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There’s a lot of new smart speaker-digital assistant products on the market these days. The latest to arrive is the 5th generation of the popular Amazon Echo Dot with Clock. This compact smart home helper features all the power of Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant with the added functionality of a bedside alarm clock. I had a chance to wake up with the new 2022 version of the Echo Dot with Clock for a week and in this review I’ll talk about what’s new, what it’s designed to be best for, how it works and if I can recommend it for you.
What is Echo Dot with Clock?
The key feature of the Echo Dot with clock, as you might guess, is the addition of a LED digital display to the front of the spherical Dot. The display can show things like the time, temperature or the status of a timer if you set one. While the LED lights don’t really change much about this device and its true core purpose as a smart home hub, it does make it easier to use beside your bed or even in a bathroom, which is where I placed mine.
A built-in light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness, day or night, and when I did move it to the bedroom for a few days, I didn’t find it too bright for sleeping.
What makes 5th Gen Echo Dot with Clock different?
There are a few key additions and improvements in this device that makes it a bit of a better choice over previous versions. The last time I reviewed Echo Dot with Clock was the third generation, so some of these upgrades will be even more useful to those of us with an older version.
For starters Amazon says the speaker sounds better with, “an improved audio experience for clearer vocals, deeper bass, and vibrant sound.” The LED display now does more and apart from time and temperature it can now also display more weather details, song titles and more relevant info to your inquiry.
5th Gen Echo Dot with Clock also has a temperature sensor built in so you can use it to create routines based on the temperature in the room.
The final addition and improvement is that there’s a Wi-Fi booster built in if yo use the Amazon Eero network. With the Wi-Fi capabilities in here you can add up to 1,000 sq ft of wifi coverage to a compatible eero network.
That’s actually quite a bit of improvement in the new version, particularly when compared to my 3rd gen version.
Setting up Amazon Echo Dot with Clock
Setting up this device, like all Echo devices, is easy and straightforward. You'll plug it in then follow the instructions you’ll get verbally or via the Alexa app. That basically involves getting connected to your home’s Wi-Fi network and signing in to, or creating, an Amazon account.
Once that’s wrapped, you can manage the Dot with Clock’s setting inside the Alexa app.
Alexa as your Alarm Clock
This Dot is made for your night stand and its small footprint means it doesn’t take up a lot of space.
You can ask Alexa to set an alarm each day, or ask her to see an alarm for every weekday so you don’t need to worry about remembering every night. I liked that feature a lot.
You can customize the sound Alexa will make as your alarm inside the Alexa app. There’s an expanded choice of different sounds since I last explored the device, and there’s options from light wakeful tones to songs and celebrity voice clips too.
When it rings, you can tap the top of the device to snooze it, or just ask Alexa to shut it off.
Amazon Echo Dot with Clock as a Speaker
With the smaller speaker, the Echo Dot with Clock is definitely less powerful than some of the other Echo devices, but Amazon has continued to make improvements in the audio quality so it doesn’t sound small and tinny. Even so, this small unit is meant to be a supplementary or satellite to your overall system.
Echo Dot with Clock has always sounded just fine to my ears, given its place int the Echo ecosystem. The 5th Gen Dot with Clock sounds quite good for its small size, and the improvements are noticeable. It gets good and loud but the audio is also clear and crisp; in the 5th gen there is a lot more detail in the music and more resonance in the bass than before.
Particularly on the high end of the music spectrum, the previous versions of the Dot with Clock could lean into tinny, but Amazon seems to have balanced the speaker much better so it has more of a natural sound. The bass is actually pretty good on this speaker, and it can get quite loud while still keeping the overall sound big and clear. In short it sounds great and you’ll have a hard time cracking on this speaker’s quality, given its size and price.