Google is back in the smart speaker race with its shiny new Home Speaker.

The speaker is the first to launch with Google's new Gemini AI assistant baked-in and a direct rival to the Alexa-powered Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) and Siri's mighty Apple HomePod 2 and HomePod Mini.

Google teases that the Home Speaker represents a new era for the company's line of AI-powered products, an era built on four main "pillars": a new AI assistant, a redesigned app, new hardware and a new service to tie everything together.

Those changes will affect all existing Google smart speakers, dating back to the original Google Home speaker from 2019.

We're What Hi-Fi?, of course, so let's remind ourselves that the refreshed Google Home is designed, at least in part, to play music.

To do so, the new unit promises 360-degree audio and a "uniform sound that you can hear from every direction" thanks to its new oval design. Google is also promising "optimised acoustics" for balanced audio across songs, movies or podcasts.

As you'd expect, you can group the Home together with various compatible units such as Nest speakers, Nest displays and Google Cast-enabled devices.

Google Assistant had begun to lag behind its rivals, but with Gemini, the revamped Home promises a far more in-depth experience. Thanks to its baked-in AI, you can ask your smart speaker anything from finding new tunes to organising your calendar, with the Home remembering and context for more natural conversations.

That said, if you want the most in-depth experience from Gemini, you'll need to pay £8/$10 per month for a Google Home Premium subscription.

The new Google Home Speaker will be available from Spring 2026, priced at £100 / $100. For UK customers, you'll have a choice of either Porcelain or Hazel finishes, while US buyers have the additional options of Jade or Berry colourways.

Amazon has recently announced its refreshed Echo speaker line-up with Alexa+ capabilities, so we're excited to see how the best of Bezos' stable stacks up against Google's Gemini-powered effort.

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Investing in a soundbar is a quick and easy way to take your home cinema system to the next level.

It saves you precious time positioning multiple speakers, instead offering a neat, one-box package that you can plug and play with relative ease.

There are countless soundbars on the market at various price points, which can make the search for the right model seem like an impossible task.

While you can spend a lot of money on a soundbar, we'd suggest your average home cinema fan need not spend thousands to get a worthwhile upgrade to their TV’s audio.

In fact, we've picked out two soundbars, out of all the products that we've reviewed, that we think will do the job for most people.

For those looking for a soundbar that provides a significant improvement to your TV's sound without breaking the bank, and beats out the budget competition, the five-star Sonos Beam Gen 2 is our top pick.

It launched at £449 / $449 / AU$649, but we have consistently spotted deals lopping hundreds off its original price.

While this Dolby Atmos soundbar is on the small side in terms of stature, it produces a sound that's much broader than its compact frame suggests.

We say in our review: "It sounds incredible, reaching deeper than the Beam Gen 1 with more refinement, a warmer treble, and wider dynamic range."

On top of that, the Beam Gen 2 offers eARC connectivity, which means it can handle the higher bandwidth Dolby True HD Atmos format. It also has Wi-Fi and network streaming onboard, plus compatibility with Alexa and Google Assistant.

And, lest you forget, the Beam 2 gives you all the extra multi-room music functionality offered by Sonos speakers and soundbars.

There is of course the option to spend even more, and get better, bigger sound (the excellent Sonos Arc Ultra springs to mind) but for under £500, the Sonos Beam is very much worth your consideration.

Of course, £400 is still a chunk of change. So, if you want a truly affordable option, that will still improve on your TV's speakers, the Sony HT-SF150 is the way to go.

While it doesn't quite make it to a five-star rating, this ‘bar earned four stars for its impressive sense of space and premium feel.

We tested the soundbar at £90 / $100 / AU$199, but recently the price has crept up to £99.

The two-channel system does not support Dolby Atmos, but it still manages to produce a decent weightiness and scale.

When watching Baby Driver during testing, for example, we found that “the low-key sonic components that reverberate after each sound effect in the warehouse scene feel nicely separated and well presented, adding to the underlying tension”.

Alongside HDMI ARC, the SF150 has an optical input, and support for Dolby Digital.

While it is lacking the extra detail and musicality that we can hear in more premium products, it would be unfair to expect it for a soundbar at this bargain price.

Not convinced by either of these? Take a look at our longer list of the best soundbars for more choice.

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Here is our full review of the Sony HT-SF150

And check out what we thought of the Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

These are the best budget soundbars we recommend right now

The Bravia 7 is the second most high-end Mini LED TV in Sony’s current (and ever-expanding) TV range.

As such, it inevitably loses some of the eye-catching headline specifications of the flagship Bravia 9.

For instance, it has fewer local dimming zones, isn’t as bright and it has a less powerful sound system.

It’s also, though, substantially cheaper than the Bravia 9 – and, as we’ll see, it retains enough of Sony’s Mini LED picture quality mastery to make it arguably the best value option yet from the brand’s current range.

Price

The 55-inch Bravia 7 was £1899 / $1900 / AU$2935 at launch, but it is now available for significantly less – just £1299 / $1300 / AU$2495.

That still puts it in mid-range TV territory – maybe slightly towards the top end of mid-range territory, given the sort of aggressive pricing the likes of TCL and Hisense are applying to their mid-range and even high-end models these days.

It backs this status up with plenty of on-paper promise, including a Mini LED backlight with local dimming and an uncompromised version of Sony’s dependable XR processor.

Design

The Bravia 7 unsurprisingly isn’t as opulently well built as the Bravia 9. It still retains plenty of the combination of subtle elegance and flexibility that seems to be built into Sony’s TV design DNA at the moment, though.

For starters, the screen and its frame are both designed to finish on the same flush level, which always instantly creates a premium impression. The frame is trim, too, and while the rear panel sticks out a little further than today’s TV trendsetters, it could still make for an effective wall-mounting option.

If you’re going to place your Bravia 7 on a piece of furniture, there’s more good news.

For starters, its feet slot into place without the need for any screws. Also, the feet can be placed in no less than four different configurations: out wide under the bottom corners with the screen either sitting flush down on them or raised up an inch or three, or closer together towards the middle of the screen, again either with the screen sitting low on the feet or raised slightly.

The option to place the feet close together means you can put the 55-inch Bravia 7 on a piece of furniture much narrower than the TV, while the option to raise the screen gives you room to put a soundbar underneath.

The Bravia 7 ships with a tidy-looking smart remote control boasting a tactile, stripped-back button count, but which still finds room for a selection of direct app access buttons and a mic button to activate its Google Assistant voice control features.

The handset is apparently made from approximately 80 per cent recycled plastic, too, and it’s finished in an easy-to-clean polyurethane coating.

Features

Even though there are two TV series sitting above it in Sony’s current range, the Bravia 7 still boasts a Sony XR Backlight Master Drive panel that combines a Mini LED lighting system with local dimming that operates, in the case of the 55-inch model we're testing, across more than 300 separate zones.

This combination promises tight control over where the TV delivers its available light – especially considering how effective Sony’s backlight control systems have tended to be over the years. Even with TVs that have far fewer dimming zones than the Bravia 7 at their disposal.

The Bravia 7 also boasts a Quantum Dot colour system, driven by Sony’s Triluminos technology. This is part of the latest version of Sony’s XR processor, which extends its tendrils into just about every aspect of picture quality – including delivering automatic HDR conversion of SDR with some of its picture presets, and subtly adjusting multiple picture facets to make the resulting images more closely resemble the three-dimensional way our eyes perceive the real world.

Its relative affordability doesn’t stop the Bravia 7 from adopting Sony’s policy of pursuing the picture endorsements of multiple third-party AV industry big guns.

So there are ‘calibrated’ modes for Netflix, Prime Video and Sony’s own high quality (up to 80Mbps streams) Sony Pictures Core streaming service. These are designed to automatically adopt picture settings that get as close as possible to the different studios’ preferred video mastering conditions.

The Bravia 7 is also certified by IMAX as being up to the job of doing justice to the special, ultra-clean IMAX Enhanced mastering system – as well as allowing you to take advantage of the IMAX Enhanced titles provided on Disney+ and the aforementioned Sony Pictures Core.

There’s plenty of Dolby cooperation, too, in the form of Dolby Atmos sound and support for the Dolby Vision dynamic HDR format. Dolby Vision appears alongside the more basic HDR10 and HLG systems, but as ever with Sony TVs, there’s no support for HDR10+.

The Dolby Atmos (and DTS:X) sound is delivered courtesy of a multi-channel audio system that also features a 5.1.2-channel ‘upmixing’ system to embellish stereo or 5.1-channel soundtracks.

There’s also the option to have the TV’s speakers join forces with various Sony soundbars, home theatre speaker packages and personal listening systems to take advantage of Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology, which creates a hemisphere of virtual speakers all around your seating position.

Connections on the Bravia 7 include four HDMIs, two of which can handle the 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM gaming features deliverable by the Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 and some PC graphics cards.

There’s support for a low-latency Dolby Vision game mode, too, as well as a special game-specific onscreen menu system, and compatibility with the Perfect For PlayStation 5 feature, where the console can automatically recognise the TV and output some pretty accurate HDR settings accordingly. You can even stream PlayStation games to the TV via the PS Remote Play app.

It’s a pity that only two of the HDMIs can handle all these gaming features, but this limitation is slightly easier to accept on the Bravia 7 than it is on Sony’s flagship TV ranges. Still, similarly priced LG and Samsung TVs have four top-spec HDMI sockets.

Smart features are provided by Google TV. This brings with it the usual extreme plethora of video streaming, gaming and information apps, bolstered in the UK by the YouView platform, which adds the catch-up services for the UK terrestrial broadcasters that Google TV does not typically cover.

Google TV also brings with it both compatibility with Google Chromecast for streaming from your smart devices, and the Google Assistant voice recognition and control system. There’s compatibility with Apple AirPlay 2, too, and if you’re not a fan of Google Assistant you can use either Alexa or, if you own an Apple Home device, Apple’s Siri voice recognition system.

One last unusual feature of the Bravia 7 is the Bravia Cam. This optional extra attaches magnetically behind the screen’s top edge, providing a camera that introduces the ability to control the TV via gesture; a Proximity Alert to warn children not to get too close; a facility to reduce brightness if the camera detects nobody is present in the room; video conferencing; and even the ability to detect where you are in relation to the TV and adjust the brightness, contrast, sound balance and volume accordingly.

Picture

The Bravia 7’s picture quality is clearly built on the same DNA as Sony’s spectacular flagship Bravia 9, delivering more of that TV’s in some ways groundbreaking picture quality than you’ve any right to expect.

At the heart of the Bravia 7’s picture charms is its outstanding backlight control. At the bright end of the spectrum, Sony’s TV delivers exceptionally bright and intense HDR whites and colours that blaze off the screen with more intensity than they do on many much more expensive flagship TVs.

Just as impressively, though, the Bravia 7 also delivers startlingly deep, dark, convincing, and at times quite OLED-like blacks.

Even better, the Bravia 7 doesn’t deliver these light extremes in isolation – as in, it doesn’t only deliver convincing blacks with exclusively dark shots, or only deliver outstanding brightness with exclusively bright shots. Rather, its backlight controls are so astute and powerful that they’re able to retain most of the brightness punch for bright highlights and most of the black level depth and uniformity for dark areas even with shots that contain a mix of dark and light content.

As well as producing a level of contrast that’s exceptionally rare if not unique to find on a mid-range TV, the Bravia 7’s ability to maintain so much brightness and black depth with the sort of mixed brightness images that make up the vast majority of what we watch means that it delivers a fantastic level of consistency across bright and dark scenes.

And wherever you’ve got consistency, you’ve got a more immersive experience, where nothing the TV does throws you out of what you’re watching.

The Bravia 7’s consistency whether it’s showing mostly bright or mostly dark images extends, too, to its ability to bring out pretty much every detail in even the darkest picture corners. The only exception to this is with the Movie preset, but even here the ‘black crush’ effect is pretty minor. Not enough, at any rate, to make dark scenes look hollow or flat.

Maybe the biggest sign of just how clever and effective the Bravia 7’s backlighting is, though, comes from how well it manages to keep a lid on blooming around stand-out bright objects.

In particular, the black bars above and below wide aspect ratio films remain almost completely free of either general greyness or areas of blooming, even if a bright object appears right alongside them – a really useful feat of backlight isolation engineering that precious few rivals these days even seem to attempt.

The extent and intensity of clouding around bright objects, even when they appear against nearly black backgrounds, is also startlingly limited for such a bright mid-range TV.

In fact, the only time the backlight engine struggles enough to become noticeable in a negative way is in the appearance of slight general clouding and occasional slight blue colour shift with shots that contain a particularly complex mixture of scattered extreme light and extreme dark elements.

As well as being rare, though, even during these moments the Bravia 7’s backlight ‘flaws’, such as they are, are much less likely to distract than the sort of heavy dimming of bright objects or really pronounced halos of extraneous light that many other locally dimmed LCD TVs exhibit.

The combination of high brightness and strong contrast also joins forces with Sony’s excellent XR Triluminos Pro system to deliver a sumptuously wide, vibrant, but also natural-looking and refined colour range. Sony’s TV even manages to retain full saturations in very dark picture areas, as well as, like the Bravia 9, bringing out subtle light differences in very bright areas that elude most if not all other TVs in its class.

The Bravia 7’s superb level of light and colour control for a mid-range TV unlocks an exceptional sense of sharpness and detail with native 4K pictures, too. This is delivered without any sign of the sort of exaggerated grain or ‘glowing’ object edge issues associated with heavy-handed sharpness processing, too, and remains largely unsullied by either motion blur or judder if you set the TV’s XR Motion Clarity feature to one of its relatively low-powered modes.

