Amazon February devices event: what to expect

It's been a minute, but Amazon is holding an event this Wednesday, February 26, in New York. The last time Amazon held a "Devices and Services" event was September 2023, so the company is more than overdue to announce new products and features.

The last time around, we were treated to a new Fire TV stick and soundbar, an eero Wi-Fi 7 router, Echo Frames, and the Echo Hub, but the biggest reveal was that Amazon was retooling Alexa with AI to be faster and provide more in-depth answers in a more conversational voice.

However, it's been a year and a half since that announcement, with nothing to show. So, here's what we think we're going to see at the event.

Amazon Devices Event: Date and time

Amazon's February Devices event will kick off at 10 am ET on Wednesday, February 25 in New York. As with most of its events, it will not be live-streamed, but Tom's Guide will be live-blogging the event.

According to the invite, Amazon SVP Panos Panay and the Amazon Devices & Services team will be on hand.

Amazon Devices Event: A new Alexa?

Thanks to our eagle-eyed colleagues at The Verge, Amazon sent out five versions of the invite which, when put together, spell "Alexa" in the background. So it's more than reasonable to assume that we'll see Amazon's revamped digital assistant.

Last January, Amazon rolled out the first improvements to Alexa with AI-enabled skills. For example, you can use it with Character.ai, or create music or play a 20 Questions game.

We're still waiting for the ChatGPT-like Alexa that we saw demoed, where you could interact with Alexa more naturally, complete with pauses and breaks in the conversation.

It was rumored that this renewed Alexa — dubbed "Remarkable" would debut this past October, and possibly cost $5 to $10 a month to use. And, instead of an in-house AI, it was rumored that Alexa would be powered by Anthropic's Claude AI.

However, October came and went without a new Alexa, and a report in November revealed that Amazon was still struggling to make everything work properly.

So, we're interested to see if Amazon's new voice assistant is finally ready for the public.

Amazon Devices event: Possible hardware

Of course, it wouldn't be an Amazon Devices event without, you know, devices. In the past, the company has announced upwards of a dozen new gadgets, from Fire TVs to smart glasses to microwaves. However, the last event was a more toned-down event, hardware-wise, which reflected the company's larger struggles to sell more of the best smart speakers.

That said, it's now been three years since the Echo Dot (5th gen) was released and four years since the 4th-gen Amazon Echo. Now, not much changes in this hardware from generation to generation, but those are pretty long product lives.

More from Tom's Guide

• Best Alexa skills
• Help improve Tom's Guide — your chance to win a $250 Amazon gift card
• Best smart speakers