If you've read our guide on how to avoid bad hi-fi and home cinema deals this Black Friday, you'll have discovered that just because a product is on a tasty discount right now, it doesn't mean it's actually worth your time.

It always pays to shop around for a better product, and to do your research from our reviews and buying guides, even when the price drops are so large and tempting.

We also regularly advise that, sometimes, the older products are the ones to go for. That's the case with Amazon's Echo Dot range of smart speakers: the Echo Dot Max may be the newer product, and it's just dropped from £100 to £90 at Amazon right now, but it's the older, smaller Echo Dot (5th Gen) which, at just £30, that we would easily recommend instead.

A deal to avoid

The cheaper, better-sounding alternative

Surely, the brand-new Echo Dot Max is a better buy than the Echo Dot (5th Gen)? It launched about a month ago, set its price higher, plus it's bigger, houses an extra drive unit, and offers the latest iteration of Alexa in the shape of Alexa+.

Sadly, the Max is a sonic misfire. In our recent testing, we found that is sounds bland and muddled, struggling to nail even the most basic requirements – detail, dynamics and cohesion – of what we look for in a budget Bluetooth speaker. It's clever and nicely made, but sonically, it's a huge let-down, and a noticeable step back on the marker laid down by the Echo Dot (5th Gen).

Our strong advice, if you're seeking an Amazon smart speaker, would be to nab the fifth-gen Echo Dot instead. It won't go as loud and doesn't feature a few of the latest Amazon features, but for playing music, it's far superior.

Plus, it will still do most of the things you'd want from an Amazon device, such as playing ball with other smart devices in the same ecosystem, solid streaming support for the likes of Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music, and, of course, Alexa-guided Skyrim.

The fifth-gen Dot remains a five-star buy. As we said in our review: "Considering the Echo’s diminutive stature and wide-ranging functionality, great sound was no guarantee, but the sonic experience is somewhat remarkable when you also consider the Dot’s remarkably slim price tag and unobtrusive design".

For £60 cheaper than the Max, the Echo Dot (5th Gen) is the one we'd go for every day of the week. Grab one for the ridiculously low price of £30 over at Amazon , Currys, Argos or John Lewis.

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How to avoid bad hi-fi and home cinema deals this Black Friday – top tips and tricks from our review team

Black Friday home cinema deals live: our experts’ picks of the best savings on TVs, Dolby Atmos soundbar, projectors and more

Black Friday 2025 hi-fi deals live: our audio experts picks of the top savings on speakers, headphones, vinyl and more

Black Friday quick links

• Amazon: browse all of today's best deals
• B&W speakers: save £200
• Bluetooth speaker: 48% off five-star JBL
• Bose QC Ultra Earbuds: save £100
• Bravia 8 TV: save 34% on 55in Sony TV
• Denon AV receiver: save £500
• Dolby Atmos soundbar: down to £299
• ELAC Debut 2: five-star speakers now £199
• Headphones: Sennheiser Momentum 4 now £169
• John Lewis: £500 off LG and Sony OLED TVs
• Richer Sounds: browse Black Friday deals
• Sevenoaks: £150 off Award-winning speakers
• TVs, movies, home cinema: browse the best deals

Amazon has announced that its Fire TV Soundbar is now available to pre-order in the UK and Germany. 

The Fire TV Soundbar was unveiled late last year alongside the latest Fire TV Stick 4K and the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Though the new sticks were available to order immediately in the UK, Amazon’s soundbar wasn’t – until now. 

It’s a 2.0-channel system and is said to offer impressive three-dimensional sound via DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Digital support. Measuring 61cm in width and weighing 1.8kg, it’s a fairly petite and compact unit that should fit a variety of small-to-medium-sized screens.  

We haven’t tested the Fire TV Soundbar yet, but with a launch price of £100, it could be a decent entry-level option. We previously discussed how we wished Amazon would make an Echo soundbar with a built-in Fire TV Stick, unfortunately however, Amazon’s first soundbar doesn’t offer streaming capabilities and is designed as a companion piece for a smart TV or Fire TV device.

The ‘bar is compatible with all Fire TV devices and existing users can use their main remote to control both the Fire TV and soundbar’s volume and power. It also includes Bluetooth for wireless streaming across phones, tablets, and other smart devices if you’re not watching TV. 

Around the back of the soundbar, there are HDMI, optical, and USB ports – one of each. It also comes with a remote and wall-mounting kit, along with the usual HDMI and power cables. 

Amazon’s Fire TV Soundbar is available to pre-order from today and shipping will start on 29th July 2024. 

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This week: celebrating Home Cinema Week on What Hi-Fi?

Read our picks for the best budget soundbars: affordable home cinema sound tested by experts

And our choices for the best TVs: flagship OLEDs and affordable flatscreens tried and tested

An AV launch at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show? Optoma has made use of the gathered congregation of hi-fi heavyweights to debut a new 4K projector, and it's packed with smart features. The UHZ55 joins the UHZ66 (we sense a pattern) in the projector company's current lineup of 4K beamers, and it's making a strong first impression. 

Optoma is touting "true 4K" resolution on this unit, although we presume that's achieved with pixel shifting, as hinted at by the price (more on that later). It's also set to include HDR support via the HDR10 and HLG formats. The big selling point of this projector's picture is the 3000 lumens of brightness and 2,500,000:1 contrast ratio, which means you'll be able to watch it comfortably with the lights on, or so Optoma says. That being said, Optoma did confirm that this projector is destined for home cinema set-ups more than casual lounge environments.

You'll find three HDMI 2.0 sockets for hooking up a Blu-ray player, with one port designated as an eARC socket for connecting audio equipment (Dolby Atmos soundbar or AVR). You can certainly hook up a PS5 or Xbox Series X, but you won't find the latest 4K/120Hz gaming features. No word has been given on ALLM or VRR, but Optoma has been kind enough to include an enhanced gaming mode with a reduced 4.2ms input lag and 4K/60Hz or 1080p/240Hz picture modes. 

If you don't fancy cluttering up your set-up with a dedicated disc player, then you'll be pleased to find a built-in streaming module based on Android. Optoma mentions a Marketplace app for downloading streaming apps; Netflix is even included which is a rarity with built-in streaming platforms on projectors such as these. If cutting cables is your plan then you'll also be pleased to find it's WiSA HT Certified, meaning this projector will play nice with similarly certified wireless audio devices. 

Rounding out the smart wireless features is voice assistant functionality. The UHZ55 is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, providing you have a suitable Echo or Nest speaker (respectively) to connect to the device.

As for the light source, Optoma has made use of Texas Instruments’ DLP technology and Optoma’s DuraCore laser technology, allegedly ensuring up to 30,000 hours of maintenance-free use. Optoma also touts easy installation with this unit if you plan on ceiling-mounting it. 

The Optoma UHZ55 is expected to launch in March for £2000 (around $2540 / AU$3860). 

MORE:

Read our full Optoma UHD55 review

Check out our picks for the best projectors 

As well as the best home cinema deals

A HomePod with a screen could arrive sooner than we thought, if one leak is to be believed. Code within the first beta of tvOS 17.4 (spotted by MacRumors) mentions 'homeOS', thought to be Apple's upcoming software platform for the screen-equipped HomePod.

Apple's first-gen HomePod smart speaker launched running a modified version of iOS 11, but Apple since ported it to tvOS, the same software as the Apple TV streaming box. It's thought homeOS will combine tvOS and HomePod software into a platform designed specifically for the smart home.

Apple mentioned homeOS in a couple of job adverts in 2021, but hasn't used the term since.

The screen-equipped HomePod is rumoured to be a rival to the likes of the Amazon Echo Show and Google Nest Hub. It will most likely combine the FaceTime and screen skills of an iPad with the voice controls and sonic abilities of the HomePod 2. 

Apple recently added SharePlay to the tvOS 17.4 beta. Scan a QR code on the Apple Music app on the Apple TV, and you can start a SharePlay session. This could also feature on the HomePod with a screen.

We're expecting tvOS 17.4 to drop in March alongside iOS 17.4. Apple usually holds a spring event which could see some new products – possibly an iPad refresh, but the HomePod with a screen could also appear. We'll bring you all the news and rumours when we get them.

MORE:

Apple TV 4K (2022) vs Apple TV 4K (2021): should you upgrade?

Apple HomePod 2 vs HomePod Mini: which smart speaker is better?

These are the best video streamers you can buy

The Echo Pop vs Echo Dot debate is a relatively new one as the Pop only joined the Amazon Echo family in May 2023. Meanwhile, the Dot – a relative veteran – is now in its fifth generation.

The five-star Echo Dot has long stood out as one of the best smart speakers on the market. While it first appeared as an affordable vehicle to get Amazon's Alexa voice control assistant into homes, it has since evolved to improve sound quality. 

It's very accessible as far as wireless speakers go – not least when the Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday sales events roll around and often slash its price in half. But that hasn't stopped Amazon from producing an even more entry-level Echo – the Echo Pop. The Pop undercuts the Dot's price and sports a slightly different design and spec sheet.

So what are these differences exactly and which smart speaker is the better buy in light of them? This guide outlines all you need to know about the Echo Pop vs Echo Dot comparison...

Echo Dot (5th Gen) vs Echo Pop: price

The Echo Dot was the most affordable Amazon Echo speaker for a long time, sitting below its pricier Echo and Echo Studio siblings. It currently costs £54.99 / $49.99 / AU$79, though we have seen it fall to less than half that during sales events. During Black Friday week, it cost £22 in the UK.

The Amazon Echo Pop is now the cheapest model in the Echo lineup, priced at £44.99 / $39.99 / AU$59. Again, you can expect this cheap price tag to drop even lower during sales events. During Prime Day 2 week, it cost £18 in the UK.

**Winner: Amazon Echo Pop**

Echo Dot (5th Gen) vs Echo Pop: design

The design of budget smart speakers has typically been in keeping with their price – compact and minimalist for the most part, with very few flourishes. However, later generations have evolved their appeal, whether through their shape, materials or colours. The latest Dot is a good example of that.

The fifth-gen Dot sports a spherical design measuring 8.9 x 10 x 10cm (hwd) and offers an outer of finely woven speaker mesh with a smooth plastic base. The Alexa ring, which encircles the bottom rim, glows blue when the assistant is called into action. Amazon boasts that you can tap the Echo Dot pretty much anywhere and get a response from Alexa. The Dot also features touch controls that are useful for pausing songs, ending calls and snoozing alarms, while Charcoal, Deep Sea Blue and Glacier White are your colour choices. Note that for a slight premium you can buy an Echo Dot with Clock version that clearly displays the time through an LED display, whereas the Pop doesn't have that option.

The newer but more affordable Amazon Echo Pop, meanwhile, is understandably a simpler affair, with a spherical back but a flat front where the speaker fires from. Its slightly smaller physical form is therefore like a sliced-in-half Echo Dot and does look a little more akin to that of your standard bedside clock.

The Pop has volume controls on the top and an LED light across the top to illuminate when Alexa is listening actively. The Pop comes in a few more colour options than the Dot – Charcoal, Glacier White, Lavender Bloom and Midnight Teal.

**Winner: Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation)**

Echo Dot (5th Gen) vs Echo Pop: features

For both the Dot and Pop, the real central feature is Amazon's Alexa voice control assistant. Since she works the same in both models, they start out on pretty even standing.

Connection to both speakers is done wirelessly via Bluetooth and wi-fi. You can Bluetooth music from your smartphone to either speaker, though you'll likely make more use of the wi-fi connection, which facilitates Alexa voice control and music streaming from Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music or other supported online services. There are lots of third-party 'smart' integrations outside of music listening too, such as Ring doorbell alerts and Nest smart heating controls.

Alexa also has its own range of apps, aka "Skills", from playing games to enjoying quizzes and learning fun facts. That said, the simple search functionality is excellent now, with most questions answered using search results where the source is quoted before the answer is read out to you.

So how do the two vary on the feature front? While the 'smart' software brains are the same, there are a couple of hardware differences. The Dot has a temperature sensor that isn't featured on the Pop. This sensor allows you to set routines that are triggered by the indoor temperature. Want a smart heating device to kick in when it gets below a certain temperature in the room the speaker lives? That's an option with the Dot, which you can't do with the Pop.

Amazon also says the Dot offers a "Bigger Vibrant Sound" than the Pop, though its driver is actually smaller than the Pop's – 1.73 inches compared to 1.95 inches.

**Winner: Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation)**

Echo Dot (5th Gen) vs Echo Pop: sound

While you shouldn't expect either Echo to compete with pricier options found in our best Bluetooth speaker buying guide, there's a reason the Echo Dot 5th Gen features in it as our pick of the 'best smart' speaker – it has an impressively expansive sound for its small size and is pleasingly clear and weighty too.

We weren't hugely keen on the sound of Amazon's early Echo models, but the trajectory has been very much one of continual improvement. Amazon said its fifth-gen efforts would result in the best-sounding Echo Dot yet, and it's quite right. 

We haven't put the Echo Pop and Echo Dot side by side in a sound quality shootout yet, but we would expect the Pop to offer a performance not a million miles away from its sibling. The Dot will likely deliver a more room-filling soundstage due to its spherical design, even if it has a smaller driver inside.

**Winner: Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation)**

Echo Dot (5th Gen) vs Echo Pop: verdict

Amazon has arguably always been the biggest name in smart speaker technology thanks to its Alexa assistant and Echo lineup, and it's easy to see why it remains so popular when you consider what the Echo Dot and Pop offer for such low asking prices.

In our minds, however, the Dot wins the day. For the extra tenner over the Pop, you get a more premium, refined design, an onboard temperature sensor for greater smart integration, and most likely a more room-filling sound.

That said, if you're looking to fill a small space, are fond of one of the Pop's extra colours, and/or wouldn't benefit from the temperature sensor, the cheaper speaker could be all that you need. And you could put that saving towards something else – perhaps even another Pop for another room.

MORE:

Read the full Echo Dot (5th Generation) review

These are the best smart speakers money can buy

Compare the Echo lineup: Which Amazon Echo speaker should you buy?

While Amazon has been making streaming sticks for nearly a decade, it's a relative newcomer to actually making TVs. But in the few short years that its Fire TVs have been on sale, they've come on in leaps and bounds.

It now produces three ranges: the Fire TV 2-Series, Fire TV 4-Series and Fire TV Omni QLED. The latter is what we're interested in here, as it's the flagship range in Amazon's Fire TV family.

So what does the Fire TV Omni range offer? How much do the TVs cost? How do they compare to what else is available? And should you buy one if you find a great deal? Let's find out.

Should you buy an Amazon Fire Omni TV? The short answer...

Amazon is a relative newcomer to the world of TVs. While the e-commerce giant has been installing its software on other companies' TVs for a while now, it only launched its own Amazon-built TVs in 2021. Of course, Amazon has the resources of a small country, and so doesn't do things by halves – and its foray into TV-making is no different.

The Fire TV Omni QLED range boasts very impressive functionality – it essentially has a Fire TV Stick built into the set, giving you all the major streaming apps (with all four flavours of HDR baked in) and Alexa voice controls. The design might be a bit more basic than more style-conscious TVs, but it has it where it counts, which is picture and sound quality.

This being Amazon, the TVs are priced very competitively, but you shouldn't take the official price as your final answer. Amazon loves a sale, and it regularly lops a lot off the price of its TVs (just as it does its Echo speakers, Fire TV streaming devices and Fire tablets). We've seen up to 40 per cent off its Fire TV Omni QLEDs. So while they are definitely worth considering, you should never pay full price.

Should you buy an Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED QL50F601?

The QL50F601 is the 50-inch entry in the Omni range. And it's a belter, earning a 2023 What Hi-Fi? Award for its efforts. 

Design-wise, it's not as fancy as the 65-incher below – it has black plastic in place of the silver metal accents. But it has an impressive array of features for its price. These include an Ambient Experience (which is essentially a screensaver that appears when the TV detects your presence), Alexa voice smarts, the Fire OS operating system, support for all four current HDR standards (HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision) with even Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive (which automatically adjust to ambient lighting conditions), and QLED panel technology, plus VRR and ALLM for gamers across all four of the set’s HDMI ports. One of those ports is also eARC-enabled so can send uncompressed Dolby Atmos signals to a compatible soundbar or AV receiver.

Performance? Very good. It's no giant killer, but it is a surprisingly consistent and considered performer that works within its means to provide a very satisfying and authentic picture. Colours successfully tread the fine line between vibrancy and subtlety, and skin tones are natural and fairly delicately shaded. The audio is a little restrained, but that's preferable to the kind of distortion you hear from boomier, bassier TVs at this end of the market.

The QL50F601 is officially priced at £650 / $530, but we've seen it dip as low as £400 / $350 so do keep an eye out for discounts.

Should you buy an Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED QL65F601?

The QL65F601 is the 65-incher in the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED TV, and the largest member of the family. It offers pretty much the same specs and features as its 50-inch sibling, just on a larger scale.

It earned 'only' four stars in our review, however. While that's a very respectable score, it does suffer from some picture issues that aren't as apparent on the 50-incher.

Low-light scenes cause it the most problems, with a slight lack of shadow detail and some patchiness to colours. Motion also tends to be a bit smeary. But these are minor issues that many people will be able to overlook, especially given the price.

The Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED QL65F601 retails for £1000 / $800, but we've seen it go as low as £680 / $590. For reference, Samsung’s 2023 QLED range starts at £1299 in the UK for a 65-inch model and is unlikely to be discounted by the same percentage.

Should you buy the other Amazon Fire TV Omni QLEDs?

The Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED range includes other TVs in more sizes, though we haven't tested them.

The 43-incher doesn't support full-array local dimming (instead it's direct LED) which will affect the picture. Full-array local dimming splits the screen into zones, which can be controlled independently, so the screen can react more accurately to what image information it's being fed. We would therefore be cautious with the 43-inch Omni QLED. It might be very good, but it's too different to the larger models to be safely recommended.

But the 55-incher – like its bigger siblings – does support full-array local dimming. In fact, it should perform essentially the same as the 65-inch model, so while we haven't tested it we do feel fairly confident that it will be good and worth taking a punt on when it's discounted.

You'll find the latest, lowest prices for every model in the range below.

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Need help? How to choose the right TV 

Save big with our pick of the best TV deals

It’s fair to say that the standard of budget TVs has dropped significantly in recent years. We used to be able to rely on Samsung to produce impressively capable and feature-packed TVs at accessible prices, but no budget TV from Samsung has achieved higher than four stars in the past two years – and most have been rated lower.

It looks as though salvation could be at hand, though, from a slightly unlikely source – Amazon. 

Before we received the 65-inch Amazon Omni QLED in for review, we were expecting a TV packed with features and an eye-opening specification for the money, but likely short of cinematic quality. What we found was a TV that combined a very strong feature set and specs with surprisingly considered picture quality. It fell just short of a five-star rating on account of a slight lack of shadow detail and some smearing to motion but, knowing how much variation there can be between different-sized versions of the ‘same’ TV, we were keen to do a dedicated review of the 50-inch model.

So here we are, with the 50-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED which, as you will have spotted, gets the final, fifth star that its bigger brother missed out on – and claims a place on our list of the best 50-inch TVs.

Price

The 50-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED is officially priced at £650 / $530 (around AU$1250), which, as you will see, is very good value for the features and performance on offer.

Even so, you shouldn’t pay that much for it. That’s because Amazon has regularly discounted it since launch – and by large amounts. We have seen it go as low as £400 / $350 – and at those sorts of prices it’s a pretty incredible bargain. At anything below £500 / $500, we would say this is an excellent buy.

Design

The 50-inch version of the Omni QLED has a slightly less premium design than the larger models, with the silver metal accents having been sacrificed in favour of plain black plastic. The feet are black plastic, too, and as with the 65-inch model, they are positioned right at the extremes of the bottom edge, giving the set an unhelpfully wide footprint. The bezels on the sides and top of the screen are decently thin, though, allowing the display itself to do most of the talking.

Also as with the 65-inch model, the 50-inch Omni QLED has an unusually large undercarriage. This houses several sensors and microphones, the former primarily for the so-called Ambient Experience, which is essentially a screensaver that activates when the TV does a Darth Vader and feels your presence, the latter for – you guessed it – voice control.

As you can probably imagine, Alexa is baked right into the Omni QLED user experience, allowing you to control almost every function using your voice. It also works like a standalone Echo, too, so you can control lights, music and any other Alexa-compatible device via the Omni QLED without the screen itself even turning on.

That isn’t to say that you have to use the TV’s Alexa functionality at all, though – there’s a perfectly serviceable remote control handset in the box as well as an old-school physical switch beneath the TV that entirely disables the microphones. A red light appears in the undercarriage to confirm that the TV is not listening.

Features

Just as unsurprising as Alexa featuring prominently in the Omni QLED’s makeup is the fact that it features the Fire TV smart platform – that’s sort of the whole point of the TV.

While it’s clear that not everyone wants Amazon in their face every day, it has to be said that Fire TV is superior to many smart TV platforms in terms of useability and app support. Yes, there’s a degree to which Amazon’s own content and services are promoted, but that is surely to be expected, and there are no blocks put in place between you and third-party apps.

The Omni QLED’s app support is, in fact, near-flawless. All of the big hitters, including Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV and, yes, Prime Video are on board, but so are less ubiquitous, localised services such as Now and Discovery+ (the new home of BT Sport / TNT Sports) in the UK. All of the UK’s catch-up apps are also present, as well as a Freeview tuner for live, over-the-air broadcasts.

The Omni QLED also goes further than even flagship TVs from the likes of Samsung, LG and Sony by offering support for all four current HDR standards; HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. In fact, it goes as far as offering Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive – versions of the respective formats that automatically adjust to ambient lighting conditions, which are of course measured by those sensors built into the underside of the TV.

The pure panel technology is more advanced than is standard at this price, too. As the name suggests, this is a QLED TV that uses Quantum Dots to (in theory at least) reproduce more vibrant colours than are possible from a standard LCD TV. It not only features direct LED (rather than edge LED) backlighting, which should result in extra brightness, but also local dimming across 48 individual zones (compared with the 80 zones of the 65-inch model), which should make for better contrast than is available from TVs without local dimming.

Gaming specs are also better than the budget TV norm. As with the 65-inch model, this is a 60Hz panel, so 4K/120Hz is always going to be out of reach, but VRR and ALLM are supported across all four of the set’s HDMI ports. One of those ports is also eARC-enabled so can send uncompressed Dolby Atmos signals to a soundbar or AV receiver (assuming that also supports eARC).

Picture

It would be easy to assume that Amazon had used its might to gather eyebrow-raisingly impressive components for the money yet paid little attention to the finer details of picture quality, but the Omni QLED provides evidence of genuine effort. We’re not saying that this is a giant-killer of a TV that you should consider if an OLED is within reach, but we are saying that it’s a surprisingly consistent and considered performer that works within its means to provide a very satisfying and authentic picture. 

Watching Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, we find the Dolby Vision Dark mode to be too dim even in a pitch-black room, Dolby Vision Bright is good, though, combining deep blacks with satisfyingly punchy highlights. This isn’t a TV that sets out to dazzle, though – it instead opts for balance. In a shop, that would look like dullness next to the super-vivid TVs adjacent, but at home, it’s natural in a way that means you don’t question the delivery and instead focus purely on what you are watching. That’s a more impressive feat than you might imagine, particularly at this level.

Colours successfully tread the fine line between vibrancy and subtlety, and skin tones are natural and fairly delicately shaded, avoiding the waxy appearance that many budget sets are guilty of producing. Edges are sharp without over-exaggeration, and while detail levels obviously aren’t up there with those of the best higher-end TVs, they are impressive for the price, with Harrison Ford’s scars, wrinkles and grey stubble resolved in satisfying fashion.

When the action moves to a network of caves later in the movie, the Omni QLED proves itself capable of producing decently deep blacks for a backlit TV; and while the black bars are a little less black than they should be, particularly in the corners, that is mild and easy to ignore. What’s more, the backlight is very consistent overall, with no patchiness and no obvious blooming.

The 65-inch version of the Omni QLED missed out on a fifth star primarily because of a slight lack of shadow detail and some patchiness to colours in low-light scenes, but this 50-inch model is better in these regards, particularly the former. We certainly don’t feel as though we are missing out on any of the action in the cave scenes, and we have tested plenty of TVs that look murky here.

Another issue raised in our review of the 65-inch model was a certain amount of smearing to motion, most notable as people move their heads. This flaw is still present with this 50-inch model, though it’s slightly less pronounced, and certainly isn’t something that gets in the way of an enjoyable movie night.

Switching to Pan in HDR10 (we actually opt for the Film Dark preset with standard HDR10 and HLG content), it’s clear that the Omni QLED lacks the brightness headroom to do real justice to movies mastered to a very high peak, and the brightest highlights are a little over-exposed, but the TV does a good job overall of tailoring the presentation to its limits.

Dropping down to HD with 1991’s The Fisher King demonstrates that while the Omni QLED isn’t an upscaler of the level of a top Sony or LG TV, it again produces a nicely balanced picture in terms of contrast, colours and sharpness, though a little more noise-suppression would be nice.

Sound

Broadly speaking, the key to the Omni QLED’s success in terms of picture quality is the way it works within its means rather than attempts to perform feats of which it’s incapable – a common trait of budget TVs. The same is true of its audio performance.

There is no Dolby Atmos processing here and no attempt to go particularly bassy, so you get neither the spaciousness nor weight that the best TVs deliver. What you do get is a very clear and direct delivery that avoids the sort of low-end distortion that is common from TV speakers – even those of very high-end sets.

In terms of detail and dynamics the sound is unremarkable but fine, and there is nothing in the presentation that distracts or annoys. There’s a lot to be said for that, particularly at this end of the TV market.

Of course, a budget soundbar will enhance your movie enjoyment significantly, and we heartily recommend that you stretch your budget to include one if at all possible.

Verdict

The standard of budget TVs is lower now than it has been in years, but that’s not to take away from the Omni QLED’s performance, which is markedly more assured, considered and authentically cinematic than expected at this level, now or in the past.

The Amazon Omni QLED clearly isn’t up there with the latest OLED models, but if those are out of reach, this is an excellent compromise that will give you authentically cinematic entertainment for very little money (and effort).

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Going bigger? Here's our 65-inch Amazon Omni QLED review

Also consider the Sky Glass

Read our LG OLED48C3 review

These are the best TVs you can buy right now

Like a shark swimming through the deep, Amazon never sleeps. It's no surprise that one of the biggest companies in the world continues to churn out products at a quite alarming rate, exemplified by the rapacity and frequency at which it pushes out the various iterations of its Echo range. The classic Echo, the Echo Dot, the Pop; the factory line never stops turning.

It wasn't much of a surprise, then, that Amazon's recent showcase saw the reveal of a new Amazon Echo Show 8, a reimagined version of the brand's flagship screen-ready smart speaker with an overhauled design and plenty of internal changes.

With an edge-to-edge glass touchscreen display and a centralised camera being introduced alongside the implementation of Alexa (now smarter than ever), the Show 8 has seen a complete design overhaul from those iterations that came before. 

It isn't just visual changes that make the Show 8 noteworthy, however. Amazon's latest smart speaker comes equipped with custom-built spatial audio processing support, as well as room adaptation technology that senses the acoustics of the room and then fine-tunes playback depending on the position, something we've seen in rival speakers such as the five-star Apple HomePod 2. 

What we haven't seen before is something Amazon has dubbed "Adaptive Content". Essentially, using computer vision, the Show's home screen changes and adjusts depending on your proximity to the unit: the further away you are, the less info the screen shows. The closer you get, the more detailed the content becomes. 

Alexa obviously returns, with Amazon promising the smartest iteration of its smart assistant yet. Using a new, large language model for quicker responses and up to 40 per cent faster response times, Alexa is now more natural and fluid with its tone and delivery. 

The reveal of the Echo Show 8 came alongside a host of firsts and unveilings from Amazon, including new kids' devices, a new Fire TV stick, a Fire TV Soundbar and, perhaps most interesting of all, a pair of smart glasses dubbed the "Echo Frames" which feature open-ear audio, long-lasting battery and, of course, hands-free Alexa access. We might stick to reviewing the audio and AV items for now...

The Echo Show 8 will be available to buy for $149 dollars (further prices pending). Shipping next month, it can be ordered today via Amazon.  

MORE:

Check out our list of the best smart speakers you can buy

More into Apple? Here’s our Apple HomePod Mini review

Amazon Echo vs Apple HomePod Mini: which is the best smart speaker?

Sonos's newest and simplest soundbar is unsurprisingly hugely popular. It's the £279 / $279 / AU$399 that draws people in, of course, but they stick around for the energetic sound, ease-of-use and upgradability.

You likely already know that, though, because if you've made your way to this page it's probably because you've already got a Sonos Ray and are intrigued to discover some ways in which you can make it even better.

Now, we're not saying you're going to discover any Earth-shattering revelations here – the Sonos Ray is a delightfully straightforward device, after all – but there are some small adjustments and improvements you can make. Five of them, in fact. And here they are.

1. Add an Echo Dot

It doesn't feature Dolby Atmos or HDMI connectivity, but arguably the Sonos Ray's most significant deficiency in everyday use is its lack of voice control. Thankfully, this can be fairly neatly and fairly inexpensively rectified through the addition of an Amazon Echo Dot.

If you don't already have an old Echo Dot gathering dust somewhere (that's a second-generation model you can see in the photos throughout this page), you can usually pick one up for peanuts during events such as Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day and the Boxing Day Sales.

Once you've got your Dot, place it as close as you can to the Sonos Ray, set it up as usual via the Alexa app, and then create a group that includes it and the Sonos Ray. Select the Sonos Ray as the 'preferred speaker' and the two devices will work in almost perfect harmony, with the Ray automatically playing any music you request via Alexa.

2. Do the Trueplay tuning

It's tempting to think that because it doesn't do Dolby Atmos or any other particularly fancy surround formats, the Sonos Ray doesn't need to be tuned to your room, but that's not really the case. Granted, the Ray sounds good as it is, but by doing the Trueplay tuning you can often improve bass response and tame the treble, which can be a little insistent in some rooms without calibration.

Unfortunately, you can only do the Trueplay tuning if you have an iPhone or iPad, but it's well worth persuading an Apple device-owning friend to pop over and help you with the calibration if you're an Android owner yourself. It's simply a case of opening the Sonos app, heading to Settings and selecting the option, and it takes no longer than a couple of minutes.

