Guides and reviews

Smart Displays

Echo Show 11 vs Echo Show 10: What Amazon Took Away

The new Echo Show 11 is faster and sharper, but it lost two things families loved about the Show 10. Here is the honest side-by-side.

Smart Displays

Don't Buy the Echo Show 11 Until You Read This

The Echo Show 11 is basically an Echo Show 8 with extra glass. Whether the extra money is worth it depends on three questions.

Thermostats

Watch This Before Buying the New Nest Learning Thermostat

The new Nest Learning Thermostat looks pristine, but looks can be deceiving. Five features decide whether it belongs in your home.

Smart Displays

Is the Echo Hub Really Worth the Hype?

A dedicated wall panel for your smart home sounds perfect. After unboxing it with high expectations, here is where it fell a little short.

Doorbells

Google Nest Doorbell: Wired vs Battery, Which One Fits Your Home?

They look nearly identical, but one records around the clock and the other works with no wiring at all. Here is how to choose.

Doorbells

Nest Doorbell 2nd Gen vs the Original Nest Hello: What Actually Changed

Google's new wired doorbell has a lower resolution camera than the one it replaces. That sounds like a downgrade, but the full story is more interesting.

Tablets

Google Pixel Tablet or Nest Hub Max: Which Belongs in Your Home?

The Pixel Tablet looks like an evolved Nest Hub Max, but it does not simply replace it. The answer depends on how your household actually uses it.

Streaming

Google TV Streamer: Unboxing and Honest First Setup

Google's new 4K streamer promises to beat Apple TV by controlling your smart home too. The setup took longer than it should have. Here is the play-by-play.

Streaming

24 Hours With the Google TV Streamer 4K: Worth It?

A streamer and a smart home hub in one box. After a full day of real use, the doorbell-on-your-TV trick is great, and two flaws are hard to ignore.

Smart Displays

Nest Hub Max Review: More Than a Screen on a Speaker

Is the Nest Hub Max just a screen bolted to a speaker? After daily use, three features keep earning their place, and Matter changed the math.

Tablets

Google Pixel Tablet: The Accessories That Turn It Into a Personal Hub

The right case, stylus, keyboard, and mouse turn the Pixel Tablet into a genuine second computer. The wrong stylus teaches you an expensive lesson.

Smart Displays

5 Things Nobody Tells You About the Echo Show 10

After more than a year with the rotating Echo Show, here is what I disabled in the first month, what I kept, and the settings worth changing on day one.

Smart Displays

Nest Hub vs Nest Hub Max: 5 Reasons I Upgraded

Ninety percent of the time both screens show the same clock. Here is what actually justified the bigger model, and the font-size gripe Google should fix.

Lighting

Nanoleaf 4D Screen Mirror Kit: Measure Before You Buy

A camera watches your TV and paints matching light on the wall behind it. The effect is real. So is the fine print about that 17-foot light strip.

Voice Assistants

Echo Dot 5 vs Nest Mini: The Small Speaker Showdown

Same size, same job, different philosophies. The tap-to-snooze trick, the hidden temperature sensor, and which little speaker wins.

Smart Displays

Echo Show 10 vs Nest Hub Max: Ten Rounds, One Winner

One rotates to follow you and has a real camera shutter. The other sits still and sounds crisp. Where each one belongs in the house.

Garage

MyQ Garage Video Keypad: Read the Fine Print I Skipped

A camera keypad for the garage door sounded so obvious I ordered it on the spot. Ten failed pairing attempts later, I found the sentence I should have read.

Smart Displays

Echo Show 15: A Month In, Here Is What It Is Really For

I bought it thinking it was just a big screen. A month later it runs my family's calendar, sticky notes, and to-do lists from the kitchen wall.

Dashboards

Echo Show 15 vs DAKBoard: Two Ways to Put Your Life on a Wall

One is a polished all-in-one with Alexa inside. The other lets you customize every pixel and never shows an ad. Choosing is easier than it looks.

Dashboards

The Wall Dashboard That Finally Lets You Make the Clock Bigger

Every smart display refuses to let you resize its clock. This little box drives any screen, any size, any font, with your calendars and thermostat included.

Tablets

The Pixel Tablet as a Smart Home Controller: Genuinely Versatile

Docked, it runs the house. Undocked, it is a laptop stand-in. One word sums up Google's tablet: versatile, with a couple of honest caveats.

Wi-Fi & Network

The Wi-Fi Router That Fixed My Smart Home's Coverage

A connected home is really a Wi-Fi problem: dozens of devices, all talking at once. Setup, parental controls, and why Wi-Fi 6 was the right buy.

Audio

Polk HTS 10 Subwoofer: The Bass That Got Me in Trouble

I wanted a speaker that looked as good as it sounded. This 200 watt sub delivered on both, right up until my wife heard the test.

Displays

HP X27i Review: Is 1440p Worth It Over 1080p?

I put a 2K 144Hz screen next to my old 1080p and played the same video on both. Once you see the difference, there is no going back.

Cameras & Studio

Godox TT350S on the Sony A7 IV: Small Flash, Big Lesson

A compact flash that suits beginners and pros alike, plus the one habit that instantly improves every flash photo you take.