At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Attractive mesh-fabric design Volume and mic-mute buttons are much more accessible Zigbee and Matter hubs, as well as Amazon Sidewalk support Improved bass response compared to the Echo Dot Cons Sound quality is still only so-so No Z-Wave support Alexa+ is a work in progress Our Verdict Built for Alexa+ and packed with smart features, the Amazon Echo Dot Max makes for a solid smart-home foundation, but that doesn’t mean every Echo Dot owner should automatically move up to it. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Amazon Echo Dot Max Retailer Price $99.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The first wave of “made for Alexa+” devices has arrived, and among them is Amazon’s flagship Echo speaker—the Echo Dot Max, the successor to the earlier, fourth-generation Amazon Echo speaker.  The Echo Dot Max is both a direct replacement for the more than six-year-old Echo speaker as well as an upgrade over the ever-popular Echo Dot, which is still very much a part of Amazon’s Echo speaker lineup. Amazon has also unveiled new Echo Show 8 and 11 smart displays as well as the music-focused Echo Studio. (We’ll have full reviews of the eight-inch Echo Show and the Echo Studio soon.)  I’ve been testing the Echo Dot Max ($99, the same price as the older Echo speaker) for roughly two months now—I also have several other Echo devices scattered around the house, including the fifth-generation Echo Dot and most recent Echo Show 8—and I’ve also been kicking the tires on Alexa+, the AI-enhanced version of Alexa that’s still in a free early-access mode.  Is the Echo Dot Max an automatic upgrade from the Echo Dot? Not necessarily. After a couple months with the Echo Dot Max, I have mixed feelings. The speaker comes packed with smart-home functionality, including Zigbee, Matter, and Amazon Sidewalk hubs, although its lack of Z-Wave support keeps it from being a universal smart home bridge for hardcore smart home users. It’s upgraded audio is certainly better than that of the $49 Echo Dot, but it also pales compared to some competing smart speakers at the same price point.   And finally, there’s Alexa+, the AI-enabled revamp of the “classic” Alexa, which arrives with great promise but plenty of rough edges. But while the Echo Dot Max was “built for” Alexa+, the AI-upgraded assistant is not exclusive to the speaker—in fact, you can use Alexa+ on all of Amazon’s current Echo devices, including the much more affordable Echo Dot. So, should you buy the Echo Dot Max? Should Echo Dot owners pony up for the upgrade? Here’s where my head’s at after two months of testing. Note: Alexa+ is also free while in its early preview period; so for this review, I’ll be focusing more on the Echo Dot Max’s hardware and features rather than Alexa+ itself. Design  Amazon is sticking with the spherical design that it introduced in 2020 with the fourth-generation Echo Dot. Come to think of it, all the major smart speakers are now shaped like softballs, including the upcoming Google Home Speaker, the Apple HomePod mini, and the Echo Dot Max we’re reviewing here.  Measuring 4.27 x 4.27 x 3.9 inches (WxDxH) and weighing a little shy of 18 ounces, the Echo Dot Max is considerably smaller and lighter than the fourth-generation Echo (5.7 x 5.7 x 5.2 inches, 34.2 oz) it’s replacing. At the same time, the Dot Max is just slightly larger than the current fifth-gen Echo Dot (3.9 x 3.9 x 3.5 inches, 10.7 ounces). The size difference between the Echo Dot Max and Echo Dot is apparent when you place the two speakers side by side, but the Dot Max looks decidedly Dot-sized.  The fifth-generation Echo Dot (left) next to its bigger sibling, the Echo Dot Max (right).Ben Patterson/Foundry While the basic shape of the Echo Dot Max hasn’t changed, the details have evolved. Aside from the larger weave of the fabric around the Dot Max compared to the Dot, the newer speaker (along with its bigger sibling, the Echo Studio) moves the volume and mic-mute buttons from the top of the device to a shallow dish on its face, surrounded by the telltale Alexa ring. The Dot Max also jettisons the Action button, which was mainly used for stopping alarms, timers, and notifications; now, you just tap the top of the speaker to perform the same function, same as on the fifth-gen Echo Dot (which still had an Action button).  