Echo Spot - Smart Alarm Clock with Alexa (Your Choice)
$39.99
$129.99
69% off
Reference Price
Condition: New (US Version)
Color: White
Top positive review
10 people found this helpful
If you think you are going to be disappointed, think again! Alexa lives up to what you think this technology should do.
By Angie, RN on Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2017
Really, this thing is the bomb! I have hesitated to embrace Echo. I love Amazon and love everything about Amazon, but I find these products usually disappoint. Like Siri, great idea, but she is just so limited and 1/2 the time she has no idea what I want her to do. I find the pitch of my voice usually doesn't work with voice recognition products. For example, if I call Walgreens to get a refill prescription, I usually have to press all the buttons instead of talking to it, because it gets confused. Part of my problem with Siri and voice prompts is that I want to go too fast and they want to go too slow. I can usually go through the prompts faster than listening to the device say everything, and I usually want to use the speaker-phone as well, that creates some delay. Alexa is totally different. In fact, we talk about her, so we have to call her "the one who won't be mentioned" because even eavesdropping on our conversations in the kitchen she will respond. You don't have to talk loud to her, she just hears you. The hardest thing for my husband to adjust to is when talking to Siri, you have to wait for Siri to respond. With Alexa, you just say what you want. You don't have to get her attention with "Hey Alexa!" You just say, "Alexa drop in on Nathan's room" and instantly you are in a speaker conversation with your son upstairs. The quaIity is nice! No one has to raise their voice to speak in them, just a natrual voice conversation. I actually bought these to be an intercom system in my house. If you have ever priced out an intercom system it is incredibly expensive! Also, all the reviews on Amazon are horrible for every intercom system available except for Nucleus, which is $100 bucks a room. For years I have been looking for something. We have a landline cordless phone system in my house that I have been trying to use, but it rings in their rooms and they typically ignore it instead of answer it because they don't even know how to use regular phones anymore! For $30 bucks a room you get all this... -Drop in on your kids' room, you can hear everything they are doing! -Call your kids down to dinner without yelling! -Really! No more yelling in the house, no more "COMING!!!" response. Just "hey, dinner is ready... ok mom, I'll be right down." -No more excuses about why they need their phones in their room at night. Dots can just play any playlist they have in Prime music, Spotify or Pandora. -No more excuses about why they need their phones as alarm clocks. Dots can set alarms. -No more excuses about why they didn't turn their phone in at night. You can set a reminder to tell them to turn their phones into your room at 9pm! -If you are in your room at night and you can hear they are still up, you can drop into their room and tell them to go to bed. You don't have to get up! Plus this thing does millions of other things! In the kitchen, we have the Echo Show. The speaker quality is good. You can have it play any music you want. "Alexa, play some dinner music" and she picks a nice play list. "Alexa, play some calm music" and she picks a relaxing playlist. "Alexa play the Hamilton soundtrack" and she pulls up the soundtrack and plays it, while displaying the words. What could be easier??? I really wanted the Show for recipes in the kitchen so I didn't have to go back to my computer in the office (I know, lazy!). You can say "Alexa, what can I make with chicken and spinach?" And she'll pull up recipes and even videos of the recipes. Speaking of lazy, this thing is great. I have the Spot in my room. When it wakes me up in the morning I ask it to give my the daily briefing. It tells me what is on my calendar for the day, what the weather is like outside, what the top news of the day is and what the traffic is like to work. The only thing I wish it could do that it doesn't is have a battery so I could take it into the bathroom with me in the morning and listen to all that while I am getting ready. Literally, we have had this for 1 day in our house, so I know it can do way more than those things, but for just that it was worth the investment. Today I ordered 2 more dots. One for my office and one for the basement. Now, in every room I can have Alexa do things for me. We don't have any smart lights or appliances, but maybe we will get some. I can tell it to add things to my todo list as I randomly think of them during the day. I can tell it to add things to my shopping list as I am looking in the refrigerator. I can put things in my Amazon cart as I walk around the house instead of running to the computer and adding it to my cart. Literally, I do almost all my shopping (outside of groceries) through Amazon, so I love having this handy device. You can even order through Alexa. I just like putting things in my cart and reviewing it later. On the Spot specifically, the graphics are nice. When it does the daily briefing it actually brings up the CNN anchor in the display. It randomly shows things like the weather. You can do voice/video calls with it. The video between the Spot and the Show is nice. For the money though, the dots work great in the kids' rooms. I don't really need to see them. I just need to speak with them without yelling! If you are hesitating or on the fence, get one. I can't believe I waited this long! The technology has finally caught up. It really works!
