I really think the form factor of bedroom alarm clocks is one that should be a key target audience for smart speaker makers, I know it’s the location in my house that I use my voice assistant the most Setting off morning routines & using nighttime ones to closedown etc
Got mine, love it. Only thing I do want is an on/off light switch for whatever room it's in by swiping left or right. If Amazon adds that it's perfect to me
I only keep my echo show 8 to watch UA-cam on in the kitchen. The longer I have the devices, the less use I have for them outside of turning on lights.
I love that tip. This is great. I am sure there might be slight limitations in kids mode. But nothing I can see really being missed. Thanks for sharing.
Kids mode removes the "photo frame" home display option, so no more cycling through personal photos. This was a major selling point for us, so it's a big limitation for us.
My first one had a faulty alarm so I had to send it back. The replacement works great and the sound is much better than the older dots. She seems to listen a little better on the new spot. Perfect bedroom clock.
I love the new Echo spot. I can set it on top of my entertainment center and see the clock and and set timers if I need to. I actually saw it on sale and bought it before I watched your video about it. One of our Echo dots stopped working and I was going to buy another one of those and then when I saw the special price on the Echo spot I said oh that's even better. I haven't found anything about it so far that I don't like.
Amazon still doesn't have a trade-in option for the Echo Show 5 3rd Gen. It lists it when you search but in the search results it's not there so you can't trade that in yet.
Did the exact same trade. Completely agree about the treble leaning sound, hurt my ears and had to change the settings immediately. Unfortunately it didn't work for me where I wanted to put it because like you said, the clock is small so keeping my dot with clock there but using it on my desk now! Thanks for the video!
2:10 - Regarding the black power cord. I bought a blue one. It came with a black cord. They are not matching the color of the device. Thought you'd want to know.
Bummer the new Echo Spots don't show Ring Doorbell cameras & Prime / Freeve videos like my old Echo Spots? Nor show personal videos like the old version.
Just got mine and one annoying bug i found is the notification does not dissappear after the announcement!! Ive checked all the settings hoping for a solution but there is none ... The only way to get rid of the notification is to ask alexa whats the weather like ...
The great thing about Amazon home products is that they have some niche items like this and the flex to use as a plug in clock yet Apple is so far behind. WE NEED A HOMEPOD WITH A SCREEN PLEASE.
Thanks Craig. It looks like a good addition in the Amazon ecosystem, but its simple design would be more appropriate at $29.99. Looking forward to the next video.
My last Echo Spot screen started flickering after two years. A well documented issue which had Amazon completely ignore. I wonder if this 2nd generation will experience the same.
I would not expect it on the new one. It hasn't been an issues with their echo shows. I don't think they would go backwards to older spot screen tech. Thanks for watching.
Mine arrives in the mail tomorrow. We have HomePod's in every room to control all of our Nanoleaf lights. We use HomeKit, but some devices do not natively support HomeKit but does support Alexa, so this is why I bought the Echo Spot. We do have a Echo Dot w/ Clock in the bedroom, because iPhone alarms are unreliable and I could not find a good (and available) HomeKit enabled clock. I wanted to have a clock to see the time, a smart clock to set alarms from my phone, and the Echo Dot had great reviews. The Echo Spot is going in the living room under the TV to control devices such as the Xbox Series X. Having the clock on it is great because I have ADHD time blindness, so having the time right in front of me will be a plus. Thanks for the great review. I love your videos.
Just got mine too! I had the first echo spot which was way smaller and they discontinued it and i was sad. Now they finally have a new Spot. Picked mine up for 30 bucks with a gift code and the prime day :D
I only used my Echo Show as a clock and quick weather check in the bedroom. Never used for watching anything or with the camera, so I'm trading the Show for the Spot... It just came, now I'll go set it up!
I love how this is a passively designed product. You notice it when you need to and you can easily ignore it when you don't need it. For their other devices, Amazon needs to accept that passive experiences are what people desire, and showing sponsored/suggested content disrupts that experience entirely. Overall, a larger discussion about how the Alexa ecosystem operates is needed to identify alternative solutions about monetizing the platform.
I went and ordered of these after watching your video. First off, I didn't even know this was OUT - so the mere existence of the thing was news to me. Second, I thought about my Show 5, and all I used it for was timers, alarms, and weather. That's it. Nothing that needed the Show 5 screen for, so I moved to this. Like you, I liked seeing my weather the way this displays it, so it works well for me. Went the same route with the pricing - I traded in my Show 5 for this, plus the 20% discount and all that, came in with tax around $17. Quite happy with this. Would I buy this full price? No - I mean Amazon has so many sales thru the year, it's best to wait for Prime Day or Black Friday or something like that to buy Amazon gear like this. Although if Amazon ever tries to put Alexa basic functionality (alarms, timer, weather) behind a paywall, I'll ditch them in a heartbeat and go Apple.
I'm just in the process of dumping all of my Echo devices, the ads have got so intrusive and she's stopped listening and comes up with stupid responses!
It would have been nice to bring up door bell/cam footage, as I think this is a great little device to have sat under my Monitor to use as a background radio when sat working. Its regular price is higher than we are used to but we should expect that as Amazon has not been making money in the past, and I would never use an echo device to purchase anything so no revenue for Jeff there either. Plus a few bucks extra to avoid the Ads is worth it.
The biggest problem with the Echo spot is that once you play music or radio, you lose all of the (Day, Date, Temp) information and you cant see any of that any more until you stop playing music. so it's useless as a Radio alarm clock, if you want the screen to show you all the information you need.