3. Experiment with the Loudness feature

While it's rarely worth fiddling with the Bass or Treble sliders of a Sonos speaker, the EQ menu also contains a sound setting called 'Loudness'. This is on by default and in most cases that's how you should leave it, but if you find the Ray's sound to be too forthright for your individual tastes, it's worth trying turning it off. You can do it while listening to music or watching a movie, so you can hear the difference 'live' and make your own judgement.

4. Consider adding (cheap) surrounds

While it doesn't support Dolby Atmos, the Ray can handle Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Digital Surround, and you can add surround speakers to it. If you're a movie fan or gamer, doing so can be well worth it, but it's not worth adding the likes of Era 300 or even Era 100 speakers as these are disproportionately expensive if the Ray is your soundbar. Instead, we'd recommend the Ikea Symfonisk Bookshelf or Symfonisk Lamp speakers, which are much more affordable and more discreet as well – perfect for a smaller room.

The new Sonos Sub Mini is tempting, too, but we think that's overkill for the Ray – better to spend the money upgrading the Ray to a Beam Gen 2 or even an Arc instead.

5. Check your TV is outputting the best format

On the subject of sound formats, it's worth checking that your TV is outputting the most appropriate one. This sort of thing varies from TV to TV, but you should find the option in the sound menus. Selecting Dolby Digital is broadly the right move with Sonos soundbars, but try PCM if you have issues.

MORE:

These are the best budget soundbars you can buy right now

Here are essential tips for the Sonos Arc

We've had Christmas in July, now get ready for Prime Day in October. Amazon has another sale happening soon, and while it may have a different name, it sounds very much like a Prime Day event to us.

Amazon Prime Big Deal Days will take place in October across 19 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, the US, and the UK.

There's no word on what kind of products will be on offer, but expect all manner of headphones, TVs and Bluetooth speakers to be among them. Like Prime Day, the event will be exclusively for members of Amazon Prime – here's how to sign up for a free trial.

Could we see some tasty deals on the new, five-star Sony WF-1000XM5? Maybe big-screen OLEDs like the Samsung S95C and LG G3 will see their prices slashed? And what of Amazon's own devices, like the Echo Dot (5th Gen) speaker (pictured)? They're usually first in line for a discount come sale time.

Apple's iPhone 15 should launch in September, ahead of Prime Big Deal Days, so we might even see a few bucks off that. One thing's for sure – it's bound to be a busy time in the run-up to Christmas.

Amazon has promised to provide more info nearer the time. Stay tuned!

MORE:

Here are the best wireless earbuds: budget and premium

Check out the best headphone deals

And the best TV deals

Amazon Prime Day actually takes place over two days this year. It started on Tuesday the 11th July and ends today, Wednesday the 12th July. We've seen tech deals aplenty on everything from 4K OLED TVs to wireless headphones and stereo speakers, but they won't last forever. If you're wondering when they end, this is the page for you.

Prime Day is set to end at 11.59pm on 12th July (i.e. tonight).

These are the exact start and finish times given by Amazon wherever you are in the world...

• Our pick of the best Prime Day tech deals
• I've found the 12 best Prime Day deals on What Hi-Fi? Award winners

When Prime Day 2023 ends

• UK (BST): 11th July 00:01am to 23:59pm 12th July
• US (ET/PT): 11th July 3am (ET) / 00:00am (PT) to 2:59am (ET) / 23:59pm (PT) 12th July
• Australia (AEST): 11th July 00:00am to 17:00pm on 13th July

Essentially, Prime Day deals run until the end of Wednesday (or seep into the next day if you live in Australia or the east coast of America).

Remember, to be eligible for the Prime Day deals, you have to be an Amazon Prime member. But if you aren't part of the Prime family already, don't sweat, there's still time – you can sign up for a 30-day free trial now. You can even cancel before your first billing period and pay nothing.

And if you are already a member and ready to look through the best deals, you don't have to endlessly trawl Amazon to find something decent. We've done all the browsing on your behalf and have picked out the very best deals.

Some deals might continue into Thursday the 13th, but why take that gamble? If the prices go back up you might have to wait until November and Black Friday for them to drop down as low again.

We have got the best Prime Day TV deals, Prime Day headphones deals, Prime Day AirPods deals and much, much more.

Check out our ultimate Prime Day deals guide for more. Or you can check out the quick links below. Happy bargain hunting!

Amazon Prime Day quick links

• Amazon Prime Day: deals on TVs, soundbars, speakers and more
• Prime Day deals under £15 - bag yourself a bargain
• Alcohol: Up to 33% off whisky, rum and vodka
• Up to 60% off Amazon devices - Alexa, Echo, Fire TV, Fire Tablet
• TVs: up to 39% off Samsung, Sony and Hisense
• Headphones: up to 43% off wired and wireless
• Up to 22% off Apple and Beats - headphones, accessories, wearables
• Richer Sounds: VIP deals on speakers, TVs, AVRs and projectors
• Sevenoaks: save on OLED TVs, speakers and soundbars
• John Lewis: Summer Sale on TVs, phones, computers and speakers
• Currys: 'Epic Deals' on laptops, TVs, phones and monitors

MORE:

Act fast: the awesome LG G2 OLED TV is at its lowest-ever price for Amazon Prime Day

Wow! Sony's classic WH-1000XM4 headphones drop to lowest ever price with this Prime Day deal

Hurry! Our favourite LG OLED is nearly half price thanks to this stellar Prime Day TV deal

Another 31 days have passed, which means it’s time for a fresh instalment of What Hi-Fi?’s Pick of the Month column.

In this feature, we detail the top-scoring products to have passed through our listening and viewing rooms over the past month.

It has been a busy one for our team of product experts, with oodles of fresh hi-fi and TV / AV treats being put to the test. But, only an elite few managed to earn perfect 5/5 scores and our reviewers’ personal seal of approval, making this month’s column a particularly short one.

Without further delay, these are the best products we’ve tried and tested over the past month.

Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) 

The Echo Dot 5th Generation is the latest small smart speaker from tech and retail giant Amazon. 

Having finally gotten the small spherical unit into our listening rooms, the smart speaker impressed our team of testers. Though its small dimensions and affordable price meant that, unsurprisingly, the sound isn’t perfect or anywhere close to hi-fi level for the money, it is impressive.

Everything from rocking Led Zeppelin tracks to pop from Katy Perry sounds good enough for casual listening during our checks. This, plus its smart functionality, which lets you quiz Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant and use the speaker to control compatible smart home tech, led our reviewers to conclude:

“The latest Echo Dot sees Amazon taking its diminutive smart speaker to the next level as we enter the model’s 5th Generation. We rated the five-star 4th Generation of the Echo Dot so highly thanks to its broad sound, robust Alexa integration and sleek design for the modest price, all tricks that the sequel manages to repeat with unerring confidence.”

Score: 5/5

Read our full Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) review 

Goldmund Mimesis 37S NextGen/Telos 300

Goldmund hardware never comes cheap, but if you can afford its Mimesis 37S NextGen/Telos 300 combination you’re in for a treat, based on our testing.

To catch readers up, the Mimesis 37S NextGen/Telos 300 combo is actually one tier below the Swiss company’s flagship pre/power ladder. For your money you get the Mimesis 37S NextGen pre-amplifier and the Telos 300 power amplifier. 

The Mimesis 37S NextGen preamplifier is the brains and comes in two chunky boxes. The first is for sensitive audio circuits while the second houses a hefty power supply. The idea is that by separating the two you can avoid the unwanted magnetic fields created by the power supply impacting the unit’s sonic performance.

Having thoroughly tested the unit this month, we can confirm it works a treat with the Telos 300 power amp – delivering excellent results across the board regardless of what genre we threw at it. This led our testers to report: 

“When it comes to transparency and resolution these are right up there with the best we’ve heard. So whether these Goldmunds are within your budget or not, we’re just glad that products this good exist.”

The only downside is that there’s no phono stage or headphone output, which is a minor annoyance.

Score: 5/5

Read our full Goldmund Mimesis 37S NextGen/Telos 300 review

Yamaha YH-5000SE 

The Yamaha YH-5000SE are the second uber-expensive item to impress our reviewers over the past month. Though they cost an undeniable lot more than most of the wired headphones we’ve reviewed recently, we can personally confirm they are fantastic performers.

What sets them apart from many headphones is the YH-5000SE’s use of an orthodynamic driver – an older term for planar magnetic. 

If you’re unfamiliar with either term, orthodynamic drivers aim to reduce the potential for distortion you can get on the more common coil drivers seen on many headphones by having the diaphragm etched with a voice coil that sits between opposing magnets. 

Tech aside, the YH-5000SE delivered fantastic results during our listening checks regardless of what kit we partnered them with. Bruce Springsteen’s High Hopes sounded wonderfully detailed and Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa had an uncluttered and expansive feel. This led our testers to conclude:

“We play everything from Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions to Nirvana’s Nevermind, with various works of Ólafur Arnalds in between, and these Yamahas never disappoint.” 

Score: 5/5

Read our full Yamaha YH-5000SE 

KEF R3 Meta

The KEF R3 Meta are a revamped version of the older KEF R3 standmounters we reviewed and gave 5-stars to a few years ago, and at first glance you may struggle to tell what’s different. 

Out of the box, our reviewers were amazed at how similar they look to the original, featuring the same size, build quality and driver sizes. But the answer’s actually in the name. Specifically, the KEF R3 Meta brings the company’s MAT (Metamaterial Absorption Technology) to the table.

This is a key reason we were so excited to get them into our listening rooms as the tech has always performed excellently on past speakers we’ve tested with it, such as the Award-winning LS50 Meta speakers (which sit below the R Series).

MAT is a clever technology that adds a puck-sized, maze-like plastic structure behind the tweeter. The goal of this addition is to help absorb the unwanted backward radiation from the tweeter into the cabinet, thus reducing distortion. 

Running it through our standard suite of listening tests, the KEF R3 Meta performed excellently delivering a transparent, refined, expressive sound, with an even tonal balance that’s heaps of fun to listen to. This earned it a perfect score and led our reviewers to report:

“We haven’t come across many stereo speakers at this price point in recent years that are so accomplished in all the ‘hi-fi’ ways and fun to listen to in the same breath.” 

Score: 5/5

Read our full KEF R3 Meta review

MORE:

Check out our picks of the best KEF speakers

These are the best stereo amps on the market we’ve tested

Check out our picks of the best wireless speakers currently available

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is back to its lowest price at just £39 on Amazon, John Lewis and Argos. Usually retailing for £65, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is Amazon's top-of-the-line streaming stick before you advance to the Fire TV Cube. This scorching hot deal was available towards the beginning of the month, however, it was quickly extinguished after just a few days; thankfully you can now pick this streamer up at this enticing price once again.

We gave the Fire TV Stick 4K Max four stars in our review back in March, praising its detailed image and wide HDR format compatibility, even calling it a competitively priced media streamer at its original £65 price. 

Now at 40 per cent off the asking price, the Fire TV Stick seems like an even better deal, especially when the current Chromecast rival is now more expensive - however that too is currently on sale for just £45 at John Lewis and Argos. Gooogle's Award-winning Chromecast with Google TV earned itself five stars in our review thanks to its natural picture and sound - however, it's more expensive than the Fire TV Stick so pick wisely.

Our advice? The Chromecast has the better picture and sound so if that's all that matters then go for the Google. However, if you are already invested in Amazon's services like Amazon Echo, or perhaps you have an existing Prime Video library, then the Fire TV Stick 4K Max might be a better choice.

Whichever one you pick, you'll be able to stream your favourite movies and TV shows in 4K HDR on the likes of Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and more with these streamers, as well as music from Spotify and Tidal. Both have included remotes and voice controls via Alexa for the Amazon Stick and Google Assistant for the Chromecast, and all you need to hook them up is a TV with an HDMI connector and a socket nearby for power - simple!

MORE:

Check out our list of the best media streamers

As well as our latest streaming review of the Apple TV 4K (2022)

Find the best streaming deals

Smart speakers are all the rage right now, and with Amazon recently announcing a raft of new and updated models, including the all-new (and daftly named) Echo Pop, that trend is only likely to continue as our homes become smarter and we, inevitably, become more reliant on trick-laden tech.

Amazon is very much at the forefront of this push through its impressive AI assistant Alexa, but it isn't the only runner in this particular race. Google has its own smart speaker-cum-assistant courtesy of the Google Nest, whereas Apple's Siri-powered HomePod series is keeping this from becoming a Jeff Bezos-controlled monopoly. 

It's an interesting match-up, here, too, with the recently-released, five-star Echo Dot undercutting the Award-winning Apple rival by a considerable margin in terms of cost.

Time to see if Siri reigns supreme or whether Alexa is the ultimate AI.    

Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) vs Apple HomePod Mini: price

The Award-winning Apple HomePod Mini offers a smaller and more affordable alternative to its larger sibling, the HomePod 2. The Mini's original £99 / $99 / AU$149 pricing has stayed firm, with a tenner or so off during Black Friday or holiday sales seasons, but it's still a surprisingly affordable option from Apple. And it's still a very reasonable outlay for what remains a very impressive little smart speaker. 

The Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen), meanwhile, is a much more budget option at £54.99 / $49.99 / AU$79. We've seen discounts popping up for this already – Amazon UK pulled the price down to just £34.99 recently (although it's back up to full price at the time of publishing), but this is one to keep an eye on for big discounts throughout the year. Even at full price, though, the Echo Dot is superb value for money, giving you extensive in-depth Alexa assistance and a solid-sounding speaker to boot. 

**Winner: Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen)**

Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) vs Apple HomePod Mini: design

Most smart speakers are not artistic tours de force, instead opting for unobtrusive, muted designs that can slot into your home's general aesthetic without sticking out like a sausage in a trifle. 

The fifth generation of the Echo Dot continues its run as a spherical object, with most of the Dot covered by finely-woven speaker mesh and the rest encased in smooth plastic at the unit's base. The Alexa ring, which glows a rather pleasing shade of blue when she's called into action, encircles the bottom rim.

The HomePod Mini is rather similar, although there are some key differences. While it's broadly a spherical design, the top and bottom are cut off to accommodate the base and upper control panel respectively, while the speaker mesh is a little wider and loser than that found on the Dot. The top panel does swirl around attractively with multiple colours when you call for Siri's assistance (and when she replies) – it's a more premium finish, too.

You can also tap on the top panel for music playback controls and volume up/down. However, where tapping on the top panel will wake up Siri (apart from just using your voice), Amazon boasts that you can tap the Echo Dot pretty much anywhere and get a response from Alexa.

Aesthetically, though, there's not much to choose from, although the HomePod Mini does come in more colourful shades than the Echo Dot. This is very much a question of taste, though, so we'll consider it a tie here.

**Winner: Draw**

Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) vs Apple HomePod Mini: features

In terms of physical connectivity, the fifth-generation Echo does see a downgrade as it no longer supports a 3.5mm input, so there's no longer any way to connect a wired source – that could well be a dealbreaker for some. However, it's the same case for the HomePod Mini, which has never offered a wired connection. 

Connection to both speakers will have to be done wirelessly, then, with Bluetooth for Amazon and AirPlay 2 for Apple coming in handy alongside the home wi-fi network connection.

The HomePod Mini comes fully loaded with Apple's Siri, well-known to anyone who's ever owned an iPhone or pretty much any other Apple product that wasn't the original iPod. Siri's a decent assistant to have around the house – smart, capable and attentive to your questions.

Speaking of being responsive, Siri's knack of always knowing which device is being addressed is particularly clever, especially when you have multiple Apple products knocking around the house. Alexa, meanwhile, can often get confused as to who is speaking and who is being addressed, leading to occasional moments of frustration.

The usual raft of Siri-powered smart functions are all present and correct, including controlling HomeKit-compatible devices, setting timers and alarms, creating reminders, sending messages, making phone calls – the usual stuff, but it's worth bearing in mind that third-party support is still sparse, with Apple prioritising its own ecosystem here. Siri can also make announcements to one or all other HomePods in the house using the new Intercom feature, something that Alexa can also do.

Alexa, in fact, can do pretty much anything the HomePod can do and more, not to mention offering a wider variety of third-party app support and, in some cases, being a bit responsive to questions. In addition to everything listed above (control for compatible smart devices will vary), Alexa has a range of apps, known as "Skills", which allow the Echo Dot to become anything you want. Want to play a game? Ask Alexa to boot up a Harry Potter quiz. Want to have some karaoke fun? Easy. Want Alexa to make a variety of fart noises? You need to grow up, but yes, she's happy to oblige. 

All of this can be customised and set up in the Alexa app, an interface that beats the HomePod's rather sparse, bland Home app hands down. Where Apple claws its points back, though, is via its excellent music curation using Apple Music, learning your tastes and responding to the phrase “Play something I'll like” by streaming a new, unheard collection of songs that fit into your habits. Alexa can't compete with that. 

This depends on what you'll be using your smart speaker primarily for. If it's smart skills you want, go for the Echo Dot. If music playback is the higher priority, we'd recommend the HomePod Mini.

**Winner: Draw**

Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) vs Apple HomePod Mini: sound

While this could have been the weakest area for both performers, it's actually ended up as both models' greatest strength. We're at the point now at which audio manufacturers can get impressive amounts of wallop out of the smallest of units (just look at JBL and the portable speaker market), and while nothing will compare to your bespoke hi-fi setup (or a really good dedicated wireless speaker), this is one area in which smart speakers continue to improve.

Amazon promised the fifth generation would be the best-sounding Echo Dot, and it's a promise well kept. Considering the Echo’s small size and big bag of tricks, the sonic experience delivered is remarkable for the price. Rock, hip-hop, even orchestral numbers, the Dot has a seriously impressive crack at it all.

Apple's effort, however, is simply outstanding for its price and size. The sound presentation of the Mini is refreshingly mature, solid and authoritative, while its well-formed bass is seamlessly integrated into the overall picture. There’s even superb tonal balance and consistency, with no frequencies over-exaggerated or colouring the broader ensemble.

The clincher, though, is that the HomePod Mini will support playback of Apple's spatial audio with Dolby Atmos format when connected to an Apple TV 4K. The Mini also supports lossless audio and will play various tracks in up to 24-bit/48kHz quality via Apple Music. 

While the Echo Dot is a perfectly pleasant performer, the HomePod Mini offers the more sophisticated sound quality.

**Winner: Apple HomePod Mini**

Amazon Echo Dot (5th gen) vs Apple HomePod Mini: verdict

Amazon and Apple have managed to pull some seriously impressive smart speakers out of the bag. Both the new Echo Dot and the HomePod Mini look stylish and well-made, they're both simple to use and a breeze to set up, and while sound could have been an issue, each manages to deliver enough heft and nuance to justify its existence as a music player as well as a smart assistant. 

Ultimately, your choice may boil down to whether you're more into Apple than Amazon, or vice versa. Anyone who's more au fait with Siri's way of doing things and the wider Apple ecosystem as a whole (and is a firm Apple Music subscriber) will be more inclined towards the charming HomePod Mini, while Amazon devotees will find little to dislike with Alexa's stellar integration with the fifth generation of the Echo Dot. For real music aficionados, though, Siri's fantastic curation abilities may be enough to tip the scales in the HomePod Mini's favour, as will the implementation of Dolby Atmos for certain tracks. 

In reality, though, it's a very close call, especially considering the Dot's measly cost. Taking both speakers at their full price, the Echo Dot and the HomePod Mini are both fairly priced for what you're getting, but if you manage to get the Dot at a discount, it may be hard to resist a five-star performer.

MORE:

Read the full Echo Dot (5th Generation) review

Echo Pop vs Echo Dot (5th Gen): which is the best budget Amazon smart speaker?

These are the best smart speakers money can buy

Check out our original HomePod Mini review  

Apple HomePod vs HomePod 2: which is better?

Smart speakers are becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives. No, we haven’t quite arrived at the point at which all aspects of our domestic existence can be governed by a series of brusque commands to Alexa or Siri like something from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but voice-controlled speakers hooked up to the wi-fi aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

Amazon has been at the forefront of the smart speaker explosion, its Alexa AI assistant now practically synonymous with the whole concept of smart domestic audio. Apple’s own effort in the form of Siri in the HomePod speakers is one of the few that can challenge Jeff Bezos’ bid to dominate the so-called home of tomorrow, but Alexa remains by far the most popular.

The Amazon Echo range, consisting of the standard Echo (5th Gen) model, the hefty Echo Studio, the touchscreen Show series and this Echo Dot, has been a great success for Amazon. We have to admit that we too have been broadly impressed with Amazon’s broad plethora of smart speaker options, particularly the very affordable Dot range which earned five-star reviews for its 3rd and 4th Generation models.

With that consistency has come the weight of expectation, a weight that could be too much for the latest model to shoulder. The new Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) isn’t just tasked with fighting off its rivals, but competing with its own past too.

Price

Considering the Echo Dot (5th Gen) is the smallest speaker in Amazon's Echo range, it isn't surprising that it is also the cheapest. The tiny Echo launched in 2022 for £55 / $50 / AU$99 and has kept its price well, although along with its Echo siblings (and Amazon's Fire range of AV products) tends to enjoy a generous discount during big sales events such as Black Friday and, of course, Amazon's own Prime Day.

Its predecessor, the fourth-gen Dot, has been available at a discount since the current model's arrival and is enjoying its final months of shelf life.

While the smart speaker market isn't riddled with many compact, budget options, the fifth-gen Echo undercuts its closest rival, Apple's HomePod Mini (£99 / $99 / AU$149), and is a different beast in more ways than one. Our Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) vs Apple HomePod Mini in-depth comparison is worth reading if you aren't sure which smart speaker (or brand ecosystem) to commit to.

Build

The fifth incarnation of the Amazon Echo Dot doesn’t exactly break from its predecessor in the looks department, retaining that round shape and understated aesthetic that served the 4th Gen Echo Dot so well. Available in a choice of three colours – white, charcoal and blue – the Echo Dot’s subtle, unobtrusive look is pleasingly un-impactful. It’s not a boundary-pushing artistic tour de force, but it hardly ever looks out of place whether positioned in your swanky modern kitchen or happily perched on your expensive mahogany bookshelf. 

There’s not much going on in terms of physical on-device features and controls, either, but that’s hardly a bad thing. Atop the dimpled dome sit four buttons – volume up, volume down, microphone off and an action button that deals with things like pairing and Alexa control – with the blue “Alexa ring” encircling the bottom of the speaker’s rotund form. Considering the fact that you’ll spend most of your time speaking to the Echo Dot, this minimalist approach makes sense.

Build quality is reassuringly substantial, too. Amazon’s latest smart speaker isn’t exactly heavy, but there’s a pleasing solidity when you hold it in your hand. The small-knit speaker mesh, meanwhile, sits tight to the frame without any noticeable bulges, feeling even more premium than the rival (and more expensive) HomePod Mini. It’s also pretty tough to knock out of place thanks to a wider base area than the Mini, as well as a non-slip rubber bottom to keep it from slipping.

Features

Yes, the 5th Generation of the Echo Dot is a proudly Amazon product, but that doesn't mean it’s limited in its capabilities out of brand loyalty. Practically all ‘rival’ music streaming services are supported alongside its own Amazon Music, including Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music, meaning the Dot isn’t tied down to a single platform. Our favourite music streamer, Tidal, is sadly not catered for, but setting up and using the Dot with Amazon Music, Spotify and Apple Music is a stress-free experience, as is flitting between the services via the designated Amazon Alexa app. 

Speaking of Alexa, Amazon’s AI assistant is as matronly and helpful as ever. “Hey Alexa,” said in pretty much any tone of voice or accent grabs her attention, while a wide range of voice-activated functions is supported, including setting alarms, receiving weather forecasts and playing music on the platform of your choosing. From football scores to the meaning of life, Alexa usually has it covered.

The expected smart functionalities are also pleasingly integrated. The Echo Dot will work with your compatible Amazon smart devices, allowing you to change things like lighting and temperature via Alexa voice command. You can also use the Dot in conjunction with your Fire TV when you set up Alexa Home Cinema for a more immersive and interactive viewing experience. 

There are also a few hidden tricks up the Echo Dot’s sleeve. Tell Alexa you love “her” and it will happily pump out a cheerful tune that finishes with the line: “Know that I’ll be there for you, as always, your trusty AI.” It’s hard to know whether this is the start of a blurred romantic boundary between man and machine à la Spike Jonze’s Her or whether you’re about to be sucked into a scene from Alex Garland’s disturbing 2014 sci-fi Ex Machina.

Sound

Amazon promises that this is its “best-sounding Echo Dot yet”, teasing “clearer vocals, deeper bass and vibrant sound in any room” thanks to a single 44mm front-firing speaker, 4mm larger than the previous gen’s 40mm.

The claims are bold, and yet firing up a range of tracks brings out one reaction above all others: pleasant surprise. Considering the Echo’s diminutive stature and wide-ranging functionality, great sound was no guarantee, but the sonic experience is somewhat remarkable when you also consider the Dot’s remarkably slim price tag and unobtrusive design.

Playing Greta Van Fleet’s Zeppelin-esque operatic ballad Meeting The Master is a stern test for a small speaker, but the dynamics, range and balance of presentation are impressive, and while you’ll get a far superior experience on more dedicated hi-fi speakers, this is an admirable effort from a budget-friendly smart speaker.

Bright, sparky numbers fare even better. Katy Perry's Hot N Cold practically pops with energy, that peppy drum beat given the appropriate amount of spark and spirit as the track bounces along. Over the instrumentation, Perry’s vocals feel authentically like the Californian singer's actual voice, occasionally breathy and then punchy and powerful as the chorus hits.

Where the Echo Dot finds things understandably hardest is with bass, especially with regard to both force and detail. There’s certainly weight at the lower register, even if some of the detail gets lost in the mud, and while there’s no shame in that at this price, it remains worthy of note. 

Volume, too, is always going to be a drawback of a speaker that’s not much bigger than a standard hockey ball. You’ll still receive space-filling sound in smaller rooms around your house, even if the Echo Dot starts to struggle and distort whenever the knob gets turned towards the upper echelons. 

Verdict

The latest Echo Dot sees Amazon taking its diminutive smart speaker to the next level as we enter the model’s 5th Generation. We rated the five-star 4th Generation of the Echo Dot so highly thanks to its broad sound, robust Alexa integration and sleek design for the modest price, all tricks that the sequel manages to repeat with unerring confidence.

This year’s model is stylish, fantastically made and quietly excellent on the audio front, providing a peppy, robust and often genuinely musical sound from a small unit at an even smaller price. If you’re serious about hi-fi then you’ll want to invest in a proper speaker, radio or full-blown system, but if you want a versatile, engaging smart speaker that sounds superb on a shoestring, the Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) can unquestionably hold its own.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 4
• Build 4

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Amazon continues to bolster its already bulging roster of Alexa-enabled smart speakers with an updated Echo Show 5, the new Echo Show 5 Kids, the vehicle-compatible Echo Auto and, perhaps most excitingly, the all-new Echo Pop smart speaker. 

The Echo Pop features a small-form, semi-spherical design, looking all the world like a sliced-in-half Echo Dot. The new smart speaker is powered by the Amazon AZ2 Neural Edge processor, with its front-facing directional speaker offering a sound profile that Amazon bills as being “great for bedrooms, flats, or any small space in the home.”

The Pop also features the usual Alexa voice control compatibility for a range of domestic tasks and tricks, from reading audiobooks to playing music from popular streaming services, controlling compatible smart devices or even ordering your shopping online. Two new colours are also available for the new Pop model, with Midnight Teal and Lavender Bloom joining the established colour options of Charcoal and White.

Added to this ever-extending Alexa family is a new generation of the Amazon Echo Show 5, the screen-and-speaker system that impressed us when it first appeared in mid-2022. The updated Show 5 has an "entirely new speaker system" that claims to deliver clearer sound and deeper bass, as well as operating 20 per cent faster than the previous generation. A re-engineered microphone array plus the AZ2 Neutral Edge processor, should justify the new model’s £10 increase on the old one. Both the Show 5 and Pop now support the Matter smart platform, too.

Accompanying its bigger brother is the all-new Echo Show 5 Kids, the (obviously) child-friendly version of the Show that offers more kid-appropriate responses, profanity filtering, homework help and pre-approved contact calling.  There’s even a Parent Dashboard where the adults can adjust age settings and parental controls, as well as Amazon Kids+ which gives entertainment and educational content for the little 'uns.

It’s also worth mentioning the new generation of the Echo Auto, now available to buy in the UK, a small and inexpensive device that gives you Alexa access in your car. The usual hands-free options such as making calls, playing music and hearing the news are all present and correct, but there’s also the handy boon of being able to control compatible home devices even when you’re not at home. Handy if you set off for work and realise you’ve left the lights on and the door unlocked. 

The new Echo Pop is available for £44.99 directly from Amazon and can be fitted with alternative colour options via coloured sleeves (Blue, Red, Orange, Grey, Lilac, Purple, and Glow in the Dark) for £19.99 each. The Pop's base price undercuts the current Echo Dot 5th Gen model (priced at £54.99) by a good tenner, and it will be interesting to see how popular the new model proves to be compared to the established Dot. (USA and Australian dollar pricing is TBC).

The next-gen Echo Show 5 is available in Charcoal, White and Cloud Blue for £89.99, while the Show 5 Kids comes in a colour called “Galaxy” for a rather pricey £99.99. The Echo Auto is available for £59.99.  Pre-orders start today and all the devices begin shipping later this month. 

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While tablets aren’t nearly as popular as they once were, I love my iPad Pro and get a lot of use out of it. I use it as a second screen for the football when I’m gaming or my wife is watching something on the TV; it’s brilliant for watching TV shows and movies in bed or on the train, particularly when combined with the AirPods Max; I use it for signing documents far more often than you might imagine; and it’s great as a wireless second screen for my MacBook.

The place I most often use my iPad, though, is the kitchen, and this is arguably where it’s least comfortable.

There are three main issues. The first is that the Magic Keyboard, which is generally a thing of genius and elegance, rather gets in the way when chopping veg and the like, and I worry about covering the keys – which are less easily wiped clean than the screen – with bits of crushed garlic or an errant blob of tomato puree (yes, I am a messy chef). I could get a different stand for the kitchen but I’ve not really got the appetite (see what I did there?) to constantly swap cases.