The Bravia 7 also upscales HD sources to its 4K resolution brilliantly, offering palpable detail and insight without introducing colour shifts or obvious unwanted digital processing side effects.

Gamers will be pleased to hear that all the attributes that make the Bravia 7 such an excellent video performer also make it a fantastically fun and immersive gaming display. The TV’s input lag of 17.9ms in Game mode is a touch higher than we’ve seen with some other Sony TVs, but not enough to affect anyone but the most hardcore competitive gamers.

It’s tough to find anything negative to say about the Bravia 7’s pictures for its money, really.

Aside from the relatively minor cloudiness and colour shifting with rare shots containing a broad mix of light and dark extremes, all we can come up with is that backlight blooming becomes more noticeable if you have to watch the TV from much of an angle.

Otherwise, it’s all good. Really good.

Sound

The Bravia 7 features one of Sony’s so-called Acoustic Multi-Audio sound systems, which in this case means 40W of power pumped into a four-speaker system comprising two full-range bass reflex drivers and two tweeters for, according to Sony, cleaner, more accurately placed detail sounds.

While not quite as potent as its pictures, the resulting sound – especially if you remember to run the provided audio auto-calibration system – is very good for a TV in this price category.

It manages to create, for instance, a soundstage that projects nicely away from the TV’s physical chassis, and then populates the large, room-filling sense of space it creates with plenty of clean and well-positioned details. Enough to do at least some justice to the three-dimensional sound fields created by Dolby Atmos and DTS:X mixes.

Dialogue emerges from the heart of the Bravia 7’s soundstage with conviction and clarity, and while occasionally the sound can feel too polite and trebly with the most explosive action movie moments, lacking a little bass heft, none of the speakers collapse into distortion under pressure.

Verdict

Much more of the groundbreaking backlight technology Sony developed for its flagship Bravia 9 range seems to have filtered down to the Bravia 7 than we would have expected for its money.

In fact, while not feeling quite as explosive and ‘next-gen’ as the Bravia 9, the Bravia 7’s images are actually a little more consistent, resulting in as good a mid-range LCD TV as we’re likely to see this year.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

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Despite being regarded as some of the most fully-featured TVs on the market, it appears that LG's OLED TVs will lose two features this year. We're usually the first to rave about the four HDMI 2.1 sockets and webOS smart platform, so it's strange to see LG drop support for existing features, but what is leaving the lineup?

First up is DTS audio support, which has reportedly been left out of the 2025 LG OLED TV lineup, including the C5 and G5, as well as its LCD TVs. Despite including it on its 2023 and 2024 TVs, LG has opted to revert to a Dolby-exclusive audio approach, meaning it will rely on Dolby Atmos rather than DTS:X.

While this isn't necessarily the end of the world, it's a shame to see DTS be left out, as it's a fairly crucial aspect of the IMAX Enhanced format, which has launched on Disney Plus. The discovery, made and verified by Vincent Teoh (via FlatPanelsHD), was found on the G5, however, it's speculated to affect LG's full 2025 lineup.

Furthermore, LG has confirmed that it will end support for Google Assistant on all of its compatible TVs. Samsung made the same move by dropping Google Assistant support last year; it seems that LG has followed suit by removing it not only on its new 2025 models, but also on existing TVs.

A pop-up stating that the "Google Assistant will no longer be available on this device starting on May 1, 2025" has been spotted by LG TV users, which confirms that Google's voice assistant will no longer work on their TV, regardless of whether it's a 2025 model or a previously released set.

While LG hasn't released an official comment as to why it's dropping support, we do know that its 2025 TVs feature a new upgraded AI chatbot assistant backed by Microsoft Copilot. However, that AI function is, for now, exclusive to its latest TVs, which sport the most recent generation Alpha AI processors.

It could have something to do with Google streamlining its Assistant feature with the use of its Gemini AI platform, which it has confirmed will come to Google TV-equipped models from supported manufacturers later this year.

Ultimately, the loss of the Google Assistant isn't detrimental to the performance of the TV, and while DTS:X is a frustrating omission on the 2025 models, Dolby Atmos, which is more widely supported, remains.

That being said, removing features after someone has invested their hard-earned money into an OLED TV is not something we like to see, and we hope that it doesn't set a precedent for removing more features in the future.

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Read our full LG C5 OLED TV review

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Your TV isn't just a TV – today's best TVs are also games consoles, streamers, web browsers, video calling hubs, smart home control centres, app libraries and more. Which is amazing, but also kind of worrying. Because with all of these skills come all sorts of tracking abilities.

With your TV able to see not only your viewing habits but your web browsing history, voice commands and streaming proclivities, it can know a lot about you. And with built-in microphones always listening for voice assistant wake words, and cameras on hand for video calls, it could even be watching and listening to you, too.

It's not just your TV. Streaming services and devices are also in on the act, constantly harvesting data to make their products more appealing.

So how worried should we be? What do companies do with all this data? And if you don't like it, how can you stop them knowing everything about you from within the comfort of your own home?

What does your TV know about you?

Potentially, a lot. Exactly what that data encompasses will vary depending on the brand and model but, as a general rule, older, less capable TVs will have fewer features, and hence collect less data. 

Those with voice assistants like Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa (as well as Siri on the Apple TV 4K) can be eavesdropping on your conversations in case you say the wake word to issue a voice command. Data like these conversations can be sent to third parties to analyse, so there's no guarantee a bunch of people in the voice assistant equivalent of a call centre aren't hearing your requests. Despite Apple making a big play of its concern for users' privacy, it was revealed in 2019 that the company's staff frequently heard confidential Siri requests while carrying out quality control. It subsequently gave users the choice of opting out of having their requests analysed, and started processing the majority of requests 'on device' rather than sending them to its servers. So that's progress.

Your TV could be in cahoots with other devices, too. So if it knows you've been watching Welcome To Wrexham on Disney+ and your phone tells it you've been Googling "Wrexham pubs", you might suddenly find your future web searches flooded with adverts for hotels close to the Wrexham stadium, for instance. That's some joined-up thinking. Good or bad? You decide.

But perhaps most worrying of all is Automatic Content Recognition (ACR). This can detect the exact show or film you're watching, even if it's on physical media like a DVD or Blu-ray, or a downloaded file from the internet. It does this by analysing the media's video frames and audio against a vast database – even your Blu-ray collection isn't safe from prying eyes, as long as your TV is connected to the internet. This data can then be sold to advertisers. 

Of course, how accurate this data is – and hence how effective the ads will be – is open to debate. Advertisers 'profile' viewers, using data like their viewing habits, location and web search history to make inferences about their political persuasions, sexual orientation, profession and economic status, gender identity, religion, ethnic identity and more. But this isn't 100 per cent accurate – single postcodes can contain huge income disparities, while multiple people in one household might watch different content on the same user account. 

The good news is that ACR is an 'opt-in' feature – TV makers can't use it without your express consent. Consumer Reports details how to turn off ACR on all the major TV platforms.

Do streaming services also gather data?

They do – how else do you think Netflix is able to recommend shows and films you might like, other than based on your viewing history? In fact, a 2019 study by Northeastern University and Imperial College London found that users' data from smart TVs and devices was sent to Netflix even if they didn't subscribe to the streaming service. 

But it's not just Netflix. Disney+, Now and Apple TV all have similar recommendation algorithms, while Prime Video uses your data to promote products to you from the main Amazon web store (known as 'interest-based ads').

What about web browsing on your TV?

Websites visited through a TV browser will use the same cookies as those visited on a PC, so your browsing will be tracked in the same way. But your TV doesn't have the same level of virus protection as a computer or mobile device, so it is, theoretically, at more risk of being hacked.

It is generally considered safe to use your mobile as a remote though, as you can with various services like Fire TV and Sky. Hackers could attempt to infect your phone once they've gained access to the TV, but the chances of this happening are very low.

So, how can you stop your TV spying on you? 

The only way to stop your smart TV and streaming devices from collecting your data altogether is to unplug them. Seriously though, a lot of these features are so integral to the user experience (Netflix recommendations, for example) that you simply can't opt out of them.

But there are certain things you can opt out of, like ACR, personalisation features, location tracking and advertising features. These are easiest to find the first time you start up the TV (though chances are you skipped them – no one wants to read thousands of words of Ts and Cs when they first fire up their new toy), but you should be able to locate them deep in your TV's Settings menu. You can also turn off microphones (some devices have a specific button for this) or even follow Mark Zuckerberg's lead, and cover your camera.

A few years ago, no less an authority than the FBI put together a list of steps you can take to minimise the risk of your smart TV spying on you. These include searching your TV's model number (e.g. LG OLED48C4) followed by the terms 'microphone', 'camera' and 'privacy' for advice, checking for security patch updates and reading the TV manufacturer's privacy policy to see what they do with your data and how securely they store it.

Last but not least, while you're thinking about security, you should also regularly change your wireless router's password. It's the gateway to your smart home and also a potential weak link. Think of it as the lock on your front door that keeps your TV and streaming devices protected from hackers.

But, to borrow a phrase from UK TV series Crimewatch, don't have nightmares. Suffice it to say malicious actors, for better or worse, have much bigger fish to fry. Large data centre systems and machines holding sensitive information are far more likely targets than home users, as we've seen recently. Nevertheless, it's always better to be safe than sorry. 

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Check out the best OLED TVs on the market

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My Echo Show thinks it's Christmas. In June. I don't know why, but the smart speaker keeps suggesting Christmas recipes like 'Classic Christmas pudding' and 'Christmas brownies'. It's also prompting me to ask it to play Jingle Bells. It's 22 degrees Celsius outside.

This isn't the first time a smart speaker has acted in ways that couldn't be described as smart. From promoting conspiracy theories to advising users to break the law, here are eight times smart speakers were decidedly dumb.

1. Hard of hearing

As long as no one in your household is called Alexa, you'd think you would be pretty unlikely to accidentally wake your smart speaker. But you'd be wrong.

Back in 2020, researchers identified more than 1000 terms and phrases that popular smart speakers mistakenly interpreted as their wake word. One. Thousand. These include "unacceptable", "a letter" or – topically – "election", all of which were misheard as "Alexa". But it wasn't just Amazon's devices getting it wrong. 

Academics at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (RUB) and the Max Planck Institute in Germany found that Siri misheard "Hey Jerry" as "Hey Siri", which could be cause for concern for Seinfeld fans. Apple's smart assistant also interpreted the phrase "a city" as its wake word, while "OK cool" and "OK, who is reading" were both misinterpreted by Google Assistant as "OK, Google," as was "cocaine noodles," which is probably less of an issue.

More of an issue is the amount of accidental eavesdropping caused by all these false wakes. A 2020 study by Northeastern University in Boston found smart speakers can accidentally record conversations up to 19 times a day due to false wakes. That's a lot of what you say being hoovered up by these devices.

2. Bah, humbug

In 2018, Alexa ruined Christmas. On 25th December, Amazon's servers collapsed under increased demand from thousands of new, freshly unwrapped Alexa devices all connecting at the same time. That meant people couldn't use their shiny new smart speakers to play Last Christmas, turn on their smart lights or look up recipes for Christmas dinner. Anyone trying to do so was met with the stock response, "Sorry, I'm having trouble understanding that right now. Please try a little later."

Social media users joked that Alexa had taken Christmas Day off, while others speculated that it was, in fact, Ebenezer Scrooge.

3. Paws for thought

In 2018, a British man complained to the Advertising Standards Authority after an Amazon TV advert used the phrase "Alexa, reorder Purina cat food" made his smart speaker do just that. Which is why you shouldn't keep your smart speaker next to your TV.

4. Hair apparent

Still on cats, freelance tech journalist Alan Martin asked both Google Assistant and Alexa "How many hairs are on a cat?" He got a lot more sense out of Google's helper than Amazon's.

Google Assistant replied: "On the website catsinfo.com, they say there are approximately 60,000 hairs per square inch on the back of a cat and approximately 100,000 per square inch on its underside."

While Alexa replied: "A cat has 60,000 hairs."

As Martin writes: "It's obvious what's happened here: either Alexa has only ever seen really mangy cats, or its gone to the same website as Google Assistant, but stopped reading after the first sentence. As a result, it's roughly 39,940,000 out – give or take a few hairs."

5. Killer app

In 2017, Alexa told a user to "Kill your foster parents" after it quoted from Reddit, which is something you should never do. Just last month, Google's new AI search function was telling users to glue cheese to a pizza to make sure it sticks and that geologists recommend people eat one rock a day. Its sources for these spurious claims were satirical site The Onion and – you guessed it – Reddit. 

6. Parroting it back

It's not just six-year-old girls who potentially rack up huge bills for their families by buying things through Alexa – a parrot has been at it as well.

A few years ago, Rocco the African grey parrot was found to be interacting with its owner's Echo speaker between 30 and 40 times a day. Marion Wischnewski, who took Rocco in from a National Animal Welfare Trust sanctuary where she works, found he had ordered strawberries, ice cream and a kettle while she was out, though thanks to a parental lock, none of the items were actually purchased.

Rocco also had Alexa playing songs, telling jokes (by saying "Alexa, knock knock") and adding treats to Wischnewski's basket. It's not the first time Rocco had acted up. According to The Times, he had to leave the animal sanctuary for swearing too much.

7. Conspiracy to commit falsehood

Until 2018, Alexa would answer the query "What are chemtrails?" by saying, "Chemtrails: trails left by aircraft are actually chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for a purpose undisclosed to the general public in clandestine programmes directed by government officials." With no mention at all that what it just said is a baseless conspiracy theory.

8. Not funny

In February and March 2018, users complained Alexa speakers were randomly playing a "bone-chilling" cackle. 