No you can see it. If you are playing Spotify just swipe down on the screen and click the little home icon, then it’s shows the hours & weather whilst playing the music :)
I don’t think the audio quality is too bad for the price, you can also group/pair them but if music is your primary use I’d actually just jump up to a Sonos. I too am frustrated with the ads on echo shows that you can no longer opt out of
THIS IS ALL I EVER WANTED OUT OF MY ECHO! I was just trashing the echo shows today on some forums. I had no idea about this new device. Thank you so much for the video
just a fyi for show s, you can say, "Alexa, turn off screen". The command can be put into a routine as a typed voice command. Say to play sleep sounds skill "brown noise" and "turn off screen" (in that order, with a 15 second "wait" between, because sleep sounds skill takes 10 seconds or so, otherwise screen goes back on.) when you say "Alexa sleep" or "goodnight".
Got mine 2 days ago. My first proper Alexa device. Love it so far cuz I just wanted, an alarm clock that turns on my favorite radio station to wake me up. The only nitpick I have with it right now that it’s driving me nuts is that if you set up an alarm, say every day at 7 am, it permanently shows it on the tiny screen. I have searched the whole Alexa app menus and have not been able to get the “[CLOCK ICON] 7:00 AM” reminder phrase off the bottom of the screen. And the issue with this is that in all but one of the clock face styles this reminder covers the temperature and date. Its reeeeealy nitpicky I know but I mean c’mon, with such little screen real state available why waste a third of it in a reminder of my alarm. I set up that alarm man, no need for you to remind me of it 24/7. It basically forces me to use the only clock face that still shows the temperature (the first and most basic looking one) even with this alarm reminder present. I wanted to use the one with the sun icon that is everywhere in the promotional material but this one only shows time and picture leaving me to guess the temp based on the icon since its covered. “Oh, a sun, well I guess that’s 90 something right? God forbid I could see the actual temp instead of my alarm that has been set for the same time 10 years” It’s a first world problem, believe I know. But man, I hope they change it in an update soon.
Craig was wondering what you thought about Alexa and the new AI feature that is rumored to be a paid subscription service? Do you have any information when it's coming out?
In the Alexa App, you can enable Night Mode which enables a very dark clock on the screen. It’s not entirely dark, but I could barely even notice it even in a completely dark bedroom.
There is a way to not see the sponsored ads continually on the echo show 5, just put it into "Do Not Disturb" and then it will stay on the clock screen
My white one has -a white power cord. The time display during the night is easy for my eyes to read without my glasses. Replaced a 30 year old Sony clock
In Australia these sell for a huge $149.00 on Prime Day. Way to expensive & we still only get 2nd Gen Echo 8 at $99.00 Prime Day normally $229.00. It's advertised as the latest version but we all know America has had the 3rd Gen for well over a year. Love your channel. Cheers Steve
Hey Craig, the new echo spot could be a good addition to add in spaces where I have no clock. So yes, this device can be a good addition to my Smart home in certain rooms.
Hey William, I hope you are doing well and having a good start to your summer. I would definitely buy this over dots now for each room. Clocks are a must have still. Thanks for watching. Have a great day.
Ideal for bedroom or desktop and thats about it really. Personally, I would of designed the Echo Spot to have a small strip of LED lighting around the edging to have themed colours to compliment the colours of the display clock with fading - very much based on a Lumie alarm clock. I'd be very hardpressed to exchange my Echo Dot and...yes, you've guessed it, my Lumie clock for the Echo Spot. Sadly, another Amazon smart device product destined for the secondhand electronic stores for a mere $20-$30 mark within 1 or 2 years.
No Temperature Sensor in new SPOT like the older DOT. That's a game changer for us, since we use temperature sensing to run some actions. Sound is not better enough to switch from DOT to SPOT , Waste of money to change. Note- it's 117F here, and it still just shows a Sun, No flames? Reply
If I start a timer in the Kitchen Echo Spot and then go in the living room while my meal is cooking, does it show the timer in the living room Echo Spot too?
@@CraigsTechTalk The white one comes with a white cord. It looks like the blue comes with black. At least the black comes with black and not white. First day of use and I really like it. I wish it had a temp sensor and when you stop playing what your listening too it take quite a while before changing back to the main clock screen. Hopefully this will be fixed with a software update.
Yes it pairs with Hue lights. To use voice to say on or off for lights, you create a group in the Alexa app. Once an echo and lights are paired in the same room, you can just say on or off to Alexa.
What the heck, Amazon is going backward on their device design i got the original Echo Spot and it looks so much better because it has a full screen for it to be used as a clock the thing it was built for , this new one is TERRIBLE.
That's the first thing that struck me when I saw the new one. I don't have my old Spot in front of me, because I traded it in, but the new one's screen looks overall smaller.
I purchased and am returning. I have a sleep routine when plays the large clock disappears and cannot see it. Unless is a setting I am unaware of is being returned.
Hello Craig, thanks for the update. Can you pls do us a favor to reach out to the Alexa developers to accommodate these additional features? Since they watch and listen to you, perhaps you can say on your next review about these. You know if we have multiple lights in different rooms, we can simply associate that light to a bedroom group so that we can simply say lights on or off instead of light 1, light 2, etc. This is done by changing the light switch or plug type to light or switch/bulb. However, if all rooms have their own ceiling fan and lamp shade, you will have to say each label like fan 1, fan 2, lamp 1, lamp 2, etc. This is tedious and sometimes you even forgot to remember the names. If you use the routine to say ‘fan off’ to turn off the fan in a particular room, you can cannot repeat this phrase again to another room. Perhaps if they can add types as Fan and Lampshade to the existing Light and Switch, this will work just like the light. We can simply say Fan off or Lamp off if you associate these in bedroom group. One last thing, on the echo dot 5th gen with temp sensor, it’s good to see all of them in one screen showing the current temperature in each room. I have 5 of them on different rooms. Thank you and hope you can help us with these requests.
