Amazon’s new Echo Spot smart alarm clock drops to just $45 ahead of October’s Prime Days
Amazon’s October Prime Day sale is only a few days away, but that hasn’t stopped the company from already slashing prices on some of its most popular devices. In July, Amazon announced a new generation of its Echo Spot smart alarm clock. Available in black, glacier white and ocean blue, for $80, but now you can get one for just $45a savings of $35. That price matches the best we’ve seen.
Like its predecessor, the new Echo Spot has a touchscreen and displays a variety of specially designed watch faces. It’s also Alexa compatible, so you can use your voice to set alarms, access the weather, play music tracks, and issue commands to all your Alexa smart home products. Amazon says the new Echo Spot “builds on what our customers loved most about the original product — like the hemispherical shape, access to Alexa, and the compact and vibrant display — and reimagines them with even better visuals and improved audio quality.”
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When the original Echo Spot came out in 2017, former CNET editor Ry Crist described it as “the lovechild of Amazon’s most expensive Echo gadget, the touchscreen-equipped Echo Show, and its least expensive Alexa gadget, the tiny Echo Dot.” At a launch price of $130, the original had its positives, but wasn’t as compelling as we’d hoped.
The new Echo Spot’s screen is more of a semicircle, with a 1.73-inch speaker underneath. It does not have an integrated camera like the original for making video calls.
The new Echo Spot’s screen has a larger diameter with no border around it. But it’s more of a semicircle than the fully circular screen on the original. This newer version has a 1.73-inch front-firing directional speaker that Amazon says offers improved sound over the original, with “clear vocals and deep bass.” It can also easily connect to all your smart devices in your household, such as smart doorbells, lights and more.
You can ask Alexa to set an alarm for you.
Unlike Amazon’s Echo Show products, the screen is designed to display rudimentary animations, not full video. There is also no built-in camera, so you cannot make video calls (the original did have a camera). That’s probably a good thing if you’re concerned about privacy issues.
On that front, Amazon says the new Echo Spot, like other Alexa products, comes equipped with privacy controlsincluding a microphone mute button, the ability to view and delete your voice recordings, and more.
If you’re looking for other Amazon devices, check out this deal for the Echo and smart bulb bundle. Or check out the great deal on Amazon’s Fire HD now.
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