The Best Home Entertainment Equipment of 2026
I don’t mean to be rude, but your streams are too compressed, the pixel count is too low, and the surround sound isn’t immersive. That’s great, though, because you can upgrade your aging TV to a new one, experience real bass with a new stereo system, and enjoy entertainment with all sorts of home entertainment devices. The equipment below represents the best of 2026 in various categories.
Best Home Entertainment Product 2026: Samsung S95H OLED TV.
Samsung’s flagship TV is arguably the best it has to offer. It uses OLED technology with “enhanced quantum dots,” delivering the most vibrant 4K picture of any TV on the market. Colors are HDR10+ certified. Blacks are as black as my soul. The 165Hz refresh rate eliminates lag. The S95H offers built-in spatial audio for immersive, directional sound, and the design is as premium as its specs: a matte screen and silver frame make it look like a work of art, and it’s thin enough to hang on the wall. It’s not cheap, but this is a TV that will impress your neighbors.
Best Projector of 2026: Anker Nebula Cosmos 4K SE
There are projectors with brighter images and more features, but the Anker Nebula Cosmos 4K is my pick for the best projector this year for its balance of quality, portability, and price. Projectors like the Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 are great, but they cost almost $6,000 and need to be ceiling-mounted, so you can’t use it to show a movie in the backyard or take it to your friend Gary’s house. The Cosmos is designed for versatile use. It automatically focuses and zooms a crisp, bright 4K image onto any flat wall in seconds, and it costs less than a thousand dollars. It even has a handle for easy portability.
Best Soundbar of 2026: Sonos Arc Ultra
Soundbars have improved significantly over the past ten years. The best of them, like the Sonos Arc Ultra , deliver sound comparable to multi-channel systems. The Arc Ultra uses “sound motion technology” (or at least that’s what it’s called) to deliver deep bass and clear mids and highs directly to your ears. Despite being just a single speaker, it’s even capable of Dolby Atmos spatial sound.
Best Wireless Surround Sound System: Sony Bravia Theater Quad
If you need more detailed audio than a soundbar but don’t want to run speaker wires everywhere or deal with a bulky old receiver, the Sony Bravia Theater Quad is the solution. It features four flat wireless speakers that you place around the room or mount to the walls, and a receiver roughly the size of a paperback book. Despite its compact size, the front-firing and upward-firing speakers bounce sound off the walls and ceiling, creating an immersive soundscape for movies and music.
Best Streaming Player: Google TV Streamer
It seems like every TV, media player, and toaster has built-in smart streaming functionality, but they’re almost always slow and poorly designed. Say “no” to this noise with the Google TV Streamer. This tiny streaming box costs under $200, has a processor 22% faster than its predecessor, twice the RAM, and an Ethernet port for a reliable wired connection. As a bonus, Google TV also acts as a control center for the Matter smart home. I’m not a fan of the hype and the lack of Wi-Fi 6, but until the new Apple TV arrives, it’s the best streamer on the market.
Best Physical Media Player: Magnetar UDP800 MKII
The Magnetar UDP800 isn’t designed for casual media consumers, but if you’re the type who demands the highest picture and sound quality, you’ll definitely want to load your discs into this Magnetar player: it’s a beast. It handles Netflix compression with ease, playing 4K video at bitrates up to 100 Mbps. It outperforms Spotify in lossless audio quality in formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. It’s also a truly versatile player: it plays everything from 4K UHD Blu-rays and standard DVDs to Kodak Picture CDs. Like most niche devices, it’s pricey, but for those who prefer the classics, it’s worth it.
Best Gaming Console of 2026: ROG Xbox Ally X20
These days, the lines between PCs, portable gaming, and consoles are blurred, so I’m not sure if the ROG Xbox Ally X20 can technically be considered a console, but it’s definitely a fantastic device for home entertainment. It’s a fully-fledged Windows 11 PC disguised as a portable gaming system that can be connected to a TV for a full-fledged console experience. The ROG Ally X20 lets you play Xbox Game Pass and Steam games right out of the box on a portable system, so there’s something for everyone.