Echo Dot with clock (5th generation, 2022 release) | Bigger vibrant sound Wi-Fi and Bluetooth smart speaker and Alexa | Cloud Blue

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Months after release, this still hasn’t arrived on any of the other Echos dotted around my house but hopefully they’ll change to match eventually. Alexa still isn’t as good as Google Assistant but in terms of hardware, the Echo Dot comfortably beats the Google Home Mini, so until somebody puts Google Assistant in a dinky speaker with a 3. It can turn off the lights, saving me bumped knees trying to navigate the room in the dark, and it can play a series of sleep sounds to lull my unsettled mind to rest. This option was first made available in the third-generation Echo Dot, and the spherical fourth-generation Echo Dot also has a version that includes a clock display. The former is handy for cooking, as the clock is replaced with a visual countdown when a timer is set.

The Echo Dot with Clock is a great example of this – far from an essential upgrade but very nice to have.

You can also use voice commands like, "Set brightness to one,""Change brightness to maximum," and "Turn display off. Yes, you could have a digital clock, too, but the new Echo Dot with Clock kills two birds with one stone by displaying the time in bright LEDs across its side. Cards on the table: for me Google Assistant is streets ahead of Alexa in the smarts department but the Google Home Mini is severely hobbled due to its lack of 3. It has the same chunky 99 x 99 x 43mm dimensions of the previous model, and sticks with the fabric wrap, which wraps around the sides. But for the basics, Alexa is just fine: ably playing music, radio and podcasts, connecting with smart home gear and telling you about your day.

Aside from the third and fourth-generation Echo Dots, the Echo Show and Echo Spot both have LED screens to display the time. The LED display is extremely welcome offering little “glance details” without detracting from the screen-free charm smart speakers were supposed to offer in the first place. You can adjust the brightness with a slider; there's also an adaptive brightness setting in the app. Here, I’m in two minds: as I said earlier, Google Assistant is just far better at answering questions and hearing what you’re saying clearly.

In short, the Echo Dot with Clock is everything you’d expect it to be and has the same pros and cons as before. You access the Adaptive Brightness feature through the Alexa app on the same screen you use to manually adjust the clock brightness, as described in the previous section. Whether it’s Kindles, Fire Tablets or Echos, each new version brings small improvements that you weren’t aware you needed until they arrived.

If you have an Echo with a screen, like Echo Show, you need to set the brightness with touchscreen controls. The clock display will immediately dim to its lowest possible brightness level when you use that command. Underneath that fabric is a segmented LED display capable of showing a digital clock and shows other things when required.

It won’t be displaying advanced graphics or video like an Echo Show but it works well, and adapts its brightness to meet the needs of the room. That’s not ideal if you share a bed with someone, or have thin walls and neighbours who don’t appreciate your 3am Alexa chinwags. It’s an LED display that can’t show anything more complicated than a few numbers or letters at a time, but you can switch it between 12- and 24-hour formats. Given the iPhone it used to house – a 2009 iPhone 3GS – has long since departed, it only exists to tell the time.

If you want to dim your Echo Dot clock display quickly, you can use the Alexa voice command “Alexa, change brightness to minimum. One other peculiarility: these Echo devices with the new voice suddenly stopped working with my Xiaomi smart bulbs.Then when the sun comes up in the morning, or when you turn on the lights, the brightness will increase. In the bedroom, setting an alarm places a small circle next to the time and neatly lets you silence an alarm with a tap on the top, like the snooze functions of old. You can adjust the brightness on your Echo Dot clock with voice commands or through the Alexa app on your phone. Putting last year’s model and the clock version side by side, and alternating the same track between the two, I’m pleased to report the two are indistinguishable with surprisingly resonant bass response and a reasonably rich music playback across the frequency spectrum.