Audio quality: It seems like it would go without saying, but we’re saying it anyway: You can’t always tell from a spec sheet how a headset will sound. A well-made stereo headset can sound better than a poorly made 7.1 Dolby Atmos surround sound set. Check reviews to get a sense of how a headset performs in real life.
Surround sound options: Modern headsets have gotten very good at recreating or simulating surround sound in headsets with systems like Dolby Atmos for Headphones or DTS:X. These systems are particularly impactful in games where you want to be able to hear exactly where an enemy is firing at you from. Be sure you can turn the surround sound on or off.
Comfort: This is another subjective category, but if you’re going to wear a headset for hours while you’re gaming, it’s important that it doesn’t hurt. A heavy headset pressing against your temples can give you a headache after a while. Look for headsets that have adjustable, ergonomic designs, plenty of cushioning, and are generally lightweight.
An adjustable boom microphone: If you plan to use your headset for online gaming, a good microphone is important. Many headsets come with boom mics that can be positioned in front of your mouth. Some are removable, while others can simply be rotated or bent away from your mouth when they’re not in use. Make sure you get the kind that’s right for your needs.
Visible mic muting and indicator LEDs: It’s important to know when you’re broadcasting audio so you don’t accidentally share your private conversations with your teammates. Some mics mute automatically when you flip them upward, while others use a dedicated mute button. We particularly like headsets that include red LEDs that indicate when you’re muted, which can be helpful.
Mic monitoring so you can hear your voice: If you want to keep tabs on how you sound to your teammates, and not sound like you’re yelling while playing, mic monitoring is a feature that lets you hear your own audio through your headphones. Optimally, you can adjust its volume. When you listen to a podcast or radio talk show, chances are those folks are using some form of mic monitoring so they can hear themselves, as well as others.
Equalizer (EQ) and customization tools: Games, movies, and TV shows are mixed differently, and when you’re listening, you might want to emphasize different aspects of the audio signal. Custom EQ presets let you set different balances for watching a movie versus playing a game, or even have different balances on a per-game basis.
Rokus continue to remain our favorite TV streaming devices. They’re super easy to use and offer a wide array of streaming channels. Their displays aren’t fancy, but they offer just what someone needs: quick, direct access to their favorite streaming services. However, figuring out which one to buy is not so easy.
There are currently five Roku streaming devices available, plus TVs, soundbars, and ones sold exclusively at certain retailers (not to mention older models still floating around places like Amazon). Rokus tend to have similar names and look nearly identical, with small changes happening every year or so, and it can be difficult to suss out the differences. We’re here to help. If you’re like us, you want the best Roku for the least amount of money. We’ve broken down the features on the ones we think you’ll actually want to own, starting with the most basic model.
Updated March 2024: We’ve updated this guide with the latest Roku models.
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There are a ton of tricks that smart displays can do. But not all of them are created equal or are worth doing on this style of advice.
The basics are easy—just about anyone knows how handy it is to ask any smart speaker or smart display to tell you the weather or play music. And you should! It’s their best use case, especially since smart displays like the Echo Show can give you more weather details onscreen. But that’s not all these handy devices do, and for the price you should get the most out of any smart display you buy.
Amazon’s Echo Shows have their own special tricks and ways to activate them. Here are my three favorite uses for an Echo Show and how to fix my least favorite feature. Do you think you would prefer another system? Don’t forget to check out our guides to the Best Smart Speakers and How to Set Up Your Smart Home.
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Play With Widgets
Widgets are my favorite casual feature of Echo Shows. They’re little squares with shortcut content that you can customize, ranging from a sticky note or calendar to managing your smart home, quick access to certain music, and so much more.
Originally, they were only on the massive Echo Show 15, but they’re now available on the Echo Show 8 and 10 as well. On the Echo Show 15, the widgets are constantly onscreen thanks to the large real estate, and there’s a widget panel that can fit up to 10 widgets. For the Echo Shows 8 and 10, they appear in the slideshow that rotates onscreen. You can display up to four widgets on the Echo Show 8 and up to six on the Echo Show 10.
I love using mine to put a calendar view, my smart-home favorites, and the weather in an easy-to-see place. They’re great for customizing your smart-home control if you want your device to focus on that; the Echo Hub (8/10, WIRED Recommends) depends entirely on widgets as a smart-home-focused device.
Photograph: Nena Farrell
Check on Your Kids and Cats
Echo Shows also have a camera at the top of the screen that can be used for both video calls and as an indoor security camera–well, sort of. There are two main features under this umbrella: Live Feed, which allows you to view live feeds happening from an Echo Show device, and Home Monitoring, which you can use with other smart-home devices and set up routines.
You can ask any Echo Show to give you the live feed of another Show device, as long as you know the name of the device (or you can just choose it from the device list if you don’t want to use voice commands). This is an easy way to quickly check in on say, pets and kids, without a full-blown security camera. The device will alert anyone in the room that someone is using the Echo Show to monitor the room, so it’s not as discreet as a true security camera.