The Echo Dot Max moves the volume and mic-mute buttons from the top of the device to a shallow dish on its face, surrounded by the telltale Alexa ring.Ben Patterson/Foundry Moving the Echo Dot Max’s buttons to a more visible spot on the speaker was a good idea on paper. But while the speaker has some heft to it, it’s not heavy enough to stay in place when you try to press one of its buttons; instead, it will scoot backward with the force of a button-press unless you hold it down with your other fingers or another hand.  In the back of the speaker is a barrel-shaped socket for the power cable, which terminates in a relatively compact wall wart. As with the fifth-gen Echo Dot, there’s no 3.5mm jack for connecting a wired speaker, meaning you’ll have to settle for Bluetooth if you want to pipe the Dot Max’s audio to another device.  Setup  Getting Amazon’s various Echo speakers up and running has always been a breeze, and it’s no different for the Echo Dot Max.   First, you plug in the Dot Max; after a few seconds, the Alexa ring should glow yellow, indicating it’s awaiting activation. Then, fire up the Alexa app, and the new speaker should pop up automatically; if not, just tap the “+” button in the top-right corner of the screen to add a new device, then follow the prompts.   Among the setup screens you’ll need to traverse are various privacy disclosures and terms-of-service agreements. You’ll also need to designate which room in your home the Dot Max will reside in, as well as set default music services. All told, the setup process takes between five and 10 minutes.  In the back of the Echo Dot Max is a barrel-shaped socket for the power cable.Ben Patterson/Foundry Smart hub connectivity  The Echo Dot Max is taking over from the older, fourth-generation Echo speaker as Amazon’s workhorse smart speaker, and as with its predecessor, it comes with everything—well, almost everything—you’ll need to connect to your smart home devices.  Aside from Wi-Fi, the Echo Dot Max boasts a Zigbee hub, good for connecting to Zigbee-enabled sensors, light bulbs, smart locks, smart plugs, remotes, and other low-power smart devices that thrive in mesh-network environments. The Dot Max also acts as a bridge device for Amazon Sidewalk, the so-called “neighborhood” network that leverages other nearby Echo and Ring devices to connect smart devices that might otherwise be beyond Wi-Fi range. Finally, a Thread border router allows the Dot Max to connect Thread-enabled Matter devices to the internet and to each other.  The missing link is—and remains—Z-Wave, a popular mesh protocol similar to Zigbee that offers its own rich ecosystem of devices ranging from light switches and dimmers to smart locks and garage door openers. Amazon’s previous flagship Echo speakers are missing Z-Wave hubs, too. Amazon-owned Ring brand does offer some Z-Wave sensors that work with its Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro base stations, but those sensors have recently been supplanted by a new generation based on–you guessed it–Amazon Sidewalk.  While not strictly in the category of smart hubs, the Echo Dot Max does act as a repeater for Amazon’s line of Eero mesh Wi-Fi routers, boosting their range by up to 1,000 square feet. It’s worth noting that the cheaper Echo Dot will also work as an Eero signal repeater, but it lacks the Dot Max’s Zigbee hub and Thread border router features. Smart sensors  The Echo Dot Max comes loaded with a variety of onboard smart sensors—including ambient temperature and light sensors—that are mainly aimed at detecting the presence of nearby people. Specifically, Amazon touts its new “Omnisense” technology, which pools data not just from the temperature and light sensors but also from the Dot Max’s microphone array.   Also available on the larger Echo Studio as well as Amazon’s latest-gen Echo Show displays, Amazon bills Omnisense as a way to help Alexa—and particularly Alexa+ — to “intelligently act on various events happening in and around your home,” such as triggering custom routines for specific people, or proactively letting you know that your garage door is unlocked at bedtime.  Alexa+ and smart home functionality  One of the biggest draws of the Echo Dot Max is that it was built for Alexa+, the long-awaited AI revamp for Alexa. Specifically, the Echo Dot Max runs on Amazon’s custom AZ3 chip, which powers the speaker’s four-microphone array and is designed to enable more responsive chat with Alexa+ by filtering out background noise and boosting wake-word sensitivity. You don’t need to stick with “Alexa,” by the way. You can change it to “Amazon,” “Computer,” “Echo,” or “Ziggy.”  