Nice review, Craig! :) I had the old Echo Spot. I traded it in to get a Fire Tablet HD 8. To me, $44 for this is too much. Functionally, this can't really do anything a Dot can't do. Sure, the Dot doesn't have a visual representation of the weather, but it shows you the time, and you can *ask* it the weather. And halving the screen makes no sense to me. Also, just a note about the Echo Shows: I think they've really cut down on the ads. I still see them every once in a while, but only the sponsored ones, and it took well over 10 minutes of looking at my Show to see an ad pop up for a few seconds. I get your point that it would be better if it never happened, but I think it's entirely reasonable to have that rate of ad, as opposed to what Amazon does with their ad-supported e-readers. On the other hand, it *would* be nice to be able to throw them $10 and have the ads stop forever.
Curious how this behaves with Amazon+ kids. I'd love to replace my kids pop with this. The pop is kinda lacking in performance. Ill have to check if its eero built in capable.
Amazon said they are coming up with a more useful conversation type AI. That is what I hope for. Been waiting a year now. Any ideas on Amazon and future AI? I heard this August may be the date. Your thoughts?
Thanks Craig...I've been wanting to replace my Echo Show 5 for a while. I don't really mind the ads...it's the irritating screen refresh between the ads (fading to and from black every 20 seconds or so) that drives me crazy. I can't have it in my field of vision or it will constantly distract me. It's great to have on my nightstand when the room is dark and it only shows the time, but otherwise it's an annoyance. Looks like the Spot might be a great answer. Does anyone know if getting an Echo Show for Kids would be another way to have only time and date displayed without the screen refresh?
Just found a pretty glaring issue, well glaring for me anyway. On this new Echo Spot any routine that involves having to read out your calendar entries will cause that routine to end regardless of whether there are any subsequent actions in the routine. I have two routines that I rely upon that read my calendar as part of their actions, a morning routine that tells me of any appointments I have that day, and an end of day one that tells me about my appointments I may have the following day. Both routines contain other actions such as powering on and off my various smart home products. None of those actions happen though if they come after the calendar action. Changing the routine so that it runs from one of my other echo devices (I have several various models scattered around my house) all result in the routine running as intended, it’s just this new Spot that seems to have this problem. Grateful if anyone could report back on whether they also have found this issue. I have just gotten done speaking with Amazon device support and after talking me through some very basic troubleshooting steps, none of which made a bit of difference, they are sending a replacement unit. I doubt though that this issue is unique to my particular device, and likely a bug in the this new models firmware.
Thanks for the video ;) Just one question (dumb maybe) : do the New Echo Sport needs a wifi connection to have the alarm feature workin ? I turn off my internet connection during the night. Thx and keep it up you great job ;)
I finally got mine but there is some things I don't like. Weather is only available on 2 clockfaces. If I want to use the purple clock color I don't get the temperature and weather on the clock face. Speakers sound distorted especially when you use the equalizer.
Well I just dropped the dime on one after watching this. I’ve been in the market to replace my old 1990’s alarm clock, and was looking at the clock Dot… thanks for the video.
I've turned off all of the Home Screen content on my smaller Show and as soon as something new comes along I turn that off too, so I get the clock all of the time
The things you turned off are amazon screens cards. I would not call those ads you can't turn off. If it says "sponsored" in the corner like my examples, it can't be turned off
You are lucky to not have them. Amazon advertising has doubled its size in the last year. They are pushing display advertising for Fire TV and Echo Shows. It should only be a matter of time before more people will see them. Unless you are outside of the US. Then who knows.
I am in Spain and I do not have the commercials problem you define. I have such option turned off and it seems to work. I have had my two Echo Dots 5 gen since 2 years and Show 5 gen since last year and for me they function as expected. The Echo Show display, however...is notoriously slow to respond. I was curious about the Echo Spot, but I have no need for it at the moment. Thank you for the video...they are always interesting!
Change her Action/Alert/Wake voice to ECHO from Alexa. Makes owning several Spots or Dots easier. Little Spot doesn't respond to the same voice commands as the Dot. Won't dim, brighten, or turn off display. Won't raise or lower volume, Alexa/Echo says the software hasn't been updated to respond to these commands. Hope they will soon.
This is exactly what I need from my Echo!!! I want to see the time. I want to see the Weather. I want to be able to ask it questions. So, it has a crappy speaker. Link it up to a Bluetooth one. Problem solved. The original price is way to much. It's Echo 5 prices for the Spot. I think I might actually purchase one the way you did. I have an old Echo that should get me a discount.
Rant: -I'm TIRED OF THE ADS (on my Show 5) -I can not Glace at the time across the room - I don't watch content on my Show 5 - I really don't even touch the tbing!! - I want a Smartxlock..... - I like the Amazon ecosystem, I don't want ADS!!
great review. I don't know anything about Amazon electronic products except that they have ads. I need a new smart clock and you have calmed my fears of ads. No one makes Google Home smart clocks anymore. Lenov did and I have one but the digital display dies after only a couple of year.
