6 New Gadgets That Make Home Entertainment Even Better In 2025

It probably goes without saying that a good TV and a quality sound system are the cornerstones of any home entertainment center. New versions of these devices come out all the time with technology that boosts their capabilities far beyond the previous generations. Other products can enhance your viewing and auditory experience throughout the home as well, with new gadgets making your home entertainment set up even better without the need to replace existing hardware. Some of these items might help to enhance your audio or your television's streaming capabilities, while still more may simply add to the general ambiance of the setup.

I've been professionally reviewing tech for over five years, and I've found that one of the best ways to find new products that can boost the capabilities of your electronics is to take a look at the latest devices on offer from the biggest brands and see which of them have the most exciting products.

A TV is a big investment, not just financially but also in terms of space. These massive screens take up a significant portion of the visual real estate in whatever room you put them in, so naturally, you want them to look as good as possible. A powered-down television isn't exactly an eyesore, but it doesn't really add anything to the ambiance either. Samsung's Frame TVs take advantage of this by turning your inactive displays into your own personal home art gallery. The standard Samsung Frame is getting an upgrade in 2025 to include a 144Hz refresh rate, but the company is also releasing a Pro version that will have a lot more to offer.

For one thing, the new Frame Pro utilizes a Neo QLED display. I've used several TVs with this technology and can tell you from personal experience that they offer significantly more vibrant colors, brighter screens, and darker blacks than standard LED screens. "The difference between the classic The Frame model and the Pro is night and day," said Matt Bolton of Tech Radar. "The extra brightness also means that colors are massively richer and bold." This new model will also come with a Wireless One Connect Box. This makes it so that the power cord is the only one that needs to be plugged directly into the television, which makes clean cable management much easier.

These improvements to visual quality as well as aesthetic quality address many of the concerns that critics have had about the Samsung Frame being an art novelty first and a television second. This makes it a solid choice for anyone shopping to upgrade their TV with a high-end alternative.

The Premiere 9 is a short-throw projector, meaning you don't need to set up a projector stand or mount it to your ceiling, you simply set up the projector directly below the wall or screen onto which you want it to throw the image. It can produce a 100-inch image with a 4.4-inch throw distance, a 120-inch image with a 7.7-inch throw distance, or a 130-inch image with a 9.4-inch throw distance.

The Premier 9 isn't just about size and convenience, though. It's also about quality. This is a 4K triple laser projector with AI upscaling. It has HDR10+, which Samsung claims gives the projector "more than a billion shades of vibrant color and [rich] contrast." It's able to produce up to an impressive 3,450 lumens of brightness and has a feature called Vision Booster, which automatically optimizes picture settings to the brightness and contrast that work best in the surrounding environment. You can attach it to a separate sound system if you like, but it also comes with 40W 2.2.2 audio with built-in woofers, Object Tracking Sound, and Dolby Atmos.

On the software side, the Premiere 9 comes with Samsung Tizen OS built in, which allows you to stream multiple platforms without a separate device and to take advantage of the Samsung Gaming Hub. This projector can also produce ambient effects such as photos, color effects, background scenes, and themes, which it projects directly on your wall. Stephen Withers of Tech Radar awarded the projector a perfect 5 out of 5 score in his review, stating, "The picture accuracy is impressive, the Dolby Atmos sound is immersive, and the smart platform is comprehensive."

Smart TVs are now common enough that it's quite rare to find a new television that doesn't have some sort of computer operating system built directly into its hardware. That said, the processing hardware that's built into smart TVs isn't always as good as a dedicated external streaming device.

I've owned several Roku devices and I've always considered it to be one of the best smart TV platforms out there due to its clean interface, its simple functionality, and its lack of advertising bloat. The company makes the smaller and more affordable streaming sticks that you'll often see from other brands, but it also makes a high-end streaming box called the Roku Ultra.

The most recent version of this device was released in 2024, and Roku claims that it's the fastest that the company has ever made–boasting a 30% increase in speed over other Roku players. It streams 4K video with HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and Atmos. It has dual-band WiFi 6 and ethernet connectivity to ensure a low-latency connection to your provider, as well as USB and Bluetooth. It also connects to your TV via an HDMI 2.1b port, which is a high-data connection that's able to transfer 4K video at 120fps. The box comes with the 2nd Edition Roku Voice Remote Pro which has a voice command microphone built-in.

"The 2024 model is faster than before, it offers wide format support and it's super easy to use," said Cnet. "It's undoubtedly the best Roku yet." It might be a bit more on the expensive side compared to other streaming devices, but I don't think people who are unhappy with their TV's built-in streaming hardware want to make a lateral move. The Roku Ultra should be a solid upgrade.