And then there’s Alexa+ itself, a new version of Alexa with generative AI smarts. Still in an early-access phase and therefore free for now (it will eventually be included with a Prime subscription, while non-Prime users will need to pay $19.99 a month), Alexa+ promises more natural voice exchanges, agentic functionality (that is, the ability to carry out multi-step tasks on your behalf), more adept handling of media playback, and smarter smart-home control.  The reality of Alexa+ is a mixed bag. (As Alexa+ is still in early access, I’m not giving it a full review yet.) Sometimes it’s quite smart, as when it creates routines based on voice prompts (“Alexa, make a routine that turns the bedroom lights on at 8 a.m.”), or when it correctly guesses the name of a song based on a vague query (“Alexa, what’s the name of that song that was the title track for the TV show called The Hills?”). Other times, not so much—and frustratingly, Alexa+’s success and failure for various tasks changes over time.   For example, when I asked Alexa+ to play that tune from The Hills–”Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield—it told me that it currently lacks the functionality to play music from such a query on Apple Music, my default music service for Alexa (presumably because Alexa+’s Apple Music API doesn’t have that ability yet). When I told it that the living room carpet was dirty, hoping it would send my Roomba out for a quick vacuum job, it instead gave me a treatise about eco-friendly trends in the living room carpet “industry;” looking back over the chat logs, I learned Alexa+ had misheard my initial comment.  And while Alexa+ was able to quickly create routines based on voice commands (“Alexa, create a routine that says ‘Welcome to the office’ whenever I enter the room,”), I had a heck of a time getting the routine to trigger properly, and Alexa+ only offered limited help in terms of debugging the routine.  Amazon has been careful to point out that Alexa+ is still in early access modem, and that it’s not charging for the AI-enhanced voice assistant. Also, you can always go back to the “classic” Alexa (“Alexa, exit Alexa+”) if you prefer it, and the original Alexa remains quite capable at carrying out smart home commands, managing shopping lists, playing music, and performing other household duties, albeit without Alexa+’s loquaciousness. Finally, it’s worth noting that Google’s competing Gemini at Home suffers from its own annoying foibles—and unlike Alexa, there’s no reverting back to Google Assistant from Gemini.  Still, in its current form, Alexa+ elicits as many groans of frustration as it does gasps of delight—or at least, that’s been my experience over the past couple of months. As with LLMs like Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s Claude (Amazon is a major stakeholder in Anthropic), I do expect to see improvements in Alexa+ over time.  The Echo Dot Max with its mic-mute button engaged.Ben Patterson/Foundry Music playback and audio quality  Aside from its new AZ3 processor, the Echo Dot Max comes with an all-new acoustic setup, including a 0.8-inch tweeter and a 2.5-inch high-excursion woofer tuned to deliver three times the bass of the smaller Echo Dot. The speaker can also handle lossless music tracks.  If you like, you can create an entire 5.1-channel home theater experience with up to five Echo Dot Max speakers and an Echo Sub, so long as you pair the speakers with a second-generation Fire TV Strick 4K, the second-gen Fire TV Stick Max, the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, or the Fire TV Cube (3rd-gen).   So, how does the new Echo Dot Max actually sound? I don’t claim to be an audiophile, but I do have extensive experience with a variety of smart speakers as well as Sonos wireless speakers, and I found the Echo Dot Max’s audio performance to be a) better than the Echo Dot (as it should be, given that it’s double the price) and b) still somewhat mediocre. It certainly does pack more bass than the older Echo Dot, but I still found its overall sound a tad small and mushy. At the same price point, I much prefer the clear, detailed, and punchy sound of Google’s Nest Audio speaker, although that device is for a very different ecosystem. If you’re looking for an Echo speaker that strives for top-shelf audio, consider the $219 Echo Studio (2025 release), which offers a trio of full-range drivers, a woofer, and support for spatial and Dolby Atmos sound. We’ll have a full review of the Echo Studio soon.  As far as music streaming support goes, the Echo Dot Max supports Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Pandora, SiriusXM, Tidal, and other streaming services. Two notable omissions: YouTube Music and Qobuz (the latter service’s Qobuz Connect is mostly compatible with higher-end audio devices and systems).  