AMAZON has announced the return of a beloved smart device, leaving many fans bewildered.
The retail giant teased the release of the 2024 Echo Spot in a promotional video earlier this week. The alarm clock displays the time, weather, and song names at your bedside.
It also has Amazon Alexa integration, allowing you to request music and information from the company’s signature voice assistant.
The original model hit the market in 2017, only to be discontinued two years later.
The revamped Echo Spot is nearly identical to the old design, save for the front face, which is split between a screen and a speaker.
Prospective buyers flocked to Reddit, where one question drowned out the rest: “Will it have ads?”
Several users remarked that the never-ending stream of ads was the reason they discarded their Echo devices in the first place.
“The big question for me will be ‘does this ever show ads,’ where I construe ‘ads’ broadly to include any content whatsoever that I didn’t ask it to display,” one Redditor wrote.
“As we all know the Echo Shows will display ads for various things and it’s very tough, if not impossible, to totally disable this behavior.”
Another user proclaimed that the retailer had “clearly shown” its readiness to “run advertisements on any device with a screen.”
“As much as ads can be disabled, hidden, unchecked, or whatever you want to call it I shouldn’t have to do that, and Amazon can re-enable them at any time, and often does,” the user wrote.
“This is why I refuse to have any Amazon devices with screens.”
Yet another user accused the company of “making all Echo devices buggy” as an incentive to buy the new device.
“Not gonna work, Amazon,” the netizen declared.
“That only tells me that your products don’t work and that I shouldn’t have them at home.”
However, several loyal fans revealed they had already snapped up the device, just hours after it hit the Amazon site.
“Ordered it for overnight delivery,” one Redditor reported before vowing to replace “between two to four Echo Show 5 units” with the product.
However, this promise came on two conditions.
“The big question for me is this: will this have ads in the USA and can it keep the time on the screen without ever changing to some other screen randomly?” the user wrote.
The new Echo Spot was released to coincide with Prime Day, the annual sales event for Prime members that sees serious markdowns on a range of products including electronics.
It is currently on sale for £49.99 in the United Kingdom and $44.99 in the United States – around a 40% markdown from the listing price.
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