I just used the trade in program to trade in one of my Echo Show 5s for the new Echo Spot, all for the same exact reasons you did. So far so good (only been using it for a few hours), but I did notice it does notifications - something I also hated on the Echo Show. As far as I know there isn't a way to disable notification. Basically the notification will partially block the screen with a bell icon, in this case the bottom row with date and temperature, until you acknowledge or dismiss it. I wish there was a way to disable notifications.
I'd prefer it if Amazon devoted more time to updating the software of their echos instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. I'm sick and tired of my devices suddenly and for no reason, refusing to sync my music or in one case going deaf and ignoring my voice commands. I've had enough of rebooting the errant device, then the associated eero then my whole WiFi system just to find that that speaker now works but the one in the next room doesn't. And you are right Craig, my photo frame shows around 2-3 pictures then reverts to adverts no matter what I do. If it wasn't for the doorbell camera I'd sell the Show 8.
I read a review that said you can't ask Alex to shut the display off? Any truth to that? Being I like to shut off lights while sleeping that would drive me nuts.
I only chose this as google dosent have anything like it. I have a google speaker in my kitchen that I use all the time so i didnt need another "home" director. If google would have had something like this, i would have gotten one. TIP.... i found if you choose the option to have all of your alarms read the weather after shutting off the alarm, there will be two buttons on the screen when your alarm goes off: one to snooze and one to shut off. MUCH better than tapping on top of it. At least for me. 😊
Does this 2024 Spot have ultrasound motion detection, or not? Except for Craig’s video, everything else I’ve seen says that it DOES NOT have ultrasound motion detection built-in.
Craig, this looks awesome but I have a question. I've been paying for Amazon Music and when I want it to play a song on one of my Echos, it doesn't play the song. It plays a station based on the son and every 2 or 3 songs I get commercials. I pay too much money for me to have to get commercials! And this doesn't happen when I play my Bluetooth in my car.
I really wish the Echos would natively support UA-cam Music like it does for Spotify
It does, already.
UA-cam music is garbage as they should be
@@nottthaticarehow bro?
I don’t think this would happen since both companies have competing media services and devices.
@@hieu.2024 you just need to configure it in the alexa app, which in itself, is a garbage
I really think the form factor of bedroom alarm clocks is one that should be a key target audience for smart speaker makers, I know it’s the location in my house that I use my voice assistant the most
Setting off morning routines & using nighttime ones to closedown etc
Got mine, love it. Only thing I do want is an on/off light switch for whatever room it's in by swiping left or right. If Amazon adds that it's perfect to me
That would be a nice addition. I like that idea. That could be a nice swipe over option.
I only keep my echo show 8 to watch UA-cam on in the kitchen. The longer I have the devices, the less use I have for them outside of turning on lights.
I can understand the less use
Just got my white one. I can confirm the cord is white.
Thank you for confirmation. Happy holidays
@@CraigsTechTalkYou to brother!
Turn on Kid's mode to get rid of ads on Echo Show.
Nice tip.
I love that tip. This is great. I am sure there might be slight limitations in kids mode. But nothing I can see really being missed. Thanks for sharing.
I mean on my 1st gen echo show 5 I turned off all the other screens on it and it's not showing any ads or anything.
Kids mode removes the "photo frame" home display option, so no more cycling through personal photos. This was a major selling point for us, so it's a big limitation for us.
This is what I did for my parents. I’m trying the Canadian language setting to see if that works.
My first one had a faulty alarm so I had to send it back. The replacement works great and the sound is much better than the older dots. She seems to listen a little better on the new spot. Perfect bedroom clock.
I'm still using my original Echo Spot no issues at all and I can check my security cameras from bed - they should bring this version back
Totally agree.
You didn’t get the screen flicker issue? I have the original, it’s much better than this one, but it has an annoying screen flicker.
@@speedbird737 I have the screen flickering but I kinda like it. Makes it look retro in a way.
I love the new Echo spot. I can set it on top of my entertainment center and see the clock and and set timers if I need to. I actually saw it on sale and bought it before I watched your video about it. One of our Echo dots stopped working and I was going to buy another one of those and then when I saw the special price on the Echo spot I said oh that's even better. I haven't found anything about it so far that I don't like.
🔴 NEW Echo Spot - geni.us/newechospot - The New Echo Spot 2024 is out and available on sale through Prime Days.
Amazon still doesn't have a trade-in option for the Echo Show 5 3rd Gen. It lists it when you search but in the search results it's not there so you can't trade that in yet.
So, if you don't mind weather in Celsius, if you set Echo Shows to Canadian English, the unsolicited ads disappear...
Did the exact same trade. Completely agree about the treble leaning sound, hurt my ears and had to change the settings immediately. Unfortunately it didn't work for me where I wanted to put it because like you said, the clock is small so keeping my dot with clock there but using it on my desk now!
Thanks for the video!
Thanks for sharing your experience. Glad to hear the trade in program was useful for you.
Does the Spot have a temperature sensor? How is the display at night, when the room is dark does it dim or turn off so it doesn't light up the room?
2:10 - Regarding the black power cord. I bought a blue one. It came with a black cord. They are not matching the color of the device. Thought you'd want to know.
Thank you Joe. I appreciate the information. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
Thanks!
David thank you so much for the super thanks. Thank you also for being a channel member. I appreciate your support. Hope you are doing well.
Bummer the new Echo Spots don't show Ring Doorbell cameras & Prime / Freeve videos like my old Echo Spots? Nor show personal videos like the old version.
Just got mine and one annoying bug i found is the notification does not dissappear after the announcement!! Ive checked all the settings hoping for a solution but there is none ... The only way to get rid of the notification is to ask alexa whats the weather like ...