Top critical review
17 people found this helpful
Adorable But Expensive (Too expensive?) Addition To The Family (Dec. 28, 2017 update)
By dd on Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2017
SHORT & SWEET: If your bedside table has a clock radio and an old-fashioned phone, this is the perfect replacement or, at $130, would have been about 5 years ago. For 2018, it's an adorable but overpriced replacement that should have some kind of battery backup. OTOH we've had it for only a few hours so ... (I've updated the Setup section - 12/28/2017) BACKGROUND: It started with a Generation I Echo in the bedroom, to be used mainly as a clock radio with voice input. As a radio, it was pretty good. As an alarm clock, rather annoying. (Really, when you wake up do you honestly want to *tell* your Echo to shut up?) But we got a second Echo (also Generation I but at a reduced price) for the living room. Meanwhile, upstairs, we got tired of moving the main bedroom Echo into the guest bedroom while cleaning. (I mean, we had to unplug it, carry it half a dozen steps, plug it in, let it wake up.) So we recently got a Generation II Echo for that room. Not just for convenience, of course. We figured visiting family and friends deserved a better "radio". We needed another Echo like the proverbial hole in the head. So, why did we buy the Spot? Well, we convinced ourselves that it would be quite a nice addition to the kitchen, even though said kitchen is but 3 steps from the "living room" Echo (albeit around a small corner). That Echo's location was selected precisely because it was between the kitchen and the living room, but it also meant putting the Echo very near the TV and, sad to say, Alexa appears to like the voices of those on the tele better than ours. So we convinced ourselves that if we had a "kitchen" Echo we could move the "living room" Echo to a more central spot, where Alexa might be more amenable to responding to us. Also, let's face it , the Echo Spot is cute. REVIEW NOTE: We are not exactly Amazon's target Echo family. We own no smart devices, other than the TVs. We don't use the Echos for lists or for shopping. They remain, basically, enhanced - but overpriced - combo clock radios/timers/calculators*. Delivery Oddities When we ordered the White Spot, we were given a delivery date of Dec. 19, 2017 - which is when buyers of the Black Spot (based on the early reviews) seem to have received theirs. Then we got an email informing us of a Jan. 10, 2018 delivery date. A few days later, the delivery date was changed to Dec. 27, 2017. Then we woke up on Dec. 24, 2017 to find it sitting by the front door. Not complaining mind you, but others have speculated about the Spot being shipped before it was fully "cooked" and I wonder if these changing delivery dates are signs they may be right. SET-UP Each generation of Echo seems to come with fewer written instructions, as if Amazon assumes everybody is already familiar with Alexa on some device (other Echo or tablet) or as if the Echos had become self-explanatory. Is set-up easy for a newbie? For the most part, yes, but I'm not sure it would have been quite so easy if I had not read some of the reviews first. The instructions in the box are minimal, the most useful being that you need to know the password for your Wi-Fi. After plugging it in, we were greeted in German(!) but the screen display let us change the default language to English. Then you must enter the password for the Wi-Fi network you want to use. Alexa then informs you it will take about 10 minutes (which seemed fairly accurate) to download and install itself. The screen shows progress via a light bar circling around and status (updating, optimizing, checking for latest software). Once it has finished, you'll see a brief intro video telling you all the wonderful things you can do. It's at this point that I think several reviewers ran into trouble. What to do next? I'm not sure I would have known to swipe down from the top for settings without having known about it beforehand (even though I own 5 Fires and should know that by now). I suspect that the proverbial grandmother who is unfamiliar with touch devices might not have known when to touch, swipe, or press the check mark. These are, I think, relatively minor issues that could have been solved with either a few more written instructions (the booklet is so small many probably missed the 3rd "page" with the "instructions" about pulling down from the top) or a much better introductory video. One example: changing the clock face. It had seemed to me that I could only choose analog or digital, not that I could change the clock theme (and there was no visible feedback when I selected digital). So I asked Alexa and she told me how to do it. The Spot still doesn't have a lot of theme choices but I'm guessing that will change in the future. (Oh, you can get rid of Trending Issues and cycling. Our Spot has a simple clock that dims when the lights are out and brightens up when the lights are on.) 12/28/2017 Update: There aren't a lot of options with the Echo Spot but after several problems setting up the theme background (choosing "Personal Photo" works only about 1% of the time) I want, and after