"I was trying to turn off some lights and they kept turning back on," one user wrote. "After the third request, Alexa stopped responding and instead did an evil laugh. The laugh wasn't in the Alexa voice. I still get chills." Maybe it was thinking about all those conversations it had "accidentally" recorded. 

MORE:

Check out the best Alexa speakers

Or the best smart speakers

And the best AirPlay speakers

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

At the beginning of February, we reported that all Samsung TVs would soon be losing access to the Google Assistant voice control feature; little did we know that was just the beginning of the exodus of Google apps from Samsung TVs.

Google Meet, the video conferencing app known as Google Duo until 2022, will also be removed from Samsung TVs. Originally introduced onto the Samsung Smart TV platform Tizen in October 2022, the video calling software will join the Google Assistant feature and Google Play Movies app in being removed from all Samsung display products. 

This includes Samsung smart monitors; while we personally don't care about these as much as Samsung TVs, we can see this being frustrating for consumers who rely on this feature for productivity tasks.

Samsung has set a March 9th deadline for Google Meet's demise on Samsung TVs, while the support page for the app has already been taken down. However, it will continue to sell the Slim Fit Cam accessory that was used to fulfil the video calling aspect of the application, as it has integration with Samsung Health. 

There are various speculations as to why Google is withdrawing support for some of its services on Samsung TVs. SamMobile (via FlatPanelsHD) speculates that it has to do with Google refocusing its efforts on Android TV and Google TV instead, although no word has been given on whether brands from other TVs that use their own operating system will lose these features yet.

MORE:

Check out our picks for the best Samsung TVs

As well as our list of the best TVs overall

And the best TV deals

If you've got a Samsung TV, and enjoy using a certain voice assistant to navigate the operating system, then we have some bad news for you. Samsung has announced that it will remove Google Assistant on all of its TVs from 2020 onwards, leaving Bixby and Alexa to pick up the slack. 

This has been an inevitability for some time, as Google Assistant was not available on Samsung's 2023 models, including the S95C and QN95C. Google Assistant's brief stint on Samsung TVs began in 2020, launching on all of Samsung's 4K and 8K TVs, and only lasted two years, ending in 2022. 

So why is Samsung removing this feature from its TVs? It states that a "change in Google's policy" is to blame while setting a date of the 1st of March as the final day you'll be able to access the voice assistant. It's unclear whether you'll still be able to use your Samsung TV with an external Google Assistant-enabled speaker (such as a Nest Audio), but we're not optimistic. 

You'll still have the option to pick between Samsung's own voice assistant Bixby, or Amazon's well-established Alexa AI system. Considering Bixby hasn't gained traction quite as well as Samsung had hoped, we recommend opting for the Amazon alternative. And if you still want to use Google Assistant on your Samsung TV then not all hope is lost; you'll just have to invest in a Google Chromecast with Google TV streaming stick. 

MORE:

Check out our list of the best Samsung TVs

As well as the best TVs overall

And our picks for the best Android TVs

Google returns with its 8th generation flagship smartphone in the form of the Pixel 8 Pro. This year it’s all about AI which, if we’re being honest, doesn’t mean a great deal to those of us primarily concerned with how a smartphone delivers movies and music.

Thankfully, while AI photo and video editing features and AI Google Assistant upgrades seem to be the priority for the search-engine-turned-hardware-developer, dig a little deeper and under all of that are quite a few enticing improvements to picture and sound performance. 

While it doesn’t dethrone the top-notch AV experiences we find on the likes of the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max or Sony Xperia 1 V, the Google Pixel 8 Pro has plenty to offer for quite a lot less than its rivals.

Price

At £999 / $999 / AU$1699, the Pixel 8 Pro undercuts a substantial number of its flagship Android peers. Both the Sony Xperia 1 V (£1299 / $1399) and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (£1249 / $1199 / AU$1949) are considerably more expensive. 

If you’re willing to look further than the Android options on the market and don’t mind converting to iOS, you’ll find Apple’s top-of-the-range iPhone 15 Pro Max (£1199 / $1199 / AU$2199) to once again be a pricier option, although you can step down to the smaller iPhone 15 Pro (£999 / $999 / AU$1849) for a more similarly priced option.

There is, of course, the standard Google Pixel 8, which is a fair bit cheaper at £699 / $699 / AU$1199, although the tradeoffs include a lower resolution and smaller screen, one less camera lens and no temperature sensor on the rear – if that’s something of use to you.

Ultimately, it is worth noting that the Google Pixel 8 series is more expensive than last year, though. 

Build

This might just be the best-looking Pixel phone we’ve seen to date, and it feels great in the hand too. Google has swapped out the glossy rear glass panel on the Pixel 7 Pro for a frosted matte glass effect for the Pixel 8 Pro, and it looks mighty fine. This small change has made the device easier to hold and use one-handed, makes pesky fingerprints on the device less visible and it just looks super sleek, especially in the Charcoal colourway that we have here. You can also find the device in a white-gold finish dubbed Porcelain, or a vibrant two-tone blue finish called Bay.

In contrast to the matte finish on the back of the phone, the Google Pixel 8 Pro features glossy aluminium rails around the edge that seamlessly blend onto the visor-style camera bar on the rear – a feature that’s stuck around since the Pixel 6 series. It’s a design language that grows on us with each revision, with this year’s iteration looking more rounded and fluidly integrated into the build than ever before. 

In fact, the device as a whole is a lot more rounded than last year’s Pixel 7 series, with the boxy, squared-off corners of its predecessor now smoothed off in a much more appealing design. The front of the device also ditches the curved display of its predecessor, now using a totally flat 6.7-inch display; while this certainly isn’t a compact device by any means, it is surprisingly easy and comfortable to use. 

Looking around the edges of the device you’ll find a USB-C port and sim tray along the bottom, and power and volume keys along the right edge, leaving the other two sides of the device uninterrupted. Unlike other Android devices we’ve tested recently, such as the Sony Xperia 5 V, you won’t find a fingerprint sensor built into the lock button, as it's located underneath the screen instead.

Features

Google’s flagship phone is, of course, filled to the brim with proprietary tech and exclusive features. First up is the new Tensor G3 processor, Google’s in-house developed chip and answer to Apple’s successful A-series chips for iPhones and iPads. In practice, the Pixel 8 Pro runs smoothly in daily operation, and with 12GB of RAM, it feels particularly slick when swiping through the Android 14 operating system. 

This slickness may also be at least somewhat due to the Quad HD LTPO 120Hz OLED display, which varies the refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz depending on the content and results in scrolling that feels especially fluid. The display is HDR-enabled, too, with support for HDR10+. That should make it ideal for content on Amazon Prime Video, which supports said format, but content from services such as Disney+ and Netflix will playback in standard HDR10 as the Pixel 8 doesn't support the Dolby Vision format that they use.

A lot of the upgrades with the Tensor G3 processor centre around AI, which as well as making the Google Assistant a bit brighter, adds some new features to the camera. Most notable is the option to combine multiple group shots and individually swap faces to ensure everyone looks as Instagramable as possible. Is it slightly unsettling? Yes, but it's also handy at times. 

It should come as no surprise that the Pixel 8 Pro is overall another excellent performer in the photography department. With a triple camera arrangement comprising a 50MP main lens, 48MP ultrawide and 48MP telephoto, the 8 Pro delivers sharp, bright, detailed and punchy pictures that impress. The photos aren't quite as natural as those of an iPhone and there aren’t as many pro tools available as on the Sony Xperia 5 V, but the Pixel 8 Pro is an ideal point-and-shoot solution that wants to provide you with good-looking snaps to plaster across social media. 

Moving onto audio features, the Google Pixel 8 Pro offers Bluetooth 5.2 with support for the LE and aptX HD codecs, as well as A2DP. You won’t find support for Dolby Atmos, though, which is a shame as it means you won’t be able to take advantage of Atmos music on Tidal or Atmos movies from Netflix and the like.

The Pixel 8 Pro features a 5050mAh cell and a host of impressively quick charging options. This includes up to 30W wired, 23W wireless and reverse wireless charging, the last of which means you can juice up other Qi-compatible devices by using this phone as a wireless charging pad. In practice, the 8 Pro is a dependable performer that makes it through a day of fairly intensive use without any issues, although there are useful battery-saver options that kick in when needed.

Picture

The Pixel 8 Pro is a strong all-rounder in the picture department but it doesn’t go above and beyond in any way. That’s not to say it doesn’t impress visually, as there’s lots to like here, but we have seen more cinematic smartphones of late that cost roughly the same.

Starting with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on Disney+, we use the tried-and-true opening shot to allow for the OLED panel to flex its muscles when it comes to black depths. Unsurprisingly, it handles the infinite void of space with convincingly deep black levels and there are plenty of glistening stars for contrast. While it's not quite as impactful as the recently reviewed Sony Xperia 5 V, it’s a solid start for the Pixel.

Moving onto motion, the Pixel handles the speeding Imperial shuttle’s descent through the atmosphere and along the surface of the planet with judder-free ease, and even the rhythmic crashing of waves onto the black sandy beach is smooth and perceivably stutter-free.

The Pixel goes on to demonstrate its sharp and crisp image as the villainous Director Krennic confronts Galen Erso during the opening scene of the movie. Here we see crisp details in the skin and clothing textures of the characters, in addition to well-defined outlines of subjects on screen. Overall it’s well-rounded and detailed.

Switching over to Drive on Netflix, we unfortunately come across the Pixel’s greatest weakness: shadow handling. The phone lacks practically any sense of subtlety in dark scenes, as demonstrated by the opening getaway chase. Despite it taking place at night with minimal illumination from streetlights, the display seems to highlight subjects with a glowing spotlight effect, negating most of the intended shadow effects. When the display does concede and allow for shadows to appear, there is little to no detail or gradient from light to darkness, so characters are either submerged in bright light or pitch-black darkness. 

Moving into something brighter and bolder with Netflix's Our Planet 2 highlights how the Pixel is also slightly over-enthusiastic when it comes to colours. Foliage takes on a somewhat neon-green hue, for example. Bringing the Sony Xperia 5 V back into play for comparison, we find that it delivers a more balanced approach to colours, with a vibrant touch that is underpinned with a supreme naturalness, making trees and rainforest shrubbery appear bold and vivid yet not oversaturated.

Sound

This is by no means the first Pixel phone (or portable Google device for that matter) that we've tested, but it sure is the best-sounding. After a run of similar-sounding devices in the form of the Pixel 7, Pixel 7a and Pixel Tablet, Google has finally injected some life into its sonic presentation. While it's not entirely revolutionary, it is an appreciable upgrade and one we notice almost immediately upon listening to the 8 Pro.

Tuning into Exile by Taylor Swift and Bon Iver via Tidal, we're met with a warmer, richer sound than its predecessor. There's a touch more detail and definition in the piano notes, while the earnest vocals of Bon Iver are more engaging and textured than before. It's also more dynamic, with the duet section of the track in which Swift and Bon Iver retaliate emotionally charged lines coming across with plenty of punch.

There's still room for improvement, though. Switch to Phoebe Bridgers' Kyoto and we find that timing is something of an issue. The Pixel doesn't strike notes as precisely as it could, leading to a lack of rhythmic drive. Bringing the Sony Xperia 5 V as a comparison once again, we find it to be much snappier and a touch more engaging as a result.

Should you be forced to listen to the phone out loud, the stereo speakers on the Pixel 8 Pro are actually quite good. Dialogue is clear, they go quite loud and the Rogue One's cinematic score has a semblance of oomph behind it. That being said, they still don't produce the most spacious and full-bodied sound imaginable. We'd recommend pairing the Pixel 8 Pro with a good set of cans for best results.

Verdict

While the Pixel 8 Pro doesn't fully excel at picture and sound performance, Google has made an effort to improve both areas and it shows. While it hasn't shouted about audio improvements, they're certainly there, and the screen gets all the basics right, too, with enhanced brightness the cherry on top.

Ultimately, a smartphone doesn't live and die by its picture and sound performance, as you have to use it for much more than that – and that's where the Google Pixel shines. It's slick, well put together, and has a boatload of features that make it feel like a true flagship-level phone.

But picture and sound are what we care most about, and a lack of subtlety holds the Pixel 8 Pro back from true greatness. The heavy-handed approach to shadows and colours plus a sluggish take on musical timing mean that the cheaper Sony Xperia 5 V is the better buy for portable movie and music use.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Pixel 7a

Also consider the OnePlus 11 5G

Read our Sony Xperia 5 V review

Best smartphones: the best phones for music and movies

If you’re looking for a discount 4K TV that can stream thousands of the best movies and shows, then you might want to check this deal out!

The TCL 50RP620K Roku TV is now down to just £259, thanks to a fresh discount over at Currys.

This 50-inch 4K UHD TV has had its price slashed by a total of £140 since launching two years ago when it hit shelves at £399.

We reviewed the 55-inch version of this TV back in 2021, which launched at £449. We were impressed with this model, noting that it had a grown-up and natural approach which is rare at this price point. 

A lot of sets at this level attempt to dazzle but end up falling short or simply looking garish; however we gave the 55RP620K a five-star review, praising its colours, contrast control, and its excellent smart platform, and we have every reason to believe that this 50-inch version will be just as good.

TCL’s Roku TVs come with Roku’s operating system built-in, which grants access to the best video streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Apple TV, and the other usual favourites. 

In terms of connectivity, the TCL’s 50RP620K features four HDMI 2.0 ports, with one of those handling ARC duties. 

There is also an optical audio output, handy if you are connecting to a soundbar or other audio device that lacks HDMI connectivity. 