I received mine yesterday its great and so easy to use worth £44
It also supports Alexa Captions for the "hard of hearing" under Settings-> Accessibility
Thank you for sharing this. I am sorry I did not cover that. Thank you also for being a channel member. 🙏 I really appreciate your support
No way! I still have my original Echo Spot. It's my favorite Echo.
The spot was always a cute little echo
so did I, until one day it just bricked itsself...smh
The great thing about Amazon home products is that they have some niche items like this and the flex to use as a plug in clock yet Apple is so far behind. WE NEED A HOMEPOD WITH A SCREEN PLEASE.
Imagine the original Echo Spot screen merged with a HomePod.
Thanks Craig. It looks like a good addition in the Amazon ecosystem, but its simple design would be more appropriate at $29.99. Looking forward to the next video.
Thank you. I appreciate you watching the video. I can see $29.99 on sale with a $59.99 price tag.
In Australia it sells for $149, its outrageous 😢😢😂😢😢
@@khg675bt WOW!!! Outragious is an understatement.
My last Echo Spot screen started flickering after two years. A well documented issue which had Amazon completely ignore. I wonder if this 2nd generation will experience the same.
I would not expect it on the new one. It hasn't been an issues with their echo shows. I don't think they would go backwards to older spot screen tech. Thanks for watching.
Mine arrives in the mail tomorrow. We have HomePod's in every room to control all of our Nanoleaf lights. We use HomeKit, but some devices do not natively support HomeKit but does support Alexa, so this is why I bought the Echo Spot. We do have a Echo Dot w/ Clock in the bedroom, because iPhone alarms are unreliable and I could not find a good (and available) HomeKit enabled clock. I wanted to have a clock to see the time, a smart clock to set alarms from my phone, and the Echo Dot had great reviews. The Echo Spot is going in the living room under the TV to control devices such as the Xbox Series X. Having the clock on it is great because I have ADHD time blindness, so having the time right in front of me will be a plus. Thanks for the great review. I love your videos.
Just got mine too! I had the first echo spot which was way smaller and they discontinued it and i was sad. Now they finally have a new Spot. Picked mine up for 30 bucks with a gift code and the prime day :D
Very cool. Enjoy your new spot
Does the clock screen stay on permanently
Yes it does...if you ask for the weather report...It will show hi and low Temps for the day, then go back after a minute to the home screen clock.
I only used my Echo Show as a clock and quick weather check in the bedroom. Never used for watching anything or with the camera, so I'm trading the Show for the Spot... It just came, now I'll go set it up!
Hope you enjoy it.
I just got ,one. I only want it as a clock that is small and sleek. Perfect for my desk in the spare bedroom.
I love how this is a passively designed product. You notice it when you need to and you can easily ignore it when you don't need it.
For their other devices, Amazon needs to accept that passive experiences are what people desire, and showing sponsored/suggested content disrupts that experience entirely.
Overall, a larger discussion about how the Alexa ecosystem operates is needed to identify alternative solutions about monetizing the platform.
I went and ordered of these after watching your video. First off, I didn't even know this was OUT - so the mere existence of the thing was news to me.
Second, I thought about my Show 5, and all I used it for was timers, alarms, and weather. That's it. Nothing that needed the Show 5 screen for, so I moved to this. Like you, I liked seeing my weather the way this displays it, so it works well for me.
Went the same route with the pricing - I traded in my Show 5 for this, plus the 20% discount and all that, came in with tax around $17. Quite happy with this.
Would I buy this full price? No - I mean Amazon has so many sales thru the year, it's best to wait for Prime Day or Black Friday or something like that to buy Amazon gear like this.
Although if Amazon ever tries to put Alexa basic functionality (alarms, timer, weather) behind a paywall, I'll ditch them in a heartbeat and go Apple.
I’ve been hanging onto my original echo spot from like 2017 and am now SOOO excited to update to this one #nocamera #noscreenglitch
I'm just in the process of dumping all of my Echo devices, the ads have got so intrusive and she's stopped listening and comes up with stupid responses!
It would have been nice to bring up door bell/cam footage, as I think this is a great little device to have sat under my Monitor to use as a background radio when sat working. Its regular price is higher than we are used to but we should expect that as Amazon has not been making money in the past, and I would never use an echo device to purchase anything so no revenue for Jeff there either. Plus a few bucks extra to avoid the Ads is worth it.
The biggest problem with the Echo spot is that once you play music or radio, you lose all of the (Day, Date, Temp) information and you cant see any of that any more until you stop playing music. so it's useless as a Radio alarm clock, if you want the screen to show you all the information you need.
No you can see it. If you are playing Spotify just swipe down on the screen and click the little home icon, then it’s shows the hours & weather whilst playing the music :)
I don’t think the audio quality is too bad for the price, you can also group/pair them but if music is your primary use I’d actually just jump up to a Sonos. I too am frustrated with the ads on echo shows that you can no longer opt out of
THIS IS ALL I EVER WANTED OUT OF MY ECHO! I was just trashing the echo shows today on some forums. I had no idea about this new device. Thank you so much for the video
Thank you for watching. I was just trashing the echos too 🤣 I still have no problems with the Echo Spot.
I finally gave up on the Show 5 and packed it away when I got the Spot in the mail yesterday. Much better.
Really who is that?
@@demonreturns4336Better at what? They both do the same thing but that was a good way to convince yourself that buying the dot was a good idea.