Projectors can be a niche option for your living room, if only because they often require a lot of special care that typical TVs don’t—like a separate reflective screen, dark curtains or rooms with no windows, and complicated ceiling mount systems. The AWOL LTV-3500 Pro doesn’t eliminate those problems entirely, but it substantially shifts the balance of those trade-offs. That comes at a price, though.
The AWOL LTV 3500 Pro is a small upgrade over the LTV-3500 (7/10, WIRED Review), which I liked when I reviewed it in 2022. The newer version adds support for Dolby Vision and Control4 smart home integration, but is otherwise largely the same as the older model. (If you shop used, you might be able to find the original LTV-3500, but the Pro is what most retailers are selling now.)
Like its predecessor, the LTV-3500 Pro attempts to justify its price point by being the best it can be at absolutely everything. Since it’s a short-throw projector, it’s easy to set up by just putting it on an entertainment unit (although it can be mounted to a ceiling). It provides excellent, high contrast HDR picture quality, and it can project up to a 150-inch screen in full 4K clarity. If you’re going to spend this much on a projector, you may as well get your money’s worth.
Clarity in Broad Daylight
The most notable aspect of the LTV-3500 Pro is how impressively bright it is. The projector is rated at 3,500 ANSI lumens—for comparison, our high-end pick in our projector guide clocks in at only 2,700 lumens. In practical terms, that means I was able to see the image clearly even on the lowest brightness setting, and with ambient lights turned on.
In my testing, I would watch movies and play games in my living room, which has a large, sliding glass door that faces the sunrise. With the blinds fully open, the picture would be a little washed out, which is to be expected. However, with the blinds closed, even with significant light bleed from the windows spilling in around the sides of the blinds, I could comfortably watch shows or play games and almost forget that I wasn’t watching on a typical panel TV.
If anything, the brightness was almost too overwhelming. Once, while having a guest over, we sat talking on the couch in the evening. We paused the show we’d started watching on Netflix to chat and let it sit for a while. Then Netflix started to cycle through a slideshow of promos for its other shows, and when one with a predominantly white background appeared, it felt like an angel from heaven showed up, blasting our eyes with blinding light and telling us to be not afraid. Eventually, my guest asked me to simply turn the projector off.
I should note that I doubt this will be much of a problem for most people. I was using the projector in a rather small living room, and as such was likely sitting way too close to the screen for its size. Imagine sitting in the front row of a movie theater, for example. If you plan to put this in a small space, you might want to use the lowest brightness setting or position the projector to make the screen as small as possible. That leads us to the second most notable aspect of this projector.
Massive Screen, Minimal Space
Every time I had guests over, they would immediately ask the same question upon seeing the screen: “Where’s the projector?” Most projectors require mounting behind the couch or on the ceiling, but the LTV-3500 Pro sits directly on a typical TV stand—a feat that only one other projector in our Best Projectors guide can pull off—and projects an image straight up onto the wall.
How large the screen will be depends heavily on how far you can put the projector away from the wall—which, in my testing, was harder than it sounds. To get a 120-inch screen (the maximum is 150 inches), I had to put my entertainment unit about a foot away from the wall and then position the projector as far to the very edge of my entertainment unit as I could while still balancing it safely.
The Nintendo Switch has incredible staying power for a console that’s now seven years old and has only had a moderate update to its screen and kickstand after all that time. Unlike the homebound PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, the Switch is portable, personal, and packed with exclusive and indie titles. Because you can play the Switch at home or on the road, you might need batteries, protective cases, and other accessories you’re not used to buying for a console.
The Switch OLED is a fine improvement over the original, and the accessories on this list should work with the OLED version unless otherwise noted in the text or buy links, though we have not tested them all on it. Some are suitable for Nintendo’s Switch Lite, the Switch’s mobile-only sibling that cannot dock to a TV. Be sure to check our roundup of the Best Switch Games and our Switch tips and tricks to get the most out of your system.
Updated March 2024: We’ve added the HyperX ChargePlay Quad 2, Monoprice portable battery bank, Joy-Con bundle, and eXtremeRate DIY replacement shell.
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I’ll scream it from the mountaintops as many times as I have to: Your bedroom should have a bottle of lube! Ideally more than one. Whether you’re flying solo or with a copilot(s), too much friction is a bad time for everyone. Even if it doesn’t seem like you need a lubricant, you’d be better off using a little just to protect yourself from chafing and micro-tears on sensitive tissues.
We’ve tested a handful of different kinds of lube, and below you’ll find our top recommendations. Be sure to check out our Best Sex Toys and Best Vibrators guides for more picks.
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Updated March 2024: We added the Coconu Oil-Based Lube, Kindred Black’s Gamine of Greenwich Village lube, an honorable mentions section, and updated advice and prices throughout.
