Amazon Echo Spot 2024 Review: The Perfect Bedside Companion?

Amazon’s Echo smart speaker portfolio has something for everyone across price ranges. Be it speakers without displays or one with them, Amazon has carefully expanded in India, offering plenty of options for consumers. After the Echo Dot (5th Gen) launch in March 2023, the company took a brief sabbatical and is finally back with its latest salvo.

The Echo Spot 2024 was globally revealed in July last year during the Prime Days sale; however, it has only made its way to India now. Amazon isn’t pushing this one as a smart speaker when compared to previously announced Echo devices. Instead, this is more inclined to be your bedside companion – a customisable smart alarm clock. After all, one company realised that not everyone likes to wake up to a smartphone alarm clock. So, Echo Spot 2024 made me excited to see what it is like to sleep with a smart alarm clock that integrates Alexa and whether you can ditch your phone forever for an actual alarm clock.

Amazon Echo Spot 2024 Price in India and Specifications

The all-new Echo Spot 2024 has launched at an introductory price of Rs. 6,449. However, once the introductory offer price is over, you’ll have to shell out Rs. 8,999.

It weighs 405 grams and features a 1.73-inch built-in speaker

One of the best things about the Echo Spot 2024 is that it doesn’t pack a camera, which was unnecessary in the last Spot model launched in 2017. This one weighs 405 grams and measures 113x103x111mm in dimensions. Of course, this is slightly chunkier and bulkier than the 2017 model. It features a 2.83-inch touchscreen and comes with Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth connectivity options.

A MediaTek MT8519 processor powers the Echo Spot and comes with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. The box ships with a 15W power adapter.

For setup, you need the Alexa app on your phone

Amazon Echo Spot 2024 Review: Design

The all-new Echo Spot is a very different product from the original Spot launched in 2017. And the changes are for good. Design-wise, I love the small screen on the Spot, which is clutter-free and offers an ideal bedside clock display. The familiar semi-spherical shape is compact. Amazon says the product has been made from 36 percent recycled materials, which is excellent.

Amazon has ensured that if it targets the bedside table, it does not push unnecessary features like a camera for video calls alongside other video features like the ability to play videos from Prime Video or YouTube. The Echo Spot 2024 fits well in your bedroom and, best, compact enough for your bedside table. For unnecessary distractions, the display on the Echo Spot 2024 is dim enough for night use and shouldn’t spoil your sleep.

The 2.83-inch display is excellent for glance the time, weather alerts, viewing alarms, and enjoying animations playing with song titles. The 1.73-inch front-firing directional speaker is loud enough for your bedroom and, at the same time, apt for Alexa interactions.

The Echo Spot 2024 features a 2.83-inch touchscreen with a 240×320 pixels screen resolution

In India, the Echo Spot 2024 will be available in two colours – Black and Blue. As always, Amazon sent me a Black one for review, which looks classy. However, Blue should also blend well in your bedroom. The top of the sphere is where physical buttons are located – dedicated volume up and down buttons alongside a mic-off button. Amazon has been a brand that has taken user privacy rather seriously and enabled multiple layers of privacy controls for users, including the ability to view and delete voice recordings.

While Amazon hasn’t listed an accelerometer in its features list but, I’m sure it packs one, as it allows the device to detect taps at the top to snooze off the alarm. Mind you, it is a convenient feature for a device that’s touted as the smart alarm clock.

The underside of the sphere is a rubbery material that holds the Echo Dot stable on the tabletop. The back has a power socket. Amazon should pack a small battery on some of its Echo devices so that the device continues to offer basic functionality like showing time regardless of the power source. For example, the Echo Spot 2024 could have been a much more interesting product if it had a small battery pack that continued to show time and alert me for alarms even without a power source. Nevertheless, it does what it is intended to do with a power source. For connectivity, the Echo Spot 2024 supports Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4 and 5GHz networks alongside Bluetooth.

The design is a highlight of the Echo Spot 2024, and it can blend well in your bedroom

Overall, the Echo Spot 2024 biggest strength is its compact form factor that can perfectly blend in your bedroom.

Amazon Echo Spot 2024 Review: Features and Performance

The Echo Spot 2024 has a simple setup process, and you just need the Amazon Alexa app and a working Wi-Fi. The new smart alarm clock offers a host of clock faces and lets you customise the look of the screen to match the aesthetics of your bedroom.

Users can choose from six colours – orange, violet, magenta, lime, teal, and blue and eight designs for the clock face. You can do this on-device by swiping from the top, selecting Settings, Clock and Theme, and choosing your preferred clock face, theme, and colour. The device has four alarm sounds: Aurora, Daybreak, Endeavor, and Flutter. Like a typical alarm clock, the Echo Spot 2024 lets you snooze the alarm.

It sports a half-circle tinted cover glass at the front

Alexa integrations make the Echo Spot 2024 a much more capable device than just a smart alarm clock, and you can do a lot hands-free. You can ask Alexa to play your favourite music from supported music streaming apps or info related to date, time, weather and events planned in your calendar. The device shows colourful visual animations when the music plays, a cool addition by Amazon.

The Echo Spot also has an inbuilt motion sensor to help you activate Alexa routines, like switching on a smart light when it detects movement at night. However, I preferred this turned off as it sometimes unnecessarily disrupted sleep by turning on the light when it was not needed. There are options to connect Echo Spot 2024 to compatible smart home products and set up Alexa Routines.

Talking about the speaker, the Echo Spot 2024 offers good sound quality for its size. But, this doesn’t hold the ground when you compare it with a typical non-smart speaker. Yes, it is excellent for Alexa interactions, and the device picks up the wake work, which I kept as Alexa only, even when you say it in a sleepy tone. But, in terms of pure music performance, the Echo Spot 2024 doesn’t score as much as the Echo Dot (5th Gen) or Echo Show 5 would score. The Echo Spot sometimes struggles with bass and mids, which lack depth and sound flat.

A lot of customisation options are available within the Alexa app

The display, on the other hand, is crisp and much better than what the original Spot (2.5-inch display) offered. It is bright in varied light conditions, and you can easily see the clock or weather information from a few feet away. However, the viewing angles are not great, and visibility drops when you glance at the display from the sides. It supports touch, but it isn’t smooth. The visual illustrations of the sun, rain, and clouds appear nicely on the screen.

You can also personalise some Alexa features like adaptive listening, which allows users more time to finish speaking before Alexa responds, and preferred speaking rate, which enables users to control how fast or slow Alexa speaks. You can also enable colour inversion in the Alexa accessibility setting.

There are some handy options, like you can use Echo Spot 2024 to ask Alexa to call everyone, which makes announcements on other Alexa-enabled smart speakers in the household.

The Echo Spot 2024 comes with front-firing speakers

Amazon Echo Spot 2024 Review: Verdict

The Echo Spot 2024 ticks all the right boxes for a perfect bedside companion you can expect this year. With Alexa integration, the overall capability is enhanced, and you can do much more with voice commands. It is a good combination of style with functionality. The front-firing speakers are good for low-key music playback, especially considering this smart speaker is targeted for the bedroom.

But is it the perfect bedside smart speaker? The Echo Spot 2024 has some limitations, such as the screen not being bright enough and the audio performance not being excellent for music lovers. Then, the price tag of Rs. 8,999 (minus the introductory offer) appears slightly on the higher side. However, the good thing is that Amazon keeps bringing offers throughout the year on its Echo range of products, so you can expect Echo Spot 2024 to be available at lower prices during such offers.