Quality audio is the bedrock of good entertainment. Whether it's for music, gaming or television, you want to get the best audio you can in order to experience your media to the fullest. One of the better products that I've seen released in the last couple of years is the WiiM Amp Pro–a small, yet powerful amplifier for music and home theater that's powered by a Quad Core A53 chipset. 

The amp itself is a TI TPA3255 with four speaker channels that offer 60 Watts per channel at 8 ohms and 120 Watts per channel at 4 ohms. It has Post Filter Feedback technology that delivers load-independent performance, an advanced thermal management system, and an ESS ES9038Q2M Sabre DAC.  "With a Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise (THD+N) of just 0.002% (-93 dB) and 98 dB SNR at 5W, it's nearly flawless—meaning you hear the music exactly as the artist intended, without any distracting noise or distortion," says WiiM in the product's description. It has HDMI, Optical, and Line inputs, as well as WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity options that allow you to stream music to the amp from any device with the WiiM Home app and a USB port in the back where you can add a thumb drive with your personal music collection. There are 24 preset EQ settings and a 10-band parametric EQ for those who want even more control. What's more, all of this is contained in a compact case.

Simon Lucas of Wired gave the device a 9/10 in his review. "the WiiM Amp Pro is among the very best integrated stereo amplifiers you can buy for anything like this sort of money," he said. "When you add in its wider networking and multiroom functionality, it's extremely compelling."

While good audio is undeniably important, you might not always want to fill your entire house with bombastic sound, especially if you share a home with family members who might be sleeping or studying and require a bit of quiet. There are a lot of good headphones out there for gaming or listening to music on your phone, but those who want to get some audiophile-grade cans at a reasonable price might be interested in checking out the new FiiO FT7 Open-Back Planar Magnetic Headphones that will be coming out later in 2025.

These feature 106mm planar magnetic drivers, with a thin, 1μm diaphragm and 18 N52 neodymium magnets on each side. Its sensitivity registers at 94dB/mW, meaning it's best when paired with an amp (such as the WiiM Amp Pro) and may not be suited for connecting directly to a non-amplified digital sound system. The headphones themselves come in at 427g and feature a zebrawood grille on the outside with the option for lambskin or suede ear cups on the inside. The cable is made from liquid nitrogen-frozen single-crystal copper, which adds yet another layer to the purity of sound.

These are projected to cost ~$800, which, while not exactly cheap, is certainly on the more reasonable side when it comes to hi-fi audio. Planar magnetic headphones in this space regularly cost more than twice what FiiO will be charging for the FT7s.

If you have a gaming room or a home entertainment center and you want to add a bit of flair, then you might want to consider checking out some of the lights from Nanoleaf. These decorative panel lights exploded in popularity in the gaming and streaming spaces and the new Nanoleaf Blocks are some of the company's coolest lights yet.

Blocks is a smart, modular lighting system that allows you to create and customize your own lighting display. There are several kits that are designed to be mixed and matched in order to fit whatever space you're looking to decorate. These are composed of large and small square panels with full edge-to-edge illumination that are designed to fit together in all kinds of unique and interesting ways. The company also sells backlit pegboards and little shelves that are all made to fit seamlessly into the design. "The extra depth creates some nice dimensionality to a wall-mounted light, and the accessories give you a great chance to customize, writes Lightlink.

But it's the software that really sets Nanoleaf apart from its competitors. There are several lighting effects that are controllable via WiFi. You can create these effects by making custom palettes and using Nanoleaf's Scene Creator and Paint Tool to choose how the colors are applied to your display. You can also choose from thousands of premade community creations, use AI-generated effects that are based on words or phrases, set the panels to react to music, or (my personal favorite) download the Nanoleaf desktop app so that the panels react to the colors on your screen. The Nanoleaf Blocks themselves can also be integrated into and controlled by smart home ecosystems like Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings and Alexa, as well as the Razer Chroma smart lighting software.

I've been professionally reviewing tech and home entertainment products for over half a decade. In making this list, I started by taking a look at some of the most popular products that were released in the last year, as well as many of the most anticipated ones that are scheduled for release later in 2025. I examined the specifications of these items and considered which of them have been the most disruptive to the current market and which ones someone might consider purchasing when looking to upgrade an already existing home entertainment set-up. I primarily chose higher-end products as those who are looking to make such upgrades are unlikely to want to purchase new products that are lateral in overall quality.

Once I had my list, I used my personal experience with these items to break down and explain the value of the specs and features that these products offered, as well as consider how they relate to similar products and how they have improved from previous generations. I also examined professional reviews for many of them to verify that they stand up to real-world testing.