Connect with Google Assistant.
Best smart soundbar
With a wireless subwoofer, room-filling virtual surround sound, and built-in Amazon Alexa, the Yamaha YAS-209 is best smart soundbar you can buy it now It’s compatible with Spotify Connect and has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, which makes it a great speaker for listening to music in your living room.
Connect with Alexa.
★ Replace: The Sonos Beam sound bar ($499) (8/10, WIRED recommended) is another good choice. That is not our absolute favorite soundbar for the money, but it does support Alexa, Google Assistant, and Airplay (with some Siri).
Smart displays with the best Google Assistant
Smart displays are great in a number of different areas of the home, such as the kitchen or entryway, but are hardly used. Google Pixel Tablet (7/10, WIRED recommended) fixes that by combining a tablet and smart display into one handy device. The 11-inch tablet sits on the included Docking Station to turn it into a smart display, which looks almost identical to the Google Nest Hub Max, and you simply pop it off the display to turn it back into a tablet. (It may take some time to learn how to remove it from the magnetic base correctly.)
Placing it on the dock activates the tablet’s Hub Mode, and you can customize the screen to display your Google Photos or choose one of the fun clock designs. You can easily control smart devices in your home by tapping the Google Home icon on the lock screen. This will display an overlay of your favorite smart devices in your home to let you control them as well as check the camera feeds on your doorbell and Wi-Fi cameras. This feature is only available when docked, so your camera feed will be safe from strangers if you take the tablet out and about with you.
The Pixel tablet is now our current product Smart screens are popular for some other reason. The dock’s built-in speakers deliver powerful sound with amazing bass, so you can listen to music comfortably in the kitchen or living room. There’s also multi-user support that lets you add up to eight accounts, each of which can have custom apps, layouts, and wallpapers, all protected by fingerprints, so both The family can use this device without infringing on each other.
If you don’t want to splurge on both a tablet and a smart display, the Nest Hub Max (8/10, WIRED recommended) is still a great choice with similar features, a large screen, and quite impressive speakers for its slim form factor.
Connect with Google Assistant.
The best Alexa smart displays
The Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen) keeps everything we liked about the previous model but adds features we liked on Amazon’s more expensive Echo Show screens. As for what’s new, the third-gen Show 8 gets a smart home hub that works with Zigbee, Matter, and Thread devices, and has spatial audio capabilities (though not all services music services can take advantage of this feature). It also has widgets, allowing you to place small Post-It-sized shortcuts on the desktop for things like your favorite smart home device, a calendar, or even a small digital note. . On the Echo Show 8, these aren’t always visible because they’re part of the screen’s content rotation, but when they do they’re fun and handy.
Besides that, the Show 8 still has great sound and the screen is the perfect size for checking the weather and reading recipes without taking up too much counter or table space. It’s easy to control music and smart home devices, watch videos, and get content like sports scores and weather alerts right on the screen. The 13 MP camera allows you to make video calls and serves as a security camera or as a way to video call your family indoors.
