Amazon Echo Dot with Clock review (2020)

Our Verdict

The second Amazon Echo Dot with Clock ($60) is every bit useful as the first edition of the versatile Alexa smart speaker, plus the LED display looks great on the updated circular profile.

For

LED display is more than visible
Fuller sound than original
Fair price for a smart alarm clock

Confronting

No new display features

Tom's Guide Verdict

The 2nd Amazon Echo Dot with Clock ($60) is as useful as the first edition of the versatile Alexa smart speaker, plus the LED brandish looks great on the updated circular profile.

Pros

+
LED display is more than visible
+
Fuller sound than original
+
Fair price for a smart warning clock
+

Cons

-
No new display features

Amazon Repeat Dot with Clock: Specs

Speakers: i.6mm
Ports: iii.5mm line out
Wi-Fi: 802.eleven b/yard/n/air conditioning, 2.iv/5GHz
Size: 3.ix x iii.nine x 3.five inches
Weight: 12 ounces

When I reviewed the first $lx Amazon Repeat Dot with Clock, I swooned over the simple ingenuity of its added LED display. For $ten more than than the traditional tertiary-generation Echo Dot, I could see the time without asking, as well as timers and the temperature. I handed over that Hamilton more than once while shopping for vacation gifts, naive to the possibility Amazon would replace this adored Echo model of mine within a year.

In Amazon's defense, information technology morphed its entire cylinder-shaped Echo lineup into spheres, revolving effectually the notion that smart speakers should be both seen and heard. But the Echo Dot with Clock already had a visual perk going for it, no? Instead of doing what it did well at the outset — make something that'south practically perfect more useful — the Echo Dot with Clock simply took something great and made it more... round.

Current Echo Dot with Clock owners will find no reason to upgrade, but if you're an Alexa newbie or want to update an older Echo, this Echo Dot with Clock (4th gen) review explains why it'south hands-downwardly 1 of the best smart speakers right at present. And why it won a 2022 Tom's Guide Honor for Smart Home.

How to set up up the Repeat Dot with Clock
How to connect Alexa to Wi-Fi
Our picks of the all-time Bluetooth speakers

Amazon Echo Dot with Clock review: Price and availability

The Amazon Repeat Dot with Clock costs $59.99 and is available every bit of November 5. It replaces the puck-shaped Echo Dot with Clock on the e-commerce giant'southward virtual shelves. However, the classic 3rd-generation Echo Dot is yet being sold for $29.99 while supplies last.

Amazon Echo Dot with Clock review: Time is on its side

When Amazon wondered how to brand one of the best smart dwelling house devices fifty-fifty meliorate, the answer proved as simple as putting time on its side. Literally, it added a LED clock beneath the fabric-swathed side of the third-generation Echo Dot. It gave Alexa a familiar face up — that of an unsophisticated nightstand alarm clock.

Whether it's for checking the time in the early mornings or setting a timer for culinary endeavors, I no longer need to inquire Alexa for information I want to see at a glance. I notwithstanding appreciate these features on the new Echo Dot with Clock, only I'm used to saving my jiff now. Maybe I'd feel more inspired if an additional display tool arrived, like a second LED line to run into both the time and temperature at once, similar to the $50 Lenovo Smart Clock Essential'due south layout. Or perhaps a face that shows the date, or the humidity.

That said, I'm spoiled at present and wouldn't want an Repeat without the LED display. Role of me even hoped Amazon would include a clock in the quaternary-generation Echo, merely that $99 speaker is probably likewise large for nearly bedsides.

Amazon Echo Dot vs. Repeat Dot with Clock: Which should you buy?

In terms of audio quality and smart home performance, the Echo Dot with Clock is identical to the standard, displayless Echo Dot. Our Amazon Echo Dot (fourth gen) review provides an overview on the improvements over previous models, merely I'll go alee and tell you there's not many changes beyond aesthetics.

While the puck-shaped Echo Dot sounds a niggling hollow at present compared to the spherical Echo Dot, the internals are more or less the same. The newer models have a larger chamber that helps the bass behave, so that could be what gave Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing" richer depth in side-by-side testing.

Still, the Repeat Dot is not the smart speaker to get if you're looking to alluvion your home with high-quality sound. Yes, information technology'south good for the price, but the Sonos One, or even the Amazon Echo Studio, are better choices for a larger infinite. When it comes to a bedroom, or maybe a small-scale kitchen, the Echo Dot's audio satisfies.

If you have the $ten to spare, the 'with Clock' variety is worth the premium. You're meliorate off spending $thirty for the 3rd-generation Echo Dot than $50 for the not-clock fourth-generation one, in my opinion. Yous'll get access to all the all-time Alexa skills no matter which version y'all choose, just there'southward something endearing near having an alarm clock alongside all those AI-assistant abilities.

Amazon Repeat Dot with Clock review: Alexa

The Amazon Echo Dot with Clock is for more than only seeing the fourth dimension. Alexa is a smart digital banana that lays a cooperative foundation for all the best Alexa compatible devices. And when you know how to create an Alexa Routine, you tin can automate your smart home fifty-fifty further.

Amazon has besides made improvements to Alexa Guard, a home security feature that relies on the Repeat Dot'south (or whatsoever Echo speaker's) mics to place when a smoke alarm goes off or drinking glass breaks in your abode. If your Echo recognizes something that sounds unusual, it will send you an alarm, too as trigger routines with some of the all-time DIY home security systems and all-time smart light bulbs.

This Echo model tin can be used to set up and control a scattering of Bluetooth-equipped smart home gadgets. If you have a larger range of connected devices, the $99 new Amazon Repeat with Zigbee built-in might exist amend for y'all.

Information technology's as well one of the few devices capable of using the Echo's new 'motion sensing' feature. That works similarly to movement sensing on the Echo Testify, simply utilizes ultrasound instead of a camera lens.

That manner the Echo knows where you are, and can actuate any proximity-based skills you've ready up. A fleck like using a motion tracker, just without the extra device in the heart

To prepare it upwards just caput into the Alexa app and find your device'due south settings menu. Then toggle on Motion Sensing.

Amazon Echo Dot with Clock review : Verdict

I can't help but call back it would've fabricated more sense for Amazon to offer every Repeat Dot with a clock this fourth dimension effectually, considering you can turn the display on or off whenever you lot want. Of course, role of the Echo Dot's entreatment is that sub-$50 price tag. Some other $10 is worthwhile if you're sick of request Alexa for the condition of your timers, merely if you're keeping your smart speaker generally out of sight, you tin skip the fabric-swathed LEDs and choice upwardly the tertiary-generation Echo Dot, which at present costs $xxx while supplies concluding.

While this second iteration of the Repeat Dot with Clock isn't much dissimilar from the first, the simple addition of a brandish makes the speaker a better device, not a more complicated 1. If simply all IoT companies sought to solve bug using the "with Clock" approach, people might exist more than convinced to heighten their dwelling house's IQ. The goal of a connected dwelling is making day-to-day life simpler, and the Echo Dot with Clock's effortless enhancements to a familiar product — the lackluster bedside alarm clock — continues to do merely that.

More than: Find out How to reset Echo Dot for when things go incorrect

Kate Kozuch is a senior author at Tom'due south Guide covering wearables, TVs and everything smart-home related. When she's not in cyborg mode, you can find her on an exercise bike or channeling her inner celebrity chef. She and her robot army will rule the world i solar day, only until then, reach her at kate.kozuch@futurenet.com.