Should you buy the Amazon Echo Dot Max? The Echo Dot Max is a natural evolution of Amazon’s Echo line of smart speakers, taking the core of the older Amazon Echo and upgrading it with cutting-edge hardware, including a processor designed specifically for Alexa+. If you’re starting your smart home journey and are ready to go all-in on the Alexa ecosystem, the Echo Dot Max makes for a great foundation. It packs a Zigbee hub, a Matter hub, and an Amazon Sidewalk bridge. Most users will get by without Z-Wave support, and you can always add a separate Z-Wave hub that will work with Alexa. The design with the buttons in front is also an improvement, and its audio performance is solid, if short of superior. As for Alexa+, it might not be fully baked, but it’s free for now, and I’m certain it will improve as time rolls on. If you don’t want to (eventually) pay for Alexa+ or you’re dissatisfied with its abilities, you can always fall back on the “classic” Alexa, which will remain free. Is the Echo Dot Max an automatic upgrade for Echo Dot owners? Not necessarily. The Echo Dot supports Alexa+ just like the Dot Max does, and while it lacks the the beefier speaker’s Matter and Zigbee capabilities (which you might already be getting from other devices in your home), it will double as an Eero mesh extender (assuming you have an Eero router or a Ring Alarm Pro and you use the Eero router inside it). In short, the Echo Dot packs a lot of heat for just $49, it’s frequently on sale, and it remains our Editors’ Choice for best budget-priced smart speaker. If you already own the Echo Dot and have other devices that serve as Zigbee hubs and/or Thread border routers, it might make sense to give the Echo Dot Max a pass. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers. Read...

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The home entertainment industry awoke Tuesday morning to stunning news: Sony is ceding control of its home entertainment business, including its storied Bravia TV brand, to TCL.  It’s the kind of headline that makes you do a double-take: Sony, giving up on TVs? Well, it’s more complicated than that, but in broad strokes it’s true. As detailed in a joint press release, Sony will spin off its home entertainment division—including soundbars and TVs—into a new joint venture, with TCL controlling 51 percent of the new entity while Sony will retain a 49-percent share.  The deal likely won’t be finalized until late March, with the new joint company expected to open its doors in the April 2027 timeframe, so it will be business as usual for Sony TVs and home entertainment products until then. The agreement is also subject to regulatory approval.  Still, does this mean Sony TVs as we know them will eventually go away? Well, yes and no.   On a surface level, there will still be Sony- and Bravia-branded TVs on sale even after the presumed closure of the deal, with the Sony/TCL press release specifying that both “the globally recognized ‘Sony’ name and ‘Bravia’ name” are “expected” to live on.  And while TCL will be supplying the panels for new Sony TVs, Sony will still be contributing its “high-quality picture and audio technology” — in short, the under-the-hood chips and picture-quality enhancements that give Sony TV sets their signature look.  Beyond the actual display panels, TCL will serve up its global supply chain and industrial facilities, including the “end-to-end” logistics required to efficiently churn out millions of TVs per annum.  So no, Sony’s Bravia name isn’t going anywhere, but it’s conceivably at risk of spreading everywhere, going both up and down the TV market and thus diluting the brand.  Put another way, we’re used to Sony’s “Bravia” brand being a mark of high-end quality. You’ve got your Sony TV sets, then you’ve got your Sony Bravia TVs, including OLED sets and higher-end LCD-based models. If we start seeing 43-inch-plus Bravia TVs in the sub-$300 range, the Bravia brand may cease to mean anything.  To be clear, it’s not certain that’s going to happen, and we should also point out that TCL itself is the maker of some mighty fine TVs.   Early this month, TCL took the wraps off a new SQD (super quantum-dot) TV that it claims will “end” the picture-quality debate between OLED and LED, and we’re eager to see it for ourselves. We’ve also praised TCL’s bargain TVs for being among the best values in the market.  But even with Sony’s continued involvement in the joint venture and TCL’s impressive track record with TVs, we can’t help but wonder about the future of the Bravia brand, and what it will stand for with TCL at the helm. Read...

