Amazon is discontinuing my favorite Echo, the Echo Dot with Clock

We have six Amazon Echo smart speakers at home and have tried a few others, but my favorite is the Echo Dot with Clock. I love how its upholstered LED dot-matrix display casts a soft white light from my dresser into my dark, curtained-off bedroom, and tells me the time unobtrusively (it’s way better than asking Alexa for the time).

Unfortunately, Amazon has discontinued the Dot with Clock, switching to a more expensive, less attractive model.

Amazon didn’t explain why this functionality was gone, and at first I mistakenly assumed it was due to a hidden defect. My own Echo Dot with Clock started mysteriously freezing a few weeks ago, no longer responding to voice commands and just displaying a stuck image on the screen. I reset it multiple times, but to no avail.

However, after successfully convincing Amazon to refund my money and send me a replacement Echo, it started working again (I had to do a hard reset and then go through the setup process). multiple It works by pressing in the Alexa app.

I was looking for a replacement for my $60 Echo Dot with Clock and was surprised to find it out of stock on Amazon, where I checked and found that they only had refurbished units available. The blue model is available again on Amazon and the goal Today I instead tried out the company’s spiritual successor, the $80 Echo Spot, which replaces the dot-matrix display with a screen.

But despite being more expensive, I feel the Spot is inferior for my uses: the screen is not too bright for a dimly lit bedroom, do not have It’s simply beautiful to look at. It makes you forget you’re staring at a cheap screen. Plus, the whole screen is tilted upwards, which is probably meant for a nightstand, not a tall dresser. I don’t have a nightstand in my bedroom.

My colleague Jennifer Pattison Tuohy is currently working on a full review of the Echo Spot, and she likes it a lot more than I do.

But she says the sound quality isn’t as good as the Dot (though the audio is quite directional), and it doesn’t allow basic controls like setting an alarm by touch like other smart displays. Its main advantage is that it can simultaneously display the time, date, temperature, and weather along with music playback controls.

Now that my Echo Dot with Clock is working again, I will be returning the Spot and getting my money back from Amazon.