Amazon has a full portfolio of Echo devices, offering different sizes, then there’s the Echo Show models with a display, all offering a connected voice-controlled experience through Amazon’s smart AI assistant, Alexa.

Of these devices, the Echo Dot is the most popular, the dinky smart speaker a top choice on sales events like Black Friday.

But in 2024, Amazon added a new model to its line-up, the Echo Spot. This replaced the Echo Dot with Clock and is ideal as a bedside device. But when it comes to choosing between the two, which should you buy on Black Friday – the Echo Dot or the Echo Spot?

The Echo Dot is more affordable, has slightly better sound quality and looks like a higher quality device, so it’s likely to be the top choice for those who want to buy an Echo in the Black Friday sales. 

The Echo Spot is better for the bedroom, with the display a great night clock and the touch controls offering something when you don’t want to use voice for everything. But it costs more and the plastic finish isn’t as premium.

Amazon regularly discounts its Echo devices. For example, the Echo Dot has been reduced about 12 times over the last year. At full price, this smart speaker costs £54.99, but it’s often available for prices as low as £24.99. I’m expecting it to hit these low prices around 21 November in Amazon’s Black Friday sales.

The Echo Spot, on the other hand, costs £79.99 when full price, but with prices expected to plummet to around £44.99 for Black Friday in the next week.

With that in mind, you’re likely to be able to pick up the Echo Dot for about half the price of the Echo Spot, which is always popular with shoppers. If you don’t want to wait for the price reductions, Amazon is already offering a great deal when you buy two Echo Dots.

The Amazon Echo Dot is instantly recognisable: the mesh-covered sphere design was introduced in 2020, before being replaced in 2022 with the current version. It comes in Charcoal, Deep Blue Sea and Glacier White colours, with four controls on the top and the Alexa light ring around the base.

The Echo Spot was relaunched in 2024, following the original Spot from 2018. The Echo Spot has a plastic body, and is a little larger than the Echo Dot. The front of the device is split to offer a small display at the top and a speaker at the bottom, so it looks more like Amazon’s cheapest speaker, the Echo Pop. It again has controls on the top and comes in Black, Glacier White and Ocean Blue colours.

Of the two speakers, the mesh finish of the Echo Dot looks better than the Echo Spot’s plastic finish, but the Echo Spot’s screen means you get visual feedback, touch controls for devices, as well as it being able to show the time – so it’s ideal beside your bed. If buying for other rooms, I’d prefer the Echo Dot for its great mesh finish.

When it comes to the sound quality, it’s impressive just how good these small speakers sound. There’s single front-firing speaker in both models and it’s the same 1.73-inch size. But the housing of these speakers is slightly different and the result is that the Echo Dot sounds a little better.

The sound from the Echo Spot is slightly narrower because of how the speaker is packaged, but there isn’t a huge difference in the performance between to the two. Both speakers will do a reasonable job playing your music or the radio, with enough bass so that neither sounds thin.

They wouldn’t be my first choice if I was having a party – the Echo Studio is more of a party speaker – but for bedroom music or background music around the home, both are sufficient.

Both speakers run Alexa and that’s the primary way you’ll interact. The Alexa experience on these speakers is the same, whether you’re asking for weather updates, setting timers or controlling smart home devices.

But the Echo Spot has a distinct advantage when it comes to the features, because of that 2.8-inch display. That means it will show you the time, it will give you weather icons, show you what music is playing and you can see how long is left on that timer.

You’ll also get touch controls for adjusting connected smart devices, like adjusting the brightness of a bulb, so it’s a more interactive device when it comes to touch – which the Echo Dot doesn’t offer. But these touch controls can be a little fiddly because the display is small.

The Echo Dot has a trick up its sleeve, however, because it also contains a temperature sensor. This is really useful, as it can tell you the indoor temperature in a room. I use it in my garden office, so I know if I need to turn the heating on before I go out there to work.

The Echo Dot and the Echo Spot aren’t the only smart speakers that Amazon will be discounting during the Black Friday sales – and we’re keeping track of all the best prices below. And you don’t have to buy from Amazon of course – if you buy from Argos you may be able to collect the same day – and of course there’s always speakers like the Apple HomePod Mini as an alternative to the Echo.