Amazon Echo Dot with Clock (2nd gen) evaluation: The clock-outfitted Echo Dot gets a spherical makeover

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Delight in chocolate-covered peanut butter or eggs served with bacon, an Amazon Echo Dot with a constructed-in clock turns out to be a elegant combination. The latest Echo Dot with Clock doesn’t veer a ways from the fashioned’s winning formula, serving up the comparable current LED gift baked into an Alexa-powered elegant speaker. The most productive accurate distinction this time around, other than a shrimp improved audio, is a revamped spherical create that’s now shared by the extraordinary Echo Dot and the flagship Echo model. Whereas the original Echo Dot with Clock does characterize a sure stylistic departure from the fashioned, there’s no accurate reason to hunch out and change an present one.

Carry out

Accessible in “glacier white” and “twilight blue” flavors, the original Echo Dot with Clock got the comparable spherical makeover that the comparable old 4th-gen Echo Dot did. Measuring 3.5 inches gargantuan and 3.9 inches huge, the Echo Dot with Clock is merely about two inches taller than its predecessor, despite the fact that it’s roughly the comparable width. The Dot with Clock’s digital gift peeks out from the speaker’s material covering, and an adaptive brightness setting dims the readout in a unlucky room. Last but now no longer least, Alexa’s gentle rings had been moved (reasonably attractively) from the tip of the speaker to the scandalous.

Ben Patterson/IDG

This evaluation is piece of TechHive’s coverage of the ideal elegant audio system. Click that hyperlink to read reviews of competing merchandise, alongside with a buyer’s handbook to the facets you ought to gentle own into narrative when browsing.

Beauty is in the look of the beholder, for sure, but Within the occasion you inquire me, the LED gift makes the Echo Dot with Clock’s spherical create explore considerably more elegant, whereas moreover managing to lend a hand faraway from the “huh?” response that the comparable old, now-spherical Dot tends to elicit. Certainly, my wife and daughter (who had been decidedly unimpressed with the usual Dot) had been reasonably enthusiastic on the Echo Dot with Clock, and my 8-three hundred and sixty five days-venerable at as soon as requested if the LED-outfitted Dot could well well whisk in her room.

Buttons and interfaces

The Echo Dot with Clock facets the comparable buttons as the comparable old Echo Dot, at the side of quantity up/down, microphone silent, and “movement” buttons sitting on the tip of the speaker. Whereas the amount and mic silent buttons are self-explanatory, the “movement” button does reasonably about a issues, such as waking Alexa, silencing alarms, and (when held for 25 seconds) resetting the speaker.

Ben Patterson/IDG

As with its predecessor, the original Echo Dot with Clock has a “tap to snooze” feature that enables you to tap the tip of the speaker to snooze an dread, ideal for getting a tad more sleep with out having to check with Alexa. Once unheard of to the Echo Dot with Clock, the “tap to snooze” feature now works on the fourth-gen Echo Dot, as successfully.

The rear of the Echo Dot with Clock comes with comparable interfaces as the original Echo Dot, at the side of a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting a wired speaker (you’re going to be ready to moreover connect a Bluetooth speaker), to boot to a barrel-shaped energy port for connecting the 5-foot AC wire. That energy cable terminates in a stout, 15-watt energy provide that’s (sadly, and annoyingly) mountainous passable to block nearby energy retail outlets.

Setup

For runt print on easy connect the Echo Dot with Clock to your tell wireless community, take a look at out my evaluation of the comparable old Echo Dot. The fast model is that setting up the Echo Dot with Clock is a painless course of, specifically if it comes pre-configured alongside with your Amazon narrative (an option you’re going to be ready to elevate whereas ordering the speaker).

Ben Patterson/IDG

If the Echo Dot with Clock is already draw up alongside with your narrative, all it’s good to enact is run it in and start the Alexa mobile app; whereas you enact, an “Echo Dot could well well be draw up” banner ought to gentle seem. Tap it, and the Alexa app will step you by the course of of at the side of the Echo Dot with Clock to your tell Wi-Fi community. If the Dot with clock hasn’t been configured alongside with your narrative, or you’re original to Alexa in usual, you’re going to be ready to merely tap More > Add a Device > Amazon Echo on the Alexa app to begin up the course of. Both approach, you ought to gentle hold the Dot with Clock up and working in a matter of minutes.

LED gift

Functionally speaking, the gift on the original Echo Dot with Clock works identically to its predecessor’s. When indolent, the LED gift presentations the time, either in 12- or 24-hour codecs. Within the occasion you inquire Alexa in regards to the weather, the gift will point out you the original temperature, or it would flash the amount level whereas you press the amount buttons. The gift can moreover point out you how famous time is left if you inquire Alexa for a timer. At closing, you’re going to be ready to flip the LEDs off entirely if you wish, despite the fact that I’m now no longer sure why you’d wish to.

Ben Patterson/IDG

And… that’s elegant famous it, despite the fact that it turns out that having an Echo Dot with an integrated clock is with out concerns rate the $10 top rate over the comparable old Dot, saving you the priority of asking “Alexa, what time is it?” all all over again and all all over again.

Train instructions, elegant house management, and audio

Apart from its constructed-in LED clock, the Echo Dot with Clock boasts precisely the comparable facets, functionality, and audio quality as the comparable old, fourth-gen Echo Dot, and that’s mostly a factual thing. Read on for a abstract of what the Alexa-powered Dot with clock can enact, or you’re going to be ready to (all all over again) take a look at out my evaluation of the usual Echo Dot for a more in-depth explore.

As with the non-clock Dot, the Dot with Clock comes with onboard Alexa, a chatty, friendly, and intuitive digital assistant who by no contrivance tires of discovering out headlines, reminding you of events, doling out weather experiences, setting timers, and answering your most arcane questions (despite the fact that with all of Google search at their disposal, Google’s line of Google Assistant-powered elegant audio system is more interesting to stump). Alexa is moreover appropriate with better than 100,000 elegant devices, and her multi-step “routines” rep it easy to govern a couple of elegant items with a single thunder. There’s moreover Alexa Guard, which lets Alexa warn you if she hears broken glass, fire alarms, or various suspicious sounds.

Apart from fielding your questions and controlling your elegant house items, the Echo Dot with Clock skill that you can check with various Echo audio system to your tell the exercise of the “fall-in” feature, or you’re going to be ready to even rep announcements to your complete Echo audio system correct now. Alexa on the Echo Dot with Clock can moreover name phone numbers in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico for free.

Audio quality on every the Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock takes a marginal step ahead in comparison with the meh sound of earlier generations. Each versions of the revamped Dot are outfitted with a single front-firing 1.6-trudge driver, and in my listening assessments (you’re going to be ready to read more runt print in my evaluation of the comparable old Echo Dot), the original Dot and Dot with Clock sounded cleaner and fuller than the closing-gen audio system, which sounded thinner and overly boomy to my ears. That acknowledged, the audio quality on essentially the most recent Echo Dot with Clock isn’t vastly improved over the fashioned.

Can hold to gentle you upgrade?

No inquire, the revamped Echo Dot with Clock seems radically various than its predecessor, and with its illustrious but tasteful LED gift, this original clock-outfitted Dot united statesthe ante as a ways as seems whisk.

However ought to gentle you toss out your venerable Echo Dot with Clock for the original one? Unless you’re pining for the original spherical create, there’s no accurate must. Functionally, every the fashioned and redesigned Echo Dot with Clock are comparable, and the audio improvements are so subtle that that you must well well now no longer even gape them fast of taking the Pepsi plight.

Unfortunately, good deal hunters looking out to snap up a closing-gen Echo Dot with Clock for cheap are in for a plight. Whereas the comparable old, closing-gen Echo Dot is on sale at a steep low cost, the fashioned Echo Dot with Clock is at point out selling on Amazon for easiest $6 lower than the more moderen model, and it’s refurbished to boot. Pointless to say, the older Echo Dot with Clock could well well reappear across the holidays with a deep designate reduce, but for now, that you must well well as successfully cough up a couple of dollars more for the more moderen model.

• Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) with Clock

  Excluding its original spherical create, the revamped Echo Dot with Clock doesn’t veer a ways from the fashioned’s winning formula.

  Pros

  • Spherical redesign
  • LED clock gift is a pure for the Echo Dot
  • Alexa is tops at elegant house management
  • Moderately improved audio quality

  Cons

  • Significantly taller than its predecessor

Ben has been writing about technology and user electronics for better than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he covers elegant house and house leisure merchandise.