This Anker charger may be tiny, but it’s also mighty. Capable of charging up to three gadgets at once, this Anker Prime 67W 3-port wall plug is only $35 right now, a 30% discount from its $50 MSRP. View this Amazon deal This Anker accessory is built with GaN technology, which is a major advantage compared to older USB charger blocks. It’s faster, smaller, more efficient, and produces less heat. Frankly, we’re quite fond of GaN USB-C chargers here at PCWorld, so if you see us recommending a power adapter, there’s a 99.99% chance it’s gonna be GaN. This Anker Prime USB-C charger block has three ports. The two USB-C ports can each hit 67W when used individually, while the USB-A can reach a max of 22.5W on its own. When used simultaneously, the total output will cap at 65W across the two or three ports. That’s solid performance considering how tiny this little charger is, measuring just 1.97 x 1.57 x 1.52 inches—small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Those foldable prongs make packing this thing into your luggage or your laptop backpack super easy, too. Snag this Anker Prime 3-port USB charger block for $35 before this deal runs out. This matches its lowest ever price, so it is indeed a deal! Save 30% on this Anker 3-port USB wall plug, selling out fast!Buy now at Amazon Read...

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Guys, I’ve done it. I’ve drunk the kool aid and joined the pantheon of super gamers that will tell you without doubt, that if you aren’t gaming on an OLED monitor, you’re missing out. That’s what I wish I’d been able to tell myself earlier, at least. This upgrade was a long time coming, but finally, after eight years with my previous main monitor, I bought an Alienware AW3225QF and there’s no looking back. I believed the hype for a long time, and have had a monitor upgrade on my to-do list for a number of years, but the timing was just never quite right. There was something else more important to upgrade next, or the pricing wasn’t right, or I was waiting for the right monitor to come along. But this recent Black Friday I finally pulled the trigger. I got in at a price that worked for me, and now I work and game on a 32-inch, QD-OLED, 4K, 240Hz monitor that is every bit as good as I hoped, and more. It’s not perfect, but I do wish I’d bought it sooner. Neglecting monitor upgrades is silly I now realize that I’ve been rather foolish with my upgrade focus. I switched up my processor and graphics card in 2023, and updated the memory and storage in 2024. A new case too, because my old one looked trash and one of the fan covers was dented. And the CPU cooler needed upgrading too, for something quiet. my magnificent new oled monitor Alienware AW3225QF Read our review Best Prices Today: $1199.99 at Dell All the while I was gaming on a monitor from 2016. The Asus MG279Q was a great gaming monitor when it first released: 1440p resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, IPS panel, 4ms response time, and FreeSync support. It was almost as good in 2018 when I bought it, but by the mid-2020s, it was really starting to show its age. It’s still a decent gaming display. Still pretty fast, and 1440p still looks great. But it’s not OLED. The 4K resolution and 240Hz refresh rate of the new monitor are nice, but OLED is the real game changer here. Upgrading my monitor has been more noticeable than any of the performance or cosmetic upgrades I’ve made in recent years. I should have prioritized this sooner. It looks gorgeous… but not always Obviously OLED is the best and it looks the best and anyone who says different is not the best and they’re wrong. Obviously. But my first impressions of the Alienware AW3225QF weren’t as groundbreaking as I was expecting. In games at least. A few HDR videos on YouTube looked like I could have grabbed the dripping honey right off-of the screen. Jon Martindale / Foundry But when I jumped into Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, expecting this color-popping epic of gorgeous proportions, it all looked washed out. Super bright on the highlights and some decent contrast, but not the life-changing experience the Kool Aid had promised me. Once I realized I didn’t need (or want) HDR turned on in non-supporting games (or Window 11’s desktop, for that matter), it all looked and felt far better. The inky blacks were there, the rich and vibrant colors, and in games and with movies and videos that support HDR, I could switch it on with a quick shortcut (Windows key + Alt + B) to get those eye-popping highlights I was hoping for. One area it is 100 percent, undeniably better