Echo Dot Clock (5th Gen, 2022 release) Cloud Blue

The Echo Dot Clock Cloud Blue is the same speaker with an LED display through the fabric.

• What the Echo Dot Clock Cloud Blue adds over a plain Dot
• The display dims itself
• Tap the top and the alarm stops
• Cloud blue, and what it does to a bedroom
• Everything else a Dot does

What the Echo Dot Clock Cloud Blue adds over a plain Dot

An LED display behind the fabric, and on a bedside table that display is the entire reason to buy this version instead of the cheaper one. The time at a glance in the dark without reaching for a phone. It also shows the outside temperature, a timer counting down while you cook, and the title of whatever is playing when you cannot remember what it is.

The display dims itself

It reads the light in the room and adapts, so it is legible in daylight and does not glare at three in the morning. That sounds minor until you have owned a bedside clock that does not do it, and then spend a month with a tea towel over it. This is the difference between a display you keep and one you cover up.

Tap the top and the alarm stops

No talking to a machine at six in the morning, no finding a phone, no fumbling in the dark for a button. One flat gesture on the top of the speaker. Small thing, used every single day, and the reason people who own one do not go back to a Dot without a screen.

Cloud blue, and what it does to a bedroom

A soft pale blue that reads as furniture rather than as equipment, which matters more in a bedroom than anywhere else in the house. Against a white wall or a wooden bedside table it looks deliberate. If you would rather it disappeared completely, the glacier white version is the quieter choice.

Everything else a Dot does

Music, radio, questions, reminders, calls to another Echo in the house, and control of your smart plugs, bulbs and switches. A temperature sensor inside for routines that start the fan when the room gets warm. One button that cuts the microphones electrically. It controls Wi-Fi and Matter devices, but there is no Zigbee hub inside, so Zigbee sensors and bulbs still need a gateway.

The same clock version comes in glacier white, and without the display it is the plain Echo Dot. For a bedside device with a proper screen and no camera, look at the Echo Spot. Wikipedia lists every Echo generation if you want to compare.