Echo Dot with Clock (2022) review: an almost perfect smart speaker

The latest Echo Dot with Clock ($59.99, fifth-gen) exhibits extra information on its brighter, larger (however nonetheless small) show, has extra useful good residence options because of a brand new temperature sensor, and has a brand new accelerometer that makes faucet to snooze really work. Add in higher sound and a speedier Alexa on board, and that is greater than only a minor improve.

The Echo Dot with Clock has lengthy been my favourite small good speaker, and with these enhancements, it’s now my go-to good alarm clock. As somebody who spends most of her day surrounded by screens, the glanceable LED grid show on the Dot with Clock is a welcome respite at nighttime, offering simply sufficient data at my bedside to be useful with out being distracting. My different most well-liked bedside desk good speaker is the second-gen Google Nest Hub (the one with out a digital camera). Whereas the Nest does job of mixing into the background at night time because of its matte show, the smaller footprint and lack of display screen make the Dot with Clock a much less intrusive bedside companion.

Amazon’s Echo Dots are probably the most feature-rich good audio system you will get for the worth. Low-cost and straightforward to stay wherever, they’re Amazon’s try so as to add its voice assistant to each room of your home. Powered by Alexa, the Dot can do most all the things its larger siblings can, together with stream music, set timers, run Alexa Routines, management good residence units, play video games, inform jokes, and work as a house intercom and phone. 

For 2022, Amazon has upgraded your complete Echo Dot vary — the Echo Dot, Echo Dot Youngsters Version, and Echo Dot with Clock — with extra sensors, quicker processors, higher sound, and the flexibility to behave as Wi-Fi extenders on an Eero community. For most individuals, the adjustments aren’t compelling sufficient to improve from a fourth-gen mannequin. However these fashions are presently out of inventory on Amazon, so in case you are in search of the very best Echo expertise within the smallest bundle, you can be proud of any of the brand new ones. 

The most important enchancment to the vary is within the Echo Dot with Clock (which is the third model with a clock however with the fifth-gen speaker). That is the mannequin I examined for this evaluate, and whereas the general design is equivalent to the prior model, Amazon has changed the four-digit, seven-segment LED show with a brighter, extra practical LED dot-matrix show.

Now, along with displaying the time, quantity degree, alarms, and timers, the Dot can present a scrolling climate forecast, music title, and different textual content responses to queries. The scrolling function is a tad gimmicky. It could actually solely present a couple of characters at a time, so you need to stand there for 30 seconds to learn a music title and artist when you may merely ask Alexa to call the music. However it’s additionally type of enjoyable. The climate forecast readout, with the temperature and slightly cloud, solar, or rain icon, is extra helpful and barely quicker than listening to Alexa say the forecast. 

One function we obtained a number of use out of in my family was asking Alexa to do a math calculation. It now exhibits the end result on the Dot in addition to saying it aloud. (After I say “we,” I imply my 11-year-old daughter.) It additionally scrolls a phrase when “I” ask it to spell one thing, which is useful I hear. 

The brand new Dots additionally obtained two new sensors: a temperature sensor and an accelerometer. The accelerometer improves the tap-to-snooze gesture and provides extra gestures. These embody faucet to pause or resume music and faucet to finish a name. And the tapping works a lot better. I used to be by no means capable of get faucet to snooze to work on the sooner Dot, and right here, it’s a neater course of. It nonetheless requires a considerably hefty faucet, however you’ll be able to faucet principally wherever on the speaker to get the response you need. (Earlier than, you needed to goal the very prime, which was fiddly and didn’t work). 

Lastly, in the event you use the Amazon-owned Eero mesh Wi-Fi system, the brand new Dot can act as a Wi-Fi extender. That function simply arrived as an replace on the fourth-gen Echo and can be coming to the fourth-gen Dot later this 12 months, so it’s not likely a motive to improve to the fifth-gen Dot by itself. One motive to improve is that if your child (otherwise you) actually likes owls and dragons. The 2 new Echo Dot Youngsters Editions value $59.99 and embody a two-year guarantee and a 12 months’s subscription to Amazon Youngsters Plus.

