Amazon's newest Echo is designed to be the perfect smart alarm clock

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Amazon

• Announced in October, the Echo Spot is the latest member of Amazon's smart-home family.
• It's small like the Echo Dot, but has a screen and camera like the Echo Show.
• Although it's designed to be the perfect smart alarm clock, the Spot is just as capable as any other Echo.

When Amazon announced its new line of Echo devices last year, all but one came out within a matter of weeks. The holdout — called the Echo Spot — is finally available and in stock. The Spot is kind of a hybrid between the Echo Dot and Echo Show, inheriting some of the best features from both.

Like all Alexa-enabled devices, the Echo Spot can be used to control smart-home gadgets, answer questions, set timers, and learn new skills. It can also connect to external speakers through either an audio cable or bluetooth, which you'll want to do if you want to use the Spot for music listening.

The Echo Spot's small size makes it the ideal bedside alarm clock, and it was even designed to look like one. Its built-in speaker won't be ideal for listening to music regularly, but it should be loud enough to wake you up each morning, you can even ask Alexa to stir you with the song of your choice. 

Unlike a traditional alarm clock, the Echo Spot has a screen and camera, which you can use for anything from watching brief news clips, to video calling with another Spot or Echo Show owner. The screen also lets you view footage from Alexa-enabled smart security cameras, and can display song lyrics when listening to music.

As someone who tried and liked the Echo Show, I do understand the upsides of having an Alexa-enabled gadget with a screen; it's especially useful when setting timers, since you can actually check up on it instead of having to ask. Still I can understand having second thoughts about having a smart-home gadget with a camera in your bedroom, which can seem invasive. 

If you've been looking for a way to expand your family of Echo gadgets, or want a smart alarm clock, the Spot is a cool piece of tech. It's also a lot less expensive than the only other Echo with a screen, which hopefully prompts more developers to release video skills.

Echo Spot, $119.99, available at Amazon