Best Smart Entertainment Devices

Smart speakers and displays are the most common entry point into the smart home. Beyond playing music and answering questions, they serve as the control centre for the rest of your devices — adjusting lights, setting routines, checking who's at the door.

Alexa or Google Home?

Both ecosystems are mature and capable. The main practical differences:

• Alexa (Amazon): broader device compatibility, especially for older or budget smart home devices. Better for routines and home automation. Tighter integration with Amazon services.
• Google Home: better natural language understanding, stronger integration with Google services (Calendar, Maps, YouTube Music). Good choice if you're heavily invested in Google's ecosystem.

If you're starting fresh and don't have a preference, either works. Pick the one that integrates with the services you already use.

Best Smart Speakers

Best compact Alexa speaker: Echo Dot (5th Gen). Surprisingly good sound for its size, built-in temperature sensor, motion detection. The best value entry point into Alexa.

Best full-size Alexa speaker: Echo (4th Gen). Significantly better audio than the Dot, good bass, works as a Zigbee hub. Worth the extra cost if audio quality matters.

Best Google speaker: Google Nest Audio. Better audio than the Nest Mini, natural-sounding vocals, good bass. The right choice if you prefer Google Home.

Best compact Google speaker: Google Nest Mini. Small, affordable, decent sound for its size. Good for secondary rooms.

Best Smart Displays

A smart display adds a screen to a smart speaker — useful for video calls, recipes, music controls and viewing camera feeds.

Best compact display: Echo Show 5 (3rd Gen). Good bedside or kitchen counter display. Video calls, music, smart home controls. Compact enough not to take up much space.

Best mid-size display: Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen). Better camera and audio than the Show 5. Good kitchen or living room device.

Best Google display: Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen). No camera (some prefer this for privacy), sleep tracking feature, clean interface. Good for ambient display and media control.

Best large Google display: Google Nest Hub Max. 10-inch screen, built-in camera, good audio. The best Google display for video calls and media.

Multi-room audio

Both Alexa and Google Home support multi-room audio — grouping speakers so the same music plays throughout the house. You need at least two speakers to use this feature, but the setup is straightforward.

Echo speakers can also be used as Bluetooth speakers paired with your phone, independent of the Alexa ecosystem.

Tips

• Start with one speaker and see how often you actually use it before buying more.
• Place the main speaker in the room where you spend the most time.
• A smart display in the kitchen is particularly useful — you can ask for recipes and see them on screen without touching anything.