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I have six Amazon Echo smart speakers in my house, and I\u2019ve tested more, but my favorite is the Echo Dot with Clock<\/a>. I love how the fabric-covered LED dot matrix display makes time unobtrusively accessible, beaming its gentle white light from my dresser across my blackout-curtained dark bedroom. (It definitely beats asking Alexa the time.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So I\u2019m sorry to be the bearer of bad news: Amazon has discontinued the Dot with Clock in favor of a more expensive, less eye-pleasing model. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Amazon didn\u2019t tell us why it\u2019s going away. At first, I mistakenly thought it might be due to hidden defects \u2014 my own Echo Dot with Clock began mysteriously freezing a few weeks back, completely unresponsive to voice commands and with images stuck on its display. Multiple resets didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But after I successfully argued for Amazon to credit me for a replacement Echo, it began working again. (I had to hard reset it, then go through the setup process multiple<\/em> times in the Alexa app to get it working.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When I went looking for a replacement $60 Echo Dot with Clock, I was surprised to find Amazon didn\u2019t stock it anymore \u2014 only refurbished models were available when I checked, even though the blue model is available again at Amazon<\/a> and Target<\/a> today. So instead, I took a chance on the company\u2019s spiritual successor: the $80 Echo Spot<\/a>, which replaces the dot-matrix display with a screen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But despite being more expensive, I\u2019m finding the Spot inferior for my purposes. While its screen isn\u2019t too bright for a dim bedroom, it\u2019s not<\/em> what I\u2019d call visually pleasing. It never lets me forget I\u2019m staring at a cheap screen. Plus, the whole screen is tilted upwards, presumably for nightstand use, not my tall dresser. I have no nightstands in my bedroom. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n