If it’s just used for a clock then why not just get a Dot with clock
I have those and now they don’t sell them. This would be the replacement
Nice presentation. Would be good to see what night mode looks like. In my case I can’t sleep with any light on in the room. Red light is usually okay.
just a fyi for show s, you can say, "Alexa, turn off screen". The command can be put into a routine as a typed voice command. Say to play sleep sounds skill "brown noise" and "turn off screen" (in that order, with a 15 second "wait" between, because sleep sounds skill takes 10 seconds or so, otherwise screen goes back on.) when you say "Alexa sleep" or "goodnight".
Got mine 2 days ago. My first proper Alexa device. Love it so far cuz I just wanted, an alarm clock that turns on my favorite radio station to wake me up.
The only nitpick I have with it right now that it’s driving me nuts is that if you set up an alarm, say every day at 7 am, it permanently shows it on the tiny screen. I have searched the whole Alexa app menus and have not been able to get the “[CLOCK ICON] 7:00 AM” reminder phrase off the bottom of the screen. And the issue with this is that in all but one of the clock face styles this reminder covers the temperature and date.
Its reeeeealy nitpicky I know but I mean c’mon, with such little screen real state available why waste a third of it in a reminder of my alarm. I set up that alarm man, no need for you to remind me of it 24/7. It basically forces me to use the only clock face that still shows the temperature (the first and most basic looking one) even with this alarm reminder present. I wanted to use the one with the sun icon that is everywhere in the promotional material but this one only shows time and picture leaving me to guess the temp based on the icon since its covered.
“Oh, a sun, well I guess that’s 90 something right? God forbid I could see the actual temp instead of my alarm that has been set for the same time 10 years”
It’s a first world problem, believe I know. But man, I hope they change it in an update soon.
agree
Craig was wondering what you thought about Alexa and the new AI feature that is rumored to be a paid subscription service? Do you have any information when it's coming out?
My niece wanted one of these for her birthday so I just picked her up one today lol now I’m thinking about getting one for myself🙈😂
Does it work as a mesh satellite with eero?
Does it have temperature sensor?
Nope x2
I just want to know if it has a Temperature Sensor like the echo dot with clock gen 5
No, it does not have a Temp Sensor.
How do I turn off the display? I like complete darkness at night but asking Alexa to turn off screen doesn’t seem to work?
In the Alexa App, you can enable Night Mode which enables a very dark clock on the screen. It’s not entirely dark, but I could barely even notice it even in a completely dark bedroom.
There is a way to not see the sponsored ads continually on the echo show 5, just put it into "Do Not Disturb" and then it will stay on the clock screen
just what I was looking for thx for the review
Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for watching.
My white one has -a white power cord. The time display during the night is easy for my eyes to read without my glasses. Replaced a 30 year old Sony clock
In Australia these sell for a huge $149.00 on Prime Day. Way to expensive & we still only get 2nd Gen Echo 8 at $99.00 Prime Day normally $229.00. It's advertised as the latest version but we all know America has had the 3rd Gen for well over a year. Love your channel.
Cheers Steve
It’s 44 dollars with prime membership today in USA
Hey Craig, the new echo spot could be a good addition to add in spaces where I have no clock. So yes, this device can be a good addition to my Smart home in certain rooms.
Hey William, I hope you are doing well and having a good start to your summer. I would definitely buy this over dots now for each room. Clocks are a must have still. Thanks for watching. Have a great day.
Does it have apps for ambient sound?
Ideal for bedroom or desktop and thats about it really. Personally, I would of designed the Echo Spot to have a small strip of LED lighting around the edging to have themed colours to compliment the colours of the display clock with fading - very much based on a Lumie alarm clock. I'd be very hardpressed to exchange my Echo Dot and...yes, you've guessed it, my Lumie clock for the Echo Spot.
Sadly, another Amazon smart device product destined for the secondhand electronic stores for a mere $20-$30 mark within 1 or 2 years.
I bought the white one and received it yesterday. I ha $5 credit that I used on it. I like it so far.
No Temperature Sensor in new SPOT like the older DOT. That's a game changer for us, since we use temperature sensing to run some actions. Sound is not better enough to switch from DOT to SPOT , Waste of money to change. Note- it's 117F here, and it still just shows a Sun, No flames?
Reply
Is it 220 volts usable?
If I start a timer in the Kitchen Echo Spot and then go in the living room while my meal is cooking, does it show the timer in the living room Echo Spot too?
Finally, matching power cord.
Yes, I agree. I am curious what the white one comes with. Amazon did match them in the past. Its surprising they would go back.
@@CraigsTechTalk I can let you know on Monday. I have one arriving.
@@CraigsTechTalk The white one comes with a white cord. It looks like the blue comes with black. At least the black comes with black and not white. First day of use and I really like it. I wish it had a temp sensor and when you stop playing what your listening too it take quite a while before changing back to the main clock screen. Hopefully this will be fixed with a software update.
Sooo.. I need more details about the on off lights.. does it pair with hue philip lights?
Yes it pairs with Hue lights. To use voice to say on or off for lights, you create a group in the Alexa app.
Once an echo and lights are paired in the same room, you can just say on or off to Alexa.
@@CraigsTechTalk Can you mix lights like Amazon Basics Smart A19 LED Light Bulb, Color Changing, with philip hue and it all work together??
What the heck, Amazon is going backward on their device design i got the original Echo Spot and it looks so much better because it has a full screen for it to be used as a clock the thing it was built for , this new one is TERRIBLE.
That's the first thing that struck me when I saw the new one. I don't have my old Spot in front of me, because I traded it in, but the new one's screen looks overall smaller.