Second, if I’m not using the iPad to follow an actual recipe, I’m probably using it to watch the football or F1, and then, on top of the existing mess issue, I’m also stuck using the iPad’s built-in speakers for the audio, particularly as Sky Go doesn’t allow you to output the sound to a separate device. The iPad Pro sounds very good indeed by tablet standards, but it’s not like using a dedicated wireless speaker.

Third on my list of first-world iPad-related kitchen problems is that Siri still isn’t a great virtual assistant. Yes, it can handle the basics, but I find myself turning to Alexa (via a Sonos One) for my complex cooking questions even when the iPad is right in front of me, particularly as Siri often says “here’s something I found on the web” and puts it on the screen that I was already using for something else and that I don’t want to touch because my hands are covered in marinade.

None of these niggles prevents me from using the iPad in the kitchen, but it would be lovely if Apple fixed them. Except now it doesn't have to because Google already has, and the solution is really very simple.

The new Google Pixel Tablet comes bundled with a Charging Speaker Dock that acts as a stand, a charger and a speaker for the tablet, essentially turning it into a smart speaker with a screen, rather like the Amazon Echo Show 10 but still with the full functionality of an Android tablet.

It gives the Pixel Tablet a much less obtrusive footprint than the iPad’s Magic Keyboard, it should sound significantly better than a tablet alone, and it will have all of the smarts of a Google Nest speaker. And, unlike a device such as the Echo Show, the Pixel Tablet can of course be undocked and used as a standard tablet around and outside the house.

So, will I be buying a Pixel Tablet? I’m certainly tempted but it will ultimately depend on whether the Charging Speaker Dock works as well as suggested and how the tablet performs as an actual tablet, particularly in terms of picture and sound quality.

It will also depend on whether Apple mercilessly rips off the idea and produces its own speaker dock for the iPad. That would be fine by me, too.

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It’s no secret that HDMIs are precious commodities, and as someone who is slowly accumulating more and more things to occupy these ports, I’m always willing to hear smart suggestions for a streamlined setup. I am also someone who is conscious of cable clutter; in fact, I owe my sanity to a bumper pack of Velcro strips I bought on Amazon about five years ago that have ensured that my wires don’t resemble Spaghetti Junction.

Either way, I’m a fan of combining two separate devices into one package for the sake of convenience and neatness, which is why 2020's Roku Streambar has recently caught my eye. No, it's not perfect – there are obviously better streamers and soundbars out there as separate entities – but the concept just makes sense to me even if the performance here doesn't. And yet, rather than usher in a new wave of similar devices, we haven't really seen anything else like it since. Or have we?

Did you know that Fire TV Edition soundbars exist? I didn’t until now, and that’s probably because they have been a bit of a flop so far. Anker’s attempt has already been discontinued after a CES 2020 debut, and TCL’s offering has gained very little traction as far as I can see. In an ideal world, I want a Fire TV-equipped Echo soundbar, directly from Amazon, and here’s why.

Amazon’s current lineup of Echo speakers is basically begging to be utilised in a home cinema surround format. The Echo Studio is a Dolby Atmos speaker that faired well in our review, and just so happens to cost about half the price of the new Sonos Era 300. It’s already compatible with the Fire TV Sticks and Cube, so the groundwork is there – just imagine it as the rear surround speakers. Now if that wasn’t enough, there’s the Echo Sub, which comes in at around a quarter of the price of the Sonos Sub Mini. What we’re looking at here is a smart surround system that could undercut a Sonos home cinema setup by hundreds of pounds/dollars. Now I just need Amazon to produce something to compete with the Beam Gen 2.

Amazon doesn’t even need to beat the Sonos Beam for sound quality. More important is that it's priced aggressively but includes Dolby Atmos support and has the features of a Fire TV Stick 4K built-in.

Theoretically, Amazon could offer a fully unified Fire TV and Alexa-powered home cinema surround system for the same or less than the cost of the Beam – and who wouldn’t want that? Even if that doesn’t appeal to those who want the best and most expensive home cinema speaker system, you can’t deny that it sounds like an interesting proposition.

The best part is that this isn’t a total pipe dream. As mentioned, Fire TV Edition soundbars are on the market, and Amazon is already expanding its first-party Fire TV hardware with the new 2-Series, 4-Series and Omni QLED TVs, so a new take on the Fire formula isn’t out of the question. The same can be said of Amazon’s Echo lineup, with the Show now coming in more screen sizes than ever and the Dot remaining a popular micro-sized smart speaker, it’s the perfect time to add a new member to the Echo family.

However, all of this Amazon talk has kindled a new tangent, that echoes my initial statement; I want more soundbars with built-in streaming devices, and it's not just Amazon that makes those. If only there was another big brand that has just updated its streaming device and launched a new speaker that can be used to play movies in spatial audio... oh, wait a second...

It’s true that the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and that’s who I’m setting my sights on next. The Apple TV 4K and a pair of HomePod 2s make for an excellent movie-watching combo, so let's apply the same principle. Imagine a HomePod soundbar, complete with the spatial audio prowess of the latest smart speaker, with a built-in Apple TV 4K for a convenient all-in-one home cinema setup, complete with the usual Apple seal of quality. The fabled Apple ecosystem is already in full swing when it comes to the outstanding synergy between the iPhone, HomePod, Apple TV and Apple’s iTunes and TV+ services – so why not take it up a notch with a soundbar?

But why stop there? After a discussion with my fellow AV enthusiast Tom Parsons, he suggested a soundbar with the new Sky Stream box built in. This sounds like the ultimate all-in-one system for live content, online streaming and upgraded sound, and it could even be a path of retribution for Sky after the slightly misguided Devialet-powered Soundbox from 2019. Instead of an expensive soundbar with no streaming smarts of its own, a more budget-oriented 'bar with the features of the Stream puck built-in makes far more sense.

While some of these concepts are perhaps more realistic than others, the bottom line is that I think Roku is onto something with the Streambar, and I want to see more brands take their own spin on the idea. Amazon, Apple and Sky all seem to have the fundamentals for streaming soundbars lined up, they just need to take the plunge.

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Apple has only just launched the HomePod 2, but already there's word of a follow-up. The next HomePod will feature a 7-inch screen and work as a hub for your smart home, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo posted on Medium that Chinese company Tianma will make the 7-inch screen. The new HomePod "could enable tighter integration with Apple's other hardware products, marking a significant shift in the company's smart home strategy", Kuo writes. 

He reckons it will launch early in 2024.

It sounds a lot like the Amazon Echo Show, which is basically a smart speaker with a screen. Previous reports have mentioned an Apple device that can be wall-mounted to work as a smart home hub, sort of like a big iPad. Apple is likely exploring the ground between those two concepts and perhaps looking to add Apple TV functionality to the mix.

Apple's most recent HomePod looks nigh-on identical to the original smart speaker, which was discontinued in 2021, bar a couple of minor changes. So the addition of a screen would be a major change of direction.

It would also help to differentiate it from Sonos, whose new Era 300 speaker looks like a real rival to the HomePod 2. Apple offers a far wider range of devices than Sonos, so making them more compatible with one another seems like a no-brainer. Launching a HomePod with a screen could well be the most direct route to smart home dominance.

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OPINION: When the Sonos Era speakers leak was published earlier this week, Sonos loyals and tech fans alike collectively voiced a particular hope for them: that they will make ideal surround speakers for the Beam and Arc soundbars, with upward-firing drivers able to deliver the height channels of Dolby Atmos immersive audio for an added rear-channel experience. It’s something our own Editor-in-Chief said would let him create the Sonos home cinema setup he’s always wanted, and I agree that such a comprehensive, Atmos-inclusive AV offering would add a strong string to the company’s bow. Not least if Sonos also rolled out the ability to use new or existing Sonos speakers as discrete left and right channels, which is on many Sonos users' wishlists... but that’s another story.

It’s true, I have my doubts about whether Dolby Atmos or any other kind of spatial audio technology will really stand the test of time within the music replay context, despite 'spatial audio' being adopted by wireless speakers and headphones left, right and centre. While I recognise that spatial audio music can offer an effectively immersive, wraparound sound that some may like – we certainly liked its delivery on the HomePod 2, particularly through two paired together – I don’t think it’ll revolutionise music listening for most people and leave stereo music in the dust. Perhaps it still has more to offer, doing what the Amazon Echo Studio started (through its support of Sony 360 Reality Audio).

But from what is expected to be Sonos’s next potential wireless speaker, I want it to hoist the sound quality benchmark of what is currently available at that level, and push Sonos further into the hi-res audio realm it entered when it started supporting 24-bit/48kHz hi-res streams from Qobuz and Amazon in 2021. "Your options for listening to hi-res audio will continue to evolve. And so will we," said Sonos just over a year ago.

Wireless speakers to take advantage of hi-res audio?

There’s a very real discussion about what level of audio hardware even warrants having hi-res support – are the drivers and processing in many of today’s wireless speakers advanced enough to lay bare the extra insight hi-res recordings harness? The Sonos One supports 24-bit hi-res from those aforementioned music streaming services, but would you be able to tell whether it was playing a 16-bit CD-quality stream or a 24-bit hi-res stream through it? Probably not. The same would be true of the Sonos Five. And the Echo Studio. And the HomePod. And even the pricier, multi-Award-winning Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Gen.

Considering it isn't a given that you’d truly benefit from hi-res over, say, CD-quality listening through even the market's more expensive single-box wireless speakers, hi-res audio and one-box wireless speakers are typically at odds with one another. So along its pledged h-res journey, does Sonos have a speaker in its sights that could do hi-res proud? Possibly, and I am quietly hopeful that an Era speaker – whether it’s the rumoured ones on the near horizon or a subsequent release – might just be it. 

After all, the Era 300 – the bigger of the two rumoured speakers and likely a replacement for the Sonos Five – is expected to deliver the best sound performance of any Sonos product to date. Remember, Sonos acquired a Dutch audio start-up presumably to make use of its HeartMotion balanced membrane driver/transducer technology, which has been explicitly designed to offer bigger sound from smaller packages – so this could translate into a Sonos Five-sized Era speaker with a much-enhanced sound. Or, better yet, a physically bigger speaker with a sound output unrivalled by existing accessible, one-box solutions.

Sonos to leverage hi-res audio elsewhere?

After all, how else could Sonos leverage its platform’s hi-res streaming support? Last year the company revealed plans to enter four new product categories, including one this year – and the Era smart speakers are clearly not that. So we still have that to come. Sonos wireless headphones could well break cover before anything else and, as well as possible TV-listening, multi-source-switching and music hand-off features, they could even have hi-res support over wi-fi, in addition to the usual Bluetooth.

There's an expectation that Sonos will enter the video streamer market, though the company has made it clear that its ambitions first and foremost – albeit not exclusively – lie in premium home audio. So what else could we be in for? A pair of higher-end streaming stereo speakers akin to the KEF LSX II, or even a floorstanding speaker version? Might there be a more premium Amp (streaming amplifier); both a more accessible priced, dongle-like Port (music streamer) and a better-connected, higher-end model; or an AV receiver that can drive existing surround sound speaker packages? 

Whatever kit transpires, Sonos has a lot of potential areas for growth in front of it, and I pray it doesn’t lose sight of evolving sound quality as spatial technologies seemingly take centre stage. I trust it won't.

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Apple’s decision to discontinue the original HomePod was surprising to say the least. The announcement came just four months after the launch of the HomePod Mini, and it never seemed likely that the company intended for its smart speaker family to feature just one, tiny member.

Our suspicion was always that the much-publicised manufacturing issues and parts shortages that have afflicted everything from cars to road bikes, microwaves and printers forced Apple to discontinue the original HomePod before its successor was quite ready. But with each passing month, our confidence that a new model was on the way dwindled.

Now, almost two years since the original’s untimely death, the HomePod 2nd Generation, aka the HomePod 2, is finally here and, at first glance, it looks as if very little has changed.

The familiar exterior of the HomePod 2 hides a number of enhancements, though – most importantly, at least as far as we’re concerned, to the sound. That’s right; the new HomePod sounds even better than its predecessor, and that makes it one of the very best wireless speakers you can buy – as long as you’re a dedicated Apple user, that is.

Price

At £299 / $299 / AU$479, the new HomePod bucks the increased cost-of-living trend by actually launching at a lower price than its predecessor did in 2018.

It is a fair bit more expensive than many of the smart speakers that some people will be considering as alternatives, such as the Amazon Echo Studio (£190 / $200 / AU$329) and Sonos One (£199 / $219 / AU$319), but right in the ballpark of the Award-winning Audio Pro C10 MkII (£329 / $450 / AU$570) which, while more traditional in its appearance, also boasts smart capabilities.

Since the HomePod 2 launched in February, however, Sonos has brought the fight to Apple with the release of its Era 100 (£249 / $249 / AU$399) and Era 300 (£449 / $449 / AU$749), the latter of which, like the HomePod 2, supports spatial audio. Know that this HomePod 2 sandwich is represented not just by the price of the three speakers but also by their performances. More on that later.

Design

Despite having taken a while to appear, the new HomePod looks almost identical to its predecessor. The squat dimensions remain more or less the same (it’s just a smidge shorter than the original), so the new HomePod is once again a little bigger than it looks in pictures. It also dwarves the HomePod Mini, which is only half as tall as its bigger brother. At 200g lighter, the new model is less incredibly dense than the old version, but it still feels very solid.

The new HomePod’s mesh coating looks at first glance to be identical to that of the previous model, but the diamonds in the pattern run vertically rather than horizontally, which helps to make the speaker look a little less chunky. Unfortunately, the pattern is just slightly see-through, which means that at certain angles and in certain lighting, the white model looks as though it has some darker patches that are a bit unsightly.

The best part of the HomePod’s design has always been the glossy touch panel on the top, so it’s slightly disappointing to discover that this has shrunk a few millimetres for the new model. The ‘+’ and ‘-’ icons that only lit up when playing music on the old model are now simply low-tech markings on the panel, which is another slight disappointment. Perhaps this is a cost-cutting measure, or perhaps Apple found that some users were baffled by the sometimes-there, sometimes-not volume controls. We suspect it could be a combination of the two.

The good news regarding the top panel is that while it’s slightly smaller than before, significantly more of it illuminates when you invoke Siri or play a song, making it a far more enticingly colourful surface.

One final, neat little upgrade is that the new model now has a detachable cable, so owners can switch to a longer cable if necessary.

Features

Within the familiar-but-not-identical shell lies a familiar-but-not-identical hardware arrangement. Like its predecessor, the new HomePod features a woofer at the top and tweeters at the bottom – a configuration that is still unusual to this day. As before, the woofer is a high-excursion design that’s capable of moving by an impressive 20mm, allowing it to shift more air than is typical of a wireless speaker’s driver, in theory resulting in louder, weightier sound. The woofer bounces audio off the underside of the glossy top panel so that it can then escape the casework evenly around its circumference.

The number of tweeters has actually been reduced from seven to five, but they’re more tightly packed and more aggressively angled than before. Sound from the tweeters is fired down and outwards from the HomePod via individual horns, with the arrangement designed to prevent sound reflecting off the surface upon which the HomePod is placed.

Arranged between the woofer and tweeters are a number of sensors, including several microphones, that between them measure the performance of the HomePod in real-time, both in terms of its positioning, the music it’s playing, the volume and, apparently, even its own “current mechanical and electrical conditions”. The data collected by these mics and sensors is then analysed by the new S7 chip, and the performance is adjusted so that the sound is as good and correct as it can be at any given moment. To develop this sense of musical correctness, Apple analysed performance in over 1000 real-world places and with over 10,000 of the most popular tracks.

The speed at which the new HomePod adjusts its sound when it’s moved and the consistency of sound it achieves is just one very impressive aspect of this. If you pick it up from a position in free space and move it so that it’s close to a wall, you can hear the sound adjusting to compensate for the new surface (largely by reducing bass) as you’re holding it. More or less by the time you remove your hands, the HomePod sounds essentially the same as it did in its previous position. There’s probably a crazy placement that can flummox the new HomePod, but we haven’t found it yet. And if you do find the speaker to be too bass-heavy at any point (perhaps purely because you’re having a midnight disco and the rest of the house is in bed), there is a ‘Reduce Bass’ button in the HomePod’s settings, which you’ll find in the Apple Home app.

On a more basic level, we’re also very impressed by the new HomePod’s ability to hear ‘Hey Siri’ commands from across the room, even when two of them are blasting at maximum volume. The way it alters its sound when Siri is listening has extra charm to it, too, in that there’s not just a reduction in volume but also a muffling and echoing of what’s playing that’s reminiscent of still being able to hear the band from a music venue’s toilets. It’s highly unlikely that this was specifically what Apple was going for, but we appreciate the nostalgia it provokes all the same.

Unsurprisingly, the HomePod 2 supports Spatial Audio, which you’ll largely make use of in order to play Dolby Atmos tracks via Apple Music, though it can also be used for movies if you have an Apple TV 4K. More on all of that later, but it's worth noting that the Sonos Era 300 supports spatial audio from Apple Music and Amazon Music.

It’s important to point out that while not strictly limited to working only with Apple devices (although you do need one in order to set it up), we wouldn’t recommend the HomePod to people who aren’t already firmly embedded in Apple’s ecosystem or willing to jump into it wholeheartedly. It’s not just about having other Apple devices – after all, most control is done via Siri – you also really need to be an Apple Music user to get the most out of a HomePod.

Spotify, Tidal and Amazon Music users will be disappointed to discover that the HomePod still won’t play music from those services via Siri, even though iPhones will, and in CarPlay mode, too. You can, of course, play music via these other services, but you have to do so via AirPlay, which means the music is being sent from the phone to the speaker. The same is true of non-Apple radio stations, including the BBC’s.

Perhaps that won’t be an issue for some, and there’s certainly no obvious degradation in sound quality when you use the HomePod via AirPlay, despite the theoretical extra compression it will add to higher-resolution tracks, but the best experience comes from requesting tracks, albums, playlists and even more broad musical inspiration (“hey Siri, play something I’ll like” remains a brilliantly powerful command) using your voice. Do so and the HomePod will draw music directly from Apple’s servers in Dolby Atmos, Lossless (24-bit/48kHz) or CD quality (16-bit/44.1kHz) as appropriate. Somewhat surprisingly, Hi-Res Lossless, which Apple classes as anything over 24-bit/48kHz, isn’t supported via HomePod. In truth, we’re not sure the difference would be noticeable on a speaker such as this, but Apple could have included support as a fun flex at least.

Another neat way for Apple users to interact with the new HomePod (and the HomePod Mini) is Hand Off, which involves transferring music that’s playing from an iPhone to the speaker via a light tap.

Siri can, of course, do plenty besides play music. There are the usual timers, alarms and weather forecasts, but the HomePod can also send iMessages and make phone calls, and it can broadcast an Intercom message to the other HomePods in the house, just in case you can’t be bothered to venture into the East Wing to let your little lord or lady know that dinner’s ready.

As expected, the HomePod is also able to control plenty of smart home devices such as lightbulbs, thermostats, blinds and security cameras. In fact, support for the new Matter platform opens up compatibility with even more devices from even more brands, and the new HomePod even has integrated humidity and temperature sensors, opening up opportunities for greater automation (turn on a dehumidifier when the humidity hits a certain level, for example).

Sound

Of course, it’s the sound that we’re most interested in, and the new HomePod delights in this regard from the off. Breaking it in with Apple Music’s Dolby Atmos version of The 1 by Taylor Swift, we’re immediately struck by the clarity and warmth of the vocals. Swift’s voice is at once airy and focused, and the breathy quality of the delivery is really nicely resolved.

The harmony in the chorus is a lovely advert for Dolby Atmos music and the new HomePod’s ability to reproduce it, with the additional vocal tracks stretching up and outwards, spatially distinct and ethereal but very much part of the whole.

While not the greatest test of extension at either end of the frequency range, this track still proves a good illustration of the new HomePod’s general tonal balance. There’s ample weight and texture to the bassline and a satisfying snap to the rhythmic clapping, with both drawing the ear just as much as they should, complementing the vocals but never overshadowing them.

To give the HomePod’s frequency response more of a workout, we spin up SBTRKT’s Trials Of The Past in Apple Lossless. Trials Of The Past is a rather fizzy recording that’s driven to brightness and sibilance by lots of serious hi-fi kit, so most affordable wireless speakers don’t stand a chance, yet the HomePod 2 delivers it with assured control. The clicky beat and the edges of the vocal sparkle without hissing or irritating, so there’s plenty of excitement without any unappealing roughness. The bassline, meanwhile, has vastly more weight and presence than a speaker this size has any right to produce, yet it’s never overbearing or flabby.

Taking the bass test a step further, we switch to James Blake’s incredibly challenging Limit To Your Love, and again the HomePod 2 puts on a great show. True, the final, deepest-of-deep note in the track causes the compact speaker to lose a little of its conviction, but the fact that it gets down there at all is very impressive, and on the way there it demonstrates the sort of low-frequency flexibility that the average wireless speaker can only dream of. This is no lump of detached bass, but rather a seamlessly integrated and dexterous bottom end, without which the track’s more energetic second half wouldn’t have nearly the impact that it does.

In fact, the HomePod 2 has boundless energy all round. Whether you’re playing a dancy number such as Caribou’s Never Come Back, the ridiculous ’80s-style metal of Kaisarion by Ghost or even a piece of classical music such as Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa, the new HomePod’s enthusiasm is infectious, its rhythmic drive always exciting and engaging.

We’d compare it to a Golden Retriever's eagerness to please, but there’s something much cooler and more effortless (and less slobbery) about the HomePod’s approach. What it really comes down to is that it’s the music that draws the attention and not the actual speaker.

Downsides? Sonically, it’s hard to pinpoint anything really. A more traditional, forward-firing speaker such as the Audio Pro C10 MkII will project further into a room, making for a more direct delivery for those who listen to their music in a more hi-fi-like, sit-down-and-pay-attention style, but we believe that the new HomePod’s more open, less directional and fuller-bodied approach will even better suit the environments in which a wireless speaker most often finds itself. 

And what about the Sonos Era 300? While the HomePod has a wonderfully rich texture and sense of musicality, it is surprising how small-scaled it sounds next to the more open and spacious Era 300, which also manages to outdo the Apple speaker in terms of delivering spatial audio music at every turn. As we said in our Era 300 review, "there’s more power and punch, more convincing shifts in dynamics and emotions, and there is more detail and subtlety around each note". Of course, the Era 300 is a significantly pricier speaker, so its sonic superiority is perhaps expected. Indeed, if your buying decision is between the HomePod 2 and the (Sonos One-replacing) Era 100, the Apple speaker justifies its modest premium with more nuance, dynamic subtlety and a natural way with vocals.

What if you’re lucky enough to have the budget for two HomePods? We’d seriously consider it. There’s even greater weight and solidity to the whole presentation, and both focus and spaciousness improve dramatically. A stereo pair of HomePods is particularly beneficial with Dolby Atmos tracks, which sound even more open and three-dimensional, with very impressive spatial placement of voices and instruments.

Combine those two HomePods with an Apple TV 4K and you’d also get a viable home cinema system, particularly if said Apple TV 4K is a 2nd or 3rd generation model, as they have an eARC port and can send all of your TV’s audio, even that from other sources such as games consoles or Blu-ray players, to the speakers. If that sounds like overkill, consider that two HomePods and an Apple TV 4K will set you back £847 / $727 / AU$1656, which is very similar to what you’d pay for a Sonos Arc. We’re not saying that the HomePod-based system is clearly better than Sonos’s top soundbar, but we are saying that its solidity, spaciousness and musicality make it a wildcard option that’s well worth considering.

Verdict

It’s something of a surprise to find that the new HomePod is so similar in styling and design to its 2018 predecessor, but Apple has clearly decided to iterate on rather than reinvent that original which, let’s remember, Apple started working on in around 2012.

Importantly, there are upgrades, and the new HomePod is smarter and even more flexible in terms of placement than before. It also, crucially, sounds even better. Tighter, more solid, and better organised both spatially and rhythmically, it’s altogether more engaging, exciting and enjoyable to listen to. 

The Sonos Era 300's superior sonic capability deserves to win over those who are willing to spend extra for the privilege of class-leading sound, stereo and spatial. And the HomePod 2 is still not a sensible choice unless you’re already an avid Apple user and preferably an Apple Music subscriber. Still, if you are one, the new HomePod is arguably the best speaker of this type you can buy.

Review published: March 2023. Review updated: November 2024.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 4
• Build 5

Read our review of the Apple HomePod Mini

Check out our feature on the making of the original HomePod

Also consider the Sonos Era 100 or spatial audio Era 300

See how they compare: Sonos Era 300 vs Apple HomePod 2

Set your songs free: these are the best wireless speakers

Almost five years after the original HomePod was released, the HomePod 2 is finally available to buy. The original HomePod was met with critical favour but perhaps didn't take the market by storm as Apple had hoped, as it was discontinued in March of 2021 with no replacement lined up... until now.

So how does the new HomePod 2 compare to the original Apple smart speaker? With our final HomePod 2 review out, we’ve pitted the two side by side in our testing labs to see which comes out on top.

Apple HomePod vs HomePod 2: price

In a very un-Apple move, the new HomePod is actually cheaper than the original. The HomePod 2 costs £299 / $299 / AU$479, while the original retailed for £319 / $349 / AU$499. The savings aren't exactly life-changing, but it's a welcome change nonetheless. 

It is, however, a lot more expensive than the HomePod Mini, which retails for £99 / $99 / AU$149 – although both of these products offer different propositions.

**Winner** Apple HomePod 2 

Apple HomePod vs HomePod 2: design

Apple hasn't reinvented the HomePod's design for the second-generation model, instead opting for subtle updates throughout. The backlit touch display now stretches edge to edge on the top surface of the cylindrical speaker, with the rest of the visible surface area of the device wrapped in fabric mesh material – which Apple has once again made from 100 per cent recycled materials. The design language is even carried through to the power cable, which is now a woven fabric style. It's not detachable, too, which means it can be swapped out for a longer one if you want to position the HomePod 2 a long way from a power socket.

The similar design to the original speaker is a nice touch if you plan to incorporate a mix of original HomePods and HomePod 2s in a multi-room setup, as they should look reasonably uniform.

The HomePod 2 measures 6.6 inches tall, and 5.6 inches wide, and it weighs 2.3kg, making it every so slightly shorter and 200g lighter than the original. We suspect the weight difference is due to the new HomePod dropping two of its tweeters; more on that later.

** Winner: Apple HomePod 2 **

Apple HomePod vs HomePod 2: features

The HomePod 2 includes many of the same features found on the original model, including a control system built around Apple's voice-controlled assistant Siri. Much like Amazon's Echo speakers, you can prompt the assistant with a command phrase, here it's "hey Siri", and ask it to play music, answer questions, read the news and weather, control your smart home appliances and much more.

While it's undoubtedly useful, we found the HomePod over-relied on voice controls in our review. And Siri does, once again, dominate to a certain extent with the HomePod 2, but voice control has become more acceptable in recent years, and the controls via Home and Apple Music have improved a little.

The NFC handoff feature on the new HomePod was also available on the prior generation and Mini; this allows you to transfer music playback from your iPhone to your HomePod by just tapping the two devices together. The HomePod can now also transfer suggested playlists and podcasts to your iPhone when they are in close proximity too. You may notice that we specified the iPhone here, as Android users are left out in the cold by the HomePod yet again.

Much like the first generation HomePod, you'll need an Apple device to set up and control the HomePod 2 – so do not buy a HomePod unless you have an iPhone, iPad or MacBook on hand. 

As for other more positive features that make a return, there's Apple spatial audio support with either a single speaker or two paired in a stereo configuration. On the topic of pairing HomePods together, you can also add a pair to an Apple TV 4K to output TV audio – love or hate Apple's ecosystem, it's here in full effect with the HomePod 2.

So what does the HomePod 2 do that the original can't? Well, this year it's all about Matter, a new wireless standard which creates harmonious union in your smart home. Other major tech companies such as Google, Samsung, Philips and Amazon have all signed onto this shared standard, meaning your HomePod 2 will be able to slot into your smart home set-up with little to no fuss. The HomePod 2 also has integrated temperature and humidity sensors, allowing for some useful smart home automation for those who are into that sort of thing.

** Winner: Apple HomePod 2 **

Apple HomePod vs HomePod 2: sound

While the outside of the HomePod hasn't changed much, Apple has totally redesigned the inside of the HomePod 2 in order to improve the audio performance. 

As mentioned previously, Apple has actually ditched two of the tweeters in this new model, meaning the HomePod 2 now pairs the five-tweeter set-up with a four-inch woofer and five microphones. They are used for everything from receiving voice commands to automatically adapting the sound based on whether you place the HomePod in a corner or in a more central position. Like its predecessor, the HomePod 2 doesn't project into a room like more traditional, forward-firing speakers do, but it is slightly better in this regard than the last model. Plus its dispersive nature is more suited to how people are likely to place it.

Sonically, it's very impressive indeed. Vocals are clear and warm (especially with Dolby Atmos tracks), bass has more weight and presence than a speaker this size has any right to produce, and it's all delivered with the kind of boundless energy and rhythmic drive you can't help but find infectious.

Essentially, it's the same excellent HomePod sound we know and love, but with even more pep and excitement. It's rhythmically and spatially even better organised, and it's controlled, too, so that extra excitement absolutely never veers into brightness, sibilance or other irritation.

The original HomePod was no slouch, earning five stars in its review thanks to its weighty and authoritative sound, although we felt that the mid-range could be better defined at times. The new model doesn't get muddled in more congested parts of tracks, as its predecessor did – even when the going gets tough, the new HomePod marshalls proceedings effortlessly, giving every instrument and effect room to breathe, both in terms of timing and space.

Two HomePods working in tandem make a fantastic setup for Dolby Atmos tracks, with more openness and three-dimensionality, and very impressive spatial placement of voices and instruments. Add an Apple TV 4K and you’ve got yourself a viable home cinema system.

** Winner: Apple HomePod 2 **

Apple HomePod vs HomePod 2: verdict

This is a particularly easy conclusion to come to: the HomePod 2 is the original, excellent HomePod made even better. It's cheaper, smarter, has better compatibility, and it sounds much clearer, cleaner and more exciting.