than my old monitor, though, is reflection handling. Even with a glossy panel like this Alienware model has, it’s a million miles beyond what was possible on my 2016 display. Where before, a bright light behind would illuminate my silhouette no matter what I was watching, now, I can’t see a thing. Sure, the curve introduces the odd weird reflection that I have to counter, and it’s not a scratch on the matt displays out there. But compared to what I had? Night and day. I can finally play all the games I’ve been waiting for I didn’t realize my list of games that I’d “Play when I get an OLED,” had grown so long. Space Marine 2 was a relatively recent addition, but since it was on sale the day I brought the monitor home, it was an easy first play. Who needs triple-A titles when you have pixel graphics?Jon Martindale / Foundry Other games I’ve been holding off on playing just so I can enjoy them for the first time on a monitor that doesn’t wash out the blacks include: God of War Ragnarok, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga, and the Final Fantasy VII remake, among others. My Steam wishlist is currently 155 titles long, which is utterly ridiculous, and more a reflection of my dad-of-young-kids phase of life than my previous lack of an OLED monitor. But now I will make some progress through it. Probably. When I’m not using this monitor to write about buying it. The price barely changed I did manage to get quite a good deal on the monitor this Black Friday just gone. “Just” £640 ($857 after taxes) and it’s definitely a 100 percent work expense, so I can write off some of the taxes on it. That’s around £200 ($268) off its historic average, and almost half the price it originally launched at. But that’s a complete outlier. A look at this monitor’s pricing history shows that it typically bounces between £850 ($1140) and £990 ($1,325), and that’s been about it since the monitor released. It’s only been this last sale where it went anywhere south of that range. Whether I’d bought it two weeks after it came out, or right now, the only real time the price would have been different is when I got it. Sure, in terms of pure savings I waited for the right moment, but if I hadn’t gotten lucky here, I wouldn’t have saved much at all. I neglected this upgrade for almost two years and it was almost for nothing. Valheim never looked so good.Jon Martindale / Foundry And next year? It could get even worse. While OLED technology might be getting cheaper, just about all electronics look poised to get more expensive in 2026 as the memory pricing crunch radiates out through the industry. Although monitors may not be directly affected, manufacturers everywhere might be forced to raise prices to offset the lost margins on memory-adjacent products. I still haven’t upgraded my TV though I enjoy big movies and TV shows as much as anyone else, and do plan to upgrade the big living room TV to an OLED at some point too. But that’s another expense that keeps getting pushed down the list, with my 7-year-old, non-HDR Samsung TV being perfectly adequate, for now. But I could have been watching HDR movies and TV shows with inky blacks on my PC for a much more affordable upgrade. Where my TV plans stretch into the near $2,000 territory, I got this monitor for less than half of that. In the absence of a TV overhaul, an HDR monitor is a very capable alternative. I don’t plan to watch too many movies by myself in my office, but I do have the option now. Not to mention non-HDR movies look utterly gorgeous with QD-OLED-boosted coloring. I’m going to have to rewatch Redline for sure. It’s awesome and I should have done it sooner I’m still merrily skipping through the honeymoon phase with this monitor, so I’m sure I’ll bump up against some issues, or eccentricities in the months that come, but for now, it’s just gorgeous. I didn’t need to go quite this fancy, though. I can take or leave the curve, and the 240Hz refresh rate, while nice and smooth, is complete overkill for a non-competitive gamer like me. All my lightweight indie games can now run at a buttery smooth infinite FPS, though, so that’s nice. Jokes aside, this is a gorgeous monitor and the Kool Aid drinkers aren’t kidding. OLED really does look like nothing else when those high-contrast scenes hit. Mini LED isn’t far off though, so don’t pigeon hole yourself on a specific technology — especially if you’re working and gaming in a brighter room, or if you still don’t want to risk burn-in. For me, though, this one was worth the wait… even if I wish I hadn’t. Read...

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