TCL’s Roku TV supports the HDR10 and HLG HDR formats, although there is no motion processing, and it's a bit short on dark detail. However, we felt those were acceptable compromises at full price, let alone this massively discounted one. 

The TV also features built-in wi-fi allowing for a wireless online connection, though there is also an ethernet port if you want to keep things wired up. 

The 50RP620K packs a host of handy features that improve functionality, such as compatibility with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri allowing users to control their TV using voice commands.

AirPlay 2, along with other screen mirroring tools from Android or Windows devices, are also compatible with the 50RP620K TV. There’s also the Roku App which allows users to control the TV with their phone or voice. 

Interested? Head over to Currys to check out this latest discount

MORE: 

Read our TCL RP620K (55RP620K) review

Best TV 2023: the latest and greatest TVs, rated and ranked

Dear Hisense, TCL, Sony, and Samsung, please stop making 100-inch TVs

Toshiba has announced a new line-up of smart TVs for the UK at IFA 2022, including models with quantum dot technology plus a choice of operating systems from Amazon, Google and Linux.

The flagship 4K QA5D display features Toshiba’s top-of-the-range panel technology, including its TRU Picture Engine and support for Dolby Vision, HDR 10 and HLG HDR formats. Dolby Atmos is also onboard, as is DTS:X and built-in speakers by Onkyo.

Available in 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch screen sizes, the QA5D has a slim, ‘frameless’ design and features the Android 11 TV operating system. It offers two HDMI 2.1 ports with ALLM and eARC and Chromecast is on board with voice control courtesy of Google Assistant.

Prices for the QA5D start at £400 (around $461 / AU$697), while a sibling model, the QL5D, will offer the same design, quantum dot panel and audio system but with Toshiba’s Linux-based operating system instead of Android TV. The QL5D will be exclusive to Costco and Buy It Direct, with prices yet to be announced.

For fans of Amazon's TV platform, the UF3D is Toshiba’s first TV with Fire TV built-in. It’s designed to integrate with an existing Alexa set-up and includes an Alexa Remote for voice control.

This 4K UHD model also features Toshiba’s TRU Picture Engine with Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG. Dolby Atmos is supported, and Onkyo has also designed its speakers.

With prices starting at £370 ($427 / AU$677), the UF3D is available in 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch sizes. Also on display at IFA is the QF5D, another Fire TV model but with a QD film display, available in the same screen sizes with pricing still to be released.

Next up, the UK4D brings another operating system to the table. This time, it’s Toshiba’s Linux-based platform with Alexa built-in. Available in 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch sizes, the UK4D has a frameless design with a 4K UHD panel and TRU Picture Engine with Dolby Vision, HDR 10 and HLG. Prices for the UK4D start at £350 (around $403 / AU$593).

Toshiba’s mid-range Android TV option is the UA3D, available in 43-inch, 50-inch and 55-inch sizes. It doesn’t boast the sleek build of its big sibling or Dolby Atmos, but the 4K sets do support HDR10 and Dolby Vision. The UA3D starts from £350 (around $403 / AU$593).

MORE

Onkyo is set to return to Europe this autumn, with Sharp taking on all the brand's manufacturing

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K vs Chromecast with Google TV: which is the best TV streaming device?

22 of the best film scenes to test Dolby Atmos

JBL is releasing an all-new line-up of Dolby Atmos soundbars with models to suit every budget.

All the soundbars in the four-strong new JBL Bar Series include support for Dolby Atmos and wireless music streaming via AirPlay 2, Alexa multi-room music and built-in Chromecast. The entire range can also be linked to voice assistant-enabled devices compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri.

Available from October in Europe, the JBL Bar 1000 is the brand’s new flagship model with 7.1.4 channels of sound and four upward-firing drivers. It is capable of delivering both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X 3D sound formats, and is priced at £1000 (around $1172 / AU$1689)

With a similar design to JBL’s previous soundbars, the JBL Bar 1000 includes detachable battery-powered rear speakers for truly wireless surround sound and a 10-inch wireless (except for power) subwoofer. The system boasts 880-watts of output power and supports JBL’s proprietary beamforming technology called MultiBeam, which aims to provide a more immersive listening experience so that owners can "hear and feel surround sound without needing additional speakers". 

The JBL Bar 800 has a similar build to its big sibling with detachable wireless surround speakers and a 10-inch separate sub, but it drops two front and height channels for a smaller 720-watt 5.1.2 system. There's support onboard for Dolby Atmos but not JBL's MultiBeam technology. Priced at £800 (around $938 / AU$1351), the Bar 800 will also be available in Europe from October.

Meanwhile, the JBL Bar 500 is a 5.1 system with a single soundbar and a separate 10-inch wireless sub supporting virtual Dolby Atmos, MultiBeam processing and 590-watts output power. It is available from September and is priced at £500 (around $586/AU$844).

Finally, the JBL Bar 300, also launching in September, is described as a 5.0 single soundbar system with a built-in sub. This 260-watt system also supports virtual Dolby Atmos and MultiBeam processing and costs £350 (around $410 / AU$591).

The entire range can be controlled using the JBL One app and includes customisable EQ settings as well as JBL's PureVoice setting, which automatically optimises dialogue clarity.

The JBL Bar Series is available only in the UK and Europe.

MORE

IFA 2022 news and highlights: Dolby Atmos soundbars, crazy projectors, Bluetooth subwoofers and more

Our pick of the best soundbars currently available

22 of the best film scenes to test Dolby Atmos

The best Marvel movie scenes to test your Dolby Atmos soundbar

The Sony LinkBuds S are official, and they add noise-cancelling to the ambient audio experience. 

As expected, they do away with the open ring design of the standard LinkBuds. In its place is a more traditional earbud design, but they still allow in outside sound thanks to a vent at the bottom. Activate the noise-cancelling, however, and background noise will be banished, letting you lose yourself in the music.

Sony calls the ability to flit between these two modes a "never off" listening experience.

Adaptive Sound Control adjusts the ambient sound settings based on your environment, allowing in the optimum amount of background sound.

Sony claims the LinkBuds S are the world's smallest and lightest noise-cancelling hi-res true wireless headphones. They weigh just 4.8g each – that's bit more than the AirPods, but the AirPods don't pack noise-cancelling tech. And their shape "perfectly matches the human ear", according to Sony. All-day listening, here we come.

Sony´s Precise Voice Pickup Technology is onboard. This optimally controls the microphones on both earbuds to focus on your voice, meaning you can be heard no matter how loud your surroundings.

Inside is a new 5mm driver, alongside Sony’s Integrated Processor V1 to improve noise cancelling. (This is the same processor as in the superb Sony WF-1000XM4.)

Like Sony's other premium headphones, they can handle Sony's LDAC music codec, while DSEE Extreme upscales tracks to restore any lost detail.

Speak-to-Chat – as seen on the Sony WH-1000XM5 – pauses the music when it detects you speaking, so you can have a conversation without taking the earbuds out. And they play nice with the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa voice assistants.

Touch controls are the order of the day, and they pair quickly with Android devices using Google's Fast Pair feature. Windows user? Swift Pair fulfils the same function. Bluetooth LE provides a low latency connection to a source device, which is good news for gamers, and like other Sony headphones, the packaging doesn't use plastic.

The LinkBuds S last for six hours with noise-cancellation activated, plus another 14 hours from the carry case, making for a total battery life of 20 hours. After that, you'll need to find a wall socket. A five-minute charge will give you up to an hour's play time.

Sony has also partnered with mobile gaming company Niantic (makers of Pokemon Go) to bring immersive audio to gaming. When you play the Niantic game Ingress using your LinkBuds S, spatial audio will mean the sound is delivered according to the direction the player is facing. Sony is promising more AR gaming action will come soon to LinkBuds S.

Your colour options are White, Black and Ecru. LinkBuds S ship from 20th May and will cost £180 ($199, AU$350, €200).

MORE:

Sony LinkBuds vs WF-1000XM4: which Sony wireless earbuds are better?

How active noise-cancelling headphones work: the technology behind ANC

Check out the best in-ear headphones 2022: budget to premium

Google has launched a pair of wireless earbuds with active noise-cancellation, meaning it can finally rival the AirPods Pro, Sony WF-1000XM4 and Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3.

The Pixel Buds Pro are essentially the Pixel Buds A-Series with added noise cancellation. Considering the A-Series scored five out of five in our review, that bodes very well indeed.

Much like the Tensor processor found in the Google Pixel 6 smartphone, the ANC has been custom built by Google. It uses a custom six-core audio chip, Google-developed algorithms tuned by its in-house audio engineering team, and custom speakers.

Because they poke into your ear canal, some noise-cancelling earbuds can feel too intrusive, but Google claims the Pixel Buds Pro will avoid this. How? With patented Silent Seal technology, which adapts to the shape of your ear to cancel the optimum amount of noise. Built-in sensors monitor the pressure in your ear canal to make sure they stay comfortable. And when you want to hear the outside world, the Transparency mode lets in ambient audio.

Volume EQ tweaks the balance as you adjust the volume, and later this year, spatial audio will arrive via a firmware update. Apple has had some success with its Dolby Atmos-esque spatial audio on the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, so we're intrigued to see how Google's version measures up. Like Apple's, it will anchor the audio to the source, such as your smartphone, so as you turn your head, the direction of the sound adjusts accordingly.

Multipoint lets you connect wirelessly to multiple devices and switch between them seamlessly, and the mics can cancel out wind noise for handsfree calls. Google Assistant is also onboard for voice commands.

The Pixel Buds Pro battery life is a claimed seven hours with ANC activated, while the case promises another 13 hours of run time, making for a total battery life of up to 20 hours. That's a little shy of the 24 offered by the current class-leaders, the Sony WF-1000XM4.

The buds are rated IPX4 splashproof, while the case is IPX2. The buds have a soft matte finish, and their two-tone design comes in four colours: Coral, Lemongrass, Fog and Charcoal.

Pre-orders start 21st July, and they'll set you back £179 ($199, AU$299). That's more than the non-noise-cancelling Pixel Buds A-Series, but less than the AirPods Pro. Look out for a full review soon.

MORE:

See our pick of the best noise-cancelling earbuds 2022: budget and premium

And here's our roundup of the best wireless headphones 2022

Need something for the 10k? These are the best running headphones and wireless earbuds 2022

As well as launching its new Ray soundbar, Sonos has just unveiled its very own voice control system which, in a fairly Dulux manner, it's calling Sonos Voice Control. As is perhaps indicated by the name, this isn't a full voice assistant in the mould of Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant, but instead simply a way of operating your Sonos system hands-free.

That may make Sonos Voice Control sound somewhat limited in scope, but it has one particularly appealing characteristic: it's supremely secure and private. That's primarily because rather than sending voice commands to the cloud before a response is provided, all Sonos Voice Control requests are handled locally, by the device to which you're talking. No communication with the cloud; no potential for invasion of your digital privacy.

Sonos Voice Control works with every voice-capable Sonos speaker, including favourites such as the One, Beam and Arc. Essentially, if you have a Sonos speaker that already supports Alexa, it will also support Sonos Voice Control when it launches.

Unfortunately, said launch is quite a long way away for all regions except the US, where it will arrive on 1st June. Sonos has said that Voice Control will be available in France 'later this year' and that other countries, including the UK, are 'to follow'.

So what sort of things will you be shouting at your Sonos when Voice Control does arrive? First, the wake phrase is "Hey Sonos", which can be followed by instructions such as "turn it up", "play Do Ya Wanna Taste It", "skip" and "play this everywhere". Perhaps best of all, the voice of Sonos Voice Control is provided by Giancarlo Esposito, aka Gus Fring from Breaking Bad. Sonos says more voices will be added over time, but we frankly can't think of anything better than talking to The Chicken Man.

New Roam colours and Lorde on Sonos Radio

In other Sonos news, the Roam is being launched in three new colours: Olive, Wave and Sunset (green, blue and orange to those of us with a more basic colour vocabulary). The Roam is available in these new colours right now, and there's no increase in the existing price of £179 / $179 / AU$299, though it's worth noting that that is itself an increase on the launch price of £159 / $169 / AU$279.

Finally, Sonos has also announced that it's launching a new Sonos Radio station in partnership with New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde. Named SOLARSYSTM, this new station is, according to Lorde herself, "like stepping into my brain, giving listeners a front row seat to the songs that have meant a ton to me and my life”. If that interests you, SOLARSYSTM should be available via your Sonos speaker right about now.

MORE:

Everything you need to know about the new Sonos Ray soundbar

Here's our Sonos Ray vs Sonos Beam comparison

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.

Google Assistant can do all kinds of things– play music, check the weather forecast, control your smart home – but one thing it can’t do is tell you which smart speaker to buy. Fortunately, that's what we're here for.

While it's not as imaginatively named as Alexa or Siri, Google Assistant is still a major player in the smart speaker game. Picking a Google product will tie you quite firmly to the brand, but if you're already using Google devices and services such as Pixel phones, Nest products and/or Gmail, Maps and Calendar, a speaker with Google Assistant onboard might make most sense for you.

To help narrow down your options, we’ve put together this buying guide which picks out the best Google Assistant speakers for various uses. All of the models below have been tested in our dedicated listening facilities and in reviewers' homes, so we have first-hand experience of how they perform in daily use, how effective Google Assistant is, and how they sound.

Not as many speakers seem to house Google Assistant as before, but that doesn't mean that new products are avoiding the tech entirely, with LG's expanding Xboom range, for instance, still making use of Google Assistant alongside Siri.

If you want to know more about how we test there's an explainer at the bottom of the page, or simply scroll down to see our pick of the best Google-equipped smart speakers you can buy today.