The one main disappointment total with the brand new Dots is that, for some motive, Amazon has eliminated the three.5mm audio jack from the Dot. The jack allow you to hook up the Dot to a extra highly effective speaker and was a straightforward approach to flip a greater nonconnected speaker into a sensible one. The fourth-gen and third-gen Dots have the audio jack, so that you’re not out of luck in order for you this function. It’s also possible to use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to hook up with different audio system.

Whereas this can be a agency favourite for me as a bedside good speaker, I additionally examined the Echo Dot with Clock within the kitchen and the toilet. In each locations, its glanceable show proved extra helpful than the common Dot; the clock is very useful on busy mornings once we’re attempting to get out the door on time. 

The brand new temperature sensor can let you know the temperature within the room (and present you on the show) in addition to set off Alexa Routines. I set it to show up the AC when it will get too heat within the kitchen, and it labored reliably with out me having to ask Alexa to regulate the Ecobee thermostat whereas I toiled over a scorching range.

The onboard ultrasound movement sensor, which can be within the fourth-gen Dot, is useful for turning lights on once you stroll into the room. It’s not fairly as quick as a devoted movement sensor, just like the Philips Hue one I usually use in each my kitchen and toilet, however it’s solely a beat or so behind, and it’s good to not want a second system within the room. 

All Echo audio system can also set off Routines after they detect sure sorts of sounds. These embody operating water, a canine barking, an equipment beeping, loud night breathing, a child crying, and coughing. I examined the beep detection within the kitchen and obtained Alexa notifications on my cellphone when my toast popped up, when my microwave lunch was prepared, and once more when my dishwasher was finished. I needed to guess which alert was for which equipment; the notifications simply advised me “beeping detected.”

I additionally arrange a Routine that performed my favourite radio station from Apple Music every time I turned on the faucet within the kitchen. Who doesn’t like some tunes taking part in after they’re washing up? Nevertheless, the operating water sound set off is a bit delicate: it will begin blasting the music every time there was any sound within the kitchen. This additionally occurred within the toilet. The concept was to run a Routine that reads the climate and my calendar after which performs NPR within the morning when the bathe begins, however the Routine would begin taking part in on the smallest tinkle of operating water (if you understand what I imply). 

Earlier than I transfer on, I do must complain concerning the Alexa app as soon as once more. You want it so as to arrange Alexa Routines, akin to these described above. It’s a large number. Laborious to navigate, excruciatingly gradual, not sufficient group choices, and simply typically disagreeable to make use of as a sensible residence controller, the Alexa app is ripe for a makeover. 

Apple, Google, and Samsung have all made main updates and refreshes to their good residence apps now that Matter, the brand new good residence normal that may work throughout all these platforms, is rolling out. And I actually, actually, actually hope Amazon has a brand new app within the works. Something, please.

Amazon’s huge promoting level for the Dot lineup is healthier sound. The corporate claims it has fully redesigned the audio structure to ship two occasions the bass of the prior mannequin. This features a larger driver — as much as 1.73 inches from 1.6 inches. That’s not an enormous bounce, and that is nonetheless a small speaker. However it did higher at filling a room with good sound than the fourth-gen Dot. The audio can be a contact crisper and clearer at louder volumes and on bassier tracks. 

In case you are in search of a small speaker with good sound, Apple’s HomePod Mini remains to be superior. However it’s nearly twice the worth. The Dot will do a good job of filling a bed room, workplace, or dorm room with sound. The opposite choice for a diminutive good speaker — the Nest Mini — doesn’t come shut when it comes to sound high quality. (Though, having the ability to mount it to a wall, which neither of the opposite audio system can do with out clumsy equipment, provides slightly extra dimension to the in any other case tinny sound.) All three manufacturers provide a stereo pairing function for fuller sound. 

