Amazon is discontinuing my favorite Echo — the Echo Dot with Clock

I have six Amazon Echo smart speakers in my home and have tried more, but my favorite is the Echo Dot with Clock. I love how the fabric-covered LED dot-matrix display makes the time discreetly accessible, casting its soft white light from my dresser into my dark, blackout-curtained bedroom. (It definitely beats asking Alexa for the time.)

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news: Amazon has discontinued the Dot with clock in favor of a more expensive, less aesthetically pleasing model.

Amazon hasn’t told us why it’s being discontinued. At first, I mistakenly thought it might be due to hidden defects: My own Echo Dot with Clock started mysteriously freezing a few weeks ago, not responding at all to voice commands and having images stuck on the screen. Restarting it several times didn’t help.

But after I managed to convince Amazon to credit me with a replacement Echo, it started working again. (I had to completely reset it and then go through the setup process.) multiple times in the Alexa app for it to work).

When I went to pick up a $60 replacement Echo Dot with clock, I was shocked to find that Amazon no longer had it in stock – only refurbished models were available when I checked, despite the fact that The blue model is available again on Amazon and Aim Today, instead, I took a chance on the company’s spiritual successor: the $80 Echo Spot, which replaces the dot-matrix display with a screen.

But despite being more expensive, I find the Spot to be inferior for my purposes. While its screen isn’t too bright for a dark room, it is No What I would call visually pleasing. It never lets me forget that I’m looking at a cheap screen. Plus, the entire screen is angled upward, probably for use on the nightstand, not my tall dresser. I don’t have nightstands in my bedroom.

My colleague Jennifer Pattison Tuohy is currently working on a full review of the Echo Spot, and she likes it a lot more than I do!

But she says it also doesn’t sound as good as the Dot (though the audio is more directional), and it still doesn’t let you do something as basic as set an alarm with touch like you can with other smart displays. The main benefits are music playback controls and the ability to display the time, date, temperature and weather simultaneously.

Now that my Echo Dot with clock is working again, I will be returning the Spot and the money Amazon credited me.