The first name that comes to mind while talking about smart speakers is Amazon Echo, and this range has seen quite a few models over the years. Offering different sizes, different form factors, different capabilities, and spanning different price points, the Echo range covers both smart speakers and smart displays. And the latest addition comes in the form of the all-new Echo Spot, a device that falls somewhere between a smart speaker and a smart display. Carrying a sticker price of Rs 8,999, it’ll set you back by Rs 6,449 as part of an inaugural offer, and at that cost, makes for a useful bedside companion. Read on.
Table of Contents
Design
Sporting a design that looks like a ball cut in half, the new Echo Spot is tiny and compact. The flat front bears the speaker mesh on the lower half circle, with the glossy black top half hiding a small 2.83-inch touchscreen. The rounded back just has the port for the bundled power adapter’s barrel connector, while the top has three buttons – two to adjust volume, and a mic mute button in the middle. It’s a simple, minimalist design that blends into any decor, and if you think the black one looks too plain Jane, there’s a blue version available as well.
Features
The Echo Spot does everything expected of an Alexa-enabled smart speaker. Using voice commands, you can get it to set alarms and timers, get updates on the weather, perform web searches, play music, control smart home devices, etc. There’s no camera, which can be considered a negative since you can’t use the Echo Spot to make video calls. On the other hand, for a device that’s meant to be placed in your bedroom, a camera might not be a desired feature anyway — so from a privacy perspective, the lack of a camera can even be considered a positive. 
The Echo Spot’s 2.83-inch screen is too tiny for video calls anyway. It offers limited functionality compared to a smart display, such as one from Amazon’s Echo Show lineup. The Echo Spot’s screen works well as a clock display though. You can choose from six different clock faces, and the screen dims automatically at night too. The screen also provides visual cues and colourful icons to provide weather updates etc, and offers a small drop-down panel for accessing basic device settings.
In all likelihood, you won’t find the need to interact with the Echo Spot’s touchscreen frequently, and the Alexa app provides access to these anyway. The Echo Spot also can’t display feeds from security cameras and doesn’t offer a panel for controlling smart home devices.
But it does show an on/off button on the screen if you use voice commands to invoke a configured smart home, and offers basic visual cues for stuff like office commutes and some Alexa skills too. Again, the display functionality is limited but the important thing to keep in mind here is that the Echo Spot is more of a smart alarm clock and shouldn’t really be compared to a smart display.
Sound quality and performance
The Echo Spot works well as a smart speaker, and its responsiveness to voice commands is quite fast and smooth — a pair of mics are located on the top of the device. Of course, the device can stream music from Amazon Music and other compatible services, and offers clear, room-filling sound. The audio quality from the 1.73-inch forward-facing driver is good for casual listening, and you can wake up to your favourite music track too, if you want. That said, the punchiness of the bass feels a bit lacking, which is to be expected from a speaker of this size. 
There’s no line-out, but you can pair the Echo Spot with a Bluetooth speaker to get better audio if you want. And speaking of connectivity, there’s support for Matter too, which is the latest interactivity standard for smart home devices. This probably won’t matter (pun unintended) to you now but suffice it to say that it helps make the new Echo Spot future-proof.
Verdict
For its full price of Rs 8,999, the new Echo Spot feels priced slightly on the higher side. The Echo Show 5 comes across as a compelling and affordable smart display, though it looks like Amazon has discontinued that product, and the only units available to buy on the e-commerce website are refurbished ones. And for those coveting slightly better audio, the Echo Dot 5th-gen (listed at Rs 5,499) could be worth considering too, a device which offers features like motion and temperature sensors. That said, the all-new Echo Spot does make for a worthwhile purchase as a smart bedside alarm clock radio, and its inaugural price of Rs 6,449 sweetens the deal.
Editor’s rating: 7.5 / 10
Pros:
- Handy bedside clock
- Decent sound quality
- Visual Alexa experience
Cons:
- Bass lacks punch
- Small screen
- Priced on the higher side