With its upgraded smart integration and even better audio performance, the HomePod has made a triumphant return, admirably filling the full-sized-smart-speaker-shaped hole that's been in Apple's lineup for nearly two years now. Buy with confidence.

But what if you already own the original? Should you scrap the old model and splash out on a HomePod 2? To be honest, we wouldn't be in a major hurry to upgrade (unless you really want to, of course). Yes, the new model sounds better and offers some new smarts that might appeal to some people, but the original is still a very good wireless speaker.

MORE:

Read our full Apple HomePod review

And our Apple HomePod Mini review

Sonos Era 300 vs Apple HomePod 2: which smart speaker is better?

Here's our HomePod 2 vs Sonos One shootout

The HomePod 2 has zero competition – and that's a problem 

The Apple HomePod is back! Yes, the smart speaker that Apple discontinued back in March 2021 has returned in HomePod 2 guise for a second stab at the wireless-speaker market.

But what about the competition? What product does the HomePod 2 have in its sights? Is there actually any competition for it? Well, from our perspective, one of its closest competitors can be found in Amazon’s Echo stable of smart speakers in the shape of the Echo Studio.

It looks and feels like a rival, although there are some differences – which we will come to further down the page. Join us as we pitch these two wireless speakers against one another on paper and attempt to help you work out which one might be right for you.

• Apple HomePod 2 arrives with Spatial Audio, and 'next-level acoustics'

Apple HomePod 2 vs Amazon Echo Studio: Price

So, the HomePod 2 was announced on the 18 January 2023 with a price tag of £299 / $299 / AU$479. That is actually a slight drop in price compared with the original HomePod, which came to market with a price of £319 / $349 / AU$499.

The Amazon Echo Studio undercuts the HomePod 2, coming in at £190 / $200 / AU$329. It launched back in 2019 so it has been around for quite a while, and we have seen occasional price drops, mainly around big sales events such as Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday. Apple price drops are quite rare, especially on brand-new products, so we expect the HomePod 2 to hold steady at its full asking price for the near future at least.

Apple HomePod 2 vs Amazon Echo Studio: Design

The HomePod 2 keeps the cylindrical shape of the original. It is also once again wrapped in a woven fabric which is made from 100 per cent recycled materials – even the power cable is covered in the same material this time around. On top, there is a backlit display with capacitive buttons that stretches edge to edge. It measures 16.8cm x 14.2cm (6.6in x 5.6in) and weighs 2.3kg (5.16lb).

Apple hasn’t confirmed the power rating of the HomePod 2’s internal amplifier, but it does drive a 10cm (4in) high-excursion driver and an array of five horn-loaded tweeters.

By contrast, the Amazon Echo Studio is a little bit bigger, measuring 20.6cm x 17.5cm (8in x 7in) and weighing in at 3.5kg (7.7lb).

It too sports a chunky, cylindrical shape and comes covered in either a charcoal or glacier white fabric.

Here, power is supplied by a 330W amplifier, which drives two 5cm (2in) midrange speakers positioned left and right, a 25mm (1in) forward-firing centre tweeter and a 5cm (2in) upward-firing midrange speaker. Bass is delivered by a downward-firing 13.5cm (5.25in) bass driver. There are physical volume buttons on the top, along with a mic mute and Alexa wake button.

Apple HomePod 2 vs Amazon Echo Studio: Features

The features on the HomePod 2 largely mirror those found on the original model. So, it is heavily centred around Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant, and voice controls. And, of course, it is aimed squarely at Apple device owners. Android users can look away now (although we would prefer it if you could finish reading this page before you did).

Own an Apple iPhone? Well, you can hand off whatever it is you are streaming to the wireless speaker simply by tapping the two devices together. HomePod 2 can also transfer suggested playlists and podcasts to your iPhone when both devices are near each other. We haven’t seen the new speaker yet, so can’t comment on music app support, but the original offered Siri voice control only with Apple Music and we would be surprised if this was extended to any rival services on the HomePod 2.

On the audio front, the HomePod 2 supports Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos, plus lossless playback via Apple Music. Naturally, you can pair a couple of HomePod 2s together if you want to listen in stereo, and you can once again add a pair to an Apple TV 4K as an alternative to a soundbar.

In a similar vein, the Echo Studio is built to integrate into Amazon’s ecosystem and work with the Alexa voice assistant. Typical features such as timers, reminders and alarms are accessible through the Echo Studio and you can ask Alexa all manner of questions.

You also get support for immersive audio via Amazon Music should you subscribe to the streaming service. Content available on the service in both Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio is also supported.

Start up the Echo Studio for the first time and it will fire out test tones and adjust its output for your room characteristics. It doesn’t sound quite as advanced as the HomePod 2, which can intelligently scan its environment in real-time and optimise its sound accordingly, but we won’t know exactly how accurate the HomePod 2’s calibration is until we get a sample into our test rooms, of course.

Apple HomePod 2 vs Amazon Echo Studio: Sound

We are currently waiting for a review sample of the HomePod 2 before we can report back with sound quality findings from our test room, but we are hoping for big things, given Apple’s claims. If it can deliver weighty, authoritative sound like its predecessor we should be in for a treat. Whether Spatial Audio support will bring anything to the party also remains to be seen.

We did test the Echo Studio when it first came out and it did a relatively good job of impressing us, at the money, thanks to its open, airy presentation. We weren’t convinced over the quality of its bass delivery, though. In late 2022 Amazon announced that it was rolling out a software update to "improve stereo sound and [enhance] the clarity and bass response" and we haven’t heard this new version of the Studio so it will be a good opportunity to see how the Studio has improved (or not) while we are testing the HomePod 2. Stay tuned for all our findings.

Apple HomePod 2 vs Amazon Echo Studio: Initial verdict

We were never really sure why the original HomePod was given the chop, to be honest; it was a five-star performer and, in our eyes at least, capable of exciting and room-filling audio. But, that’s all in the past.

Now the HomePod 2 is here, and looking to regather its crown with a more powerful processor, extra smart home features and claims from Apple that it is capable of ‘next-level acoustics’. The Echo Studio is, according to Amazon, its ‘best-sounding smart speaker ever’ but it would have struggled against the original HomePod. Perhaps its latest software update has taken its audio quality to a new level. We shall see…

MORE:

Read our in-depth Apple HomePod 2 review

The Apple HomePod 2 is official: Price, release date and features revealed

Apple HomePod vs HomePod 2: what are the differences?

Amazon announces new Echo Dots with upgraded sound, plus updates to Echo Studio

Our pick of the best wireless speakers

While the just-announced HomePod 2 may not be the most exciting Apple launch, much more evolution than revolution it seems, the company reportedly has more exciting smart devices in the pipeline. Apple is working on a 'slate’ of new smart home devices, according to a new Bloomberg report.

People familiar with the plans suggest the first fruit of this labour will be a “low-end iPad” designed to control smart home HomeKit products such as thermostats and lights, stream video and facilitate FaceTime chats. Essentially an Apple version of the Amazon Echo Show (pictured) and Google Nest Hub, then. The report continues to say that this smart display will have magnetic fasteners to allow users to mount it onto a wall, positioning it as more of a static home device than a portable companion.

It’s been almost a year since Bloomberg first reported on the prospect of “new speakers with screens and cameras", and while this new report by Mark Gurman buckles down on the likelihood of such a device appearing, the expected release date isn’t until next year. You never know, that timeline might even put it in contention for an Apple-made Micro LED screen.

Also appearing on the 2024 roadmap is apparently a new Apple TV streamer upgraded with a faster processor, while the development of an intriguing all-in-one Apple TV, HomePod and FaceTime camera device is, the report says, “still ongoing”.

If Apple really is diving deeper into the smart home realm, as it appears to be, 2024 could be a prolific period of Apple-branded smart device launches. After all, the company is a fair bit behind Google in terms of smart hardware, with no displays, cameras or doorbells – or anything 'smart' beyond its HomePods and Apple TV, really – to its name. Having arrived late to the smart speaker market with the HomePod in 2018, perhaps it doesn't mind playing catch up here.

MORE:

Apple's HomePod 2 has zero competition - and that's a problem

HomePod 2 vs HomePod mini: what are the differences?

Apple HomePod 2 vs HomePod: what are the upgrades?

AirPods Max 2: release date rumours, potential price, features and spec leaks

Read our Apple HomePod 2 review

Amazon's Echo Show line turns the brand's Alexa smart speakers into smart displays you can control with both your hands and your voice, but now, that functionality is getting pushed a little further. Thanks to a free new update, Amazon's Echo Show 15 now has the Fire TV interface, turning it into a full-fledged smart TV.

Normally, an Echo Show will let you do all the familiar things you can do with a smart speaker, like check your calendar, order from Amazon, ask questions, set timers, check the weather, and a million other things, but now you're also getting a Fire TV experience on top of all that.

Echo Show 15's new user experience will be immediately familiar to anybody with a Fire TV, whether it's from Amazon or a third party. You'll get an onscreen carousel of apps that include popular services like Netflix, YouTube, etcetera, and you'll have no trouble listening to music or streaming content.

You'll also be able to use Alexa to open apps or stream something, while you also have the option of using an Alexa Voice Remote or the Fire TV app to navigate your Echo Show hands-free, avoiding any distracting fingerprints on the display. Put simply, use whatever navigation makes sense to you.

You can get yourself an Echo Show 15 for just $195 at Amazon, right now, down from its retail price of $250, while you can pick up an Alexa Voice Remote for 50% off at $10 as well. We haven't reviewed the Echo Show 15 just yet, but we liked the Echo Show 10, giving it four-stars in our review.

If you're in the market for a smart speaker or smart display, the Echo Show 15 is worth a look, bridging the gap between a TV and a traditional Alexa device.

MORE:

Check out all the best Amazon Echo products

As well as all the best smart speakers

And the best speaker deals

Wireless speakers come in all shapes and sizes, with incredibly varied and extensive features to boot. That's reflected in the six products below, all Best Buy winners in the wireless speaker category at the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2022. 

We have a mix of wireless speakers here that, despite being part of a crowded market that sees new contenders popping up all the time, remain the best-sounding options at their respective price bands.

Wireless speakers can be small, portable Bluetooth speakers that you can take with you anywhere (in the garden, to the beach or on holiday, for example), or they can be mains-powered speakers with a bucketload of features (such as multi-room functionality) that sit proudly as your main home audio system. Whatever your preference or indeed budget, the six winners below (two portable, four for the home) represent the best in their respective fields.

If you are looking for a budget option for the home, the tiny but mighty HomePod Mini smart speaker is a superb alternative to the Amazon Echo and Sonos One... for iOS users, anyway. At sub-£100, this Siri-powered speaker is a brilliant-value option and works seamlessly within the iOS ecosystem, though its audio chomps are what really delight: for such a compact design, it delivers a big, substantial and sophisticated sound that none of its competitors come close to.

Two returning Audio Pro speakers sit in the middle of the home category. The Addon C3 and Addon C10 MkII have fought off new competition – even from new models in the Swedish brand's line-up – to hold on to their trophies, thanks to their combination of superbly balanced and mature sound quality and a long list of streaming features that go beyond their modest price tags. 

Both are multi-room speakers, too. The C3 is actually portable in the sense that it has a built-in battery (though isn't built like the truly portable Award winners below), while the C10 MkII is the bigger, mains-powered option.

Want something properly portable? The returning JBL Charge 5 champ is the most rugged and weather-proof option for adventure types. This also staved off competition from within, from the newer JBL Flip 6 – a great alternative if you want a smaller, more affordable speaker. But the Charge 5's more powerful sound, wider soundstage and longer battery life (along with the ability to charge your phone via USB) won out, yet again.

Dali's exquisite Katch G2 (pictured top) is still a stone-cold stunner, with a gorgeous, premium design that goes hand-in-hand with a sound that is astonishingly clear, subtle and has impressive bass weight. It may seem pricey for a portable Bluetooth speaker, but we can confirm that there's nothing else that troubles its standing here, and it remains one of the best sound-per-pound options we've encountered.

At the top end lies, unsurprisingly, another home speaker: the premium Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation remains the gold standard. There's no other wireless speaker quite like it. It's been around the block for a while, but this "old-timer" (in the wireless speaker world, at least) is still such an impressive performer. Richly textured, powerful and punchy, lively and insightful. It's a wonderfully engaging sound that brings hi-fi sensibilities to a one-box wireless speaker design that's sized and priced attractively.

These six Best Buy winners are all to be applauded, but only one will win our coveted Product of the Year trophy for the category when those special awards are announced next Wednesday (9th) at the What Hi-Fi? Awards ceremony. Make sure to check whathifi.com that evening for the final results.

MORE:

Want more choice? Check out our long list of the best Bluetooth speakers

See all the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2022 winners

Here are the best music streaming services for your favourite tunes

Apple has literally only just bumped the prices of Apple Music and Apple TV+ subscriptions in the US and UK and now Amazon is about to do the same with one of its Amazon Music Unlimited subscription tiers.

If you're a current subscriber to the Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan or are thinking about joining in the coming days or weeks, you should be aware that a price hike is on the way. And the increase will be rolling out to a number of different territories worldwide from the 8th of November.

We've spotted a handful of pages over on Amazon that spell out what's changing in the UK, US, AUS and the rest of the world. From the 8th of next month, the Family Plan will cost £16.99 / $15.99 / AU$18.99 per month, up from £14.99 / $14.99 / AU$17.99. 

An annual family subscription to the music streaming service is increasing to £169 / $159, up from £149 / $149 per year (Australian annual pricing wasn't on the page at the time of writing). 

Elsewhere, the price jumps vary between $1 and $3 in South America and between €0.50 and €4 in Europe, with Uruguay, Finland and Iceland seeing some of the biggest jumps. Strangely, the European increases take effect a little later, rolling out on the 11th of November.

At the top of the page, Amazon claims it's "updating" the prices "to help us bring you even more content and features", so hopefully there will be additional value added to the streaming service in the not-too-distant future.

Back in April Amazon announced that Amazon Music prices were going up for Prime members, but this only related to its Individual plan and its Single Device plan which lets you use the service on one Amazon Echo or Echo Dot wireless speaker. There was no mention of any changes to the Family Plan at the time, but it seems that is all about to change in the next few weeks...

What do you think? If you're a current subscriber will you be sticking with Amazon Music Unlimited? How much of a hike would there need to be before you considered cancelling?

Let us know with a comment below.

MORE:

Hi-res music streaming services compared: which should you sign up for?

Our pick of the best music streaming services

And the best video streaming services

Bluesound, maker of the Award-winning Node (2021) hi-res music streamer, has unveiled a new wireless multi-room speaker with support for hi-res and MQA playback.

The new Bluesound Pulse M claims to pack a punch thanks to its 80-watt DSP smart amplifier and an "Omni-Hybrid" driver arrangement, which incorporates an upfiring 5.25-inch woofer and two 19mm tweeters mounted at 45-degree angles.

This meticulously-engineered system apparently uses a "custom-designed acoustic reflector" above the woofer to diffuse unwanted sonic artefacts and ensure a "lush" 360-degree soundstage.

Bluesound reckons the Pulse M's stylish, acoustically transparent fabric grille will help it blend into any home. Placement shouldn't be an issue, since the elliptical cabinet is only 20cm high (optional wall mount and floor stand accessories are also available).

Want a bit more oomph? Two Pulse M speakers can be paired for stereo sound. You can also use the speakers as rear surrounds for the Dolby Atmos-capable Bluesound Pulse Soundbar+, a challenger to the Sonos Arc. Add the Pulse Sub+ and the Powernode, and you'll have a complete wireless surround sound system. 

With native support for more than 20 music services, the Pulse M should be a viable alternative to the likes of the Sonos One. The usual suspects – Tidal, Spotify, Amazon Music, Qobuz, etc – can be controlled using the excellent BluOS Controller app. Users can also send audio to the device over wi-fi, Gigabit Ethernet, aptX HD Bluetooth or Apple AirPlay 2. 

Finishing touches include proximity-sensing touch controls, plus support for voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. 

The Bluesound Pulse M is available now in black or white, priced at £449 / $449 (around AU$810). How will it measure up against multi-room rivals like the Sonos One, Audio Pro Addon C3 and Amazon Echo Studio? We'll bring a full review just as soon as we can.

MORE:

Read our round-up of the best music streamers

Read our Audiolab 6000N Play review

These are the best tracks to trial your hi-fi system

At Amazon's fall launch event, besides announcing a new Echo Dot (5th Gen), the company announced a new line of Fire TVs. The Fire TV Omni QLED Series boasts QLED tech, 4K resolution, Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ adaptive support, and more. 

These sets will be available at 65-inches and 75-inches and retail for $799 and $1099 respectively. Pre-orders start today with the sets shipping in October. Disappointingly, at the time of writing, there do not appear to be any plans to launch the TVs outside of the U.S and Canada.

The new Fire TV Omni QLED Series features up to 96 zones of local dimming alongside adaptive brightness which alters the picture depending on your room conditions. These features dovetail nicely with this set's ability to detect when you're home and display artwork (or your own photos) when you're not watching TV.

Sound familiar? Samsung's The Frame TV offers something similar – a TV that performs traditional TV functions and also doubles as a stylish art piece. Although we're not sure the relatively thick, grey bezels on the Fire TV make it as attractive a proposition as The Frame.

Alexa widgets (and voice control) are onboard too, essentially turning your Fire TV into a much larger, much nicer Echo Show. You'll be able to check the weather, see your calendar, make sticky notes, control smart devices, play music, and more, much like how you can with an Echo Show.

In terms of connections, you get three HDMI 2.0 ports and one HDMI 2.1 (with eARC) socket, though Amazon does note that they will be limited to 4K/60Hz. While we don't have word on gaming performance or response time just yet, 4K/60Hz and HDMI 2.1 should just about suffice if you're using the TV with a PS5 or Xbox Series X.

You'll have to hang tight for a full review to get our take on how well these new QLED sets actually perform, but these Amazon TVs are interesting competition for more established TV brands.

MORE:

5 things we learned about Amazon's new QLED Fire TV Omni Series

Amazon announces new Echo Dots with upgraded sound, plus updates to Echo Studio

As well as our favorite Alexa speakers

And the best Amazon Echo deals

At Amazon's September launch event the company has announced an all-new fifth-generation Echo Dot and Dot with Clock, plus audio-improving software updates to the Echo Studio and a new white finish.

The updates to the Echo Studio will come to all existing Echo Studios and will of course be pre-installed in new ones. Amazon promises that the update will "improve stereo sound and [enhance] the clarity and bass response" with new spatial audio processing technology and frequency range extension which you can learn more about direct from Amazon. Though, we won't know exactly how the new Echo Studio tech performs until we get our hands on one.

Updated Echo Studios available in the all-new white finish will cost £190 / $200 and start shipping in October, while you can pre-order now. As a reminder, there's no new Echo Studio hardware, just a new colour alongside a software update that's coming to all Studios. A timeline for this update to existing Studios hasn't been announced just yet.

Amazon also announced the fifth generation of Echo Dot and Dot with Clock at its event. Both models apparently have twice the bass and 50% less distortion than their predecessors, despite being the same size and shape. 

According to Amazon, this massive audio quality improvement comes from a redesigned audio architecture that features a custom full-range driver and the highest excursion speaker of any Echo Dot to date. Of course, we'll have to test the new Echo Dots ourselves before we can tell you how well the new model performs.

The Dot with Clock also has an updated dot matrix display. Both models are set to come with new temperature sensors alongside tap gesture controls, too, while upgrades to Dot with Clock's display now allow you to view the name of a song you're listening to, weather, calculations, calendar event times, and more in addition to the time.

New Echo Dots will also come with Eero wi-fi support built-in and can be used as mesh network extenders with Eero as well, while fourth-generation Dots will be updated with this same Eero support. The new Dot and Dot with Clock will cost £55 / $50 / AU$79 and £65 / $60 / AU$99 respectively and can be pre-ordered today. 

The Echo Dot Kids is also getting an update with all-new designs featuring owls and dragons. It will be available this Christmas for £65 / $60.

Finally, Amazon has also announced a new Echo Auto, which is smaller than before and comes with an adhesive mount. It will set you back $55.

MORE:

Check out our favourite Alexa speakers

And the best deals on Alexa speakers

And our Echo Dot (4th Gen) review

While Alexa has been around for over a decade now, you can find Amazon's voice assistant in smart devices far beyond its Echo range, including in wireless speakers from JBL, Sonos, and Bang & Olufsen – many of which feature either in the main list of the best Alexa speakers we've tested, or in the 'Also Consider' section lower down the page.

With some established hi-fi brands joining the party since Alexa was first introduced, sound quality has, fortunately, gotten better over the years. As ever, you can use Amazon's voice assistant to stop and start music playback, change volume or song, or even check the news of the day (as well as other smart home control functions).

Whether you're looking for something more portable or at the premium end of the price scale, we've included speakers to suit every budget and requirement. We've also tested plenty of Alexa speakers over the past decade, so rest assured that the picks you find here are recommended by our highly experienced, in-house reviews team.

Our testing process for Alexa speakers includes whether the voice assistant has been integrated responsively and effectively, but similar to how we test the best wireless speakers, we've also judged how good the sound quality, build and feature set is for the price asked, to help you decide if it's worth your hard-earned money.

If you wish to read more about our testing process, you can do so at the bottom of the page, or scroll down for the speakers that we recommend.

The best Alexa speaker overall

If you want Alexa but need more oomph and refinement than you'd receive from one of Amazon's own speakers, we'd direct you over to the Sonos Era 100. Released alongside the also excellent Era 300 (see below), the Era 100 is a versatile, beautifully made smart speaker that combines extensive streaming playback features with some classy, deeply musical audio.

All told, it's one of the best wireless speakers you can buy.

Like its brawnier counterpart, the 100 happily produces a big, open sound, has a lovely sense of rhythmic drive, and all the detail and precision you could hope for at this level.

We're frustrated that you have to pay extra for a wired connection adaptor, but that's probably our biggest niggle that doesn't serve as a complete dealbreaker.

The app is marvellous to use, while the number of streaming features means there's no shortage of platforms to get your music playing as you like it. AirPlay 2 is available, making the Era 100 one of the best AirPlay speakers we've tested, while dual voice controls are provided via Alexa or Sonos' own (and more limited) proprietary assistant.

As a way of getting Alexa into your life without a hint of sonic sacrifice, the Era 100 is a logical step up from most of the candidates in the Amazon-made stable.

It's a terrific, eminently versatile smart speaker that outperforms many of its rivals, and while the HomePod 2 is just slightly better with voices, the Era 100's all-around credentials are undeniably impressive.

As we summarised in our original review: "Those already part of the Sonos ecosystem will find the new Era 100 speaker difficult to resist, while those new to Sonos will find it a charming entry to a capable and feature-rich wireless speaker experience with plenty of extra goodies to play with".

Read our full Sonos Era 100 review

The best budget Alexa speaker

There was a time when we weren't particularly bowled over by the way that Amazon's bespoke wireless speakers sounded, finding them a little thin and artificial for our rather exacting tastes.

Those days, happily, seem to be long gone, with the dinky fifth-gen Echo Dot proving itself to be a startlingly refined performer for the affordable price.

Amazon touted the 5th Generation as its “best-sounding Echo Dot yet” and, all told, we really can't bring ourselves to disagree.

That single 44mm front-firing speaker delivers audio that feels weighty, listenable and mature given the size and cost of the Dot, filling most rooms with a reassuring sonic confidence.

You'll hear just a little distortion at the very highest volumes, and there's naturally a limit as to how loud and proud such a small device can go, but considering the money you're paying and the Dot's diminutive dimensions, the performance on display remains remarkable.

Plus, it's a great unit even when no music is being played. Alexa has come on leaps and bounds with so much knowledge and so many skills that it's on the verge of becoming a little frightening. You can even use it to play a humorously clunky version of Skyrim if your old Xbox 360 is on the blink.

Often discounted but always good value even when at full price, the Echo Dot is the best-value way to get Alexa into your life. Our review dubbed the budget Dot a "stylish, fantastically made and quietly excellent on the audio front" which provides "a peppy, robust and often genuinely musical sound from a small unit at an even smaller price".

We've recently tested Amazon's newer, pricier Echo Dot Max, but found it to be disappointing in sound quality, especially at double the price of the Doth 5th Gen. If you're looking for the best Alexa speaker on a budget, the 5th Gen Dot is still the one to get.

Read our full Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) review

The best portable Alexa speaker

If what you want is Alexa integration alongside portability and audio quality, the Besound A1 (2nd gen) does tick a remarkable number of boxes.

The hugely impressive Beosound has built-in Alexa compatibility, although that'll obviously only work when it's hooked up to wi-fi. When it's time to go out and about, though, the A1 doubles as one of the best portable speakers we've tested, side-lining its smart capabilities and becoming a hardwearing, attractive and musical performer capable of rivalling the best that JBL has to offer at this price.

The real feather in the Beosound's cap, then, is its versatility. Sonically, it offers a comfortable yet authoritative performance that you should be happy listening to all day, treating your musical catalogue to a broad, full sound with plenty of tactile bass.

When it's time to come back in from the cold, connect the A1 to the wi-fi and you'll get all of those Alexa benefits from the comfort of your home, plus a stereo pairing mode if you need to hook up multiple Beosounds together to really get the party started. That's a lot of cap feathers!

The Bang & Olufsen portable started its life as a rather expensive unit, but shop around and, with a little patience, you'll likely find a cracking deal, especially as it's just starting to get a little long in the tooth. If it's on sale, we'd heartily recommend this classy all-rounder without a moment's hesitation.

We've got good news and bad news to tell you about the future of the Beosound A1 line. The good news? It's continuing, with a third-generation unit promising "elevated sound" and "enduring design" following its recent release. The bad? There's no more Alexa support, so the A1 (3rd Gen) won't be appearing on this list anytime soon.

Read our full Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) review

The best premium Alexa speaker

Anyone seeking out the best Alexa speaker available has to have the Sonos Era 300 somewhere near the top of their list. Smart speakers – Alexa-enabled or otherwise – don't come much more impressive than the Era 300, a speaker whose revolutionary sound and slew of cutting-edge features made it a worthwhile Award-winner in 2023.

Smart features come courtesy of Sonos's branded voice control or Alexa, although the first of these can only be used to control music playback. As you'll have guessed, Sonos has ditched Google support and put all of its AI assistant eggs in Amazon's basket instead, as is the case for the Era 100 above.

Sporting that unique but oddly alluring “cinched hourglass” shape, the Era 300 is perhaps a little more of an acquired taste than many of Sonos' more conservative designs. Blocks and monoliths are out, cinched hourglasses are very much in.

They are if they help to deliver the sort of sound the Era 300 is capable of producing. It's a profoundly excellent speaker, filling our test rooms with spacious, cohesive sound regardless of the genre or even its given particular location.

Expansive choral offerings feel broad and immersive thanks to spatial audio, yet the Era 300 is as comfortable with hip-hop and classic rock as it is with film scores or funky jazz fusion. To quote our review, "it performs admirably with any format of music you throw at it, no matter what source or genre".

Note, however, that there is a minor caveat regarding the Era 300’s spatial audio capabilities. Dolby Atmos Music from Amazon Music Unlimited and spatial audio from Apple Music are on board, but there's still no support for Tidal’s catalogue of Dolby Atmos spatial audio tracks in sight. Sorry, Tidal users.

Tidal issues aside, the Era 300 is an outstanding premium choice, justifying its high asking price by being one of the finest Alexa speakers you could hope to find.

Read our full Sonos Era 300 review

The best Alexa speaker with screen

Audio and Alexa not quite enough for you? Need something to look at as well as someone to talk to? That's where the Echo Show 5 comes in.

If you want to get fully ensconced with Alexa's world – i.e. via audio and video – this is likely your best starting point. There are a few Echo Shows knocking around, such as the Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen), yet the Show 5 is our affordable screen-and-sound choice for Alexa lovers everywhere.

Whereas most Alexa-enabled tech is audio-focused, the Show 5 embraces sound and video to help you out around the house. As well as reading out information and playing music, you can access video content on the device's 5.5-inch (14cm) LCD touchscreen, while an HD camera lets you make Skype calls or view images from cameras in and around your house.

Sound quality is decent all things considered, even if the Echo Show 5 can be beaten by more audio-focused rivals. Still, given that this is an inexpensive box of tricks that opens up the world of Alexa to a whole new audience, sonic sacrifices feel somewhat inevitable.

If you want a screen, sound and a very smart virtual companion all in one, this is as good as you’ll get for under £100 / $100.

Read our full Amazon Echo Show 5 review

Also consider

JBL Authentics 300: Large, handsome and versatile, the Authentics 300 is an outstanding choice for anyone seeking a semi-portable wireless speaker that can fire out a robust, enthusiastic sound as it moves from room to room. With dual voice assistants, Bluetooth, wi-fi streaming and Alexa Multiroom, the 300 does the lot.

JBL Authentics 500: The 300's even bigger brother features Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility but, unlike the smaller model, comes with spatial audio support via Dolby Atmos. It's also louder and bolder-sounding, although the lack of an internal battery means it's not as portable as its sibling.

How to choose the best Alexa speaker for you

There are plenty of Alexa speakers to choose from, including Amazon's own, ever-growing Echo family, plus a number of third-party brands that have given the AI assistant a home within their own respective stables. But how do you decide which one is right for you?

Size
Before buying it’s worth thinking about exactly what kind of Alexa speaker you’re looking for. Do you want something small and unassuming to kick-start a smart system, or do you want a substantial wireless speaker with built-in brains that sounds good to boot? You'll find both on the list above.

Connectivity
Alexa requires an internet connection to work, so there’s no such thing as a smart speaker that doesn’t have wi-fi, but there are other aspects of connectivity that you’ll want to pay attention to.

If you’re a regular Spotify or Tidal user you might want to make sure it supports Spotify Connect or Tidal Connect, while iPhone owners should look out for AirPlay. Bluetooth is pretty common, but if you think you might want to go wired at some point you’ll need a 3.5mm socket, which is much rarer.

Smart features
The presence of Alexa means most smart features are supported no matter which speaker you go for, but if you want to make full use of all your smart home kit you might want to opt for one with a display.

Having a screen will allow you to make video calls and check who’s at the door if you have a compatible video doorbell, making it more of an all-round home hub than just a speaker.

