Amazon’s new Echo Spot is already almost half off for Prime Day

Like its predecessor, the new Spot is a combination smart speaker and alarm clock, but it drops the camera that nobody liked putting in their bedroom. It also now borrows its design from the Echo Pop, which Amazon claims should give it better sound quality. And being an Echo speaker, it of course supports Alexa voice commands to set your alarm for the morning, call up a weather forecast, or have news updates read to you. And if having a microphone in your bedroom still feels creepy, the top of the Spot has a dedicated button to turn it off.

Handiness and functionality aside, keep in mind that any smart alarm clock becomes useless if the power goes out since there’s no battery backup.

By the way, here’s a quick aside on some inside baseball (a disclosure, if you will): we don’t usually cover deals on products The Verge has not reviewed unless we have personal experience with them. Since the Echo Spot only just came out, I checked in with our resident smart home reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, who has started testing the new Spot for her upcoming review. Jen’s early impressions are mostly positive, and she thinks the new Spot should be an excellent value at $45 — but possibly less so at its full price of $80. Keep an eye out for the full review with her final assessment. For now, if you’re a Prime subscriber and don’t mind being an early adopter, this deal could be worthwhile.