• In the US? Check out our list of the best Bluetooth speakers under $100

The quick list

Below we've provided you with a breakdown of all the Google speakers on this list with a short summary of their strengths and weaknesses. If you want more information, click the photo of the speaker and you'll be taken to a more in-depth breakdown of its tech specs, features and performance.

Best Google Assistant speaker overall

It feels like it's increasingly rare for a mainstream smart speaker to boast multiple third-party voice assistants, yet the burly JBL Authentics 300 gives you the best of two high-quality worlds by packing in two simultaneous AI helpers: Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Both work side by side and can be switched between pretty much on the fly, making the Authentics 300 a versatile hub for two excellent hands-free aides.

It's versatile in other ways, too. Not only do you have Alexa and Google coexisting in one handsome, well-made package, but you're also treated to a multitude of use cases within a single box.

If you want portability, there's a carry handle and around 6 hours of battery life for taking your JBL out and about or transporting it from room to room, while a loud, full sound and access to mains power means that you can use your smart speaker as a burly boombox without fear that it can't fill all manner of domestic spaces.

Streaming options are various, too, as you can use wi-fi or Bluetooth (we find the former to be a little crisper and clearer) or hook up to your source player via the provided aux-in port.

It won't let you down sonically, either, and while the Authentics 300 can be a little too keen as it occasionally strays into the realm of brashness, there's plenty to like about the JBL's robustness, punch and undeniable sense of effervescence. If you want something a little bigger, check out the Authentics 500 in our also consider section below.

Read our full JBL Authentics 300 review

Best portable Google Assistant speaker

Sonos’s first portable speaker was succeeded by the Move 2 in 2023, but like the rest of its newer products the sequel has been relieved of its Google Assistant duties, so if you want one that offers Google’s AI helper alongside Alexa you’ll need to track down an original Move.

Most places only have the Google-less Move 2 in stock, but if you can track down an original (and there are still some out there), you’ll get a portable speaker that offers both wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity (albeit without aptX), multi-room streaming functionality, and that all-important Google Assistant access.

For a portable speaker the Move is a bit of a beast, measuring 24cm tall and weighing a hefty 3kg. That means it’s better suited to spending the majority of its life at home, but is also capable of decamping to the garden when the sun comes out. (If you want something genuinely travel-friendly the Alexa-only Sonos Roam is far smaller and lighter, but our list of the best Bluetooth speakers has even better options.)

That extra heft does translate to a weighty and full-bodied performance, with a broad and expansive sound that will carry regardless of where it's placed, thanks in no small part to Sonos’s TruePlay tech.

It’s not cheap, and if you’re not fully committed to Google Assistant the less moveable Apple HomePod sounds even better, but the first-gen Move is still capable of scratching a very particular itch.

Read our full Sonos Move review

Best Google Assistant speaker with screen

If you're after a smart speaker that has Google Assistant baked in, decent-sounding audio and the added convenience of a touchscreen, the Google Nest Hub might have everything you've been looking for.

To put the Nest Hub’s 7-inch (1024 x 600, 18cm) touchscreen into context, it's only marginally bigger than the one sported by the largest iPhone 12 Pro Max when measured across the diagonal.

It may be small but it's not stupid. There are plenty of music streaming and TV services available - including Channel 4, Deezer, Netflix and Disney Plus - but perhaps the most innovative inclusion is Google's Sleep Sensing tech, a motion-tracking system that analyses your slumber via motion detection, and combines it with light and temperature sensors to assess your nocturnal habits.

The Amazon Echo Show 10 provides a similar smart-speaker-with-screen alternative, but it's almost three times the price of the Google Nest Hub. Thanks to Disney Plus, Sleep Sensing tech and the delivery of a solid soundscape, the Nest Hub is a worthy proposition if it meets your criteria.

Read our full Google Nest Hub (2nd Generation) review

Also Consider

JBL Authentics 500: If you love the look and sound of the Authentics 300 but want to go even bigger and bolder, the 500 is the logical next step. It's not as portable as the 300, but you do get spatial audio capabilities, a bolder, louder sound and a heck of a lot more power.

LG Xboom Go XGBT: The portable XGBT doesn't have Google Assistant built-in, but if you hold down the play button you can use its onboard microphone to summon the AI helper (it'll work with Siri, too) from your connected phone. It's not the most refined-sounding speaker, but it is good at getting parties started thanks to its powerful, punchy sound and customisable lighting.

How to choose the best Google Assistant speaker for you

Size
Google Assistant speakers come in all shapes and sizes, so finding one to fit your space shouldn’t be a problem, but do bear in mind that its dimensions will have an impact on its ability to fill your room with sound. Size isn’t everything, but small speakers include smaller drivers that won’t be able to go very loud without distorting, so make sure you buy something suitable for the size of room you plan to put it in.

Connectivity
Google Assistant requires an internet connection to work, so by default, you’ll have wi-fi onboard, but you might want to consider what other connectivity options you’ll have. Do you want Bluetooth as well in case your wi-fi goes down? Could a 3.5mm socket come in handy? And is there native support for your streaming service of choice?

Smart features
Considering you’re reading a guide to the best Google Assistant speakers it’s probably safe to assume you’re not looking for one with Alexa (although we have a list for smart speakers in general too), but that’s not the only smart aspect to consider when shopping for a smart speaker.

Some also support Matter and Thread, two relatively new wireless standards that make it easier to connect other smart home devices, so if you plan to use your speaker to do more than just play music and set timers, it might be worth making sure both are supported.

Finally, most smart speakers rely purely on voice for communication, but if you think you might like to supplement that with some visual feedback, some now come with screens as well. On the whole, we’ve found that these don’t sound as good as dedicated speakers, but they’re mostly meant to be used as a high-tech alternative to a kitchen radio or bedside alarm clock.

How we test Google Assistant speakers

The What Hi-Fi? team tests hundreds of products every year – and that includes wireless smart speakers. How do we come to our review verdicts and why should you trust them? Give us two minutes of your time...

We have dedicated facilities in London and Reading, where our team of expert reviewers handles every step of all our independent testing. This gives us complete control over all the products we test, ensuring consistency and impartiality.

When testing smart speakers, we download the accompanying app and test how well each speaker responds to voice commands, as well as how it handles third-party music app integration, such as BBC Sounds, Spotify, Tidal and internet radio.

If possible, we also take smart speakers home to test how we would naturally use them in our daily lives, and test their connections, user-friendliness, and sound quality with a variety of music genres and sources.

All smart speakers are tested in comparison with rivals in the same price category (always five-star class leaders and often What Hi-Fi? Award-winners) and all our review verdicts are agreed upon by the team as a whole rather than an individual reviewer. This helps to ensure neutrality and avoid any personal preference.

Finally, we choose the culmination of our efforts – the best products from all of our in-depth reviews – to feature in our Best Buys, which is where you are now. If you take the plunge and buy one of the products recommended above, or on any other Best Buy page, you can be assured you're getting a What Hi-Fi?-approved product.

Read all about how we test and review products right here.

FAQ

Recent updates

January 2026: No new entries, but we've checked our copy to ensure it's all up to date for the new year.

June 2025: No new entries or products removed, but checked copy to ensure it's up-to-date.

March 2025: Sonos One removed due to lack of availability, so the JBL Authentics 300 has been promoted to the best overall choice. Added two questions to the FAQ section and updated the advice on how to choose a Google Assistant speaker.

February 2025: No new entries on the main list, but we've added the portable LG Xboom XG8T to our also consider section.

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

The new Sonos Roam SL is the company's most affordable Bluetooth speaker yet. It's essentially a microphone-free version of last year's Sonos Roam, an accomplished smart speaker that offers all-day battery life and a sleek waterproof design. 

So, should you splash out on the voice-activated Roam, which offers access to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, or save yourself £20 / $20 / AU$10 and opt for the slightly-less-premium Roam SL? 

We've yet to review the Sonos Roam SL but we can give you a rundown of what they have to offer, so read on for all the details...

• Sonos wireless headphones rumoured to be launching soon 

Sonos Roam SL vs Sonos Roam: price

The Sonos Roam – billed as the company's "first true portable outdoor speaker" – was unveiled on 9th March 2021 and officially released on 20th April 2021. It debuted at £159 / $169 / AU$279 but Sonos has since raised the price to £179 / $179 / AU$299.

The Sonos Roam SL was announced on 1st March 2022. Pre-orders for the lower cost version of the Roam are open now at sonos.com and the speaker will begin shipping on 15th March 2022. The price is £159 / $159 / AU$269. 

Clearly, the Sonos Roam SL is the pennywise option here, but sacrifices have been made in terms of features. Let's take a closer look...

Sonos Roam SL vs Sonos Roam: design

The Toblerone-shaped Sonos Roam is compact (17cm tall) and comparatively light (430g). It's ideal for picnics and pool parties since it carries an IP67 rating (it can be completely submerged in three feet of water for up to 30 minutes). 

The built-in battery has the stamina for up to 10 hours of playback from a single charge, so the tunes shouldn't grind to a halt before the last guests have left. You can charge it via the included USB-C cable or a Qi wireless charger (Sonos even offers an optional magnetic wireless charger for £44 / $49 / AU$79).

The newer Roam SL is the same size and shape as its brethren and shares the same IP rating, same 10-hour battery life, and same rubberised controls. Both models can be controlled via the Sonos app and both come in Shadow Black and Lunar White colour options.

The only physical difference between these two speakers is that the Roam has a microphone button, whereas the Roam SL does not.

• Which Sonos speaker should you buy?

Sonos Roam SL vs Sonos Roam: features

The Roam and Roam SL may be two peas in a pod but there is one crucial difference when it comes to the feature set: the Roam has a built-in microphone; the Roam SL does not. As a result, the cheaper Roam SL misses out on three mic-based features...

1. Voice controls  
The original Roam offers built-in access to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. It is possible to control the Roam SL using the above smart assistants, you would need to do it through a third-party device, such a smartphone. Much less convenient.

2. Auto Trueplay
The Roam's Trueplay calibration tech tunes your speaker(s) specifically to your room in order to deliver the best possible sound. It uses a microphone to record the way that sound waves bounce around a room, so it won't work with the mic-less Roam SL.

3. Sound Swap
Sound Swap lets you pass audio from the Roam to other Sonos speakers. You could start a playlist on the Roam while out at the park, for example, and then switch playback over to a Sonos multi-room system when you get home. The tech works by playing tones that nearby Sonos speakers hear so, again, the mic-free Roam SL misses out.

Those three features aside, the Roam and Roam SL are cut from the same cloth. Both offer Bluetooth and wi-fi connectivity complete with network streaming, support for Apple AirPlay 2, and the ability to stereo pair with another Roam or Roam SL. 

Both devices can be controlled via the Sonos S2 app, which, as we noted in our review, is "simply the best out there" and provides access to Sonos Radio (an internet radio service that serves up 60,000 radio stations from around the globe).

In short, there's plenty to love about the Roam and its 'speechless' sibling. Mic or no mic, both models can be fully immersed in the company’s multi-room ecosystem, which is easily the best around.

• Sonos: everything you need to know

Sonos Roam SL vs Sonos Roam: sound

We've yet to get our hands on the new Sonos Roam SL, but it's said to offer the same, pleasingly simple audio technology as its pricier sibling: two Class-H digital amplifiers, one tweeter, and one mid/bass woofer.

If that's the case, it should benefit from the standard model's sonic character, which, while not the last word in musicality, has plenty of appeal thanks to its full-bodied and clear delivery. Of course, the lack of Auto TruePlay could leave the SL at a slight disadvantage in terms of flexibility.

In the market for one of the best-of-the-best Bluetooth speakers? There's no shortage of options, including the JBL Xtreme 3, Dali Katch G2 and JBL Flip 5.

Sonos Roam SL vs Sonos Roam: early verdict

Ultimately, which speaker is 'best' depends on your budget and requirements. If you'd prefer to save a few bucks and lose out on Alexa and Google Assistant voice control, or are concerned about privacy, the mic-less Sonos Roam SL could make the most sense.

If, however, you want a smarter Sonos speaker that provides access to two of the best voice assistants around, as well as Sonos' clever Trueplay calibration tech (which could come in handy), the original Roam might be the one to go for.

Lastly, you should also consider whether either of these Sonos speakers is truly right for you – our round-up of the best wireless speakers is here to help with that.

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Or shop today's best Sonos deals

Two of Jabra's latest wireless earbuds are getting a significant upgrade. Both the Jabra Elite 7 Pro and Elite 7 Active are getting multipoint support, which lets you pair them to two audio sources at once.

That makes for seamless switching between listening to music on your laptop, say, and taking a handsfree call on your phone.

Multipoint support comes courtesy of a firmware update which is rolling out now.

You can manually update the firmware yourself using Jabra's Sound+ app for Android or iOS.

As well as multipoint, the update brings support for Google Assistant, so you can set Google's personal helper as your voice-activated batman of choice. The MyFit feature has also been improved, while bugs have also been fixed.

Both earbuds went on sale at the end of last year. The Elite 7 Pro are the more premium offering, featuring call-focussed tech to make your handsfree chats as clear as your tunes. Jabra's MultiSensor Voice technology brings together a bone conduction sensor, four microphones and algorithms to give call quality a polish. 

At the heart of it are the voice pick-up sensors (VPUs) – one in each earbud. The algorithms constantly analyse the type of noise being picked up by the built-in microphones, and when they detect wind noise, they active the VPUs. Bone conduction tech transmits your voice via vibrations in the jawbone, with the algorithm using the best combination of bone conduction sensor and microphones to transmit the clearest call possible.

