Amazon's own-brand plug is the no-frills, low-cost way to make a lamp, fan, heater, or coffee maker smart — provided you live in Alexa's world. Setup is quick, with a zero-touch option that links the plug to your account at checkout, and there are no hubs or third-party apps: everything happens in the Alexa app. From there you flip devices remotely, build routines, and schedule by clock time or even sunrise and sunset. The compact body sits in one socket without blocking the other. The honest caveat is the flip side of that simplicity — it's built around Alexa, so it's right only if Alexa runs your home.

The step up from a basic eero, adding the fast, uncrowded 6GHz band for homes with a lot of devices fighting for bandwidth. Each unit covers about 2,000 square feet, supports gigabit-plus plans, and includes a Zigbee hub so it can run Alexa smart-home devices directly. The trade-off is the eero pattern: the simple app hides the granular controls power users want, and a few features sit behind the paid eero Plus tier.

Netgear's Orbi 770 brings Wi-Fi 7 to a big-house mesh with the feature that keeps mesh fast as it grows: a dedicated backhaul band. Because the satellites talk to the router on their own lane, your devices don't fight that traffic, so speeds (rated up to 11Gbps) hold steady across nodes from the front door to the back yard. It's fully backward compatible with older Wi-Fi gear, and the high-performance antennas are designed for even 360-degree coverage whatever your floor plan. Security is handled with automatic firmware updates and Netgear's Advanced Router Protection. Worth knowing: it's made for use in the U.S. only.

The simplest, cheapest way to make an older TV smart. Amazon calls this its fastest HD streaming stick yet, with Wi-Fi 6 for steadier 1080p and a refreshed 2026 Fire TV interface that gets you to shows with less scrolling. All the big apps are here—Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, HBO Max and thousands more—plus free ad-supported content. A nice touch: Direct Power runs it off your TV's USB-C port, so there's no wall adapter to find an outlet for. The included Alexa Voice Remote handles power and volume plus preset app buttons. No 4K here, by design—if your set is HD, this is all the streamer you need.

The pick when you'd rather not live inside Amazon's interface. Roku's home screen is famously plain and even-handed, putting your apps front and center without steering you toward one service. It streams 4K with vivid HDR, and the hardware is tidy: the stick powers from the TV's own USB so there's no wall plug, and the slim design won't block the neighboring HDMI port. The included remote handles TV power and volume and takes voice search. All the top apps live in one place, and a travel-friendly setup lets you take your logins to a hotel TV without signing into someone else's account. Simple, fast, and refreshingly neutral.

This is the ecobee at its most complete: a vibrant touchscreen display in metal-sided glass, plus a bundled SmartSensor so the thermostat reads occupancy and comfort in another room rather than just the wall it's mounted on. ENERGY STAR certified, it claims up to 26% in annual heating and cooling savings versus holding a steady 72°F, and a built-in air-quality monitor flags poor air and furnace-filter changes. Compatible with 95% of systems, and the included Power Extender Kit handles C-wire-less homes for a genuine DIY install. Alexa or Siri is built in, so it doubles as a voice speaker—useful if you want it, ignorable if you don't.

The Gen-2 L40 Ultra leans hard into raw cleaning power: 25,000Pa across five suction levels, with an extending brush and mop arm that reach into corners and under furniture where most robots leave a border of dust. The all-in-one self-cleaning dock cuts the manual upkeep, and four carpet modes—avoidance, suction boost, intensive cleaning, and mop lifting—let you tune how it treats rugs, which pet owners care about. Smart Pathfinder and 3DAdapt mapping keep it off your shoes, and a 5,200mAh battery is rated for up to 231 minutes and roughly 1,679 sq ft per charge, with off-peak charging. App and Alexa/Siri/Google control, on 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, U.S. only.

