and weather at a glance is helpful indeed.
The sound quality is good enough for the bedroom and Alexa is a helpful voice assistant. All in all, it's great that Amazon has decided to revive the Spot and all the more so for £40 less than it cost in its first incarnation.
FAQs
Does the Echo Spot have a built-in camera?
No. The original Echo Spot had a camera, but the 2024 model reviewed here does not, presumably for privacy reasons.
What smart home devices work with the Echo Spot?
For the most part, the Echo Spot supports the same smart home devices as any other Alexa smart speaker, so hundreds of lights, thermostats, locks and more. Just search for the device you're interested in and see if it's Alexa-compatible.
But Amazon does point out that the small screen can't be used as a live feed for connected cameras and doorbells. So treat it more like a smart speaker, rather than a smart screen.
Does the Echo Spot have a mute button?
There's no mute button, but you can set the volume to zero, either with your voice or with the volume control buttons. You can also disconnect the microphone by tapping the button between the two if you need some privacy. Just remember to turn it back on by tapping it again, or it will ignore your voice commands going forward.

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