The Elite 7 Active lack this tech, but they do feature Jabra's ShakeGrip coating, which is designed to stay put no matter how vigorously you work out. Other than that, the buds are identical, with adjustable active noise cancellation onboard, personalised audio profiles, and nine hours of battery life plus another 26 hours from the carry case.

The Elite 7 Pro cost £199.99 ($199, AU$299), and the Elite 7 Active £169.99 ($179, AU$279). And thanks to this update, you get a bit more bang for your buck.

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And these are the best headphones under £100

Denon has announced two new additions to its S-Series range of affordable receivers intended for smaller systems and budgets. Despite the low prices, the AVR-S760H and AVR-S660H benefit from some of Denon’s most advanced connectivity, including three HDMI 2.1 inputs each, making them particularly well suited for hardcore next-gen gamers.

Those three HDMI 2.1 inputs are rated to 40Gbps and can handle 8K@60Hz and 4K@120Hz video pass-through. All the HDMI ports (in total there are 6 ins and 1 out on each model) will boast 4:4:4 chroma sub-sampling and HDR pass-through for a wide variety of formats, including HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) and BT.2020. 8K sources may be in short supply at the moment, but the AVRs provide 8K upscaling on all inputs, and there’s also plenty of next-gen gaming technologies, with Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Quick Frame Transport (QFT), Quick Media Switching (QMS) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) all supported. eARC is on board too.

Priced at £599 ($549, around AU$1100), the AVR-S760H home cinema amp will deliver seven channels of amplification rated at 75W per channel in stereo conditions (8 ohms) and has support for 3D surround formats including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. For users unable to reconfigure their set-up to 5.1.2 with ceiling or height speakers, there’s also DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Atmos Height Virtualization onboard.

Meanwhile, the 5.2 channel AVR-S660H home cinema amp costs £499 ($449, around AU$920) and provides 75W of amplifications in stereo conditions (8 ohms), supporting Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding.

The Denon AVR-S660H and AVR-S760H are compatible with Apple AirPlay 2, while the front-panel USB port offers audio playback of high-resolution audio formats, including WAV, FLAC, ALAC and DSD 2.8/5.6 MHz. Wireless streaming from online music services is available using Bluetooth or Denon’s HEOS software. HEOS, built into both AVRs, lets users stream music wirelessly across compatible products within the home. Both amps will also work with Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri for voice control of AVR functions.

The new S-Series AVRs will offer Dialog Enhancer technology to allow users to adjust dialogue levels, while a newly added HDMI signal information feature will let users confirm the signal and format type they are watching.

Audyssey MultEQ technology is included for automatic acoustic calibration of the system. Denon's proprietary audio optimisation technology detects the speakers' size, type, and configuration and measures their response in up to six listening positions. With the AVR-S760H, listeners can also use the Audyssey MultEQ Editor app, available for purchase on iOS and Android, to manually change settings. Additionally, it has a Dual Speaker Presets feature, enabling users to instantly store and switch between two different speaker configurations and Audyssey settings.

The Denon AVR-S660H and AVR-S760H are available now and sit below the AVR-X1700H, announced earlier this week and priced at £599 ($699, AU$1399). Like the AVR-S760H, the AVR-X1700H is also a 7.2 channel amp with three 8K HDMI inputs and support Dolby Atmos, Dolby Atmos Height Virtualization, DTS:X and DTS Virtual:X. It offers more power, outputting 80W in stereo conditions (8ohms) and has a slightly more advanced version of Audyssey (MultEQ XT).

While Denon has released worldwide pricing for all three of its new AVRs announced this week, the products don't appear to be receiving an active launch in the UK at present, which may account for some inconsistency in the GBP price bands.

The new S-series amps replace the AVR-S650H and AVR-S750H released in 2019, which do not have HDMI 2.1 connectivity and are priced at £450 ($399, AU$1000) and £550 ($500, AU$1200) respectively.

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Denon has announced a new addition to its premium X-range of home cinema amplifiers offering some of the company’s most advanced features at an accessible price point. Launching next month, the AVR-X1700H will offer seven channels of amplification at 80W per channel (8 ohms, 2ch driven) with three 8K HDMI inputs and support for a host of immersive surround formats including Dolby Atmos, Dolby Atmos Height Virtualization, DTS:X and DTS Virtual:X.

With six inputs and one output, the HDMI board on the AVR-X1700H includes three 8K inputs supporting 8K@60Hz and 4K@120Hz video pass-through up to 40Gbps. All of the HDMI inputs boast 4:4:4 chroma sub-sampling and compatibility with a variety of HDR codecs including HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision and Hybrid Log-Gamma. A handy new feature displaying HDMI signal information will mean users can easily confirm the resolution of the signal they’re viewing and which HDR formats are passing through the AVR.

Gamers will be pleased to know that 4K@120Hz pass-through, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Quick Frame Transport (QFT), and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) are on-board for a smoother playing experience. Elsewhere there’s also 8K upscaling on all inputs as well as eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel) to deliver uncompressed audio via a single HDMI cable.

If you own height or in-ceiling speakers, the 7.2 channel AVR-X1700H can be configured to drive a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos or DTS:X system. But those without vertical channels can take advantage of DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Atmos Height Virtualization technologies which aim to recreate 3D audio for 7.1, 5.1 or 2.1 speaker arrangements.

For streaming music, the AVR-X1700H is compatible with Apple AirPlay 2 and supports high-resolution formats, including FLAC, ALAC and WAV files, as well as DSD 2.8/5.6MHz. Users can stream music from services such as Spotify and Tidal using Bluetooth or Denon’s built-in HEOS technology. HEOS also allows the AVR-X1700H to stream music wirelessly across compatible products from anywhere in the home. And a built-in Bluetooth Audio Transmitter gives listeners the opportunity to listen via Bluetooth headphones either on their own or simultaneously with speaker playback. Meanwhile, those more interested in physical music formats will welcome the inclusion of a phono input for vinyl playback.

Voice control of the AVR-X1700H is possible using compatible services including Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri and Josh.ai, while initial set-up can be performed using Denon’s Audyssey MultEQ XT calibration software. This technology detects the speakers' size, type, and configuration and measures their response in the room to optimise performance. Listeners can then further customise settings using the Audyssey MultEQ Editor app (available for purchase on iOS and Android), while a “Dual Speaker Presets” feature lets users store and switch between two different speaker configurations and Audyssey settings.

The AVR-X1700H will be priced at £599 ($699, AU$1399), which is slightly cheaper than the next model up, 2020’s AVR-X2700H that launched at £730 ($849, AU$1999) but is currently in limited supply. Like the AVR-X1700, it offers 7.2 channels (albeit with slightly more power at 95W per channel, 8 ohms, 2ch driven), 8K and immersive sound formats but has an additional HDMI output.

More 

Read about Denon's full lineup of 2021 home cinema amps

The best film scenes to test your Dolby Atmos set-up

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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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Sennheiser has announced a refreshed version of its HD 450BT wireless headphones. The HD 450SE adds Amazon's Alexa voice assistant to its skillset, and probably explains why they're an Amazon exclusive (the 450BT only supported Siri and Google Assistant).

They're available in a black finish, whereas the 450BT come in black or white. But other than that, they are identical to the HD 450BT, with Bluetooth 5.0, aptX Low Latency, and 30-hour battery life.

There's a dedicated button for activating the voice assistant on your phone, too. Set it up, hit the button, and then you can speak to control music playback and more.

You can tweak the sound using the equaliser found within Sennheiser's Smart Control app. The app also shows you how much battery the headphones have left, provides useful tips and enables firmware updates. There's even a podcast mode to enhance the quality of speech.

The Sennheisers earned an impressive four stars in our HD 450BT review, so we hope the 450SE will be just as rewarding to listen to.

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Bowers & Wilkins isn't always first to the party but, when it does arrive, it certainly likes to make an entrance. Today, the company launches not one but two debut sets of true wireless headphones, the PI5 and PI7.

The latter are the more premium of the pair, with a six-microphone active noise-cancelling system. The built-in mics will work for voice calls, as well as smart functionality (Siri and Google Assistant are both supported).

Each earbud features a two-driver arrangement to offer what Bowers refers to as sound "comparable to loudspeakers". The two sides have a balanced armature tweeter for the top notes and a set of 9.2mm drive units for the mid/bass, all with their own dedicated amplifier.

The true wireless stereo transmission comes in through Bluetooth aptX Adaptive, allowing for 24-bit hi-res audio streams (when connected to a compatible source). Bowers has worked to provide a reliable and tightly synced connection between the left and right earbuds.

There's more to the PI7's charging case than just storage and battery life, too. Uniquely, it has USB and 3.5mm ports, allowing you to connect it direct to an audio source. The case sends that music to your ears wirelessly using AptX Low Latency. The idea behind it, according to Bowers, is to allow users to hook up to an inflight entertainment system without the need of trailing cables to their ears.

The B&W PI5 true wireless headphones, meanwhile, are a slight step down but still very much from the same stables. They're missing the dual-driver arrangement and instead come with a single 9.2mm Bowers-developed unit. TWS+ technology is used instead for the transmission of the audio from source to both buds simultaneously. There are also just the two microphones on each side for noise-cancelling and no inputs on the case.

The PI5 and PI7 have an earbuds battery life of 4.5 hours and 4 hours respectively, but the charging case stores four more full cycles, offering a reasonable (but not class-leasing) total of 22.5 hours or 20 hours from a single charge.

Bowers says it has championed driver technology and wireless transmission over battery life for a better audio experience. Explaining the company's late entry into true wireless, Bowers & Wilkins Director of Product Marketing, Andy Kerr, said: "We don’t pride ourself on being first but being the best. In each case we waited and watched the market. We chose to stay out of the market until we felt we could make a difference."

Both sets of Bowers & Wilkins true wireless headphones are available from today in a choice of white or charcoal. The B&W PI7 cost £349 (AU$699, €399, $399) – one of the most premium price tags we've seen attached to a pair of true wireless earbuds – while the PI5 are priced at a more democratic £199 (AU$369, €249, $249).

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Smart speakers are getting better and better. While some of the first models out of the blocks promised a lot but didn't quite deliver, today's models are not only smarter, but they've improved in the sonic stakes too.

Enter the Amazon Echo Studio, which Amazon claims is its best-sounding Echo speaker yet. Its selling points? Good sound quality, support for 3D audio and, of course, Alexa built-in.

The question is, how does it fare against one of the established market leaders, in this case, the similarly priced Sonos One?

The Sonos One is one of the best smart speakers around for the money. It connects wirelessly to the rest of the Sonos family, supports Apple AirPlay 2, and has both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice assistants built-in. It sounds pretty good for the money too.

But is it better than the Echo Studio or does the newbie knock it off its perch? Let's find out.

• Listen up: the best smart speakers rated and reviewed

Price

Here there's very little to choose between the two. The Amazon Echo Studio costs (£190 / $200 / AUS329), but it's frequently discounted during Amazon's seasonal sales. We've listed today's best prices below.

The Sonos One is actually a tiny bit more expensive and sells for (£199 / $199 / AU$279). We've sought out today's best Sonos deals here.

**Winner: Draw**

Build

The Sonos One looks a little boxier than the Amazon Echo Studio. It's also smaller and looks virtually identical to its predecessor, the Play:1.

On top of the One is a touch-sensitive panel with symbols that you use for play/pause, to activate the microphone and the device's context-sensitive actions. There's also a circle of tiny white LEDs that indicate whether voice control is switched on. 

Tap the microphone symbol, and voice control is switched off, protecting your privacy. Simple.

There's also a dedicated pairing button, just above the Ethernet port on the rear.

The Amazon Echo Studio is an altogether more imposing proposition. It's cylindrical, and stands a lot taller than the Sonos One, clad in a charcoal-coloured fabric mesh. Like the One, the top houses the controls, including physical volume buttons, a mic button and one to wake Alexa. As with previous Echos, a blue light ring lets you know that Alexa is listening.

It boasts more internal speakers too, including an upward-firing driver hidden under the surface of the Echo Studio. It's there to help give more of an impression of height and work with 3D audio tracks encoded in Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio.

There's not a lot to choose between them - the Sonos One is more compact and has a slightly more modern feel, while the Echo Studio gives the impression you're getting a lot of smart speaker for your money and has been designed with 3D audio in mind.

*Winner: Draw*

Features

Given their smart speaker status, one of their big sells is having a virtual assistant built-in. But, while the Sonos One supports both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, the Echo Studio is limited to just Amazon's Alexa. Score one for Sonos.

However, the Echo Studio has plenty of features besides. It supports Dolby Atmos Music. The benefit? Tracks are mixed with a greater level of precision, giving greater control over different sound elements within the soundfield. In other words, 3D audio that claims a more immersive listen. The Echo Studio also supports Sony 360 Reality Audio, which is another format of 3D audio. The downside is that you'll need a subscription to Amazon Music HD to take advantage of this feature.

Those wondering which music streaming services it supports will be pleased to know that Apple Music, Amazon Music (naturally), Spotify, Deezer and TuneIn are all included.

The Echo Studio has auto-calibration tech which allows it to tune its sound to your particular room characteristics. There are tone controls inside the Alexa smartphone app, as well as the ability to change volume and pair and control any other Alexa-enabled speakers you own.

Speaking of pairing, you can wirelessly sync the Echo Studio with an Amazon Fire TV Cube, Fire TV or Fire TV Stick to create a Dolby Atmos home theatre set-up. It might not be 5.1 surround sound, but it's a definite upgrade on most TV's audio abilities.

The Echo Studio also has a 3.5mm/mini optical line-in jack for connecting external sources.

• Everything you need to know about Sony 360 Reality Audio

So what of the Sonos One?

Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, TuneIn and Audible all come supporting voice controls out of the box, as does Amazon Music. In fact, the Sonos One supports a much wider range of services full stop. The One chimes when it acknowledges a spoken request, which we find a little more natural than the Echo Studio. We also found its microphones to be excellent at picking out your voice in a noisy environment.

The One can double up as a surround sound speaker for a Sonos Beam or Sonos Arc-based system, and it plays nice with the Sonos Amp and is with Amazon's Echo speakers. 

It's also worth noting that you can buy a Sonos One without voice controls. The cheaper Sonos One SL (£149 / $149 / AU$275) can be combined with a Sonos One to create a stereo pair.

The One even has Apple AirPlay 2 wireless tech, which is another advantage over the Echo Studio. Overall, it's slightly better stacked in the features department.

**Winner: Sonos One**

Sound

The all-important question: which sounds better?

On paper and in the flesh, the Echo Studio certainly looks impressive. It's bigger, boasts more speakers and supports 3D audio through Amazon Music HD. And in practice, it produces an airy, open sound with clear, precise vocals with a fine sense of height and space. Some 3D tracks promote an impressive spread of sound but others sound a little messy and disorganised. 

Our biggest reservation is over the quality of bass. While the Echo Studio delivers power and weight, it can be a little overbearing. That's not much of an issue if club bangers are your thing, but for anything more subtle, it can impact the listening experience.

The Sonos One sounds better. It produces a weighty, full-bodied, and focused sound that belies the speaker's diminutive dimensions. But it doesn't sacrifice detail - the soundstage is spacious and well organised, with each element given plenty of room to breathe. 

Bass is deep and solid, and the treble clear and sparkly. Overall, it sounds more composed than the Echo Studio, with a more cohesive sound and more refined bass. It might not have 3D audio and doesn't go as loud, but it's an altogether more balanced listen.

**Winner: Sonos One**

• Grab a bargain with our round-up of the best Amazon Echo deals

Verdict

It's a close-run thing. Unfortunately, the Echo Studio doesn't quite live up to its claim of being an Echo speaker for audiophiles, but it's a solid option at the money. It has good dynamics, goes loud and picks out plenty of detail. It's really the bass that just trips it up.

Our money would go on the Sonos One, though. It allows you to stream from more services, supports both Alexa and Google Assistant and, more importantly, it sounds better. 

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Our definitive guide to the best smart speakers

Read the full reviews: Sonos One and Amazon Echo Studio

Still weighing up your options? Sonos One vs Apple HomePod  

Audio Pro has made smart speakers before, such as its excellent Addon C5A, but they have used Amazon's Alexa personal assistant. However, its new wireless speaker, the G10, opts for Google Assistant instead.

Google-flavoured voice control isn't the only trick up its sleeve, though: it also has Google Cast and Apple AirPlay 2 onboard for easy streaming. These moves are in response to customer demand, according to Audio Pro.

Jens Henriksen, the firm's CCO, claims customers have voiced a "rising requirement" for AirPlay 2 and Google Cast. "Whilst still creating a speaker with this compatibility, we thought it appropriate to go all the way with the additional integration of the Google Assistant feature, allowing users convenient voice-activated control over their audio, simply by speaking to it," he says. 

The G10, which adopts the 'new look' Audio Pro aesthetic introduced in the A10, can form a wireless multi-room system with other Google Cast-enabled speakers. Alternatively, Audio Pro's own multi-room platform can group up multiple Audio Pro products, too.

The speaker is small enough to find a space for in most rooms, and will even fit on a ceiling rail (something Audio Pro claims it's seeing a rising demand for in people's homes).

The G10 is also a harbinger of things to come: Audio Pro has committed to using Google Cast and AirPlay 2 in its future wireless speakers.

The Audio Pro G10 will go on sale in mid-November for £225 ($250, €250, about AU$449).

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Will the G10 make our list of the best Google Assistant speakers?

Or go one better and make it into our wider list of best smart speakers?

Prefer Alexa? These are the best Alexa speakers around right now

In Samsung’s ideal world, every Galaxy tablet or smartphone would probably be paired to a pair of the new Samsung Galaxy Buds+ earbuds.

The company has been here before, though. The original Galaxy Buds, launched in 2019, were true wireless earbuds, but they were also truly disappointing, with substandard sound quality and limited features putting many off – ourselves included. We deemed them worthy of only two stars. 

The new Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus are once again tuned by AKG and look much improved on paper. We’re hoping they can prove more convincing.

Build

The headphones now use a dual driver arrangement in each earpiece, one each for highs and lows. Samsung has managed to keep the earpieces small and discreet by true-wireless standards. They’re lightweight too – you can almost forget you’ve actually got them in place. The glossy smooth finish of our black sample gives the impression they’re a premium pair of buds. Blue and white finishes are also available.

There are only three sizes of eartip in the box and three sizes of wingtips, which limits your options and reduces your chances of getting a perfect seal. There’s no noise-cancelling with the Galaxy Buds+, so a good seal is needed to isolate yourself from outside chatter. 

Once in place, the Galaxy Buds Plus do a good job. The surface of each earpiece is a touch-sensitive control pad, with a similar control method to that used in rivals such as the Amazon Echo Buds and the Sony WF-1000XM3s. It is implemented well here, with a single tap on either bud to play/pause with double and triple taps skipping forwards and backwards respectively. Tapping and holding your finger on one of the pads activates your voice assistant of choice, Siri or Google Assistant.

You can even double-tap the edge of the right earpiece to increase volume and the left earpiece to reduce it. It takes a subtle adjustment of where to aim your finger but it’s intuitive and you soon get the hang of it.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds+ headphones feature a new three-mic configuration for taking phone calls – one inner mic and two outer, beam-forming mics. The new configuration is designed to reduce the noise around you while making calls.

We find them perfectly clear when making conversation, although they aren’t immune to wind noise, which can affect some wireless earbuds.

Features

The headphones come with their own portable charging case which is as tiny as the earbuds allow. It’s smaller and more pocket-friendly than that of the Sony WF-1000XM3 and Amazon Echo Buds, but not quite as small as the Apple AirPods one. 

The Samsung Galaxy Buds+ claim an impressive 11 hours of playtime per charge, though there is no noise-cancelling here to drain to the battery. If your battery is running low, a three-minute charging stint should be enough to inject 60 minutes of juice. That could come in handy if you own a smartphone that is compatible with wireless PowerShare, such as the new Samsung Galaxy S20 or Galaxy S20 Ultra.

Instead of the case adding two or three extra charges, Samsung has opted to provide just one extra charge, bringing total battery life to 22 hours. By comparison, the Sony WF-1000XM3s have a claimed six hours, plus 18 from the charging case, while the Cambridge Melomania 1s have nine hours, plus 36 from the case.

The original Galaxy Buds couldn’t connect to iOS devices, which meant Samsung couldn’t persuade Apple iPhone users to dump their AirPods. This has been rectified with the Galaxy Buds+. If you’re an iPhone user (iPhone 7 or newer, using iOS10 or higher), just download the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ app. Android smartphone users will need the Galaxy Wearable app and a device using Android 5.0 or higher. 

Downloading the relevant app helps you get paired quickly. Simply open the app and the case starts the pairing process. It’s relatively pain-free as the headphones actively look to pair with your smartphone or tablet once the case is opened.

The app shows the remaining power for each bud, plus the battery life left in the case. It drops from green (100 per cent) through to yellow (around 60 per cent left) to red (less than 30 per cent).

The Buds’ Ambient Sound feature amplifies the amount of external noise you’re able to hear and comes in three different levels. We keep it turned off while listening, activating with a press of the buds when required.

The app’s equaliser icon boasts six different settings: normal, bass boost, soft, dynamic, clear and treble boost. We experiment during testing and find normal to strike the best balance.

Like the Apple AirPods, Samsung includes a feature that allows you track down a missing bud. Enable ‘Find My Earbuds’ and they emit a noise so you can track them down quicker. 

One area of the app it’s worth keeping an eye on is ‘Labs’. Here you can access ‘experimental features’ that Samsung is currently trialling. At the time of writing, these include the ability to double-tap the edge of the earbuds to turn the volume up or down. There’s also an option to add an extra level of ambient sound.

The touch controls on the Galaxy Buds Plus do a good job. They’re quick to respond and it’s not long before we are tapping the right spot every time. That glossy finish can make them quite slippery in hand, though. Getting them out of your ears and back in the case without tapping one of the earbuds and restarting your music can prove tricky.

The Galaxy Buds+ headphones offer Spotify integration. Android smartphone users can power up Spotify and start streaming with a single press on an assigned touchpad. Press again, and Spotify will switch to another track based on your listening preferences. It works well, but the feature isn’t available to iOS users.

Another feature missing from the Galaxy Buds+ headphones is the ability to pause music automatically every time you remove an earbud. There’s also no aptX HD Bluetooth support.

Sound

So how do the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ headphones actually sound? In isolation, they’re not bad, however, they aren’t a huge improvement over their predecessors.

They produce an open and expansive sound with a decent sense of scale. Bass weight is judged well, as is the overall balance. There’s a slight hint of hardness, but you couldn’t classify it as harsh or bright. 

Play Foals’ Mountain At My Gates and there’s a good sense of space around the various strands of the track, even if the various elements don’t seem to gel quite as seamlessly as they could.

The problem is that, dynamically, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus fall rather flat. The presentation lacks enthusiasm, and that leaves you feeling rather indifferent about the sound. It’s actually a mixture of dynamic flaws, sloppy timing and a lack of detail. The headphones never really convince you they’re able to get in the groove of the track.

Play The XX’s Hold On and you should be moved by the emotive vocal exchange between Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim and taken on a funky, semi-trippy ride on the coattails of the lively drum beat. With the Galaxy Buds+ headphones, though, the vocals don’t connect as well as they do through rival wireless earbuds. There’s a lack of purpose and intent to low frequencies too.

Compared to similarly-priced rivals, such as the Sony WF-1000XM3s, there’s no contest. The Sonys extract more emotion, detail, and deliver a much more purposeful performance.

Verdict

This feels like a missed opportunity for Samsung. The Galaxy Buds+ headphones boast useful features, excellent battery life and good build quality. They’re nice to use and comfortable to wear, too. That’s a lot of boxes ticked.

But though the feature count has improved compared to the originals, there remains plenty of room for improvement in the sound department. It’s listenable enough, but the harsh reality is there’s no shortage of better-sounding true wireless earbuds to choose from at this price point. The Galaxy Buds Plus sound better than their predecessors, but rivals have moved the game on even further.

SCORES

• Sound 3
• Comfort 5
• Build 5

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Read our Samsung Galaxy Buds review

Read our Sony WF-1000XM3 review

Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 (Galaxy Buds Live): price, features, release date, leaks, and news

The Google Home Mini is, basically, Google's spin on an Amazon Echo Dot. It's a dinky device that comes with Google Assistant and can be used purely as a wireless speaker or as a smart hub, through which you can control other Google Home or Chromecast-enabled speakers around your house.

What's more, the Google Home Mini has now been out for a while, so you should be able to pick it up at a substantial discount. 

• Amazon Echo Dot (3rd generation) review
• Best speaker deals 2019: Bluetooth, wireless, smart

Set-up

If the robot takeover is going to take place, it may well start with voice assistants. Just as Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft have been busy working on improving their respective AI assistants, we have been busy filling our homes with their voice-powered hardware. There’s no need for the robots to sneak in the back door, we’ve welcomed them in with open arms.

Plug in the Google Home Mini, the company’s entry-level smart speaker, and it’s easy to see why. The set-up process proves surprisingly calming in its faultless efficiency. Power-up, download the Google Home app on your phone and tablet, then tap and talk your way through a series of privacy warnings and voice commands, accompanied by various bleeps and flashing lights.

The set-up will help you connect to music services – Spotify and Google Play Music are offered here – and to nearby Chromecast devices (ours sniffs out a Sony Android TV), and then you’re just about done. Once the Google Home Mini is happy that it’s learnt your voice and enough about you, it’s ready to get started being your virtual butler.

• Best wireless speakers 2019: portable, multi-room, smart speakers

Design and Build

The device itself is unassuming. Its ‘360 sound’ design looks more like a small speaker than its nearest rival, the futuristic-hockey-puck-style Amazon Echo Dot. Buttons and connections are kept to a minimum, with just a mute microphone switch tucked around the back.

Touch controls on the device itself allow you to adjust the volume, but you’re meant to be using your voice or at least the Google Home app, of course.

• Multi-room audio: everything you need to know

Features

Like Amazon’s Alexa devices, much of the connectivity is handled by the app – though there’s less of it in general. There’s no aux output, so you can’t connect to a better pair of speakers or your music system, and there’s also no Bluetooth output.

The lack of Bluetooth is negated by the presence of Google Chromecast, which allows you to connect to and control compatible apps and services, such as Tidal, Netflix and YouTube. You can send music from your Tidal app to the Google Home Mini or play/pause Netflix on a compatible TV, for example, and can group multiple Chromecast devices for multi-room music.

What else you can do is largely dependent on compatible services and devices – the former is pretty thorough, the latter relies heavily on Google’s Chromecast ecosystem. Sonos, for example, is not yet on board, though the Sonos One, which currently supports Amazon’s Alexa, is due to get Google Assistant later this year.

Sony, B&O, Philips and Polk are on board with selected hardware, however. In terms of services, you can get news and sport updates from the BBC, Sky, Reuters, CNN and more, and you can control YouTube, Netflix and Spotify among others.

• What is Google Chromecast? Which speakers and TVs are supported?

