Amazon's Echo Spot smart alarm clock is almost half off this Black Friday

Amazon's new Echo Spot is already slashed to 44% off in honor of the Black Friday sales event. The new Echo Spot, released exclusively to Prime members during this past July's Prime Day, is a smart alarm clock that looks like a mix of an Echo Pop and Echo Show, giving Alexa fans the best of both worlds in a single, compact device. But right now, anyone can nab this great deal. 

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As part of Amazon's limited-time deal, Prime members and non-members alike can purchase the new Echo Spot for $45, a 44% discount from its retail price of $80. Like the Echo Dot, the Spot is available in black, glacier white, and ocean blue. It is the latest iteration of the previously discontinued Echo Spot.

Meant to function much like a clock radio, the Echo Spot features a small screen that takes up about two-thirds of the front, with the speaker occupying the bottom frontal area. The screen can display the time with customizable clock faces, alarms, weather, song titles, and even some Alexa illustrations triggered by specific commands.

If successful, the Echo Spot could start a comeback for clock radios, with the bonus of voice control through Amazon Alexa. Like a traditional clock radio, you can tap the Echo Spot to snooze an alarm when it goes off, but you can also ask Alexa to set up your alarms, turn on your smart lights, play music or audiobooks, and run other custom routines. 

As someone with an Echo Show 8 in their bedroom to run routines with voice control, I've loved testing the Echo Spot and seeing how a more compact device performs on my small nightstand. I like the idea of the smaller smart speaker with a screen to display a clock; I've wished I had it from my Echo Dot since I didn't buy the clock variant.

Also: Amazon Echo Pop review: A portable smart speaker for small spaces

Unfortunately, the microphone arrays of the Echo Pop and Echo Show 5 left me wanting more during months of testing. The devices aren't nearly as responsive as the Echo Dot or Echo Show 8, so I was hoping the Spot's speakers would do the audio justice -- and they did. The Echo Spot is surprisingly loud and even more responsive than my older, second-generation Echo Show 8. It's quickly become one of my favorite Echo devices in my home.

You can choose from six Echo Spot clock display colorways: orange, violet, magenta, lime, teal, and blue. With the launch of the Echo Spot, Amazon also released four new custom alarm sounds, including Aurora, Daybreak, Endeavor, and Flutter.