Some Alexa speakers also support Matter and Thread, which are relatively new wireless standards that make connecting other smart home devices simpler and more reliable. Keep an eye out for those if you think they might come in handy.

How we test Alexa speakers

We have state-of-the-art testing facilities in the UK, where our team of experienced, in-house reviewers test the majority of hi-fi and AV kit that passes through our door, including Alexa speakers.

What is important in our reviewing process is that each product is compared to the best in its price and class – whether that's one standout smart speaker or a few we favour the highest among the scores we listen to each year for reviews and What Hi-Fi? Awards judging.

What Hi-Fi? is all about comparative testing, so we keep our Award-winners nearby to enable unbiased comparisons between new products and ones we know to have performed highly in the category.

We are always impartial and do our best to make sure we hear every product at its very best, so we play plenty of different types of music and give each speaker extensive listening time – including time to run in.

With the best smart speakers, it's not just about sound quality; we'll also ensure part of our testing involves trialling the voice control features. We also take them home to test how they perform in real-world use.

All review verdicts are agreed upon by the entire team, rather than an individual reviewer, to eliminate any personal preference and to make sure we're being as thorough as possible. There's no input from PR companies or our sales team when it comes to the verdicts or star ratings in our reviews.

At What Hi-Fi? we are proud to consistently deliver honest, unbiased reviews – something we have been doing for 50 years.

FAQ

Recent updates

• February 2026: No new entries, but we've checked all copy is correct and updated it where necessary.
• September 2025: No new entries, but we've tweaked our copy to make it more user-friendly and readable.
• May 2025: No new additions but made sure all of our copy is accurate and up-to-date.
• March 2025: Removed the Audio Pro Addon C5A due to lack of availability. Added a new intro and two new questions to the FAQ, making reference to the newly announced Alexa+.
• January 2025: No new additions but we've updated and refreshed our copy for the start of the New Year.
• December 2024: Amended list's copy to make it up-to-date and ensure that all of our information is correct.
• October 2024: Made some general copy tweaks and added a new question to the FAQ section.
• May 2024: Added an Also Consider section to give buyers alternatives to the main models listed above.
• February 2024: Added FAQ section to help with buying decisions and frequently asked questions.
• November 2023: What Hi-Fi? Award winners labelled after the 2023 Awards Best Buys and Product of the Year announcements.

How do you improve on a five-star speaker like the Audio Pro A10? If you're Audio Pro, you make the same speaker but bestow it with multi-room skills. That's the A10 MkII in a nutshell.

It's exactly the same winning speaker as its predecessor, but it now supports Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast and Audio Pro's own multi-room technology. That means it can play the same tunes as your other speakers in different rooms, so the music follows you through your home.

The A10 isn't the first Audio Pro speaker to get the multi-room treatment. The Scandinavian brand has made MkII models before, including the Award-winning Addon C10 MkII, and Addon C5 MkII.

The A10 MkII is one of Audio Pro's more compact speakers, like a Skandi take on the third-gen Amazon Echo. It features a fabric grille, plus the brand's presets function – just press and hold any of the four buttons atop the speaker, and you can save playlists, radio stations and more for quick access without taking out your phone.

The Audio Pro A10 MkII is available now for £220 / $250 (around AU$378). 

MORE:

Read our Audio Pro A10 review

See all our Audio Pro reviews

And check out the best wireless speakers

Bluetooth speakers offer a convenient, portable solution to your on-the-go sonic needs, and the best part is that they aren't usually that expensive.

We've listed our picks for the finest budget models below, all of which hover around or below £100 / $100 / AU$200 and have been put through their paces across various locations and scenarios.

The choice of speakers available in the Bluetooth market is huge, and much like wireless earbuds, plenty of poor-quality challengers are attempting to get in on the action. We've filtered out the rubbish and focused on the best speakers around, making our judgements based on hands-on comparative testing for every model below.

What could 2026 have in store? LG has announced a host of additions to its will.i.am-tuned Xboom range, while budget brand Majority has entered the market with its four-strong Move line-up.

Our experts have put all of the featured speakers through their paces, assessing their performance when it comes to sound, build quality, features and usability.

Just because it's cheap, doesn't mean it shouldn't be extremely cheerful!

You can read more about our testing process here, or keep scrolling to see the best cheap Bluetooth speakers we'd recommend.

The quick list

The best budget Bluetooth speaker overall

For true value for money, the JBL Flip 6 is still king of the ring when it comes to budget Bluetooth speakers. The newer Flip 7 is a five-star operator with upgraded sound and even more features than before, but the sixth-generation model earns its place here thanks to its evergreen qualities and ever-dropping price.

While there might have been a little pressure for JBL to rework the entire line, the Flip 6 looks and sounds so good that it simply doesn't seem logical to do so. There's a little extra durability here thanks to an IP67 water and dustproof rating (compared to the waterproof-only IPX7 Flip 5) as well as additional space within its trademark zealous and musical presentation.

We love the dynamic, cohesive sound of the Flip 6, although if you want more from the midrange and less from the treble, you can now tweak it thanks to a new EQ feature in the app, thus adding significant value. For a small price hike over the Flip 5's launch price, there’s certainly more detail on display as well.

Overall, the Flip 6 is another five-star performer, built to the highest standard and focused on delivering a hugely enjoyable sonic experience for a meagre outlay. Tracks are presented cleanly, cohesively and with barely any audible muddling, and while the Flip 6's new sonic prowess means that it can be slightly critical of overly harsh recordings, most of the time it works as a great companion to the music being played.

Enthusiastic, dynamic and often enjoying a healthy discount, the Flip 6 is our go-to budget Bluetooth speaker.

Read our full JBL Flip 6 review

The best portable budget Bluetooth speaker

It may not look like much, but if you want a backpack-friendly Bluetooth speaker that won’t break the bank, Tribit Audio’s Stormbox Micro 2 is one of the best cheap models we’ve tested yet.

The small-form-factor sequel to the original Stormbox Micro doesn’t have the 360-degree grill design of many of its rivals such as the dinky UE Wonderboom 4, but during our review we found it to be well-made, easy to use and a solid performer over time.

The Micro 2's woven finish design is pretty much the same as its predecessor, yet it has small design upgrades, improved battery life and better audio quality over its predecessor.

We easily coaxed 12 hours of listening out of a single charge, whereas the unit's IP67 rating allowed us to use it in the bathroom/shower/kitchen without issue or damage. As a candidate for outdoor use then, the Stormbox Micro 2 certainly has the requisite credentials.

Audio, meanwhile, is bigger, punchier and louder than you’d expect from such a small unit, keeping up with tricky rhythms and upbeat tempos while also bringing out vocals with personality and nuance. Our listening tests showed the midrange in particular is dealt with in a much more appealing manner than practically anything else we’ve seen at this budget price point.

The Micro 2 can suffer from a little distortion at louder volumes, but realistically you’ll have to pay more and invest in a JBL Flip 6 to get better overall sound.

Read our full Tribit Audio Stormbox Micro 2 review

The best smart budget Bluetooth speaker

Let's be clear that the Echo Dot isn't a traditional Bluetooth speaker – it isn't portable and does require a plugged-in connection to the wall to work. That said, you can use Bluetooth to connect your smartphone or tablet to the Echo Dot, especially if you want to play music, qualifying it as a Bluetooth speaker, and a smart one at that.

And what a good speaker it is too. The Echo Dot (5th Generation) earns its place here thanks to its all-round excellence, solid sound and hugely attractive price tag, and while it may be cheap, nothing about the Dot feels cut-price.

Alexa voice control, meanwhile, is getting smarter by the minute, so filled to the brim with skills and knowledge that it's frankly getting a little scary. The Dot's cybernetic assistant is more helpful than ever before, stuffed with so many tricks and quirks that you'll often find yourself falling into the trap of speaking to Alexa as though "she" were a real person.

What's most impressive is how far the audio has come. We weren't that keen on the sound of Amazon's early Echo models, but continual improvement and refinement ensure that the company's “best-sounding Echo Dot yet” lives up to its billing thanks to a sound that feels surprisingly weighty, listenable and far-reaching.

For value and versatility, this Echo Dot is seriously tough to beat. Amazon added to its smart speaker range with the Echo Dot Max, but its mediocre sound means we're still recommending the Echo Dot (5th Gen) instead.

Read our full Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) review

The best cheap budget Bluetooth speaker

The JBL Go 4, like a baby Pitbull terrier or one of Ant-Man's insect comrades, is small and cute yet remarkably tough and tenacious. Sporting the same form and dimensions as, say, a chunky deck of cards or your standard bar of soap, the Go 4 has been designed for ultra portability – the sort of thing you can stuff into the bottom of a kit bag or even ram inside an accommodating back pocket.

If you need something that offers more wallop and musicality than your phone's measly in-built speakers, JBL's dinkiest dynamo is your best bet.

In a straight competition with the best that your phone can handle, and quite a few larger Bluetooth competitors, the Go 4 is sonically supreme.

It doesn't have the open, mature presentation of the crowd-pleasing Tribit Stormbox Micro 2 above, but we're still so impressed by how the JBL's taut bass, restrained trebles and smooth mids combine to craft a marvellously coherent sonic picture.

Textures are revealed with clarity and character, but there's body and power to the music to which we're treated. Again, that's something you rarely see from units this small.

You also rarely see such impressive spec sheets and feature lists. We weren't so keen on the fact that the outgoing Go 3's battery life was frustratingly paltry (around five hours), but the fourth-gen sequel bumps those numbers up to seven hours as standard plus an extra two with Playtime Boost activated.

Auracast lets you pair two Go 4 speakers together in stereo or hook up multiple compatible JBL units, helping to future-proof the speaker as newer JBLs will likely be compatible with the current model.

You even get app support, with a five-band customisable equaliser for getting your Go 4 sounding just how you like it.

For around £35 / $45 / AU$50, there's nothing better than the JBL Go 4.

Read our full JBL Go 4 review

Also consider

JBL Flip 7: The five-star JBL Flip 7 is started life at £130 / $150 / AU$170, but it's already enjoyed major discounts that have, at the best of times, halved its RRP. Considering how portable, potent and practical it is, we couldn't fully omit the best Flip ever made.

Pure Classic Aura: It won't do for taking on your travels, but as a charmingly designed and sonically talented speaker that will sit happily on your kitchen work surface on the corner of your bathroom, the Classic Aura is a charming alternative to the likes of JBL and Audio Pro. Plus, it has ambient lighting!

JBL Charge 5: Possibly one of our favourite portable speakers in recent times, the Charge 5 is still scooping Awards thanks to its clear, open soundstage, supreme build quality and exceptional value. Prices are creeping down, too, so while it's slightly too costly to make its way onto the main list, the Charge 5 has to be recommended for anyone happy to spend a little extra to get a lot more speaker.

Beats Pill: The Beats Pill is back and, here's a pleasant surprise, it's actually rather good. With a clear, clean sound and some decidedly nice bass, not to mention a travel-friendly design and outstanding IP67 rating, long-term Beats fans will find it to be a worthwhile companion.

Sony ULT Field 1: The Field 1 was supposed to officially retail at £119, but Sony seems to have had an attack of generosity and dropped that figure down to £99 (sometimes £69!) where it seems to have stayed permanently. Well-furnished, very nicely made and a lot of fun to listen to, it's a very able alternative to the JBL Flip line.

How to choose the best budget Bluetooth speaker for you

Aside from something that sounds good for the money, we advise a durable design and waterproofing at this end of the market. IPX7 and IP67 (the latter meaning that on top of waterproofing, the speaker is IP-rated against dust ingress) are good numbers to look out for – and we have listed each speaker's rating. For the best portable Bluetooth speakers on a budget, these factors are essential, especially if you'll be using the speaker outdoors, on the go, or in the kitchen.

If portability is a key factor, the budget Bluetooth speakers we've recommended here are small enough to fit in a coat pocket or big enough to fill a room with serious sound. It's imperative that you also check the dimensions before clicking "buy" so you know exactly what you're getting for your needs.

Whether you want full-on portability or a speaker to move occasionally from your bedroom to the kitchen, you're sure to find something here that you – and your current budget – can truly enjoy.

How we test Bluetooth speakers

At What Hi-Fi?, we independently review hundreds of products every year, including the latest budget Bluetooth speakers hitting the market from JBL, Bose, Bang & Olufsen, Ultimate Ears and other renowned brands, plus propositions from lesser-known brands that catch our eye. So how do we come to our review verdicts – and most importantly, why should you trust them?

We have state-of-the-art testing facilities in the UK where our dedicated team of expert reviewers (who have more than 100 years of collective experience in reviewing, testing and writing about consumer electronics) thoroughly tests every product that comes our way.

Of course, with portability a priority for budget Bluetooth speakers, we make sure we spend several days putting the product through its paces in real-life, on-the-fly environments at home and in the garden (and dunk them in the kitchen sink when they're waterproof, too).

We have price-appropriate competitors and class leaders (often our benchmark What Hi-Fi? Award winners) constantly on hand to compare and contrast every product we review with similarly priced ones, and we take considerable time to ensure every aspect of a Bluetooth speaker is tested thoroughly, from its performance to its battery life to how well it can withstand most weather conditions.

Of course, sound quality is a priority here, even at budget prices, so we make sure you're getting the most out of your money. We test every speaker with a broad range of music, from pop to 90s grunge to classical and everything in between.

All verdicts are agreed upon by the team as a whole rather than a single reviewer, helping to ensure consistency and avoid individual subjectivity.

You can read more about how we test and review products on What Hi-Fi? here.

FAQ

Recent updates

January 2026: No new entries this early in the year, but we're looking ahead to the new models and ranges which are set to arrive in 2026.

December 2025: The Amazon Echo Dot Max had a chance to become our favourite budget smart speaker, but its middling sound means that we're still recommending the five-star Echo Dot (5th Gen). Added the Pure Classic Aura to our also consider section.

October 2025: Gave our copy another check and refresh in lieu of any new entries.

August 2025: No new entries, but we've gone through our copy to make sure everything's correct and up-to-date.

June 2025: No new updates, just a simple copy refresh to make sure everything's correct and up-to-date.

April 2025: Removed the JBL Flip 5 and added the JBL Flip 7 into our also consider section.

January 2025: We've removed the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 now that it's no longer widely available from major retailers.

December 2024: Updated copy and included references to What Hi-Fi? 2024 Award winners.

September 2024: Added the JBL Go 4 to our main list and moved the JBL Go 3 to the also consider section.

July 2024: Added new Beats Pill to the also consider section.

March 2024: Added an 'also consider' section (above) to give more choice and a top tip to help readers make more informed buying decisions.

November 2023: What Hi-Fi? Award winners labelled after the 2023 Awards Best Buys and Product of the Year announcements.

MORE:

Which JBL speaker should you buy in 2025? Charge 6, Flip 7 and more compared

Best Bluetooth speakers: portable speakers for every budget

For an alternative to Bluetooth, here are the best wireless speakers

If you're looking for a stylish smart speaker that offers a lot of functionality for not a lot of money, the five-star Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen) should be top of your list. This version has now been succeeded by the Echo Dot (4th Gen) but it's still a great buy – especially if you can pick one up at a discount. 

We awarded the Echo Dot (3rd Gen) full marks based on its clear sound, impressive Alexa capabilities and budget price tag. Simply put, it's great way to invite Alexa into your home without splashing too much cash. Here's where to find the best Echo Dot (3rd Gen) deals, including today's cheapest prices... 

The 3rd Generation Echo Dot is more stylish, more intelligent and better-sounding than its predecessor. So, right off the bat, you're getting a lot for your money. And with Alexa at your beck and call, you can play music, check the news, make voice calls, set alarms and control Alexa-compatible smart devices and more – without leaving the sofa.

Equipped with an upgraded driver and new microphones, we found the 3rd Gen Echo Dot to be a strong performer, both in terms of picking up voice commands and playing music. It won't trouble your hi-fi, of course, but Alexa can be heard loud and clear.

Simple, cheap and effective, this smart speaker is highly recommended. Tempted? It's well worth weighing up the deals above before you open your wallet.

MORE:

Save big: best Amazon UK deals

Our pick of the best smart speakers

Thinking of buying a Sonos speaker? Sonos: everything you need to know

The Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Generation) is the most expensive smart device Amazon has produced at its £240 / $250 / AU$400 RRP, meaning the standards that it needs to reach are considerably higher than many of its own Echo smart speakers and other more wallet-friendly companies' alternatives such as the Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen).

But when you consider that its 10.1in Full HD screen can now tilt and twist to follow you around the room, and that both the speaker and camera performance have been significantly improved from the previous-generation model, that price hike begins to look entirely reasonable.

Build

Physically, the third-generation Echo Show 10 is a more imposing beast than its predecessor or the more compact Echo Show 5, with a screen mounted on a new and surprisingly large barrel-shaped speaker base. It has the ability to follow you around – not from room to room (thankfully), but the screen rotates to point its face at you when you are interacting with it. Which is either clever or creepy, or perhaps a little of both.

This all requires a fair amount of space, and the Echo Show 10 now comes with a circular ‘rotation footprint template’, similar to a bib buffet, which you can slide around its body to ensure it has enough room to rotate.

Amazon recommends you place the Echo Show 10 at least 15.5cm from the wall. Of course, that doesn’t mean it cannot be placed in a corner or on a shelf, but doing so will severely limit its movement and some of its biggest features.

The screen is mounted on an arm at the top of the main body, which means it can be tilted manually, though it can’t yet nod sagely as you talk. The bottom edge of the screen is raised by 6cm from the surface it is placed on, and the top of the screen can be up to 24cm high, depending on the amount of tilt. 

More importantly for audio enthusiasts, though, the drivers within the base do not rotate to place you in the listening sweet spot at all times, just the screen.

During set-up, the Echo Show 10 performs a slow calibration dance to work out how far the screen can swing around. The arm’s axis is at the back of the unit, where the power port is, so we’d recommend placing this port closest to the nearest wall. As the screen follows us during testing, we often forget that we might not be in the optimal listening position.

It weighs over 2.5kg, so once you’ve set the Echo Show 10 down, made sure it has enough room and run the calibration, you probably won’t want to move it often. It's designed to stay and follow you from one particular spot and, when we try to move it, the Show 10 warns us that the screen is about to hit things and requests a recalibration.

The Show 10’s main body is covered in fabric made from 100 per cent recycled material and is devoid of buttons. Across the top of the screen, there is a mic on/off button, volume controls, three little mics (one forward-facing, two either side of the mute button) and a simple camera cover slider, which not only hides the camera but also disables movement.

These buttons work well, but they’re not labelled clearly and we often find ourselves turning the mic off when trying to turn the volume down. Of course, it’s hardly a huge issue: you’ll see an orange bar across the bottom of the screen if you’ve muted by mistake and you can always say “Alexa, turn the volume down” to alter the loudness of your music hands-free. 

It’s worth noting that while you can alter the screen’s brightness on-screen by swiping down from the top of the touchscreen, you can’t do the same for the volume.

Features

The Echo Show 10 feels like a sizable, moving smart tablet on a sturdy driver-packed plinth. And that’s really no bad thing. But the headline feature here is its ability to follow you around. At first, it is a little disconcerting, because the Echo Show 10 locates you via its camera as well as sonically – a bit like HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

If there’s someone else in the room, the Show 10 can get a little confused, but for the most part, the accuracy is almost uncannily good. It doesn’t follow you all the time, though; after a few moments of idleness, it resorts to a central position and waits patiently for you to interact with it again – or say “Alexa, follow me”, which feels just a little bit creepy.

When you’re not looking at recipes, watching Amazon Prime Video (you will need a  subscription to Amazon’s video streaming service to make the most of the Echo Show 10) or video calling, you can set the home screen to display a range of photos from either Amazon Photos or Facebook, or Amazon’s own travel slideshow with pleasing shots from around the world. You can also set the screen to silently show you the latest football scores, weather forecasts or headlines, and over the course of our testing we find this much less intrusive and much more useful than we’d imagine.

We find ourselves uttering phrases such as “Leicester won?” as we pass it. Where other smart speakers can become silent, forgotten blobs over time, this one demurely adds conversation to your household – and is genuinely helpful.

When streaming TV content, Netflix and Amazon Prime apps are well integrated on the Show 10, but there are a few gaps in the video offering, including Disney Plus and YouTube. You can ask Alexa to search for YouTube content and log in to your YouTube account on the Echo Show 10, but because there’s no ‘skill’ support, you’ll get the Firefox web browser variant which means physically clicking on your chosen content to view it.

The screen boasts adaptive brightness and colour toggles and although the display’s resolution won’t exactly wow you, it’s lag-free and perfectly adequate for everyday viewing.

The camera has been boosted from 5MP to 13MP and it’s here one of the biggest gains is to be had. From the Alexa app on your smartphone, you can ‘drop in’ visually on the Show 10 by selecting ‘communicate’ and tapping on the Show 10 icon – and nobody needs to answer at the other end. But you can go even further. Tap ‘All devices’ on the Alexa app and the Show 10, then ‘camera’ and you’ll get a live feed of your home. Swipe left or right on your smartphone and it manually moves the Show 10 to pan around your room in real-time.

If you want to make sure the family silver hasn’t been pinched, see if a parcel has arrived or just spy on the cat, you now have a security camera that zooms in and out, depending on how close a moving object is to the screen. It’s a neat feature.

As you’d expect from Amazon’s flagship smart device, it’s a true home hub too. You can set up and control compatible Zigbee smart home devices with it, including lights, doorbells and thermostats. Say, “Alexa, discover my devices” and Echo Show 10 will find and set up compatible devices so you can control them with your voice or manage them on screen.

Sound

You can wirelessly connect up to two Echo speakers and a subwoofer (provided they’re on the same wi-fi network and in the same grouped ‘room’ in the Alexa app) and with Alexa’s new multi-room functionality, saying “Alexa, play music everywhere” does just that, on every Echo device in your home.

It’s possible to bypass wi-fi and streaming ‘skills’ entirely and use the Echo Show 10 as a Bluetooth speaker. We pair our iPhone and Nina Simone’s Baltimore plays with a good dollop of emotion and weight across the frequencies, though it feels just a touch compressed. Back on wi-fi, we link our Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Amazon Music Unlimited accounts, but there are lots of free music services here too, say “Alexa, play spa music” for example, and it obliges.

The option to tweak the Show 10’s bass, midrange and treble EQ settings in the Alexa app is useful if you’re not a fan of a bass-heavy presentation. With the screen partially obscuring the drivers, the Echo Show 10 isn’t being pitched primarily as a sound device, but nor is it a hugely detailed or expansive listen for its price category. It is capable of volume, but the slightly over-emphasised bass muddies the clarity of vocals and the emotive texture of musical instruments.

We stream Lethal Bizzle’s Fester Skank and the Show’s bassy character suits the grimy track through the low end and musically it times fairly well. But playing Joshua Kadison’s Jessie, we are distracted from the lilting piano passages by the encroaching low-end Wurlitzer chords, when these should only set the stage.

But while we are naturally concentrating upon the Echo Show 10’s picture and sound quality for this review, to focus purely on these does it a disservice – this device genuinely is about so much more than that.

The Echo Show 10’s ideal environment is on a kitchen counter where it can happily swing around displaying the new recipe you’re trying out, play a podcast to keep you company and offer a second screen to keep you abreast of the football, perhaps.

Alexa works well, the sound quality is good enough for a dance around the kitchen with your oven gloves on, and while it lacks sonic brilliance, that’s hardly its raison d’etre. Ultimately, this is a product you'd buy for the convenience and extra functionality afforded by a screen.

Verdict

The Show 10 is helpful, informative, easy to use and will quickly become a useful and trusted addition to any household. We didn’t expect to enjoy it quite as much as we do. It won’t be your new sound system – for this money, we would expect more from it sonically – but it is a very good smart device indeed.

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 4
• Build 5

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Read our Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) review

More into Apple? Here's our Apple HomePod 2 review

The Echo Show 5 is Amazon's screen-led play at getting us all to use its virtual assistant, Alexa. The now ubiquitous voice-activated software will listen to your commands and (most of the time) come up with appropriate responses to get the job done.

That job might be reading the weather forecast, or telling you who won the 1962 World Cup; turning the lights off and the heating down in the front room; finding a recipe and reading out step-by-step instructions; playing music from your personal playlists on Spotify or Amazon Music and, of course, much more. The Echo Show 5 has a party piece, that sets it apart from the Echo and Echo Dot speakers: a screen.

Features

The technology has been around for a few years now, and the abilities of the magical little assistant inside your wireless pieces of kit are getting more impressive by the month. Likewise, Alexa is more likely to understand precisely what it is that you are asking of her.

Where much of the Alexa-enabled kit out there is audio based, concentrated on the Bluetooth speaker market in particular, the Echo Show 5 embraces both sound and video in its abilities to communicate. So, as well as playing music or reading out information, you can access video content on the 5.5in LCD touchscreen.

That may be a movie on Amazon Prime Video, say, the latest BBC News bulletin, or even a HIIT workout from Joe Wicks. There’s also an HD camera, allowing the user to make Skype calls, for example, or view images from cameras in other rooms in the house and elsewhere.

Build

The Echo Show 5 is a little bigger than an iPhone on its side, mounted on a wedge. That triangular prism houses all the electronics and allows the screen to be tilted towards the user for easy viewing. It’s nicely put together, with a textured cloth finish at the rear and a rubberised base.

There are just a few buttons along the top of the unit – one each for volume up and down, and one for turning the microphones and camera on and off. There is also a reassuringly analogue slider that blocks or frees the camera shutter – allowing the user to know for sure that there is no possibility of being snooped on unexpectedly.

At the back of the unit, at the pointy end of the wedge, is the power port, a micro USB input and a 3.5mm audio output, which allows you to connect the Echo Show 5 to a more powerful speaker (though it seems unlikely too many people will do that).

Sound

The Echo Show 5 is a diminutive device, and as such cannot possibly offer the scale of sound that some specialist wireless speakers can. But then it offers so much more ability and functionality than a run-of-the-mill Bluetooth speaker. 

For what it is, we find the sound perfectly acceptable. It runs fairly warm, sonically, which helps voices on radio and the like, and makes for a comfortable listening experience.

Still, you'll get more pleasing, Alexa-enabled sound from the more premium Sonos Era 100 speaker, the Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) or the far more affordable Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation), although none of those five-star performers offers you the considerable boon of an onboard display screen. 

We say the words “Alexa, play Bruce Springsteen’s newest album” and Alexa obligingly announces that the Boss’s latest is called Letter To You and it is playing on Amazon Music within a couple of seconds. The song’s lyrics are displayed on the screen line by line, which is a nice touch. 

Springsteen’s voice is rendered faithfully, with just an occasional sibilant buzz from the Show 5. This unit doesn’t like being pushed too hard as far as volume goes, but if you keep things at middling levels it does just fine. As background music to be woken up to, or for listening in the kitchen while cooking, it is a perfectly serviceable sound.

The voice control is undeniably convenient. If you’re using the Echo Show 5 in the kitchen, say, it’s useful to be able to say “Alexa, turn the volume up” without having to touch the unit with greasy or floury hands.

The 5.5in screen brings a similar verdict to the sound. The picture isn’t spectacular, but it’s acceptable. You wouldn’t want to watch a full-length movie on the Show 5, but for video clips, chatting to friends and family over Skype, or viewing the baby in its room or the visitor at the front door, it does a good job.

Verdict

The Echo Show 5 isn’t pretending to be something it’s not, and if sound is your priority there are plenty of other wireless speakers out there that will do a better job in purely sonic terms.

But this is an affordable box of tricks that does so much more than that. It opens up the world of the digital assistant to a whole new audience for both audio and video; and if that’s what you’re after, this is about as good as you’ll get – especially for this sort of money.

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Features 5
• Build 5

MORE:

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Read our Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) review

More into Apple? Here's our Apple HomePod 2 review

As the 19th-century philosophical saying goes, all truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is opposed. Third, it is accepted. When Amazon abandoned its puck-shaped Echo Dot a few years ago and served up a spherical design in its place, comment threads on various forums erupted in laughter.

Amazon isn’t the first to consider a spherical audio solution, of course. Cabasse’s Pearl and Devialet’s Phantom range embraced the design many moons ago, while others, such as Bowers & Wilkins’ Nautilus or Vivid Audio’s Giya, have also confidently extolled the virtues of gastropod shapes for sonic deliverance. Now, of course, Apple has also gone spherical with its excellent HomePod Mini.

This fourth-gen Echo Dot has since been replaced by the also-spherical, lightly updated Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen), but as the newest model attests, the hockey ball design is clearly here to stay. The question is: is it right for you, especially now that the veteran 4th-gen experience is available at a discount?

Build

The Echo Dot is similar to the HomePod Mini in stature – placed side by side, the two speakers are almost identical in form. Our charcoal Echo Dot sample is a similar hue to the black Mini and the power cable is mounted at the same angle – although the Dot’s cable is removable rather than fixed, and flanked by a 3.5mm audio line out for wired listening.

Much like the larger Echo (4th Gen), the Dot’s spherical design is lopped off at the bottom to provide a base, and it's here you’ll find the Amazon Echo range's trademark blue ring of light. Alexa’s pulsating presence is slightly subtler than it is on the top edge of the previous Dot, and it now reflects pleasingly on kitchen counters or glass tables.

The fourth-gen Dot is the same size as the upgraded fifth-gen model – think grapefruit rather than a stack of coffee coasters. The four physical buttons for mic on/off, action and volume are still present, offset from the apex of the Dot, and there’s also a 'tap to snooze' feature, which is helpful if you use your Dot for alarms and reminders.

One notable thing about the new design is the elliptical band of plastic that rises to its highest around the power port at the back of the unit; it means you shouldn’t expect the same omnidirectional sound presentation as in the previous iteration. As we said in our review of the larger Echo (4th Gen), which sports this same design element, it’s a minor issue since the device needs to be plugged in and, consequently, will usually sit close to a wall anyway.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the extra height afforded by a spherical design must mean an extra driver under the hood. However, the all-new Echo Dot includes a solo, front-firing 4cm driver with a four-mic array for voice pick-up also featured.

Inside is a new chip, which promises to make Alexa’s response times up to twice as fast. In our tests, the newer Dot does respond quicker. The fourth-gen Echo Dot also enters a new low-power mode when idle to save on energy consumption.