Yeah, I’ve got the old one and has much better functionality with a bigger screen. And don’t forget the 3•5 mm jack to hook up to a stereo system.
I purchased and am returning. I have a sleep routine when plays the large clock disappears and cannot see it. Unless is a setting I am unaware of is being returned.
Hello Craig, thanks for the update. Can you pls do us a favor to reach out to the Alexa developers to accommodate these additional features? Since they watch and listen to you, perhaps you can say on your next review about these. You know if we have multiple lights in different rooms, we can simply associate that light to a bedroom group so that we can simply say lights on or off instead of light 1, light 2, etc. This is done by changing the light switch or plug type to light or switch/bulb. However, if all rooms have their own ceiling fan and lamp shade, you will have to say each label like fan 1, fan 2, lamp 1, lamp 2, etc. This is tedious and sometimes you even forgot to remember the names. If you use the routine to say ‘fan off’ to turn off the fan in a particular room, you can cannot repeat this phrase again to another room. Perhaps if they can add types as Fan and Lampshade to the existing Light and Switch, this will work just like the light. We can simply say Fan off or Lamp off if you associate these in bedroom group. One last thing, on the echo dot 5th gen with temp sensor, it’s good to see all of them in one screen showing the current temperature in each room. I have 5 of them on different rooms. Thank you and hope you can help us with these requests.
Thanks...used your link & bought the black !
Very cool. Thank you for using the link. I hope you enjoy it. I am still liking the simplicity of it.
@@CraigsTechTalk While there...I also got the 10 AND the 15....hope my searching & purchase is accredited to you in some small way. Thanks again...
I appreciate that. Anything you purchase after the link I get a couple percentage back. Thanks again.
Nice review, Craig! :)
I had the old Echo Spot. I traded it in to get a Fire Tablet HD 8.
To me, $44 for this is too much. Functionally, this can't really do anything a Dot can't do. Sure, the Dot doesn't have a visual representation of the weather, but it shows you the time, and you can *ask* it the weather. And halving the screen makes no sense to me.
Also, just a note about the Echo Shows: I think they've really cut down on the ads. I still see them every once in a while, but only the sponsored ones, and it took well over 10 minutes of looking at my Show to see an ad pop up for a few seconds. I get your point that it would be better if it never happened, but I think it's entirely reasonable to have that rate of ad, as opposed to what Amazon does with their ad-supported e-readers. On the other hand, it *would* be nice to be able to throw them $10 and have the ads stop forever.
Curious how this behaves with Amazon+ kids. I'd love to replace my kids pop with this. The pop is kinda lacking in performance. Ill have to check if its eero built in capable.
Amazon said they are coming up with a more useful conversation type AI. That is what I hope for. Been waiting a year now. Any ideas on Amazon and future AI? I heard this August may be the date. Your thoughts?
Thanks Craig...I've been wanting to replace my Echo Show 5 for a while. I don't really mind the ads...it's the irritating screen refresh between the ads (fading to and from black every 20 seconds or so) that drives me crazy. I can't have it in my field of vision or it will constantly distract me. It's great to have on my nightstand when the room is dark and it only shows the time, but otherwise it's an annoyance. Looks like the Spot might be a great answer. Does anyone know if getting an Echo Show for Kids would be another way to have only time and date displayed without the screen refresh?
Just found a pretty glaring issue, well glaring for me anyway. On this new Echo Spot any routine that involves having to read out your calendar entries will cause that routine to end regardless of whether there are any subsequent actions in the routine. I have two routines that I rely upon that read my calendar as part of their actions, a morning routine that tells me of any appointments I have that day, and an end of day one that tells me about my appointments I may have the following day. Both routines contain other actions such as powering on and off my various smart home products. None of those actions happen though if they come after the calendar action. Changing the routine so that it runs from one of my other echo devices (I have several various models scattered around my house) all result in the routine running as intended, it’s just this new Spot that seems to have this problem.
Grateful if anyone could report back on whether they also have found this issue. I have just gotten done speaking with Amazon device support and after talking me through some very basic troubleshooting steps, none of which made a bit of difference, they are sending a replacement unit. I doubt though that this issue is unique to my particular device, and likely a bug in the this new models firmware.
Does the Echo spot work with Amazon smart plugs?
Super useful video thanks
Does it have language setting or is it mainly english?
Thanks for the video ;)
Just one question (dumb maybe) : do the New Echo Sport needs a wifi connection to have the alarm feature workin ? I turn off my internet connection during the night.
Thx and keep it up you great job ;)
Yes, you need an internet connection for an Echo Spot to work
I finally got mine but there is some things I don't like.
Weather is only available on 2 clockfaces. If I want to use the purple clock color I don't get the temperature and weather on the clock face.
Speakers sound distorted especially when you use the equalizer.
Like your videos.
Need help. Can’t connect home hubs to my HomeKit they keep getting stuck in the configuring stage. Thanks
I'd suggest contacting Amazon Alexa's Chat Support over this, they are usually pretty knowledgeable.
Do these have the sunrise alarm like the that other clock they canceled
No they do not. That is a good option they should have added.
Well I just dropped the dime on one after watching this. I’ve been in the market to replace my old 1990’s alarm clock, and was looking at the clock Dot… thanks for the video.
Does it have a temperature sensor for my Amazon thermostat??
I've turned off all of the Home Screen content on my smaller Show and as soon as something new comes along I turn that off too, so I get the clock all of the time
I did the same thing with my Show 5, and I have it turning on the lights in the morning and off in the evening. I don't have to deal with ads.