PETLIBRO's mainstay dry-food feeder, and a deservedly popular one for everyday automatic feeding. You schedule up to 10 meals a day at 1 to 48 portions each through the app over Wi-Fi (5GHz or 2.4GHz), and check feeding records to confirm your pet actually ate. A 10-second recordable meal call draws pets to the bowl, and the freshness design matters: a twist-lock lid, sealing strip, and built-in desiccant keep kibble crunchy while a patented rotor stops pets stealing extra. The alerting earns trust: phone notifications and a red indicator flag an empty tank, a jam, or low battery, and an infrared sensor halts dispensing if the outlet clogs.

Where a smart speaker stops being a gadget and starts being actual hi-fi: stereo sound, real bass, and Trueplay tuning that adapts to your room, with Alexa built in and Bluetooth alongside WiFi. It's for someone who wants the smart-home voice layer but refuses to compromise on how music sounds. The honest catch: it's pricier than an Echo or Nest, and Sonos's app changes have frustrated longtime owners — you're buying the sound, not the assistant.

One smart strip that turns a tangle of always-on electronics into six individually controllable outlets, each with its own energy monitoring, plus three USB charging ports. It's the cleanest way to kill phantom draw on a TV stand or desk and see exactly what's costing you. Surge protection is built in at 1080 joules. Downsides: it's a bulky footprint, 2.4GHz-only, and the six outlets sit close enough that fat wall-warts can crowd each other.

The cheapest upgrade that ends 'did I leave the garage open?' for good—it adds Wi-Fi and Bluetooth control to an existing opener through the myQ app, works with most brands built after 1993, and pushes an alert every time the door opens, closes, or sits open too long. The catch worth knowing: a few conveniences and partner integrations sit behind a myQ subscription.

A genuinely cheap plug that does something most don't—reports real-time, per-device energy use so you can find the space heater or old fridge quietly running up the bill. It does the usual scheduling and timers, works with Alexa and Google, and feeds into Emporia's wider whole-home energy ecosystem. Limits: single outlet, 2.4GHz only, the data lives in Emporia's app, and there's no Matter or HomeKit.

The value pick in the 4K Fire Stick line. The Select trims back from the Max but keeps what most people actually use: 4K Ultra HD with HDR10+, fast-enough performance, and Alexa voice search to launch and find shows by talking instead of scrolling. Every major app is here—Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, Hulu, Peacock—alongside free ad-supported content, and Alexa+ adds more natural, conversational search. It doubles as a light smart-home remote for lights, weather, and music. If you want real 4K HDR without paying for the Max's extra speed and features, the Select hits the essentials at a lower price.

The right answer for a bedroom, kitchen, dorm, or guest room where a 32-inch screen is plenty and the budget is tight. It's 720p HD rather than 4K — which is fine at this size and viewing distance — and ships fully smart with Fire TV built in, so Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, YouTube and thousands of channels are ready out of the box. The included Alexa Voice Remote handles search, launching, and input switching by voice. Connectivity is better than you'd expect at the price: two HDMI ports with ARC, composite, optical and coax, plus DTS Virtual-X sound and parental PIN controls for shared rooms.

Ring's spotlight cam is the one to reach for when you want a camera that lights the scene and records it in color, not grayscale. Two motion-activated LED spotlights kick on at night, a built-in siren is a tap away, and 1080p HD with Color Night Vision keeps faces and plates legible after dark. Customizable motion zones cut nuisance alerts, and Two-Way Talk lets you answer whoever's there from anywhere. A Quick Release Battery Pack powers it, so recharging means swapping the pack rather than taking the camera down. Saved recordings and people/package alerts ride on a Ring Home subscription sold separately. Streams to Echo Show via Alexa.

The clever little robot that makes a 'dumb' device smart without rewiring anything—it mechanically presses any rocker switch or appliance button, installs with included adhesive in seconds, and runs up to 600 days on Bluetooth. Great for the coffee maker or a wall switch you can't replace. Two limits: it's Bluetooth-only until you add a SwitchBot Hub, and it can't work toggle or touch switches.