Features

As anyone familiar with Amazon Echo devices knows, set-up is a case of downloading the Alexa app on your smartphone, plugging in the Dot and following the prompts. Helpful advancements have been made to encourage the ownership of several Echo devices. For example, you can name and group all your Echo products within your home, so saying “Alexa, play David Bowie in the living room” will mean that any Echo devices in that group will oblige.

One Dot cannot be in two groups at once, but you can say “Alexa, play David Bowie everywhere” to get audio throughout your house. Stereo pairing is possible too, but only between two Dots of the same model.

Under the Communicate tab on the Alexa app, you can make an announcement (such as “I’m home”) be broadcast to your speakers, and under the Home tab you can browse ‘skills’ to enable on your Dot. These include a round of the TV quiz show Pointless, spa music to help you unwind after a hard day, a game of Simon Says to occupy your children, and many more.

Of course, you can link music streaming subscriptions, including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited (but not Tidal or Qobuz). Although Apple Music, Beats 1 Radio and Apple Podcasts are supported skills on the Echo Dot, venturing into Apple’s ecosystem with an Amazon Alexa product isn’t the smooth ride you’d get from the Apple-centric HomePod Mini. It works most of the time but can feel a bit clunky.

In our tests, we find that the fourth-gen Echo Dot has slightly better hearing than its predecessor, but the most dramatic improvement is Alexa’s vocalisation. There are several voices to choose from but, whichever one you select, Alexa sounds less muffled than in older iterations and has clearer, crisper diction – a huge bonus if you often ask your Echo Dot questions or enjoy receiving flash briefings. Although the quickened response times in the new Dot might feel negligible, the levelled-up clarity of its responses is undeniable.

Add this to features such as Amazon Routines (to dim lights in your smart home, for example), ‘dropping in’ on anyone sat near a Dot for a two-way conversation, and Alexa’s help with everyday queries and all in all, this affordable smart speaker offers a staggering amount of clever perks for the money.

Sound

As the driver inside the new Echo Dot is front-firing, wall-mounting it (with the base against the wall) is ill-advised. The ideal placement for this Echo Dot is in a corner or facing out into a room with the power connector at the back. But despite a design that’s slightly fussier over placement, once you set it down you’ll hear the difference.

It isn’t time to sell your pair of stereo standmounts just yet, but if you regularly listen to podcasts or music at your desk, the Echo Dot offers a solid step-up on the previous model for audio. We kick off our listening with R.E.M’s Automatic For The People album and find the keys and strings in Nightswimming three-dimensional and relatively well fleshed out, aided by a clear, refined treble.

Stream The Waterboys’ The Whole Of The Moon and the Dot jubilantly celebrates the track, managing to open out various musical strands – the lilting female backing vocal, a violin, a cannon firing – and layer them with a steadier hand than its older sibling. It does so while staying true to Mike Scott’s textured and central vocal through the midrange, too.

Sit through the brooding intro of Maria McKee’s Show Me Heaven and any fears that the Echo Dot might be undercooked through the bass are dispelled. It would be churlish to expect huge low-end clout from such a small speaker, but here it is certainly present and helps an emotive dynamic build over the course of our listening.

We switch to David Bowie’s Absolute Beginners and find the Dot's delivery boasts zeal and agility, with an extra ounce of focus that helps the whole package come together nicely.

The HomePod Mini betters the Echo Dot for detail and overall sound quality, as does the newer Echo Dot (5th Generation), but Apple's effort is double the price and a far more particular (by which we mean Apple-centric) beast, and the new Dot attracts a slight premium.

Verdict

The question of which voice assistant to introduce to your home is largely a personal one. If your household comprises mostly iPhone users, for example, the HomePod Mini offers Apple-focused functionality and a step up in terms of sound quality over the Echo Dot, albeit at a substantial price hike.

But by updating its most popular and affordable Echo device, Amazon laid down the most compelling case yet for choosing Alexa – a case that is only slightly weakened by the emergence of the 2022-released 5th Gen model. That said, the latest upgrade means that the 4th Generation is on its way out and cheaper (by about £15 / $20 / AU$35) as a result.

Amazon’s entry-level smart device has come a long way in terms of sound quality since the arrival of the first and second Dots – so much so, that you could say Amazon has come a 'full circle’ in the smart speaker arena.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Features 5
• Build 5

MORE:

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Read our Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) review

Check out our Apple HomePod Mini review

Echo Pop vs Echo Dot (5th Gen): which is the best budget Amazon smart speaker?

Amazon's popular smart speaker is back with a whole new look in its fourth generation. It also has a built-in Zigbee smart hub this time round, and more potential under its new 100 per cent recycled hood. You don’t need an especially keen eye to realise that Amazon has started from scratch for this fourth-gen Echo.

The cylinder design has gone, in favour of a Magic 8-Ball-esque sphere, and perhaps fittingly you can ask it any question you want – as long as it’s plugged into power and linked to your wi-fi. We raised an eyebrow when we first saw the new orb-like Echo, but Apple's bijou HomePod Mini (£99 / $99 / AU$149) and the emergence of two spherical Echo Dot models since have made this sort of design the norm rather than a small freak of fashion.

Amazon is transferring its once-exclusive flagship features – greater audio power and a built-in smart home hub – to the overhauled Echo. This fourth-generation Echo essentially negates the Plus model in that it offers the ability to control Zigbee devices, promises better audio over its predecessor, and, of course, offers a more nuanced Alexa voice assistance. Already, that’s a better proposition on paper than you'll get from another smart speaker in the sub-£100 ($100, AU$200) price, er... sphere.

Build

The Echo measures 13cm tall, 14cm wide and is near-spherical (the base has been lopped off to provide a flat surface to prevent the unit from rolling), making it roughly the height and width of a CD. It’s available in black, dusky blue or white.

Amazon’s trademark smart speaker light ring has been relocated from the crown of the speaker to the base, providing a glow that now reflects nicely off surfaces. It lights up blue when you utter your chosen Alexa wake-word, yellow when grouped with another Amazon speaker, and orange in set-up mode.

On the top panel are buttons for Alexa, volume and mic mute. Around the back is where you’ll find the power socket and 3.5mm audio output. Perhaps one small mark against the new design is a rising die-cast aluminium ellipse that is at its highest above the connection ports, meaning that the back portion of the speaker doesn’t provide great omnidirectional sound output. 

It’s a small issue – since Echo speakers need to be plugged in to operate, you’re unlikely to put one in the centre of a room, but we found better multi-directional sound in the older, cylindrical model.

Underneath its notably more mesh-like fabric jacket, the Echo houses a 76mm woofer plus dual 20mm front-firing tweeters, a set-up that supports Dolby Stereo (not to be confused with Dolby Atmos. It now features what Amazon calls ‘premium adaptive sound’, allowing it to sense the acoustics of your space and fine-tune audio playback accordingly.

The drivers in the new Echo come in the form of a 7.6cm woofer combined with two 2cm tweeters. Alongside its built-in Zigbee smart home hub, there’s support for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Amazon Sidewalk. The purpose of the latter is to help you set up new devices quickly and extend the working range of things, such as Ring Smart Lighting, that may be beyond the capabilities of your home wi-fi.

The new Echo’s design is nothing if not a conversation piece. It's ended up becoming something of a trailblazer, with the HomePod Mini, Echo Dot (4th Gen) and Echo Dot (5th Gen) all taking up the spherical mantle.

Features

The Echo includes Amazon’s AZ1 Neural Edge processor, a silicon module purpose-built for accelerating machine learning applications. With AZ1, powerful inference engines can run ‘on the edge’ (ie. on the device), starting with an all-neural speech recognition model that should process requests faster and make Alexa even more responsive, ‘learning’ and understanding more about you over time.

As long as that concept doesn’t scare you off completely (you can turn the Echo’s mics off whenever you want), your preference between Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa will likely come down to compatibility with other products in your home. For us, there’s not much in it – and the service here is greatly improved thanks to an impressive range of third-party services, including BBC, The Guardian and Pointless smarts in the UK.

It’s easy to get the Echo up and running using your smartphone (you must enable Bluetooth) and wi-fi, and once you’ve linked your streaming service accounts, it'll play music from Amazon Music Unlimited (of course), Apple Music, Spotify or Deezer over wi-fi. Even if you don’t link any music-provider subscriptions, the Echo will play from Amazon Music Free by default – and you’ve always got TuneIn radio too.

Set-up is done using the Amazon Alexa app, which is well-designed and intuitive. On the app, you can alter your Echo’s EQ levels, give it a name and assign it to a room in your house, or group it with other compatible Alexa speakers. For example, create a “downstairs” group, say “Alexa, play music downstairs”, and your new multi-room Alexa smart set-up obeys.

You can make Alexa announce that ‘Dinner’s ready’ to every speaker in your home thanks to its intercom feature, or send music to a particular room as a not-so-subtle message – Bruno Mars’ Lazy Song to a room containing a housemate who’s yet to emerge, perhaps. The ‘Devices’ tab followed by the ‘Plus’ icon sets up most of these scenarios, and, while we found Alexa most attentive during testing, if you prefer to click rather than vocalise your tune requests, simply tap the in-app ‘play’ icon and use your phone to load up music.

We partner two spherical Echos together in a group, allowing us to switch from one to the other easily. While stereo pairing is an Echo feature, it can only be done with two equivalent speakers.

Sound

We ask Alexa to play an '80s Spotify playlist and during Livin’ On A Prayer, Jon Bon Jovi’s vocal is central alongside a surprisingly expansive bass: there’s the deep injection of Richie Sambora’s electric guitar, backing vocals and trademark voice box. These musical strands are much clearer and impactful through the newer Echo.

Our playlist continues to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now, and we’re treated to a well-timed performance across the frequencies. It isn’t afraid to go low either – one of our gripes with the older Echos was an occasionally soft and ill-defined bass, and it feels as though Amazon has addressed this.

We switch to Outnumbered by Dermot Kennedy on Apple Music, and the textured vocal comes through centrally, with an impactful but agile bassline. Stream hip-hop and the new Echo comes into its own, brimming with full-bodied, textured lows.

With Disturbed’s cover of The Sound Of Silence, the new Echo presents a sound that’s weighty and expansive enough through the bass for its size, but it lacks bite and we find ourselves upping the volume to get it. 

Carmina Burana, performed by Edvin Marton, again features a more pronounced string section through the older Echo. While there is a more expansive mix across the frequencies in the new speaker, this piece hones in on the violin, and here there is urgency and excitement through the frantically bowed passages. Because of this, the track hangs together with a better sense of unity alongside its pumping dance beat.

Of course, the upside of the slightly recessed treble in the spherical speaker is that it handles tracks with greater refinement, while the older model can expose brightness or harshness in some recordings. Ultimately, your preference will come down to whether you favour a fun, energetic sound or a more integrated hi-fi approach. We lean towards the latter, but it won’t be for everyone – and it is a mark against the new Echo that the treble is a little undercooked.

Verdict

Putting the new Echo’s minor sonic shortfalls as a hi-fi proposition to one side, its usability and likeability cannot be ignored. Alexa feels present and useful but not imposing, the Alexa app support makes placement and multi-room configurations a breeze, and the sound quality, while a step down from ideal, easily passes the sound-per-pound value test for a smart speaker of this modest price.

It’s important to remember that as a smart home hub, the Echo’s sonic chops are a side feature rather than its raison d’etre. The Amazon Echo (4th Generation) is ultimately a solid cornerstone from which to build your smart home and easily betters its predecessor for expansiveness, subtlety and bass weight.

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 4
• Build 5

MORE:

Read our guide to the best smart speakers

Read our Amazon Echo Show 5 review

Read our Apple HomePod Mini review

When smart speakers first emerged just over a decade ago, sound quality was not their strong point. With brands from Apple to Sonos now integrating voice assistants into their products, it’s possible to get both AI-powered smart skills and top-notch audio performance from one device, as long as you know where to look.

Before scrolling down to find out which smart speakers our experts recommend, it’s worth looking at which AI assistants are available. Amazon’s Alexa is probably the most famous and widely supported, with Google Assistant a close second, while Siri is only found on Apple products.

All three have their strengths and weaknesses, and which one you’re most used to using might dictate which of the products below are best-suited to you. If you just want to know which is the best wireless speaker or the best Bluetooth speaker, we've got guides for those, too.

All of the smart speakers featured on this list have been comprehensively tested by our team of experienced experts, and as well as the usual focus on sound quality, build and features, we’ve also assessed how responsive they are to voice commands and how well they perform their various smart duties.

You can find out more about how we test smart speakers at the bottom of this page, but first, check out our pick of the best smart speakers we’ve reviewed.

Best smart speaker overall

In terms of overall performance at a competitive price, there are few better smart speakers than the Sonos Era 100. Released as a cheaper, slimmer alternative to the superb Era 300, the Era 100 keeps up with its bigger, more expensive sibling by delivering a host of streaming playback features within a robust, deeply musical speaker.

Most of the same smart capabilities are on display here, too, and while Google Assistant has been officially dropped, Sonos' voice control and Amazon Alexa are here to take over such duties.

If you’re not keen on splashing a lot of cash to foot the £449 / $449 / AU$749 asking price for the Era 300, the Era 100 is a great option as a smart home speaker that will suit most needs almost all of the time. The number of streaming features is vast, and everything is as well-made and reliable as you’d expect.

Just like its larger counterpart, the 100 delivers a spacious, open sound, a lovely sense of rhythmic drive and all the detail and precision you could hope for considering the money paid.

As we said in our review: "There’s an ease with which Sonos delivers every track we play through it. It never feels dull or distant, nor does it try to attract your attention unduly; this is an overall pleasing sound that is comfortable to listen to for hours". Nice.

No, we’re not exactly happy to be spending extra money for a dongle to allow a wired connection, and the HomePod makes voices sound a touch more natural, but if you’re still happy to spend a decent amount without making as much of a dent in your funds as the 300, the Era 100 works superbly as a dedicated music player and a clever smart speaker.

Job done.

Read our full Sonos Era 100 review

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Best smart speaker for spatial audio

If home spatial audio is a priority, then smart speakers don't come much more impressive than the Sonos Era 300. With the Era 300, Sonos has delivered a smart speaker capable of voice integration alongside revolutionary sound and an embarrassment of cutting-edge features to rival the best that Apple or other rivals have to offer.

Smart features are courtesy of Amazon Alexa and Sonos voice control, with Google Assistant dropped due to a change in Google’s technical requirements for third-party devices. That's not the greatest loss considering it's never been the most popular AI helper, anyway.

With its unique, “cinched hourglass” shape, there’s no question that the Era 300 is a bit more of an acquired taste than most of the brand’s rather more conservative designs, but what isn't up for debate is how superbly the five-star Era 300 manages to perform. Per our review: "It all sounds detailed, engaging and accomplished, and it’s fun, too".

That fun is key to the Era 300, as is its versatility. The Sonos is a versatile and confident performer, consistently filling our testing rooms with cohesive, spacious sound across a swathe of genres. Big choral numbers feel broad and immersive thanks to spatial audio (although there's no support for Dolby Atmos on Tidal yet), but the Era 300 excels across hip-hop, classic rock, movie soundtracks and more.

Yes, it’s expensive and yes, it smacks of a rip-off having to pay extra for a wired connector, but the Era 300 has earned the right to be so impertinent.

A five-star performer and one of the best smart speakers you could hope to find, especially if you're mad about spatial audio.

Read our full Sonos Era 300 review

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Best budget smart speaker

If the HomePod 2 (below) is too big and expensive for your needs but you love the idea of an Apple-made smart speaker that will fit perfectly into your iOS-oriented ecosystem, the HomePod Mini is your best bet.

At just 8.4cm tall and 9.8cm wide, it’s quite a bit smaller than the similarly spherical Amazon Echo, but it certainly doesn't lack power. Get its swirling orb of coloured light up and running to signify that Siri is listening or processing and you're in for a real sonic surprise.

Siri, of course, is your voice assistant, and after a short period of learning it'll respond to the phrase “Hey Siri, play something I'll like” not by streaming your most played track of the last few weeks, but by playing something that you probably haven't heard before but which has been curated to fit in with your current tastes and habits. As a powerful way to discover new music, it's fantastic, and Alexa simply isn't as good at it.

The HomePod Mini goes loud, too. From the moment we start playing music, it’s clear that the Mini is happy to outperform its size and price, impressing us with the organisation and maturity of its bold, assertive sound that, as we stated at the time, "embarrasses its direct competition with the sophistication and maturity of its sound".

Apple products have occasionally laboured under the reputation of being a little overpriced, but the HomePod Mini, hovering around the £100 / $100 mark, actually seems like superb, Award-winning value.

Just be aware that there's no dedicated companion app, and you'll only get the most of it if you're committed to the rest of the Apple ecosystem, including Apple Music.

As is the case with the HomePod 2, we're hoping for a new model, Mini or otherwise, to arrive in 2026, but for now, the current Mini makes for a superb budget option. A no-brainer for Apple lovers everywhere.

Read our full Apple HomePod Mini review

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Best smart speaker for Alexa

Love Alexa? We'd heartily recommend the inexpensive and very cheerful fifth generation of the Echo Dot as the direct, if cheaper, rival to the HomePod Mini above. We 've reviewed the more recent Echo Dot Max, but given that the 5th-gen speaker is cheaper, oft-discounted and a better performer, it's the one that gets our seal of approval.

Amazon's smart speaker range has become big business in the last decade or so, with Alexa now almost synonymous with the whole concept of integrated, domestic AI. The Echo Dot (5th Generation) takes things to new levels, a powerful and clued-up smart speaker that practically gives itself away thanks to its meagre asking price and five-star quality.

Not that the Dot feels cheap - in fact, quite the opposite. Whereas once Alexa was a one-note performer capable of answering basic questions about the weather and or what the capital of Germany is, she's as filled to the brim with knowledge as Stephen Fry after a year in the British Library (with Alexa+ on the way to boost that even further).

The Dot's cybernetic assistant is more helpful than ever before, stuffed with so many tricks and quirks that you'll often find yourself falling into the trap of speaking to Alexa as though it, or rather she, were a real person. You can even use her to play Skyrim, albeit in a strange, truncated form.

Audio has come a long way, too. We weren't mad about the sound of Amazon's early Echo models, but the trajectory has been very much one of continual improvement courtesy of Jeff Bezos' tireless team of audio tinkerers.

Amazon's so-called “best-sounding Echo Dot yet” still distorts if you pump the volume too high, but it lives up to its billing thanks to a single 44mm front-firing speaker (4mm larger than the previous gen’s 40mm).

The result? A sound that, as our review surmised, is "peppy, robust and often genuinely musical from a small unit at an even smaller price". Great stuff.

Read our full Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) review

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Best portable smart speaker

When we reviewed it a few years ago, we dubbed the Beosound A1 "the weightiest and most refined little speaker we’d heard in a while", all while praising its "classy, well-made design, easy to use operation and the bonus of Amazon Alexa". Our initial affections, thankfully, haven't changed at all since the Beosound dropped in 2020.

Yes, the hugely impressive Beosound A1 qualifies as a smart speaker, even if you might think it's just a Bluetooth model at first glance. Thanks to its built-in Alexa compatibility and support from Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive codec, the A1 is a proper smart speaker, something that's made even more remarkable considering how rugged, well-made and superb-sounding this bap-sized wonder is.

Most smart speakers are wedded to the mains as part of their nature, but the A1 has Alexa capabilities while also being a well-made and sophisticated piece of portable tech. That's a winning combination in our book.

In fact, the Besound A1 is something of a Jack-of-all-trades, master of many. Sonically, the well-made, hugely attractive unit offers a pleasingly comfortable yet authoritative performance that you'd be happy listening to all day, complementing your musical catalogue with an expansive, meaty and assertive presentation.

At the higher ends, there's very little strain, while an expansive, weighty bass lays the groundwork with ease. Oh, and there's even a convenient strap for ease of transport for what is still a primarily portable unit.

It's expensive, sure, and it's certainly not the newest, but if you have money to spend, the smart Beosound A1 is a rather remarkable all-rounder, and one you'd be happy showing off to your friends.

There's good news for fans of B&O: there's a new Beosound A1! The third-gen model is more costly (boo!) at £299 / €349, and it doesn't have Alexa, but it's made it onto the 'also consider' section of our best Bluetooth speakers list thanks to its rich sound and effortlessly stylish aesthetic.

Read our full Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Gen) review

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Best Apple smart speaker

If you love Apple tech and want a great-sounding smart speaker with room-filling audio, the HomePod 2 is almost certainly the best option we’ve tested, and a fine alternative to the Sonos Era 100 above.

Apple's five-star model is the larger option in the Californian brand's current line-up, sitting above the smaller HomePod Mini in terms of weight and size. It's also one of the finest Apple products around today, even if we're been waiting for a while for a new model to drop. We were supposed to be getting a HomePod with a screen at some point in 2025, but as of yet, there's been no official sighting, so who knows what 2026 holds?

The HomePod 2's main draw is its ability to scan and optimise its audio settings for the room and position it's in on-the-fly, something which worked superbly during our own tests. Picking it from a place in free space and moving it close to a wall, our testers could hear it changing its settings in real time, mainly by reducing unnecessary bass that tends to muddy the sound when it isn't wanted.

We were particularly impressed with how well the HomePod 2 dealt with an Apple Lossless version of SBTRKT’s Trials Of The Past, a taxing track that can often suffer from unwanted sibilance and harshness. No such problems with the HomePod (even if some rivals do sound more direct).

Once set up, the built-in mics and smart features all worked perfectly. Siri universally heard and enacted our voice commands, even while music was playing and we were talking to the speaker from across the room.

We were also hugely impressed by the built-in temperature and humidity sensors which can be used to create custom automations using other smart home devices.

From top to bottom, the HomePod 2 is the smart speaker to beat for dedicated Apple acolytes (limited third-party support makes it less suitable for others), and the fact that it's still claiming What Hi-Fi? Awards only testifies to its supreme capabilities.

Read our full Apple HomePod 2 review

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Best smart speaker for Google Assistant

Alexa is by far the most common voice assistant when it comes to smart speakers, but if you’re more Google than Amazon there’s a lot to like about the JBL Authentics 300, not least the fact that it actually supports both. It’s not necessary to choose which one you want to use, it’ll automatically respond to requests directed at either, with both responding equally eagerly.

Retro designs aren’t to everybody’s tastes, but it’s hard to deny the appeal of the Authentics 300. The chunky controls on top could feel a bit nicer to twiddle, but on the whole we’re big fans of its waffle-esque grille and sleek metallic trim. The handle and 4800mAh battery inside also mean that it’s technically portable, but at almost 5kg it’s not something you’d want to lug around for long.

When plugged into the mains and connected to Wi-Fi the JBL puts on an assertive sonic performance with plenty of punch. It’s not quite as sharp over Bluetooth, and it can occasionally tip over into brashness with certain songs, but you can’t fault its enthusiasm.

With multiple connectivity options, including AirPlay 2, Chromecast and Spotify Connect, plus a lesser-spotted aux input and an intuitive companion app, the JBL Authentics 300 makes for a versatile option to anyone who’s committed to the Google ecosystem.

Read our full JBL Authentics 300 review

Also consider

WiiM Sound: WiiM is taking on the HomePod 2 with the similarly-shaped WiiM Sound, and giving Apple's finest a run for its money thanks to the Sound's pleasing design, excellent streaming feature set and smooth, fluid presentation. It doesn't sound as good as the HomePod 2, but we can't help but wonder if it's just a matter of time before WiiM really cracks the audio side of things.

Sonos Play: Think of the Play as a smaller version of the Move 2 below. In fact, the Play does pretty much everything a Move 2 can do, including integrating within the Sonos ecosystem, streaming via the wi-fi and housing dual voice assistants, but its smaller size gives it greater portability credentials as if you just want a robust, easy to manage Bluetooth speaker. An impressive jack of all trades.

Sonos Move 2: While it didn't quite hit the heights of a full five-star haul, there's so much to recommend the Move 2. As we've said many times before, part of the major appeal of a Sonos speaker is its compatibility with the peerless Sonos ecosystem, and while we felt the second-gen Move couldn't quite justify its hefty price tag, there's lots to like about that big, confident sound and excellent array of streaming features.

Audio Pro Addon C5A: What does the "A" in the Audio Pro Addon C5A stand for? Alexa, of course! Yes, the C5A is essentially the Alexa-enabled version of the excellent Addon C5 and that, as it turns out, is a winning combination. Merging the C5's detailed, engaging and snappy sound with frictionless Alexa integration, the C5A is like discovering how well salt goes with caramel. Delicious.

JBL Authentics 500: The biggest member of the Authentics family boasts Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility but also sports spatial audio support via Dolby Atmos. It's larger, louder and bolder sounding than anything else in the range, although a lack of an internal battery means you'll need to connect it to the mains at all times.

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How to choose a smart speaker

Compatibility
The first thing to consider is compatibility. Many smart speakers are platform agnostic, so they'll work with both Android and iOS devices, but Apple's HomePod range isn't much use without an iPhone or Apple OS device to set it up.

You also won't be able to make the most of it without an Apple Music subscription as support for third-party streaming services is limited. If you're a Spotify or Tidal subscriber, you'll be better off picking something that has Spotify Connect or Tidal Connect baked in.

Ecosystem
It's also worth thinking about which ecosystem you use most. While most voice assistants do work with other services, they're tightly integrated with those made by their creators, making them much slicker to use. If you frequently use Google's services, for instance – Calendar, Maps, Gmail – maybe a product with Google Home onboard would be best for you.

Love shopping at Amazon and have a Prime account? An Amazon Echo might be right up your alley. Or maybe you want more flexibility and a wider choice of streaming features (hi, Sonos).

Sound quality
We're What Hi-Fi?, so the audio quality of a smart speaker still matters over the AI tech. This can vary quite a lot between models and manufacturers, and while spending more doesn't always guarantee a better listening experience, you do get the benefit of your investment here.

Some of the smaller smart speakers are limited purely because of their dimensions, so be realistic about your budget and what to expect. Find the right balance between great sound for your tunes and a helpful AI assistant, though, and you're on to a winner.

Connectivity
Most smart speakers will do everything you need straight out of the box, so wired connectivity tends to be fairly limited. If you’re looking for something that’ll allow you to connect external sources, Sonos is probably your best bet – and even then, you’ll need to buy an adaptor to do so.

How we test smart speakers

Everything we test at What Hi-Fi? is subject to the same stringent approach, but there are some differences depending on what type of product it is, and smart speakers throw up some challenges not found in most other product categories.

In many ways we approach smart speakers in the same way we would any other wireless speaker, setting them up in our state-of-the-art listening facilities where our team of expert reviewers perform the majority of our product testing.

This is where we will test their sound quality by listening to various genres of music and judging how well the speaker reproduces all areas of the frequency range.

While we’ll also test how responsive the voice control is at this point, we also like to try it out under more appropriate real-life conditions: with the TV on in the background, when the kettle’s boiling, or over the sound of the dog barking.

This gives us a better idea of how a smart speaker will perform day-to-day and how well it integrates into a wider smart home setup.

As well as testing every product in isolation, each one is also compared to the best in its class on design and build, features, and sound quality. What Hi-Fi? is all about comparative testing, so we keep our Award-winners on hand to enable unbiased comparisons between new products and ones we know to have performed highly in the category.

All review verdicts are agreed upon by the entire team, rather than an individual reviewer, to eliminate any personal preference and to make sure we're being completely thorough.

There's no input from PR companies or our sales team when it comes to awarding star ratings or deciding on our overall verdicts.

You can read more about how we test and review products on What Hi-Fi? here.

FAQ

Recent updates

June 2026: Added the WiiM Sound and Sonos Play to our also consider section.

January 2026: Updated and refresh our copy for the start of the new year.

December 2025: Despite recently testing the Amazon Echo Dot Max, our mainline list remains unchanged.

August 2025: We haven't had many smart speakers pass through our test room doors recently, so we've made sure all of our existing copy is up to date.

May 2025: No new entries, but we've updated our copy to make sure it's all up-to-date and accurate.

March 2025: JBL Authentics 300 promoted from 'also consider' to the Best for Google Assistant slot due to lack of availability of the Sonos One, which has been removed. Expanded the FAQ section with two new questions. Refreshed the intro and added more detail to the 'how we test' section.

February 2025: Updated copy following recent Apple recent press event and improved intro readability.

January 2025: Ensured that all copy is up-to-date for the start of 2025.

October 2024: What Hi-Fi? Award winners labelled after the 2024 Awards Best Buys announcements.

August 2024: Some small copy adjustments and added pictures to our image galleries.

May 2024: Added JBL Authentics 300 and 500 to our 'also consider' section.

March 2024: Added FAQ section to help with buying decisions and frequently asked questions and an 'also consider' section to offer alternative buying options for readers.

November 2023: What Hi-Fi? Award winners labelled after the 2023 Awards Best Buys and Product of the Year announcements.

Voice control isn't the sole preserve of wireless smart speakers, you know. Barking "Alexa, open Just Eat" at your Echo Dot (or other Alexa speaker), or "Hey Google, what's in my calendar for today" to your Google Assistant speaker just for the joy of hearing that your schedule is clear, is now commonplace. But using spoken word to command the main music system in your home – your serious, great-sounding hi-fi setup – may not seem so natural. It may be a jump many audio enthusiasts are reluctant to take, even. But give this a moment's thought, music lover, because verbal control over your hi-fi might be just what your household needs.

Here, we explain the various ways in which you can have voice control as part of a hi-fi system, whether you are keen to use Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant or Apple's Siri platforms, and whether you want to bring your a traditional 'dumb' system into 2022 or are looking to invest in a new set-up with virtual voice assistance at its core...

Add voice control by connecting a smart speaker

One of the easiest routes to giving your vintage hi-fi system a voice is by connecting an external smart speaker to it. How you do so depends on which voice assistant you want to add.

Add Alexa to your system
The Amazon Echo Dot smart speaker comes with its own built-in driver under its little spherical fabric jackets, but you can beef up its audio by making it play through the speakers in your sound system instead. (Amazon launched a speaker-less Echo Input device a few years ago for this very purpose, but it's now been discontinued.) This may be handy, but note that audio quality will be limited here.

The Echo Dot offers wired and wireless connectivity, and will work with just about any integrated amp, receiver, soundbar or pair of active speakers with a 3.5mm aux input or Bluetooth connection. With either connection, all of the audio – including Alexa's verbal answers – will play through the connected speakers in your system.

The diminutive, cheap and cheerful Amazon Echo Dot has a 3.5mm output, which means you can wire it to any receiver, integrated amp or powered speaker with a 3.5mm input. Alternatively, it features built-in Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) Bluetooth, meaning you can connect it wirelessly to any Bluetooth-enabled receiver, speaker or soundbar.

• Check out the Best Alexa speakers 2022

Add Google Assistant to your system
Want Google Assistant to run the show instead? Similarly, you can pair a Google Nest Mini* (Google's version of the Echo Dot) over Bluetooth for voice commands and music to play through your Bluetooth-toting system. However, it does not have a 3.5mm output.

*Older Google smart speakers, such as the Home Mini, can also do this.

• These are the best Google Assistant speakers 2022

How about hi-fi with Alexa or Google Assistant integrated?

As we've explained, almost any receiver, integrated amp or powered speaker with a 3.5mm input or Bluetooth connection will essentially 'work' with Alexa (or Google Assistant, for that matter), if you've already got an Alexa- (or Google-) powered device to physically or wirelessly connect it to. 

Products with Alexa and/or Google Assistant integrated, however, do not require you to already own and connect a third-party smart device. These products – 'smart' themselves – have integrated microphones to pick up your commands, and run Amazon's or Google's voice software internally, rather than simply being able to work with the technology. These are, for now, more or less limited to wireless 'smart' speakers, though, examples of which are the JBL Link Portable (Google Assistant) and Audio Pro Addon C5A (Alexa), as well as platform-agnostic speakers that support both Alexa and Google Assistant, such as the Sonos One.

Soundbars with voice assistants baked in (which save you from having to find that TV remote lost down the sofa) are fewer in number but include the Sonos Beam and Arc, the Yamaha YAS109 and the Harman Kardon Citation MultiBeam 700.

How about the Amazon Echo Link/Amp or Sonos Amp?

If it's an Amazon Echo device, that means Alexa must be built in, right? Wrong. The Echo Link and Echo Link Amp – Amazon's music streamer and music streaming amplifier respectively – don't have integrated microphones so still need a third-party Alexa device, such as an Echo Dot, connected to be able to obey commands and be part of voice-controlled music groups throughout your home.

Similarly, the Sonos Amp – which you may well think would be voice controllable – doesn’t have an in-built microphone for voice control. It will, however, respond to voice commands issued to connected Alexa-, Google- and Siri-powered devices, including, naturally, the Sonos One.

• The 101 on the multi-room king: Sonos: everything you need to know

Multi-room audio platforms with Alexa and Google voice support

If you've yet to buy a hi-fi system and want to get one that puts voice assistant friendliness at its core, there are now several hi-fi and home cinema components that have Alexa- and/or Assistant-friendly multi-room platforms built in. These include those based on Yamaha's MusicCast, HEOS by Denon, and BluOS, all of which offer an enhanced Alexa experience when a third-party Alexa device (like an Amazon Echo) is connected to them through specific Alexa 'skills'.

MusicCast
MusicCast is a wireless multi-room audio system built into several Yamaha AV receivers, soundbars and wireless speakers. It allows these devices to be connected together through your home wi-fi network and controlled by an app on your smartphone or tablet. By adding Alexa or Google Assistant through a third-party smart speaker, you can kick back on the sofa and simply ask for music on your MusicCast AV receiver.

In case you didn't know, Alexa provides capabilities (called 'Alexa Skills') that enable us to create a more personalised experience according to the kit we own, which can be downloaded from the Alexa Skills store, or simply by saying “Alexa, enable [skill name].” Since said skills are cloud-based, they don’t take up space on your device, so there’s no limit to the amount you can enable. There are two Alexa skills that work with MusicCast: the MusicCast Smart Home skill and the MusicCast skill.

The MusicCast Smart Home skill brings standard Alexa commands such as power on/off, volume control and play/pause/skip to the party. To turn on the AV receiver in your living room, you just say, “Alexa, turn on the Living Room.”

The MusicCast skill goes beyond the basics, giving you control of unique MusicCast functions, like linking/unlinking rooms and direct access to playlists and favourites. In order to access the MusicCast skills, you need to add “ask MusicCast to” after the “Alexa” wake word (or whatever your wake word is): for example, “Alexa, ask MusicCast to link the Living Room to the Kitchen.”

Similarly, MusicCast has 'MusicCast Actions' using Google Assistant. To use a MusicCast Action, you simply say “ask MusicCast to” before your command. For example, to turn on a MusicCast device located in the living room, say, “OK, Google, ask MusicCast to turn on the living room.”

BluOS
An operating system developed by NAD Electronics and its sister brand Bluesound, BluOS sits at the core of connected products from those two brands, plus Dali and Monitor Audio.

To add Alexa voice control to your BluOS multi-room system, simply download the BluOS Voice Control skill in the Alexa app and link your BluOS-enabled products. You can then tell Alexa to play songs or playlists from subscribed services like Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer, adjust volume levels or pause what’s playing with a single voice command.

BluVoice is the voice-control interface (or trigger word) that acts as the intermediary between BluOS and a compatible voice assistant, so BluOS owners can ask their Echo device: “Alexa, ask BluVoice to play new songs on Tidal”. 

The process is very similar when getting up and running with Google Assistant – once Assistant is connected to your wireless network using the Google Home app, simply say "Hey Google, let me talk to Blue Voice" to initiate set up. The command phrase is
"Hey Google, talk to Blue Voice to...”.

DTS Play-Fi
Similarly, to use Alexa with DTS Play-Fi hi-fi products, you'll need to ask a connected Alexa-supporting speaker to play music, which it can then do across the rest of your compatible Play-Fi products.

As of 2020, DTS Play-Fi products boast Google Cast integration that includes Google Assistant voice support when linking to their Nest Home products.

HEOS
When it comes to the HEOS platform, we'd point you towards the What Hi-Fi? 2021 Award-winning Denon AVC-X3700H (above). It's an 8K-ready home cinema amplifier, but those intending to use it for music playback can also take advantage of the AVC-X3700H’s hi-res audio decoding of files up to 24-bit/192kHz and double-speed DSD. Most importantly – in regards to voice control, at least – there's a HEOS Home Entertainment skill to enable in the Alexa app, which means you can control all of your HEOS-enabled devices by conversing with Alexa through.

To set your HEOS product up with Google Assistant, follow the usual process of linking it in the Google Home app (select “Set up device” under “Add to home”,
select the “Link” icon under “Works with Google” from the Set up page to setup Google Assistant with your HEOS account). When that's tickety boo, you'll be able to say "Hey Google, volume up/down in the Living Room AVR" or "Hey Google, mute/unmute the HEOS 7".

HEOS-based Denon and Marantz kit that supports AirPlay 2 can also benefit from Siri voice control when controlled by an iOS (iOS 11.4 and later) device, too. Which leads us to...

Can I voice control my system using Siri?

In a word, yes – as long as something in your system supports AirPlay 2. 

While Apple's Siri voice assistant is integrated into the Apple HomePod (now retired) or HomePod Mini smart speakers, other speakers (such as the Sonos One) and streaming systems (such as the Bluesound Powernode 2i and KEF LSX) rely on AirPlay 2's connection to your iOS device to speak to Siri. You simply have to open the Apple Home App on your iPhone or iPad and select 'Add Accessory' to add, group and then voice control your device over Siri.

However, Siri's usefulness is more limited than Alexa's and Google Assistant's, only allowing you to directly ask to play music that's either on Apple Music or stored locally on your iOS device. You can ask to play from Spotify too, but you'll need to say "on Spotify" after your request.

MORE: 

See our pick of the best smart speakers 2022

Or the best multi-room systems 2022

Starting from scratch? Read up on the best hi-fi systems 2022

Sonos has had a rough couple of years since its disastrous app update, but it still makes some of the best multi-room speakers you can buy. Its newest models have impressed us, too: the Sonos Play earned four stars, while the Arc Ultra soundbar won an Award. So only a fool would write it off.

But the competition is fiercer than ever – they've sensed blood, and they're going for it. Take Audio Pro's W generation of speakers (one of which, the C20 W, won a What Hi-Fi? Award) and the four-star WiiM Sound, to name but two recent challengers.

In other words, Sonos isn't the only game in multi-room town. If you're looking for an alternative, you've got some great options.

All of the below beat Sonos in at least one area, be it sound quality, design, versatility or price. And all have been thoroughly tested by our expert reviews team.

With over 100 years of experience between us, we know our audio onions, whether it's 'proper' hi-fi, wireless multi-room, home cinema or headphones. What Hi-Fi? has been reviewing products for nearly 50 years, and we've always been honest, thorough and straightforward, without fear or favour.

For more information on why you can trust us, check out our how we test section further down this page.

The best Sonos alternatives we recommend in 2026

Best overall

Audio Pro has made its mark on the multi-room market in a short space of time.

We're big fans of the Swedish company's wireless speakers, which look and sound superb, and together they make an excellent Sonos alternative.

The Audio Pro C20 W, Addon C3, Addon C5A and Addon C10 MkII all deliver excellent audio performance for the money. (In fact, the C20 W is a current What Hi-Fi? Awards winner, while the C3 and C10 MkII won in previous years.)

The latest entry into the range – the C20 W – is another five-star performer, building on the success of the C20. It retains all the versatility of the standard C20, with better usability and upgraded sonics, elevating an already excellent speaker to new heights.

Audio Pro speakers are entertaining, musical performers and superior to a lot of rivals at similar money. Crucially, they also offer Bluetooth and line-in inputs on many of their models, giving even more flexibility.

The Audio Pro range doesn’t include the same home cinema components as some of its multi-room rivals. The app has been updated throughout, and looks fresh and is easy to navigate (though it did fail to connect occasionally during testing).

But as we concluded our review: "[F]or sound quality at the price, this system is currently unbeatable."

Read the full Audio Pro multi-room system review

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Best for hi-res

If hi-res is your priority, then check out Bluesound. It pairs native hi-res compatibility of up to 24-bit/192kHz with ESS Sabre DAC chips for precise digital-to-analogue conversion. Its devices are also full of features and very competitively priced. No wonder they've reviewed so well.

The Node Icon earned a What Hi-Fi? Award for its trouble last year, while the standard Node (2024) and Node Nano are both solid four-star products.

As well as the streamers, the range now includes two Dolby Atmos soundbars: the Pulse Cinema and Pulse Cinema Mini.

They're all powered by the BluOS platform, which is compatible with over 20 streaming services and a massive raft of file formats.

Dirac Live room calibration software recently came to the range, allowing you to adjust the audio to match the layout of the room in which the device is placed (though this costs extra). Dirac Live also creates a cleaner, tauter sound by reducing phase issues experienced between speaker drive units.

Downsides? Only models from 2024 onwards support DSD files (by converting them to PCM), and Chromecast support is conspicuous by its absence.

But the Node Icon recently became the first to use MQA Labs’ Qrono digital-to-analogue technology, following parent company Lenbrook’s acquisition of MQA Ltd. Qrono refines the DAC's timing response to align better with the original recording.

The BluOS mobile app is intuitive to get around, and it contains plenty of settings to play with, like gain, mono/stereo playback modes and tone control. And BluOS is more open than Sonos' walled garden approach, so you can wirelessly pair other BluOS-compatible devices like the Award-winning Cyrus 40 ST, Award-winning NAD C 3050 (with MDC2 BluOS-D module), Roksan Attessa streaming amplifier, Dali Oberon C speakers (when coupled with the Sound Hub) and PSB Alpha iQ speakers.

Read our full Bluesound Node Icon review

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Best for iOS

The HomePod 2 is the pricier option in Apple’s current lineup, sitting well above the HomePod Mini.

It succeeds the first generation HomePod we tested all the way back in 2018, and while it may look similar, it contains some big changes.

Sonically, it's a leap forward.

Our tests revealed it to be one of the best sounding smart speakers you’ll find, blowing its closest rival, the Amazon Echo Studio, out of the water and offering a much more precise low end than the first generation HomePod.

The audio doesn't succumb to sibilance like a lot of speakers at this price. It has bags of energy too, playing tunes with infectious enthusiasm. And the bass is very good indeed – as we noted in our review, it "demonstrates the sort of low-frequency flexibility that the average wireless speaker can only dream of."

Classically Apple, it's a cinch to set up.

When it's paired with an iPhone all you have to do is scan for the speaker and run through a few on-screen commands to get it fully integrated with your smart home setup. It even adjusts its sound in real time to adapt to its surroundings.

But its biggest strength is also its greatest weakness: it's an Apple product, for Apple people. If you're not in Apple's ecosystem, you won't get anywhere near the best out of the HomePod 2.

Its primary connection is locked to Apple’s AirPlay 2 tech, Apple Music is the only music streaming service natively supported and Siri is your only option for voice commands. This will limit its appeal to those who aren’t Apple diehards. They might prefer more platform-agnostic options like Sonos, or another alternative from this list.

A HomePod with a screen has been rumoured for some time now – stay tuned for updates.

Read the full Apple HomePod 2 review

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Best for value

The fifth incarnation of the Amazon Echo Dot doesn’t exactly break from its predecessor in the looks department, retaining that round shape and understated aesthetic that served the 4th Generation so well.

It's lost the 3.5mm audio output, but can still be connected to another speaker via Bluetooth.

Like other Echo speakers, it prioritises Amazon's services, but isn't limited to them: Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music are supported alongside Amazon Music, though sadly Tidal is only supported in the US.

Amazon promises clearer vocals, deeper bass and vibrant sound in any room thanks to a single 44mm front-firing speaker, larger than the previous gen’s 40mm.

It sounds very impressive indeed – "the sonic experience is somewhat remarkable when you also consider the Dot’s remarkably slim price tag and unobtrusive design," we said in our Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) review.

The bass carries some weight, but isn't as clear as with pricier speakers. Crank the volume up and distortion starts to creep in. Nevertheless, this is another stunning entry to the Echo speaker range.

Read the full Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) review

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Best newcomer

WiiM might not be a household name like Sonos, but it's impressed us greatly in its short life so far. The WiiM Pro Plus won a What Hi-Fi? Award for its killer combination of detailed sound and ease of use, while the WiiM Amp Pro is fantastic value as a just-add-speakers system. The WiiM Sound smart speaker might not quite match the Apple HomePod 2, but is still well designed with excellent streaming features.

There's also a cut-price WiiM Sound Lite to compete with Amazon's Echo speakers.

So as you can see, WiiM has plenty of devices to suit a range of budgets. And generally, the quality is very good. (We say "generally", because there are some three-star products among the range, and the connections and technologies do vary by device – the newer ones lack Apple's AirPlay tech, for instance.)

Build quality is also solid across the range, though the plastic build can feel a little cheap. And they come supporting a host of file formats (up to 24-bit/192kHz hi-res) and streaming services, all accessible through the WiiM Home mobile app, which is a joy to use.

If it looks familiar, that's because certain Audio Pro speakers use a similar app by WiiM's parent company LinkPlay.

If WiiM keeps on in this vein, it could one day rival Sonos for market dominance.

Read our full WiiM Amp Ultra review

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Also consider

The best (other) Sonos alternatives we've tested:

Apple HomePod Mini: If you don't want to shell out for the full HomePod 2 experience, the HomePod Mini is a great budget option. It delivers surprisingly full sound in a much smaller and cheaper package, while offering a full suite of features.

Amazon Echo (4th Gen): Bigger than the Echo Dot, the standard Echo gives you the same experience with improved sound. And it's often discounted, so keep a look out come sales time.

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How to choose the best Sonos alternative for you

Before you dive right in and spend a fortune on a Sonos alternative, wait.

The beauty of a multi-room system like the ones above is that you don't have to buy it all in one go, you can start with just one or two speakers and expand it on a device-by-device basis, going room to room.

This will help you spread the cost over months – or even years – and take a more considered approach to which rooms really need adding to your multi-room set-up.

And if you find actually you would be better served by another brand's ecosystem, you won't have to replace your whole system.

App control is now pretty standard, but some apps are better than others, so it might be worth looking into how each works to find which is simplest for you.

Most systems also work with voice assistants like Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa.

Deep into Apple's/Google's/Amazon's ecosystem? Make sure your Sonos alternative is compatible with your smart assistant of choice, or switch allegiance.

It's also worth investigating which streaming service(s) your speaker of choice supports.

The big ones are pretty ubiquitous nowadays, but it's always worth checking – do your homework before you buy to avoid disappointment.

You should also look at what physical connections each speaker offers – the HomePod range offers none at all bar a port for the power cable, while Audio Pro and Denon's models have optical, RCA and an Ethernet port for a more robust internet connection.

If you plan on connecting other devices to your Sonos alternatives, you'll need to know whether they're compatible.

Then there's the matter of price.

Most of the devices in this list are cheaper than their Sonos counterparts, and, with the exception of Apple, more likely to be discounted in the sales.

Choose wisely, and you won't miss Sonos at all.

How we test Sonos alternatives

At What Hi-Fi? we comprehensively test and review every product we recommend, from soundbars to speakers, headphones and TVs. And it's no different for Sonos alternatives.

As a rule, we do comparative testing – ensuring new products are tested against their rivals according to product type, features and price.

Almost all the testing is carried out by our team of expert reviewers at our dedicated test rooms, though we have been known for take Sonos alternatives home to really get the full 'living with' experience (sadly we have to give them back afterwards).

We test every aspect of a multi-room speaker system, including sound quality, features, ease of set-up and use, and overall performance.

And we test multiple products in each family, so we're not judging a whole range from one device (sound quality can really vary within the same range – some speakers score a five while others may only be a three).

As with all products we test, review verdicts are decided by the team rather than one reviewer in order to avoid possible bias. There's no input from PR companies or our sales team when it comes to the verdict.

In the nearly 50 years since we started reviewing, our aim remains the same – to give honest, unbiased advice so you can buy the best products possible.

For more, check out our how we test and review products page.

• Get the cheapest price: best Sonos deals
• Save with our best wireless speaker deals
• Best multi-room speakers
• Which Sonos speaker is best for you?

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F.A.Q.

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Recent updates

• 7th May 2026: Added Bluesound and WiiM as new entries to the main list, deleted Google Nest Hub. Replaced 'The quick list' with the desktop widget. Mentioned the new Bose soundbars in the F.A.Q.
• 26th January 2026: Rewrote intro to include reference to the WiiM Sound and our hands-on review. Added an update log below the intro.
• 14th October 2025: Deleted HEOS entry as it was out of date. Updated Awards references to 2025's winners. Added mention of the recently reviewed Audio Pro C20 W.
• 1st July 2025: Updated references to outdated speakers.
• 4th April 2025: Linked to Apple HomePod with a screen rumour round-up. Added links to AudioPro reviews.
• 17th January 2025: Rewrote intro. Added a quote from the relevant product's review for each entry. Linked to how we test and review products on What Hi-Fi?
• 13th September 2024: Rewrote intro. Deleted duplicate headings in 'The Quick List' section. Edited 'Q&A'.
• 4th July 2024: Rewrote intro. Removed test scores tables. Updated Audio Pro entry with mention of C20; updated Denon HEOS entry with mention of Marantz M1 and Denon Home 150 NV. Expanded 'How to Choose' section.
• 16th May 2024: Converted to new Best Buy format. Removed Bluesound Generation 2i, Apple HomePod Mini and Amazon Echo (4th Generation) from main list. Added 'Also consider' and 'Recent updates' sections.
• 12th January 2024: Added new introduction and mentions of Award-winning products where relevant.
• 5th June 2023: Added Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation).

Today's best deals on Sonos alternatives

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Apple may have discontinued the original HomePod last year, but that doesn't mean it's not working on new smart speakers. 

Not only does the HomePod Mini live on, Apple has since granted the original HomePod some posthumous new skills. And now it could be working on a version with a screen.

The leak comes via none other than Siri herself in a video posted to Reddit (via ScreenRant). Asked to find some information from Wikipedia, Apple's voice assistant can be heard saying "I found an answer. It's displayed on your HomePod." Which is curious, seeing that the HomePod doesn't have a screen. A few other users claim in the comments that they have received the same answer from Siri.

This isn't the only clue pointing to a screen-equipped HomePod. Back in April last year, Bloomberg reported that Apple was considering creating a HomePod with a screen to compete with Amazon's Echo Show devices and Google's Nest Hub range.

It also claimed that Apple was trying to find a way to combine the Apple TV with a HomePod. Which would definitely involve a screen.

Amazon and Google's speakers with screens act as hubs for your whole smart home, especially Amazon's massive Echo Show 15, which has a 15-inch screen and is designed to be wall-mounted. If this video is a real clue to where Apple's heading – and not just a software bug – it seems Apple could soon be competing in that space. Maybe even as soon as 8th March, when Apple is rumoured to hold its next launch event.

So could we see a screen debut on the HomePod 2? Watch this space...

MORE:

Our hand-picked selection of the best tablets

The best tablet deals to suit any budget

Our review of the Amazon Echo Show 10

These are the best smart speakers

We love the idea of a dedicated home listening room, but we know it's not practical for most people. But with a multi-room system, every room is a listening room.

You can play the same song everywhere in the home, so it follows you from room to room. Or cue up a different playlist in each room and 'zone' it – ideal for house parties.

So that's why you should consider a multi-room speaker. But which one should you buy?

It really depends on your needs, tastes and budget. Below are the best multi-room speakers to have graced our test rooms, from those costing hundreds of pounds to one that's just £50.

We recently tested the Sonos Play portable speaker, and while it didn't quite earn a place on this list, it's still worthy of inclusion in the 'Also consider' section below.

We've been testing speakers of all stripes for nearly 50 years now, and with over 100 years of combined experience between us, we know a thing or two about what to look – and listen out – for.

We agree on review verdicts as a team rather than one individual tester to avoid bias, and always listen to speakers against their main rivals in their price category, so we know how they stack up against what else is available.

For more information, check out our how we test section below.

• Love multi-room and Apple? It's worth checking out our list of the best AirPlay speakers

The best multi-room speakers we recommend in 2026

Best overall

The original Audio Pro C20 previously won a What Hi-Fi? Award, and now the most up-to-date model has repeated the feat. The C20 W picked up the gong for 'Best home wireless speaker over £300' at the most recent ceremony, and replaces its predecessor in the 'Best overall' slot in this list.

It's not a radical overhaul, but with an Award-winner, a few tweaks is often all that's needed. Audio Pro has subtly boosted the audio while making it even more versatile, making for a compelling multi-room offering that's unbeatable at this price level.

Aesthetically, there's very little separating the C20 and the W variant. The two have the same design and even the same dimensions, with the only difference being the back panel, which has changed from black on the old model to silver on the new. Oh, and there's a new walnut finish exclusive to the W, though it costs a little more.

Despite having the same drivers as the C20, the W's sound has been rethought "from the ground up". This includes improved input stages for uniform sensitivity and a better dynamic range, and changes to the speaker’s acoustical design. Those more mechanical tweaks are complemented by a tuning overhaul, too.

It certainly works. "The C20 W offers an expansive, open soundstage, granting a pleasing airiness to the likes of Ramin Djawadi’s choral Across The Oceans Of Time or Massive Attack’s Paradise Circus," we wrote in our Audio Pro C20 W review. It's an organised, cohesive sound that never sounds cluttered no matter how congested a track becomes.

The low end has plenty of heft without overshadowing the rest of the frequency range. And the whole performance is a touch richer and clearer than its Award-winning predecessor.

It has all the connections of its predecessor too, meaning it can work as a soundbar for your TV, as a Bluetooth speaker paired with your phone, or as part of a multi-room setup. And the app has been updated throughout, making it even easier to use. There's nothing to dislike.

Read the full Audio Pro C20 W review

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Best for spatial audio

It seems that it isn't enough for the best multi-room speakers to just deliver great sound and a decent array of features anymore. Ever since Apple's mighty HomePod 2 landed early in 2023 with the ability to deliver the immersive spatial audio experience, the race has been on to see who could challenge the biggest dog on the block when it came to integrating the much-vaunted tech into their own speaker designs.

Enter the Era 300, Sonos’ more expensive rival to the HomePod 2 that looks to beat Apple at its own game.

With its unique, “cinched hourglass” shape, the Era 300 might be more of an acquired taste than most of the brand’s rather more conservative designs. But what isn't up for debate is how superbly the five-star Era 300 manages to perform.

In short, it is absolutely excellent.

Throw whatever you like at the Era 300, chances are it has it covered, filling our testing rooms with cohesive, spacious sound without a hint of a struggle.

Big choral numbers feel broad and immersive when playing spatial audio with Dolby Atmos tracks, but the Era 300 excels with all genres. Hip-hop, classic rock, soundtracks, it’s all covered with ease.

Yes, it’s expensive and yes, it smacks of a rip-off having to pay 20 quid extra for a wired connector, but the Era 300 has earned the right to be cheeky. It comes with all the bells and whistles of Sonos's exhaustive app, making multi-room playback a doddle if you have multiple Sonos speakers or soundbars around your home.

A truly five-star performer, and one of the best multi-room speakers we’ve tested in a good while. A reminder that, despite Sonos' recent woes, the company still makes some stunning products.

Read the full Sonos Era 300 review

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Best for Apple users

The HomePod 2 might look identical to its predecessor, but under the hood it's all change.

Sonically, it's a real improvement on the original, especially in the bass notes – they hit with a greater degree of precision than the first HomePod's (hence it winning a What Hi-Fi? Award).

It's better elsewhere too, with a more organised presentation in terms of both soundscape and rhythms, more solidity and greater tightness. All of which make it a more fun speaker to listen to.

And that's before we get to the multi-room element. It's beautifully simple to set up and manage, but as with most Apple devices, there's a caveat: you have to be deeply ensconced within Apple's ecosystem in order to reap all the benefits.

For example, its primary wireless connection needs Apple's AirPlay 2 protocol, the only music streaming service it natively supports is Apple Music, and Siri is the only virtual assistant you can use. If you're not an Apple fan, look elsewhere.

If you are an Apple fan, however, you're in for a treat. Especially when you experience its real-time, surroundings-based sound optimisation – move it to another room, and you can hear it adjusting its output to match the new layout. Very smart.

Read the full Apple HomePod 2 review

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Best premium

At What Hi-Fi?, we know full well the value of revisions. Yet still, it was quite the surprise when first we heard about one made by Naim with its second generation of the Mu-so Qb wireless speaker.

The previous iteration was great, earning five stars when it was first reviewed. This version, however, is truly phenomenal – it won a What Hi-Fi? Award for an incredible six years in a row (though that run has since ended).

You can now choose between an Olive, Terracotta or Peacock grille alongside the standard black, but the best tweaks Naim has made go far deeper. Remove whatever colour grille you've gone for and you'll be rewarded with upgraded and optimised midrange and bass drive units, all powered by a total of 300W of amplification.

This is peak Naim, so the sound is exactly as rich and pleasing as you'd expect. The tweaks might not have been extensive, but they make a noticeable difference when you fire your Mu-so Qb up and really let it loose.

Treble response is lively and open, with a satisfyingly meaty bass delivered with punch, precision and panache. The second generation also improves markedly on its predecessor’s timing and dynamic range, thriving when delivering snappy rhythmic patterns and sparky numbers.

Belying its box-like dimensions to deliver a truly satisfying experience, the Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation is the best premium multi-room speaker around.

Read the full Naim Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation review

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Best budget

Amazon's smart speaker range has become big business in the past decade or so, with Alexa becoming almost synonymous with the whole concept of integrated, domestic AI.

The latest addition to this wildly popular series of affordable smart speakers is the Echo Dot (5th Generation), a tempting performer that practically gives itself away thanks to its meagre asking price and five-star quality.

Not that the Dot feels cheap. Whereas once Alexa was a one-note performer capable of answering basic questions about the weather or what is the name of the capital of France, now it's as filled to the brim with skills and knowledge as Keanu Reeves after he's been uploaded with various handy computer programs (although it doesn't, as of yet, "know Kung fu").

The Dot's cybernetic assistant is more helpful than ever before, stuffed with so many tricks and quirks that you will often find yourself falling into the trap of speaking to Alexa as though it were a real person.

The audio has come a long way, too. We weren't hugely keen on the sound of Amazon's early Echo models, but the trajectory has been very much one of continual improvement courtesy of Jeff Bezos' tireless team of audio tinkerers.

Amazon's so-called “best-sounding Echo Dot yet” lives up to its billing thanks to a single 44mm front-firing speaker (4mm larger than the previous gen’s 40mm), offering sound that feels, for the size, weighty, listenable and surprisingly versatile.

At this price, you'd be hard pressed to find a better speaker capable of multi-room.

Read the full Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) review

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Also consider

The best multi-room speaker alternatives we've tested:

Sonos Era 100: This replaced the excellent Sonos One, and while it lacks the spatial audio support of the Era 300, it is a very worthy Sonos speaker in its own right. It sounds better than the One – open with a keen sense of space, and plenty of detail and precision – and adds Bluetooth and a USB-C port for hooking up a turntable using a line-in adapter.

Apple HomePod Mini: For a taste of the HomePod 2 at under £100, the Mini is a wonder. It packs the same skills and effortless usability (for Apple users, that is), just with a smaller scale sound. Another previous What Hi-Fi? Awards winner.

Audio Pro C20: The non-W model is a previous Award winner, and still a great option. It's an impressively multi-talented speaker with a large, detailed sound, great connectivity and a solid build. It's no cheaper than the W variant at present, so eyes peeled for a deal.

Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII: A redesigned bass port brings significant low end to this Audio Pro speaker, making it one of the best multi-room offerings at its price. It too picked up a What Hi-Fi Award in previous years.

Sonos Play: The Sonos Roam 2 was a little disappointing, but this portable model is much more up our street. The sound is much improved, and it fits seamlessly into the Sonos ecosystem, so it's ideal for home and away use.

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How to choose the best multi-room speaker for you

You might have your eye on a complete multi-room system, but you don't have to buy it all at once. You can start with one or two speakers and expand from room to room, spreading the cost over months or even years.

You don't even have stick to one brand of speaker, but if you do mix and match, check that the speakers have the same streaming tech built in (AirPlay 2 or Google's Chromecast, for example).

Most systems are now compatible with voice assistants such as Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa. You can opt to listen to the same song in every room, or a different song in each room, ensuring a harmonious home in more ways than one.

Sonos' multi-room speakers are the most recognisable, and with good reason. They're intuitive and generally sound fantastic. But there are plenty of rivals, too, all serving tempting features such as support for hi-res audio files or your favourite streaming service, Bluetooth connectivity and more.

How we test multi-room speakers

At What Hi-Fi? we comprehensively test and review every product we recommend, from soundbars to speakers, headphones and TVs. And it's no different for multi-room speakers.

We have state-of-the-art testing facilities where our team of experienced, in-house reviewers, test all of the speakers we review.

What Hi-Fi? is all about comparative testing, listening to one set of speakers up against the next, to figure out exactly how they differ and what each one does best. We keep class-leading products in our stockrooms so we can compare new products to ones we know and love.

We are always impartial and do our best to make sure we're hearing every product – including multi-room speakers – at their very best. So we'll use different partnering products, experiment with speaker positioning, try plenty of different types of music, and give them plenty of listening time (and time to run in).

Alongside sound quality, multi-room speaker systems are also tested for their various features, ease of set-up and use, including using voice assistants where included.

We aim to test multiple products in each family as well to gauge how it operates in a genuine multi-room experience, usually involving at least two wireless speakers and a soundbar, but this will vary depending on each system's product line-up.

All review verdicts are agreed upon by the team as a whole rather than an individual reviewer to eliminate any personal preference and to make sure we're being as thorough as possible. There's no input from PR companies or our sales team when it comes to the verdict, with What Hi-Fi? having decades of delivering honest, unbiased reviews.

For more, check out our how we test page.

MORE:

Sonos: everything you need to know

Here are the best wireless speakers for every budget

Bag a bargain: best speaker deals

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F.A.Q.

Recent updates

• 19th June 2026: Replaced 'The quick list' with the tabletop widget. Added Sonos Play to 'Also consider'.
• 30th January 2026: Replaced the Audio Pro C20 with the newer, Award-winning W variant – the standard C20 has been moved to 'Also consider.'
• 17th July 2025: Added a new entry in the Q&A section. Updated intro to remove focus on Sonos' woes of the last year or so.
• 11th April 2025: Updated intro to reflect recent Sonos developments.
• 27th January 2025: Rewrote into to include Sonos' CEO resigning. Added mention of What Hi-Fi? Award winners to product descriptions.
• 16th September 2024: Rewrote intro. Deleted duplicate headings in 'The Quick List' entries. Bolded advisory text in 'How to choose'. Added more 'Back to the top' navigation tools.
• 24th June 2024: Transferred to new Best Buy format. Rewrote intro. Added Audio Pro C20, dropped Sonos Era 100, Sonos One, Audio Pro Addon C3, Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII, Apple HomePod Mini, Naim Mu-so 2, Sonos Roam and Bowers & Wilkins Formation Duo from main list.
• 18th January 2024: Rewrote intro.
• 3rd April 2023: Added Sonos Era 300 and Era 100. Dropped Amazon Echo Plus (2nd Gen) and JBL Link Portable.

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Today's best multi-room speaker deals

Amazon has started rolling out a feast of new Fire TV features in the US and Canada.

The new Smart Home Dashboard is the biggie. It lets you view and control smart home devices from the comfort of their couch, making it simple to toggle smart lightbulbs on/off, view connected doorbells and (from 2022) adjust wi-fi thermostats.

It's already possible to do all of the above using voice commands, but the nifty Smart Home Dashboard should make it a doddle to keep track of connected gadgets. To pull up the new dash, Fire TV users can just say, "Alexa, show me my smart home dashboard". It looks similar to the experience found on Amazon's Echo Show smart displays, including the newly-launched wall-mounted Amazon Echo Show 15.

The 'Amazon-built' Omni Series and 4-Series TV get an interesting new feature, too. Alexa Home Theater automatically gives you the option to pair your TV to compatible Echo speakers during setup (you'll get a notification in the Alexa app). 

Sound from HDMI-connected devices such as games consoles can also be routed though Alexa Home Theater setup. The feature already works with the Omni and 4-Series, but it will soon work with Fire TV Stick 4K Max (when connected to your TV's HDMI eARC port).

As for Alexa, a new Alexa Shortcut Panel appears on screen when you press the remote’s Alexa button. It's basically just a shortcut to "smart home controls, weather, news, and your video library". The feature will be rolled out to Fire TV devices in the States first, apparently.

Lastly, Amazon is bringing Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit to the Omni and 4-Series TVs. It also says that Zoom will be coming to the top-of-the-line Omni series in "the coming weeks" (you'll need a compatible webcam, mind).

MORE:

These are the best TVs going

See the best Amazon Fire TV Stick deals

Streaming stick stand-off: Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite vs Fire TV Stick (3rd Generation) vs Fire TV Stick 4K: which is best?

After almost two decades in the multi-room space, Sonos remains one of the most accomplished audio companies around. Its approach to multi-room music makes it the best in the business – straightforward to set up, with exemplary access to streaming services and good sound quality on top, now with hi-res support too.

That doesn't mean that Sonos speakers or soundbars can't be tweaked and bettered, mind. Whether you’ve got the small Sonos One, a pair of Play:5s, or a Beam or Arc sitting under the TV, the following accessories can get even more out of your favourite speakers...

• Our pick of the best Sonos deals and cheapest prices
• Which Sonos speaker should you buy?

Hard case for Sonos Roam or Move

By nature, portable (i.e battery-powered) speakers are designed to be taken out and about with you, to help soundtrack picnics and trips to the beach. So like sunglasses, they need protecting from all that travel when they're not in use. Sonos's two portable speakers – the Sonos Roam and Move – are no different, so if you own one or both of those, why not treat them?

The Khanka hard carry case for the Sonos Roam is barely bigger than the compact speaker, giving it a snug housing. There's a hand strap, plus a net pouch inside to store the charging cable. Like the Roam, it's available in black or grey.

Khanka's hard carry case for the Sonos Move is naturally bigger but similarly designed and comes with both a handle and carry strap. It fits the speaker, complete with the charging base and cable. Both cases are well-reviewed on Amazon.

Add voice control via Echo Dot or Nest Mini

If you’ve got a Sonos One, Beam or Arc, then you’ll already have Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant voice control built into your Sonos system due to their built-in microphones. But for those who have older, mic-less speakers such as the Play:5, the tiny Amazon Echo Dot (pictured) and Google Nest Mini provide two great functions when connected to Sonos speakers.

The first is most obvious: voice control. The connection between Amazon’s Dot and Sonos’ devices means you can use voice control to get music playing in a specific room, discover new products or adjust volume.

The second benefit is Bluetooth, one of the major omissions to Sonos’ line. But a connected Home Nest Mini or Echo Dot speaker (through the line-in port) means you can blast music from your phone over Bluetooth to your multi-room system easily.

• Best smart speakers 2021: the best voice assistant speakers

Get a music streaming service subscription

Some people have a wide array of music stored meticulously on a music server, but most of us these days rely heavily on streaming services – and Sonos works with nearly all of them.

No matter what you choose – Spotify for its class-leading user experience, Tidal for its sound quality, Qobuz for its hi-res catalogue, or Apple Music for its quality curation, price and quality (and because you’re an iPhone user) – the Sonos app will integrate it and let you play any track anywhere in your home.

• Best music streaming services 2021: free streams to hi-res audio

Put your Sonos One, One SL or Play:1 on a desk stand

You could just put your Sonos speaker on the table, but you should put it on one of these nifty stands from Flexson. Whether your music is blasting from your bedside, kitchen or desk, this stand will give it support and can help angle its sound towards your ears. What's more, it is now discounted for Black Friday.

Flexson also makes dedicated Sonos floor stands and Sonos wall mounts, so be sure to check those out if you'd prefer your speakers placed higher in a room. Sonos makes its own range of seemingly very nicely designed stands, mounts and shelves, of course, but they are more premiumly priced.

Connect a turntable!

If you have a Sonos Amp, Five wireless speaker or Port streamer, you can connect a turntable directly to their analogue inputs (RCA or 3.5mm), provided the deck has a built-in phono preamp stage. You can check out our pick of the best turntables on the market, but we'd single out the Sony PS-HX500, Rega Planar 1 Plus and Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (Sonos Edition) as suitable budget options.

It won't be the most sophisticated turntable system you can get your hands on, but if you're happy with your existing Sonos system and would like the option to listen to records occasionally alongside music streaming, this is a decent way to do it.

Poor wi-fi? Get a Sonos Boost

Wi-fi extenders are good, but the Sonos Boost is better. If your wireless signal can’t quite extend throughout your house and your Sonos sound is suffering, then this inexpensive gadget is what you’re looking for.

Rather than carrying all wireless signals, the Boost creates a network that works solely with Sonos kit, so the prospect of interference from other devices becomes a thing of the past. Connect it to your router via an Ethernet port, and you’re away.

MORE:

• Our pick of the best Black Friday Sonos deals and cheapest prices
• Which Sonos speaker should you buy on Black Friday?
• The best Sonos alternatives for multi-room audio
• Everything you need to know about Sonos
• 32 Sonos tips, tricks and features

Amazon's Alexa-powered speakers can now make music follow you around the house. 

Create a 'group' of smart speakers for a specific location in your home ("living room", say), and you can start them playing music by saying, "Alexa, move my music to living room."

You can also tell Alexa to pause the music in one room, then when you get to another say, "Alexa, resume music here," and it'll carry on playing where you left off.

You can take tunes with you as you head out the door, too, providing you have a pair of Echo Buds. Connect them to your phone, and say, "Alexa, move my music here," as you step out and whatever you're listening to will be piped through your wireless earbuds as if by magic.

Of course it doesn't just work for music, but for all audio content, including podcasts and radio shows.

Sonos' Roam Bluetooth speaker has a similar feature called Swap. It's also believed to be coming to Sonos' rumoured wireless headphones whenever they launch (which could be before the year is out).

MORE:

These are the best Alexa speakers

Check out the best Black Friday Amazon Echo deals

Don't want Amazon? Here are the best smart speakers from all different brands

Amazon has launched its own range of 4K TVs. The company has preinstalled its software on sets made by companies like TCL and Sharp before, but these are described as the first "Amazon-built TVs".

Not only that, it's launched a new Fire TV Stick too.

The TVs are split into two ranges: the Amazon Fire TV Omni Series and Amazon Fire TV 4-Series. The Omni is the higher-end range, boasting Dolby Vision, HDR 10, HLG, and Dolby Digital Plus, as well as hands-free controls using the Alexa voice assistant. This is always on, even when the TV is off. And as well as finding something to watch, you can use it to adjust volume, brightness, and switch inputs.

The Omni Series has smart home features, like picture-in-picture for checking your home video cameras, and a Ring doorbell feed that pops up when someone is at the door (Ring is owned by Amazon). It will also get a smart home dashboard before the end of the year for more comprehensive controls.

The Omni Series comes in 43-, 50-, 55-, 65-, and 75-inch sizes, but only the 65- and 75-inch models have Dolby Vision (the others have to make do with HDR10).

Step down to the 4-Series, and you still get 4K picture quality, HDR 10, and Dolby Digital Plus. It too has voice controls, but you'll need to press the button on the remote control (the Omni Series has far-field mics built into the TV itself, so you don't need to use the remote). 

The 4-Series only comes in 43-, 50- and 55-inch sizes.

There are some other features coming soon, too. Say "Alexa, what should I watch?" and the voice assistant will serve up recommendations. Say "Alexa, play something" and it'll activate the 'Play something' feature from Netflix, while "Alexa, play TikTok" will launch the video-based social media app. These will come to the Amazon TVs as well as its Fire TV Sticks.

Both TVs support Alexa home theatre audio mode, which lets a pair of Echo speakers act as its stereo speakers.

The TVs have only been announced for the US at the moment. Pricing is as follows:

Omni Series: 75-inch: $1,099.99; 65-inch: $829.99; 55-inch: $559.99; 50-inch: $509.99; 43-inch: $409.99.

4-Series: 55-inch: $519.99; 50-inch: $469.99; 43-inch: $369.99.

They both lack 4K@120Hz, but they do have auto low-latency mode (ALLM), which will mostly benefit gamers.

Amazon has also announced a new Fire TV Stick. The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max has more power, more memory and a quicker Wi-Fi-6 connection. It's apparently 40 per cent faster than the standard Fire TV Stick 4K, thanks to its new quad-core 1.8GHz processor and 2GB of RAM. There's also a new faster 750MHz GPU and ALLM for the gamers. It also uses 15 per cent less power in low power mode than the Fire TV Stick 4K.

Unlike the TVs, it's available in more countries than just the US. It costs £54.99 ($54.99, AU$TBC) and will ship on 7th October.

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Amazon's Echo smart speakers are about to get a lot smarter. An upgrade to Matter – an open-source standard platform – should make Amazon's smart speakers work with more voice assistants, not just Alexa.

Matter is the new name for Project Connected Home over IP (or CHIP for short). It's a coalition of big-name companies including Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, the Zigbee Alliance, Philips and dozens more. Its aim? To make smart home devices like smart speakers work with all voice assistants, including Apple's Siri, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Matter will run on Ethernet Wi-Fi, Thread, and Bluetooth Low Energy.

Almost all of Amazon's Echo smart speakers will get the upgrade to Matter, including the fourth-generation Echo and Echo Dot, every Echo Studio and Echo Show, Echo Plus and Echo Flex. The only ones that will miss out are the first-gen Echo, first-gen Echo Dot and Echo Tap, an Amazon spokesperson has told The Verge.

Matter should launch later this year, so let's hope Amazon's update arrives at the same time.

Amazon's Echo speakers are getting other upgrades, too. There's now a more masculine-sounding voice, triggered by the wake word "Ziggy" (as spotted by The Ambient). And widgets are coming to Echo devices with screens.

These can be made by third-party developers and could let you check items off a to-do list or activate a skill's functions without needing to say "Alexa" first.

Featured skill cards are a way of promoting content through Alexa, whether you want it or not. Recommendations will be tailored to your Alexa use. And developers will be able to sell products through their Alexa skills using Alexa shopping actions.

You'll be able to start your Alexa experience on your Echo device and continue it on your phone, using Send to Phone. McDonald’s UK, Twitter, Husqvarna, Iberia Airlines, Cookpad, and Lysol will be some of the first brands to connect their mobile apps with Alexa skills.

There's more info over Amazon's blog post, so check it out if you want a deep dive.

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It’s easy to get confused with Amazon’s music streaming offerings. There is Amazon Music Free, Amazon Music Prime and what we are testing here: Amazon Music Unlimited.

Amazon Music Free gives you access to curated playlists and podcasts, while Amazon Music Prime offers greater access to playlists, limited access to a limited number of tracks and more playback options with no ads.

Amazon Music Unlimited has everything, from ‘open to all’ access to its 100m song catalogue (which includes CD-quality and hi-res) to podcasts, to curated playlists and much more. In theory, it is a very credible Spotify and Apple Music rival, but how does the much-travelled music-streaming service stack up in reality?

Price

Amazon's music streaming offering is split into Amazon Music Free, Amazon Music Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited.

Amazon Music free won't cost you a penny and will give you basic access to "thousands of stations and top playlists" and millions of podcasts.

Amazon Prime subscribers have access to Amazon Music Prime for free. This stripped-down version of Amazon Music Unlimited does give you ad-free access to Amazon's entire music catalogue but only in SD quality and you can only play via shuffling artists, albums, or playlists.

If you want to drill down into the catalogue or want to access higher-quality tracks, then you need Music Unlimited. Amazon regularly offers free trials that can run from 30 days to three months during some promotions, so potential subscribers can always try before they buy.

Amazon Music Unlimited’s pricing structure has changed in recent months and years but not for the better.

Following an August 2023 price rise, it now costs £10.99/$10.99/AU$12.99 to subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited without a Prime membership. With a membership, this drops to £9.99/$9.99 which is in line with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. At the time of writing, it appears there is no discount for Prime subscribers in Australia.

Previously, Amazon Prime subscribers could make a small monthly saving on an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription that undercut rival services. However, that has been eroded and the incentive is no longer there.

In November 2022, the service’s family plan rose from £16.99/$15.99/AU$18.99 to £17.99/$16.99/AU$20.99. Alternatively, you can pay annually for £179/$169/AU$159.

There is also the option of signing up for a £5.99/$5.99/AU$6.99 per month tier that lets you use the service on a single Amazon Echo or Echo Dot wireless speaker.

An optional Amazon Music HD tier launched in 2019, giving you access to CD-quality and hi-res audio files, but these files are now included as part of the normal Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.

Compatibility

Amazon Music Unlimited is compatible with smartphones and tablets via its Android and iOS apps; PCs and Macs via either its web player or desktop app; Fire tablets and Fire TVs; some in-car entertainment systems; Sonos multi-room wireless speakers; Bluesound and NAD BluOS devices. It is worth noting that you can’t actually access CD-quality music or hi-res tracks in Amazon Music HD through your browser, though. This can be done only through the dedicated desktop and mobile apps, which is no bad thing.

Up to ten authorised devices can use Amazon Music on one account, although you can play through only one device at a time. Music can be downloaded to play offline on the iOS, Android and Fire tablet platforms.

Amazon Music Unlimited also works on its homegrown Echo and Dot wireless speakers, as does Spotify.

And Amazon has worked to further its service’s functionality, integration and intelligence with its voice-control assistant. For example, saying “Alexa, try Amazon Music Unlimited” gets you up and running with the service.

You can ask it to play certain songs, albums or artists (“Alexa, play Stormzy” will shuffle his songs) or, for example, 80s pop.

You can even search by lyrics; say “Alexa, play the song with the lyrics ‘hello, is it me you’re looking for?’” and it complies – even if it does choose a cover rather than Lionel Richie’s original. “What cover is this?” we ask. “Zooey Deschanel’s from the Trolls soundtrack” we are told. Like we didn't know.

The comprehension is spot-on. Just make sure you start each command with the wake word ‘Alexa’ (which can be changed).

Features

Amazon claims that more than 70 million songs are available on its service and the Music Unlimited home page points you to new releases, ‘popular’ and recommended music and playlists.

We don’t see any immediate gaps in its offering, and our search for more obscure music artists reveals a very good rate of success. After a slow start, the service has expanded its library of music videos too, although we wouldn’t call it extensive.

As with Prime Video, Music Unlimited gives you the option of purchasing through its Digital Store, which mirrors the ‘Digital Music’ section on Amazon’s website. Amazon scrapped its very useful Music Storage plans back in 2018.

Amazon Music Unlimited won’t look or feel alien to anyone who has ever used a streaming service, or a shopping website, come to that.

The dark interface has three main tabs: ‘Home’, ‘Podcasts’ and ‘Library’. Your ‘Home’ page is arranged in horizontal rows which showcase your most frequently played songs, playlists handpicked for you, songs you might like based on what you have been listening to and a range of playlists that relate to certain timely topics such as the ‘Sounds of Summer’.

There’s quite a lot going on and quite a lot of content to choose from, and there are slight differences between how the desktop and mobile apps prioritise and order recommended content and playlists which can make for a slightly disjointed user experience.

One of the key playlists you will use is My Discovery Mix, which is the equivalent of Discover Weekly on Spotify; a playlist of new tracks, it is created off the back of what you tend to listen to and your favourite tunes. We find it serves up enough new tracks to pique our interest, but it doesn’t have quite the success rate of Spotify, and the recommendations tend to be a little older too.

As you navigate your way around, you will spot songs labelled HD and some songs and playlists labelled Ultra HD. Confusingly, Amazon Music Unlimited doesn’t use the term HD when it is referring to high-resolution audio. Where you see tracks labelled HD, this actually means that they are CD-quality.

Amazon refers to and labels hi-res music as Ultra HD, (Ultra High Definition). Why? Presumably, it feels that this labelling will prove clearer for a mass audience – and perhaps it's right.

Amazon refers to HD tracks as having a ”bit depth of 16-bits, a minimum sample rate of 44.1 kHz (also referred to as CD-quality), and an average bitrate of 850 kbps.” UHD tracks, on the other hand, “have a bit depth of 24-bits, sample rates ranging from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz, and an average bitrate of 3730 kbps.”

To Amazon’s credit, it pushes Ultra HD content extremely hard on the service with dedicated playlists and clear labelling, eg Best of Ultra HD, Ultra HD: New Arrivals, Ultra HD Hip-Hop and Ultra HD Jazz. It doesn’t take long to find a steady stream of UHD music to listen to.

Click on the bright yellow HD or Ultra HD logos that accompany each track (on either desktop or mobile) and you are shown the sample rate of what you are playing together with the playback capabilities of your machine. The desktop app will even prompt you to change the audio settings on your computer to take advantage of the improved audio quality. It’s a clever and thoughtful touch, especially if you want to connect an external DAC that can handle all the available sample rates natively and make the most of Amazon’s hi-res library.

If you own any Echo devices (2nd-gen and newer), Fire TVs and Fire Tablets, these all support HD audio quality. And, should you own an Amazon Echo Studio, you will also be able to access Amazon’s catalogue of 3D audio tracks (encoded in either Dolby Atmos or Sony 360 Reality Audio) through Amazon Music Unlimited.

There’s a huge amount of music in hi-res on Amazon Music Unlimited. Neither Amazon nor Tidal releases exact figures but Amazon claims "millions" and our experience suggests that Amazon has a larger catalogue of hi-res music to call upon. There were several occasions when we found an Ultra HD release on Amazon but couldn’t find it as a Masters track on Tidal.

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Ease of use

Need inspiration? Amazon can provide plenty of suggestive guidance, even if rival services do have the edge when it comes to music discovery and curated recommendations.

The ‘Discover New Music’ section for example, is a gateway to brand new releases that can also be drilled down into by music genre. And it makes good use of its screen real estate: album artwork and playlist graphics are bright and colourful and there are shortcuts for adding tracks and playlists straight to your library and downloading them for offline listening.

The familiar three-dot ellipsis is a neat way to expand functionality, and is where you can buy songs or add them to specific playlists or play more tracks by similar artists.

The mobile app looks good on smartphones and tablets, but isn’t quite as intuitive as those provided by Apple or Spotify. It also seems more susceptible to bugs and glitches. We have had the app refusing to play ball with wireless headphones and actually severing a Bluetooth connection. It has also failed to download some tracks in their entirety, so you get to enjoy only a small portion of the track before it skips to the next song. A spot of tweaking here and there to bring it more into line with the desktop app would make the user experience feel more cohesive.

Sound

Amazon has been coy about revealing its standard streaming bitrate, claiming to support “multiple bitrates”, but we would bet our reference hi-fi system that it’s not dissimilar from Spotify’s 320kbps streams.

Listen to the two side by side through a budget pair of headphones connected to a smartphone or laptop, and differences are barely audible.

It takes an accomplished DAC/headphone combo, such as the Chord Hugo 2/Grado SR325e, to discern that Amazon has a slight edge.

It’s a touch better in terms of dynamic subtlety, and there’s a pleasantness to its rounder-sounding presentation. The oozing harmonica opening of Conor Oberst’s Mamah Borthwick (a Sketch) sounds slightly warmer and more delicately delivered.

Switch over to Unlimited's CD-quality and hi-res streams you’ll be pleased to know we find they sound clearer, more detailed and more dynamic than the standard-quality fare.

Play No Church in the Wild by Jay-Z and Kanye West in Ultra HD through the desktop app and a decent USB DAC and there is an impressive level of detail throughout the track. Bass is probing and powerful – there’s real texture to every note as the bassline punches its way along. Vocals are detailed, clear and expressive.

Listening to Charli XCX's 2099 in Ultra HD on Amazon versus the same track in Tidal Masters, the former sounds more open, more detailed and more interesting to listen to. Although TIdal makes a bit more of the rhythm of the track, it also sounds more compressed and less open and lively. It can really vary from track to track.

Verdict

Changes in the streaming landscape haven’t made things easy for Amazon Music Unlimited. Tidal has dropped in price and Apple Music is cheaper (if you don't have Amazon Prime) and introduced CD-quality and high-res streams for no extra cost. Add the fact that both offer excellent user experiences and great sound quality into the mix and Unlimited doesn’t quite have the attraction it once did.

But it remains a loveable, quirky streaming service that still sounds competitive and boasts good catalogue depth – we still recommend giving it a go, especially if you can get your hands on a free trial.

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 4
• Ease of use 4

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It's been all change for Apple's HomePod range of smart speakers lately. First, at the end of last year, Apple launched the HomePod min, a smaller, more affordable take on the company's original HomePod. Then in March, Apple killed off the HomePod, leaving just the HomePod mini as its sole smart speaker.

Where does that leave us? You can still buy the original HomePod (at time of writing, Apple was still selling the white version while stocks last), and Apple is likely to continue to support it for some time yet. But should you? After all, Apple has made clear that the HomePod mini is the future.

How does the smaller sibling compare to the big daddy of the family? Here we'll run down every detail of the new speaker, comparing it to the HomePod so you can see how the two Siri-powered devices stack up in terms of features, spec and audio quality.

Ready to choose between two brilliant smart speakers? Let's begin...

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Apple HomePod vs HomePod mini: price

Costing £270 ($300), down from its launch price of £319 ($350), the original HomePod is one of the pricier smart speakers around. It's considerably more than even the more-premium-than-most Sonos One (although it does manage to justify its price tag). 

The HomePod mini is a very different proposition, however, priced very competitively indeed. It will set you back just £99 ($99) – that's a lot more in line with the Amazon Echos and Google Homes of this world.    

Many smart speakers are regularly discounted and even bundled free with other products, but don't expect the same of HomePod and HomePod mini. That said, if there's a rare discount to be had it's sure to be listed on our best HomePod and HomePod mini deals page. You never know, some places might want to get rid of their HomePod stock cheap to make way for more current products.

**Winner: HomePod mini**

Apple HomePod vs HomePod mini: design

As the name implies, the main difference between the two devices is the size. Standing just under 8.5cm tall, HomePod mini is less than half the height of the standard HomePod. It very much shares its sibling's design DNA, but in the same breath it also looks quite different.

It is actually cylindrical, just like the HomePod, but because it's stumpier it looks like a ball with the top and bottom sections cut off. Dare we say, it looks rather like the Amazon Echo (4th Gen). 

There are no physical buttons on the HomePod Mini. When the top panel is lit, it reveals otherwise near-invisible plus and minus volume controls while a a long press activates Siri to listening mode. Like it's older sibling, the HomePod mini is designed as a hands-off affair.

The capsule-like HomePod's taller stature makes it look much more like a traditional smart speaker. Both share the same acoustically transparent mesh fabric cover, same 'buttons on the top' controls, and same 'floating ball of light' animation when personal assistant Siri is summoned.

Both speakers are well-crafted and share the same sleek design language. Which design you go for really depends on how much oomph you want, how much space you have and your budget.

**Winner: draw**

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Apple HomePod vs HomePod mini: features

So what can HomePod mini do? Quite a lot, actually.

Naturally it can stream music, radio, podcasts and more from all the major services like Apple Music, iHeartRadio, TuneIn and Amazon Music (though this last one is coming soon). It recently added support for Deezer voice controls, too. Multiple HomePod minis can work together to create a multi-room system, or two in the same room can provide stereo sound. Siri comes on board for voice controls, giving you news, weather and appointment updates, and for controlling other smart home devices like lights and thermostats.

As with the HomePod, bringing your phone close to your HomePod mini can make it take over playing duties – handy when you come in after a hard day and want your tunes to fill your room, not just your ears. Both speakers now support AirPlay 2 and Siri features a sleep timer than plays you ambient sounds like rain or a fireplace to help you nod off.

A new intercom system also lets you send voice messages to other HomePod speakers. That function works with other Apple devices too, like iPhones, iPads and Apple CarPlay, so you can send messages and respond to them wherever you are.

In short, the two HomePods are pretty identical in features – that's the beauty of a smart ecosystem, after all. 

The only real difference is the HomePod mini's U1 ultra-wideband chip (also found in the iPhone 11 and newer), which adds extra room-sensing and data-transfer abilities. Personalised listening suggestions appear on your iPhone when it's near your HomePod mini, and controls will show up on screen without you having to unlock the handset. Smart.

**Winner: draw**

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Apple HomePod vs HomePod mini: sound quality

We absolutely love the sound of the standard HomePod. In fact, we went so far as to call it "the best-sounding smart speaker you can buy" in our 2018 review. Despite stiff competition, it remains sonically superior in its class.

It has an expressive bottom end which, while impressive, never threatens to overpower a track. If you were worried Apple might be going a bit too Beats-like in its approach, we're pleased to say your worries are unfounded.

Add to that an expertly judged treble and solid midrange, and you've got a superb smart speaker. All of which makes it even more of a travesty that Apple has canned it.

As you might guess, the HomePod mini has much less oomph compared to the full-size HomePod. And yet it quickly becomes apparent that the HomePod Mini comfortably outperforms its size and price. It goes much louder than expected – even 75 per cent volume is louder than we imagine most people will regularly want to go in an average-sized living room – and all without straining.

Apple claims its S5 chip in the HomePod mini analyses the music you play and applies audio processing to optimise loudness, adjust the dynamic range and control the movement of the driver and passive radiators in real time. This, Apple claims, allows it to deliver a big sound from such a small device.

Like the original HomePod, the Mini has an innate ability to get to the core of a track, delivering it as faithfully as its stature allows. That’s a rare ability, particularly for a smart speaker at this price – and it comfortably outperforms the Amazon Echo 4th Generation. 

All in all, both speakers serve up impressive 360-degree sound and can be put almost anywhere in the room. There's no doubt the HomePod has a little more authority but the HomePod Mini is fantastic value – especially when you consider you can buy a stereo pair for less than the price of a HomePod.

**Winner: draw**

Apple HomePod vs HomePod mini: verdict

You'll need to be a dedicated Apple user, ideally with an Apple Music subscription, to make the most of these speakers. But if that's you, you're in for a treat.

The Apple HomePod combines a weighty sound and a classy design with Siri's DJ skills to great effect. Despite now being discontinued, it remains a top buy and one of the finest smart speakers for those who care about music quality, if not future-proofing their setup.

The cheaper Apple HomePod mini is, if anything, even more impressive for a speaker of this size and price. Its audio performance is startlingly natural and engaging. It’s also affordable enough to be bought in quantity, small enough to be placed in any room of the house and shares the same Siri smart skills as its pricier sibling.

Both models have their strengths but we think the newer model, the HomePod mini, offers more bang for your buck.

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