Sound quality

And it all works pretty well. Sonically, the Google Home Mini sounds noticeably better than the Echo Dot. Voices are full and clear, and it’s perfectly listenable when it comes to talk radio or voice answers – and this is the speaker’s primary use.

If you want to play music, the better sonic balance means it’s fine but don’t expect it to go particularly loud or be anything more than an average sounding speaker.

Google Assistant’s abilities will be familiar to anyone with an Android phone or tablet and are largely impressive. It’s every bit as good at hearing you as Echo devices, and for the typical sort of questions, it understands you more often than not, and also tends to have an answer.

Provided you don’t veer too far from basic diary, weather and search queries, Google’s knowhow ensures you will hear a search result, even if it’s not quite sure of the answer.

• Google Home review

Verdict

While it’s not quite the perfect experience, it’s hard to complain too much about what the Home Mini does. It is primarily a good voice assistant, with the ability to control other devices. More compatible devices and improvements to the AI will only improve things – just don’t expect it to be a top-notch music speaker.

• Best smart speakers 2019
• Best Google Assistant speakers 2019
• See all our Google reviews
• Best speaker deals 2019: Bluetooth, wireless, smart

Almost a year to the day after announcing its 2018 AV amp line-up, Marantz, right on cue, has today revealed two AV receivers for 2019. The 7.2-channel SR5014 and 9.2-channel SR6014 models are capable of driving 100 and 110 watts of power per channel respectively, and features span both home cinema and custom install applications.

In addition to Dolby Atmos and DTS:X compatibility, there’s support for both the company’s virtual surround and height sound technologies (Dolby Atmos Height Virtualization Technology and DTS Virtual:X) for delivering more immersive experiences to set-ups without extra speakers.

As you'd expect, each of the model's eight HDMI inputs can passthrough the latest picture technologies, including 4K 60Hz, HDR, Dolby Vision HDR, HLG and the BT.2020 colour space.

eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel), which allows the lossless transmission of surround sound formats (like Dolby TrueHD and Atmos) from TV apps using a single HDMI cable, is supported. And Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) is also designed to improve the gaming experience for owners of Xbox One and ALLM-compatible TVs (such as LG's 2019 4K OLED TVs and select Samsung 4K models).

With the multi-room, hi-res HEOS streaming platform built in, the new SR series receivers can play networked music files including 24-bit/192-kHz PCM and DSD 5.6MHz, as well as stream from a wide range of music services. There’s also a phono input for hooking up a turntable, and the pricier SR6014 supports IMAX Enhanced.

Through an external smart speaker or device on the same network, the AV receivers can also receive commands via Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri and high-end smart home automation assistant Josh.ai.

New for the 2019 AVR models, the Marantz SR5014 and SR6014 feature what Denon is calling HDMI Multiple Input Assign, which allows users to listen to multiple audio sources while displaying the same video content on-screen.

A whole suite of versatile Audyssey software, including MultEQ XT32 Room Calibration, is correct and present to allow for adjustments in, and the fine-tuning of, performance. And last but not least there’s support for OvrC Smart Remote Management, ihiji Invision and Domotz Pro custom install applications.

The Marantz SR6014 and SR5014 will be available mid-July, priced $999 and $1499 respectively. UK and EU pricing and availability to follow.

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Did you know there’s a new Chromecast in town? There’s little reason why you should: Google didn’t even mention it at its October launch event.

Maybe it’s because the 2018 version of the video-streaming dongle is very similar to its 2015 predecessor. Slightly faster processing, support for 60fps and a new matte finish are pretty much the extent of it – at least until an update later in the year brings support for multi-room music. 

Thrilling stuff, we’re sure you’ll agree, but Google didn’t really need to make too many changes to the Chromecast because it was already brilliant.

Build

There’s nothing more hip than a soft-touch, matte finish, and that’s what the 2018 Chromecast sports, in either black or white – sorry, ‘charcoal’ or ‘chalk’.

The physical dimensions and general approach are the same, though, so this is a small disc that dangles from a short HDMI cable, with the power provided by a bundled microUSB cable. A wall plug is included, but if your TV has USB sockets, power from one of those should be sufficient.

Apart from the trailing USB cable, it’s an exceptionally attractive little device, but ultimately, neither of those things matter because once you’ve plugged the Chromecast in to the back of your TV, you probably won’t need to see it again.

Features

The core approach of the Chromecast remains the same as ever: instead of controlling it directly using a remote control, you select a video, song or web page via your phone, tablet or computer and ‘cast’ it to your TV using the button that’s now built into a surprisingly large number of apps.

Netflix is compatible, as are BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, All4, My5 and even Now TV. Google’s own apps, such as Google Play Movies & TV and YouTube, are castable, as are music apps such as Spotify, Tidal and TuneIn. The big absentee is Amazon Video, but otherwise the list is more or less complete.

The lack of a traditional remote will be an issue for some, and we encountered some occasional unresponsiveness when attempting to control an already-playing video from an iPhone, but the communication between handheld device and Chromecast is mostly slick and reliable.

It’s worth remembering that while you’re choosing what to watch or listen to using your phone (or tablet or laptop), you’re not actually sending media from the device you’re touching. Instead, the Chromecast is streaming directly from the internet, improving data rates and therefore quality, and preserving the battery life of the casting device.

The Chromecast is also now part of Google’s Home family of products, which means you use the Google Home app on Android or iOS to set up the device and ascribe it to a specific room. It also means that you can play content on the Chromecast by issuing voice commands to any Google Assistant smart speakers you might already have, such as the Google Home Mini. 

This feature is of limited use right now – currently only Netflix, All 4 and Spotify are compatible – but it is rather cool to be able to say “okay Google, play Ozark on the lounge TV” and have the Netflix TV show continue where you last left off.

Picture

Support for 60fps video doesn’t really add anything to regular TV and movie watching, so the picture performance of the new Chromecast is more or less identical to that of the 2015 model – which is no bad thing.

As before, 1080p is the upper resolution limit – the Chromecast Ultra (£69) goes up to 4K – but the picture is sharp and detailed, and boasts natural colours and a good deal of punch.

Blacks are a little all-consuming, so dark detail isn’t terribly strong, and there’s a little blur and judder to motion. Neither flaw is serious or particularly distracting, there’s just something a little computer-like about the delivery that you don’t get with more premium streamers.-

This isn’t a premium streamer, though: it’s a £30 streamer, and for that money the picture is very good indeed.

MORE: 4K streaming vs 4K Blu-ray vs Blu-ray – which is best?

Sound

When plugged into a good soundbar or home cinema system (either directly or via your TV) the Chromecast will output sound at up to Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 with compatible apps and videos.

This is a punchy, clean and detailed delivery, with more than enough dynamic headroom for a dramatic movie set piece. Dialogue, meanwhile, is clear and fairly nuanced. We occasionally encounter lip-sync issues, particularly when playing from Netflix, but a brief pause and resume is all that’s needed to get the video and audio playing in harmony once again.

Verdict

The Chromecast is a great product that’s clever on the engineering side but simple to use. Some might not like the lack of a physical remote, but that’s part and parcel of the Chromecast experience – and there are lots of options out there.

The new Chromecast does little that the previous model didn’t, so there’s no need to upgrade if you’ve already got one. But if you’re looking to make an older, dumb TV smart in a cost effective and innovative way, the new Chromecast is extremely easy to recommend.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

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Harman Kardon has unveiled a new smart speaker with Google Assistant built in. Called Citation 500, the speaker is apparently "inspired by the timelessness and attention to detail of Nordic design".

In real terms, that translates to wool fabric around the outside, and a smooth top fitted with LCD touch controls for playback. The speaker itself has a stereo configuration, with 200 watts of power behind your music.

Since it's a Google Assistant speaker, it comes with Chromecast as well - so you can stream music from compatible apps such as Tidal to the speaker up to 24bit/96kHz resolution. Bluetooth is available for all other applications.

The speaker will be shown at IFA 2018, and can be ordered from next month. It's priced at £549.

Despite Amazon and Microsoft recently rolling out the long-awaited collaboration between Alexa and Cortana, those in the Android ecosystem will only consider more Google Assistant speakers a good thing. Siri, meanwhile, remains stuck solely in the HomePod or accessible via an iPhone in Sonos' Beam soundbar.

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Amazon appears to be taking the same approach towards its Alexa voice assistant as the Borg did in Star Trek. In that series, the alien race annexed other species by fusing them with Borg technology, allowing them to be controlled via a hive mind.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Amazon is aiming to conquer the market by putting its Alexa smart assistant technology in a whole range of products, including tablets, phones, and even refrigerators.

One such product is the KitSound Voice One, a wi-fi enabled speaker – and the first Alexa-enabled device to pass through our testing rooms not made by Amazon.

Features

Alexa is Amazon’s equivalent of Siri or Google Assistant. Activate it by saying a wake word (“Alexa”), then you can give your speaker voice commands - including asking your speaker to read you the news, set timers or play music.

The Voice One does most of this, but the most important omission is the absence of Spotify. The Voice One supports Spotify Connect, for controlling and streaming music through its wifi connection, but you can’t play music from the service directly using a voice command.

KitSound says this functionality will be coming shortly, but in the meantime you’ll need an Amazon Music subscription to verbally summon music.

That wi-fi connection is just on the 2.4GHz band, while the Amazon Echo has dual 5GHz and 2.4GHz to reduce the risk of drop-out.

We don’t experience any issues with wirelessly playing music in our testing rooms, but those with less reliable connections might want to consider this (or connect via the Voice One’s Bluetooth 2.1 instead).

MORE: Amazon Echo review

You can’t change the wake word, so Star Trek fans won’t be able to activate the Voice One by saying “Computer” (or “Amazon”, or “Echo”). It also can’t register different voices or make calls (KitSound says that’s coming in November), and you still need to go into the Alexa app to add skills.

Though each of these individual omissions isn’t a dealbreaker in itself, they do mean using the Voice One isn’t as straightforward as using the Amazon Echo.

And simplicity, as well as immediate access to the latest features, is one of the main benefits of having an AI speaker.

But that isn’t the only mark against the Voice One. There are only two microphones, while the Amazon Echo has a seven-microphone array - and in our experience, activating the speaker requires us to shout (especially when music is playing) while the Echo can be activated at a normal speaking volume.

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The KitSound app is straightforward to use, which is handy as it’s the way you direct music to the Voice One. It acts as a hub for other music accounts, such as Tidal, as well as any albums you have locally on your phone or tablet.

It’s certainly easier to get on with than Amazon’s Alexa app, and there’s also the option to pair multiple Voice One speakers for multi-room control.

A remote control is included in the box too, which allows you to mute the speaker, change the volume, or manage sources.

There’s also a 3.5mm input, and a USB-port for charging your smartphone on the back of the speaker - both of which the Amazon Echo lacks.

MORE: Best wireless speakers 2017

Build

The Voice One indicator changes colour to indicate which source is currently being used. This shows up around the central dial on the front of the speaker (which also acts as a volume control).

The fabric cover is designed to protect against splashes, so you can place this speaker in your kitchen without fear of damaging it.

On the whole, the Voice One looks more expensive than it is - but that doesn’t translate to build quality.

The speaker doesn’t feel particularly solid, and tapping the top produces a plastic, hollow sound that illustrates just why it is priced as it is.

Sound

The Amazon Echo’s sound quality isn’t particularly special, so this is one area where the Voice One should be able to outshine its rival. However, its sonic capabilities also leave much to be desired.

The Voice One has more, and more powerful, bass than the Echo – due in part, no doubt, to its 64mm drivers and bass reflex port. This gives more weight to tracks like The xx’s Shelter, played through Spotify, which booms with each earthy drumbeat.

It’s capable of going loud enough to fill our medium-sized testing room, so the Voice One shouldn’t have any trouble overcoming any ambient noise in the kitchen.

MORE: Best Bluetooth speakers 2017

However, the moment Romy Madley Croft starts singing, it’s clear the Echo has the upper hand. It’s a cleaner, livelier sound that soars higher than the Voice One’s dual 10W drivers can manage.

The Voice One’s handling of the midrange comes across boxy and closed-in, unable to properly convey the haunting melodies of the track.

It’s also not a particularly organised or spacious sound. The Voice One isn’t quite as adept as the Echo at keeping a tight hold on each element.

It manages to integrate them, but the boundaries it provides aren’t especially clear. It feels like its powerful bass is intruding on the midrange and weighing it down, muddling the song’s cavernous quality.

For a better sense of this speaker’s timing and dynamism, we play Daft Punk’s Get Lucky - but are we again left wanting.

The Voice One performs adequately, with a precise enough sound that doesn’t lose the pace of the song’s drumbeat - but it doesn't give you the same liveliness or sense of fun other speakers can.

With the classical score to the The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the Voice One’s dynamics aren’t as elegant as we’ve heard from comparably priced speakers.

It certainly doesn’t have any trouble bringing up the high-pitched strings in Old Friends, but the build-up of tension and excitement before the grandiose, sweeping melodies isn’t explicit.

MORE: How to choose the right wireless speaker

Verdict

While we hope every product we test performs well, we specifically had high hopes for the Voice One.

With dedicated voice-controlled speakers seemingly becoming the norm, the more manufacturers integrating this function into their products the more it will encourage competition. And so, ultimately, should improve sound quality.

But in both its performance and range of features, the Voice One falls short. The sound quality is far too dull and cloudy to be properly enjoyable, especially in the midrange, and definite improvements are needed to compete with the Amazon Echo.

Much as we want to commend this non-Amazon product, our resistance ultimately proves futile. So for a good Alexa-compatible device, we’d suggest you stick with Amazon. For now, at least.

See all our KitSound reviews