Amazon’s Echo Spot — a little Alexa speaker with a 2.5-inch circular touchscreen — is making its debut in Canada this month, with preorders open now on Amazon Canada. The cost: C$170.

The Spot takes the puckish profile of the pint-sized Echo Dot and, for an extra C$110, adds in touchscreen controls and better-sounding audio. Along with Alexa’s usual voice-activated functionality, the Spot’s camera and touchscreen lets you make video calls and stream video from Amazon or from news sources such as CTV News or Global Entertainment Tonight Canada. Video content from Air Canada and The Weather Network is in the works, as well — but, thanks to a spat with Google, you still can’t access YouTube on the thing.

Enlarge Image

The screen also adds in a layer of glanceability to the Alexa experience, with relevant info appearing on screen as Alexa reads off the weather or plays your favorite Spotify playlist. It’s proven to be a popular alarm clock upgrade pick.

The Spot will join the Echo, the Echo Dot and the Echo Plus as the fourth Alexa device available in Canada. It’s also the first Alexa speaker with a touchscreen to make a debut north of the border, beating out the larger-sized Echo Show. That seems somewhat noteworthy — the Echo Show is the older of the two devices, but Amazon seems to see more momentum with the lower-priced Echo Spot.

Now Playing: Watch this: The Amazon Echo Spot might be the smartest alarm clock…

1:22

“Can’t speak to our future product roadmap,” an Amazon spokesperson told me when I asked whether or not the Show would follow the Spot up north, “but we believe customers will greatly enjoy [the] Echo Spot.”

Amazon tells us the speakers are expected to start shipping out to Canadian customers in two weeks, on April 25.

11

The Amazon Echo Spot isn’t your ordinary clock radio