The brand new Dots are the primary Echo audio system with Amazon’s AZ2 neural edge processor. First launched within the Echo Present 15 good show final 12 months, the AZ2 permits Echo units to course of extra actions regionally, leading to quicker responses to easy prompts. After I requested for the climate or to set a timer, the Dot normally responded in lower than two seconds, in comparison with simply over three seconds on the fourth-gen system. The brand new processor additionally helps velocity up movement detection, based on Amazon, and the fifth-gen Dot did activate my lights quicker than the fourth-gen mannequin.

Essentially the most intriguing new function is that the brand new Dots can act as Wi-Fi extenders for an Eero mesh system. I simply needed to hyperlink my Amazon and Eero accounts within the Eero app to allow this. Eero says every Dot can add as much as 1,000 sq. ft of protection and help speeds of as much as 100Mbps and as much as 10 units. It makes use of Eero’s TrueMesh software program know-how, tapping into the dual-band Wi-Fi radios within the audio system to seek out the strongest connection after which prolong it. 

Primarily based on my testing, it’s not going to provide the similar efficiency as in the event you have been related to an Eero node, however it might be useful to increase protection to, say, a video doorbell or safety digital camera exterior your property.

After a couple of setup hiccups (the Dot wanted a software program improve, then the Eero community wanted one, too), I might see the Dot in my Eero app with an choice to make use of it to increase Wi-Fi. I toggled it on and initially obtained a warning that the Dot was too near an Eero and wouldn’t prolong something. As soon as I moved it farther away, it began to work. 

When my laptop computer related to the Dot, I obtained speeds of 25Mbps up and 12 down in an space of my home the place I might normally get 70 / 26 from my 1.3Gbps Xfinity service. My colleague Dan Seifert additionally noticed comparable velocity drops when testing a fifth-gen Dot in his home on an Eero community. 

If I might select which units related to the Dot — and, say, simply put my good lights on it — this is able to be extra useful to me. However it wasn’t an incredible expertise when my laptop computer related because it lower my speeds in half. Throughout testing, I had three Eero Professional 6E routers operating in a 2,300-square-foot brick residence, so my community didn’t really want this.

However you probably have a single Eero and a few useless spots, it will work properly as a cheaper resolution than including one other Eero node (particularly if you have already got an Echo Dot or have been going to purchase one anyway). Simply anticipate to see lower than half the speeds you’d with one other Eero. (I plan to check this once more with a unique community configuration when extra Echo units have the function).

As I’ve stated, the Echo Dot with Clock is my favourite small good speaker. It bridges the hole between voice-only good audio system and Amazon’s extra useful however extra intrusive good shows (which all have cameras and overly vivid screens). 

The fifth-gen Dots sound higher, reply quicker, and may do extra along with your good residence than the sooner fashions. However at $60, the Dot with Clock with its glanceable show is dear in comparison with the common Dot. Additionally, the fourth-gen Dot would typically see worth drops or be given away without cost with different merchandise. It’s uncommon to see a sale on a Dot with Clock. 

For me, the proper Echo good speaker is the massive boy fourth-gen Echo, which is presently on sale for $50 (down from $100). Get that and never this in case you are in search of a sensible speaker with actually good sound. It has all the opposite options of the brand new Echo Dot, too, together with the temperature sensors and the flexibility to behave as a Wi-Fi extender for Eero networks, plus a Zigbee radio. However it doesn’t have the AZ2 processor.

The bigger Echo will likely be a Thread border router, too, which is vital for the Matter good residence normal. (Amazon has stated all its Echo good audio system will likely be Matter controllers, capable of management Matter units, however that solely the Echo fourth-gen will likely be upgraded to be a Thread border router.) The one factor lacking from the Echo is that LED show. I want Amazon would add one; then, it will be my excellent good speaker. Within the meantime, in order for you the enjoyable and considerably useful options of the LED show, the fifth-gen Echo Dot with Clock is the Alexa good speaker to get.

Photographs by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge