While the Nest does a good job of blending into the background at night thanks to its matte display, the smaller footprint and lack of screen make the Dot with Clock a less intrusive bedside companion.

Echo (4th generation) | Premium sound Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Echo (4th generation) | Premium sound Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

In the meantime, if you want the fun and somewhat helpful features of the LED display, the fifth-gen Echo Dot with Clock is the Alexa smart speaker to get. All voice interactions are encrypted in transit to the cloud and throughout the cloud verification process. If I could choose which devices connected to the Dot — and, say, just put my smart lights on it — this would be more helpful to me.Bringing connected devices into your home also brings with it concerns about how the data they collect is protected. It has all the other features of the new Echo Dot, too, including the temperature sensors and the ability to act as a Wi-Fi extender for Eero networks, plus a Zigbee radio. It’s not quite as fast as a dedicated motion sensor, like the Philips Hue one I normally use in both my kitchen and bathroom, but it’s only a beat or so behind, and it’s nice not to need a second device in the room. During testing, I had three Eero Pro 6E routers running in a 2,300-square-foot brick home, so my network didn’t really need this.

Echo Dot 5th Gen Smart Speaker with Clock | Cloud Blue 2022 Echo Dot 5th Gen Smart Speaker with Clock | Cloud Blue

I toggled it on and initially got a warning that the Dot was too close to an Eero and would not extend anything. Based on my testing, it’s not going to give you the same performance as if you were connected to an Eero node, but it could be helpful to extend coverage to, say, a video doorbell or security camera outside your home.fifth-gen) shows more info on its brighter, bigger (but still small) display, has more helpful smart home features thanks to a new temperature sensor, and has a new accelerometer that makes tap to snooze actually work. The Echo Dot with Clock has long been my favorite small smart speaker, and with these improvements, it’s now my go-to smart alarm clock. Eero says each Dot can add up to 1,000 square feet of coverage and support speeds of up to 100Mbps and up to 10 devices. Powered by Alexa, the Dot can do most everything its bigger siblings can, including stream music, set timers, run Alexa Routines, control smart home devices, play games, tell jokes, and work as a home intercom and telephone.