Amazon Echo Spot Review: A cute and smart bedside clock
Amazon Echo Spot
129.99
Pros
- Cute appearance, small size
- The screen enhances Alexa's information display and experience
- Can be very convenient for video calls
- An ideal bedside alarm clock and "weatherman"
Cons
- As a speaker, the sound quality is very common
- The price is high at this time
- Less third-party applications that support screen display
Design and parameters
If you are familiar with the products of the Echo family, you will definitely be attracted by this small and cute device. The overall shape of the Echo Spot is an incomplete spherical shape with a 2.5-inch, 480*480 resolution screen on the front and touch operation. At the bottom is a 1.4-inch speaker, theoretically, the sound quality should be better than Echo Dot, actually it is.
Above the screen is a camera that can be used to support video chat. Above is a set of three buttons, the middle button can be operated to turn off the camera and microphone, the left and right buttons are used to adjust the volume.
At the back of the speaker is a power port, and there is a 3.5 mm audio output jack that can be used to output sound to other devices.
Get started
After the power is turned on, the Echo Spot will start automatically . You need to wait for it to complete the startup, then follow the prompts on the screen to connect to Wi-Fi. By the way it supports the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, further more it is convenient to enter the password with the small pop-up window . After connected to internet, you need enter your Amazon account to log in to use all of its features. Of course, you can use the mobile phone to download the app to complete these operations.
The default content displayed on the screen is an analog clock, yes, this interface is pretty cool. You can use your finger to slide down the top of the screen to bring up the menu, similar to a smartphone. Of course, the use of this screen is not limited to this, it can also be used to display lyrics, or other information provided by the application. It can also be used to watch video and make video calls, even docking video doorbells or child monitoring devices. However, for a 2.5-inch small screen, the experience of watching video is not so good, even if it supports Amazon Prime Video.
Powerful Alexa
As a member of the Echo family, support for Alexa must be a must-have feature. The operation and experience of Alexa on other Echo devices will not be different on Echo Spot, and its far-field microphone array is equally sensitive. Of course, Echo Spot also supports Amazon’s ESP feature to ensure that recent Echo devices respond to your commands, which is important for environments with multiple Echo devices.
Alexa is becoming more and more powerful under the efforts of Amazon. In addition to simply playing music, setting alarm clocks, asking about the weather, even talking to other Alexa users, and ordering goods or services, you can control other compatible smart home devices. More than 30,000 skills have been available to Alexa’s skill list so far.
Sound quality
After all, Echo Spot still doesn’t leave the range of smart speakers, so you can’t help but talk about its sound quality. From its parameters, the configuration of the speaker is somewhat weak as a speaker, and the volume in actual use can also be used in situations where space is small, such as a bedroom or a kitchen.
For the sound quality of playing music, it can only be described by ordinary, the middle and high notes are not broken or harsh, and the bass is not sinking much. However, if you look at it as a music alarm clock, its sound quality can be said to be pleasant.
Conclusion
I think Echo Spot is the best of all Amazon Echo devices, with all the experience Echo devices can offer, and even more (such as video calls). Similarly, its small screen is very reluctant for video playback, and many three-party applications do not support this small screen, which makes its existence sometimes redundant. However, if you just position it as a smart alarm clock with a beautiful appearance and put it in the bedroom or elsewhere to replace the traditional alarm clock, then I believe it is very suitable, even perfect.