reading a number of complaints, I reviewed the tiny booklet that comes with Spot and then went to Amazon's help section and looked at "all" the videos for the Spot. Note: Amazon, for the most part, doesn't even distinguish between the Show and the Spot. The videos are inadequate. To say the least. Some of the issues with setting up the Spot could be resolved by adding check boxes to the options rather than relying on touch or Alexa. But Amazon could probably solve most of its help desk issues by creating a simple text document that shows each Spot screen with the options and sub-options available so new users don't have to keep cycling through stuff trying to find what they want. FUNCTIONALITY The Spot is sort of a smaller Show or a bigger (and cuter) Dot with a screen. The speaker is surprisingly good for such a small device, although I doubt you would want to listen to opera on it (unless you attach a Bluetooth speaker). The screen is less than ideal for video (not so much because it is small as because it is round). But we've found the screen display of our music makes it easier to choose something than with the other Echos which rely on voice. Our main reason for choosing the kitchen as the Spot's home was the idea that its screen would help with recipes. So, naturally, we thought "YouTube". Unfortunately, whether because of device limitations or Amazon's current (Dec. 2017) feud with Google, YouTube is not available. Nevertheless, we were able to get several recipes simply by asking and YouTube doesn't have a monopoly on videos. WAKE WORD Well, having established Spot in the kitchen, we moved the "living room" Echo away from the TV and kitchen. And, guess what? Yep, both Spot and the "living room" Echo responded when we addressed Spot. So we changed Spot's wake word to "Echo". Now we have 3 Echos that respond to "Alexa" and one that responds to "Echo" plus our tablets which respond to "Amazon". I understand the logic behind having a single command word for all of one's devices, but there are circumstances where one wants to interact with only one specific device, whether it is near to one or somewhat distant. So, Amazon, if you're reading these reviews, a suggestion. First, we want to call Spot "Spot". It fits. Second, how about a command hierarchy which would, for example, let us give a unique call word to each Echo with "Alexa" or "Alexa All" being the "all devices respond" command word. I haven't completely thought through how this would work, but device proximity isn't sufficiently discriminatory. SUMMARY 1. Full Echo functionality in a tiny, good-looking package. 2. As currently designed, its most useful spot is probably the bedside table. It's not that it won't work on your desk or in the kitchen, only that the primary functions (alarm, weather, radio, phone) seem best suited for that location. 3. It's over-priced for what it does, but I am assuming the price will drop so I consider this simply an early-adopter issue. 4. Each of our Echos gets its electricity via an extension cord of some kind. Between the power cord's length and the AC adapter brick, well, either our apartment is remarkably deficient in electrical outlets or Amazon engineers have them spaced at table height at 3-foot intervals. This hadn't been more than a trivial annoyance (common to lots of electronic devices) until we decided to put Spot in the kitchen: the most useful locations were already in use by the microwave, toaster oven and mixer. The one spot available doesn't affect its usefulness as a radio or clock or timer but does as a recipe aid. 5. Spot needs a battery. Desperately. By your bedside, you want your alarm clock/radio to work even when the electricity goes out at 4AM. (Which also means, of course, that some basic functionality shouldn't depend on Wi-Fi). In the kitchen, it would be great to be able to pick the Spot up and move it to wherever you are working. in addition, the most comfortable way to use Spot's touch functions is to pick him up and hold him in your hand. Doing this is not all that easy when the power cord is stretched to its limit ... which is yet another reason why a well-designed battery base would be welcome. If there are engineering reasons why Spot can't have a small internal battery, battery power could be built into a small base or stand. (I think some vendors have offered them for at least the Generation I Echos.) This would be useful especially IF Spot's alarm clock & radio functions weren't dependent on WiFi. (Maybe Amazon has heard of FM receivers?) I was torn between 3 and 4 stars but decided that giving it 4 stars because it's adorable to look at was, well, somehow not professional, and, of course, there's the price. Spot's a nice addition to the Echo line with potential, either in its current implementation or in its next incarnation. ------------ *Oh, we still have real radios, timers and calculators in every room. None are dependent on the wi-fi working and most either run on batteries or have battery backup so they're useful even when the lights go out. So, yes, the Echos do rank as perhaps our most frivolous fourth-world purchases ever. But we wouldn't give them up.
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