Amazon Echo Spot review

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This addition to the Echo family is a fun, versatile video device

 

Our Verdict

The Amazon Echo Spot is the best-looking Echo product out there: a versatile, Alexa-toting video device that wants to be in your bedroom, your kitchen, your office...

For

• Lovely form factor
• Video is clear

Against

• Round screen means video cropping
• Pricier than the regular Echo

 

Amazon’s latest Echo refresh has brought with it a design flourish that was sorely missing from its original line-up.

We’ll get straight to it: the Amazon Echo Spot is the best-designed Alexa device Amazon has ever created; it’s a gadget you’d happily have in your bedroom, on your desk, in your kitchen. 

• Amazon Echo Spot at Amazon for $129.99

The new form factor makes Alexa feel fresh again, giving the voice AI some much-needed purpose.
The Amazon Echo Spot is versatile - it doesn’t have a chameleon-like ability to adapt to the room you put it in but this is certainly not just a smart alarm clock, something Amazon has been very clear about.

Design

The issue is, it looks like a smart alarm clock which means that this may become its default use for many, but its use stretches beyond that.
The Amazon Echo Spot is unlike any other Echo device and that is a good thing. Its curved shell does more than enough to make up for its sibling’s design failings.
Where the big, bulky and brash Amazon Echo Show took over any area you put it in, no thanks to its brutalist black slab look, the Echo Spot is much more refined in its design.


Surprisingly it turns out the best way to do a desk-based video device is to forgo the TV-lite look and just go with something that is compact and looks good.
The Echo Spot is a cross between an Echo Dot and a smaller version of the Amazon Show.
This is no Echo Dot replacement, though - the price puts it out of contention for that, and it’s also a lot more useful, so to say it is would be doing it a disservice.
Size-wise, it’s the equivalent of a mango. Mangos aren’t the most scientific way to measure things, sure, but at least it gives you an indication that it’s a pretty compact device with a curved back and screen that’s angled up, which makes it easy to view.
It’s a great-looking device, certainly something you won't mind having on show in your home unlike the, er, Show.

Features and setup

The unit we reviewed was black but there is also a white one available. The screen is small, at 2.5 inches (480×480 pixels).
On the top of the screen there is space for a camera and on the top of the device as a whole there are three buttons.
Anyone familiar with the Echo range will know what they are: volume up, down and mute for the mic - this will also disable the camera. There are also four small pin-prick holes. These house the four-array mics that listen out for the wake word.