The things you turned off are amazon screens cards. I would not call those ads you can't turn off. If it says "sponsored" in the corner like my examples, it can't be turned off
I don't have sponsor cards on mine
You are lucky to not have them. Amazon advertising has doubled its size in the last year. They are pushing display advertising for Fire TV and Echo Shows. It should only be a matter of time before more people will see them. Unless you are outside of the US. Then who knows.
@@CraigsTechTalk Recently the ads have been popping up on my Show 5.
I am in Spain and I do not have the commercials problem you define. I have such option turned off and it seems to work. I have had my two Echo Dots 5 gen since 2 years and Show 5 gen since last year and for me they function as expected. The Echo Show display, however...is notoriously slow to respond. I was curious about the Echo Spot, but I have no need for it at the moment. Thank you for the video...they are always interesting!
Thank you very much. Glad you enjoyed it. They are not doing ads in Spain yet. It is Canada and the US as of now. Thanks for sharing.
How do you change colour of the spot at night , currently it’s showing red aspect numbers
I have not found a way. I think they defaulted to the red since it doesn't affect night vision.
Change her Action/Alert/Wake voice to ECHO from Alexa. Makes owning several Spots or Dots easier.
Little Spot doesn't respond to the same voice commands as the Dot.
Won't dim, brighten, or turn off display. Won't raise or lower volume,
Alexa/Echo says the software hasn't been updated to respond to these commands. Hope they will soon.
Does it auto dim?
Mine arrived today (UK). Very happy so far - audio is fine after some EQ tweaking. it’s a smart radio alarm clock - what’s not to like!
Thanks for sharing your experience Alan. You are right, what's not to like.
This is exactly what I need from my Echo!!! I want to see the time. I want to see the Weather. I want to be able to ask it questions. So, it has a crappy speaker. Link it up to a Bluetooth one. Problem solved. The original price is way to much. It's Echo 5 prices for the Spot. I think I might actually purchase one the way you did. I have an old Echo that should get me a discount.
Does the Echo Spot have a temperature sensor like the Echo Dot with clock does? It’s a feature I use a lot.
No, I wish it did.
Will this screen eventually get jittery, like EVERY SINGLE ECHO I’ve had before?
Rant:
-I'm TIRED OF THE ADS (on my Show 5)
-I can not Glace at the time across the room
- I don't watch content on my Show 5
- I really don't even touch the tbing!!
- I want a Smartxlock.....
- I like the Amazon ecosystem, I don't want ADS!!
I switched language to Canadian English and that got rid of the ads for me
great review. I don't know anything about Amazon electronic products except that they have ads. I need a new smart clock and you have calmed my fears of ads. No one makes Google Home smart clocks anymore. Lenov did and I have one but the digital display dies after only a couple of year.
I just used the trade in program to trade in one of my Echo Show 5s for the new Echo Spot, all for the same exact reasons you did. So far so good (only been using it for a few hours), but I did notice it does notifications - something I also hated on the Echo Show. As far as I know there isn't a way to disable notification. Basically the notification will partially block the screen with a bell icon, in this case the bottom row with date and temperature, until you acknowledge or dismiss it. I wish there was a way to disable notifications.
If my Echo Dot with Clock stops working I’ll probably replace it with this. It’s simple and it works.
I agree.
I'd prefer it if Amazon devoted more time to updating the software of their echos instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. I'm sick and tired of my devices suddenly and for no reason, refusing to sync my music or in one case going deaf and ignoring my voice commands. I've had enough of rebooting the errant device, then the associated eero then my whole WiFi system just to find that that speaker now works but the one in the next room doesn't.
And you are right Craig, my photo frame shows around 2-3 pictures then reverts to adverts no matter what I do. If it wasn't for the doorbell camera I'd sell the Show 8.
I read a review that said you can't ask Alex to shut the display off? Any truth to that? Being I like to shut off lights while sleeping that would drive me nuts.
If it’s like the original Spot, then it should dim the display.
I only chose this as google dosent have anything like it. I have a google speaker in my kitchen that I use all the time so i didnt need another "home" director. If google would have had something like this, i would have gotten one. TIP.... i found if you choose the option to have all of your alarms read the weather after shutting off the alarm, there will be two buttons on the screen when your alarm goes off: one to snooze and one to shut off. MUCH better than tapping on top of it. At least for me. 😊
No ads lately on my echo 5 show. Knock on wood. But you say it’s coming. Yuk. I rarely look at the screen.
I really hope you don't get them. It was all the "sponsored" deals that got me. Everything else you can turn off. Thanks for watching.
lol. stereo speakers on the echo? What good does that do when the two speakers are a half inch apart?
Does this 2024 Spot have ultrasound motion detection, or not? Except for Craig’s video, everything else I’ve seen says that it DOES NOT have ultrasound motion detection built-in.
I hope they add youtube to it
Great review, buying mine today! Also subbed, you should have way more subs! ❤
Craig, this looks awesome but I have a question. I've been paying for Amazon Music and when I want it to play a song on one of my Echos, it doesn't play the song. It plays a station based on the son and every 2 or 3 songs I get commercials. I pay too much money for me to have to get commercials! And this doesn't happen when I play my Bluetooth in my car.
Incidentally Amazon has jacked the price up to $79.99 since the release of your review!
You mentioned no video. Is that also true for a Blink camera?
He says no cameras later in the video
@@ru2225 Thanks, I even listened specifically for him to mention that...aaaaaand somehow I missed it! :)
No camera
@@Mark-hb5zf np, easy to miss