This October’s Prime Big Deal Days brought two competing forces: steep discounts on headphones, tablets, and earbuds, and a wave of AI-powered assistants promising a smart home that actually understands you. Together, they reshape what to buy, when to wait, and which purchases will still work a year from now.

Amazon and Google used the same October moment to sell hardware and a promise. Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days cut prices on earbuds, AirPods, iPads, and Bose and Sony headphones across tens of thousands of listings. The Verge’s coverage tallied headline discounts — AirPods 4 with ANC down to roughly $119 and the Pixel Buds Pro 2 at $169 during the sale. At the same time, both companies are layering generative AI into their assistants — Alexa Plus and Google’s Gemini for Home — aiming to turn fiddly automations into natural conversations.

AI assistants are finally doing chores — but they still trip over reliability

AI assistants are finally doing chores — but they still trip over reliability

The promise is seductive: tell your assistant, “I’m going to cook dinner; turn the lights on,” and it should map that intent to your kitchen lights without you remembering exact device names. Google and Amazon are pushing that user story: Google is rolling Gemini for Home into its ecosystem starting in October 2025, while Amazon has been testing Alexa Plus in early access since March and says it will ship “out of the box” on its newest U.S. devices.

Those demos matter because adoption stalled for a decade while smart-home setups required precise names and brittle routines. As Google Home lead Anish Kattukaran put it, “The biggest gap we’ve had in the last decade is that intelligence layer,” meaning language models let assistants understand intent, not just keywords. But generative models that create clever responses aren’t always the best at predictable, repeatable actions — engineers at both companies say the short-term challenge is fusing LLM creativity with the reliability built into older systems.

Prime deals: great short-term value, but compatibility is king

That mismatch shows up in three practical pain points: speed (commands must be near-instant), integration (older Zigbee/Z-Wave devices or DIY hubs often break compatibility), and cost (some advanced AI features live behind subscriptions). The Verge’s reporting cautions users: these assistants are an inflection point, but early adopters should expect hiccups when bridging new AI services to decade-old smart bulbs and garage-door controllers.

Prime deals: great short-term value, but compatibility is king

How to shop right now: questions to ask before you click

Prime Big Deal Days delivered real discounts across audio and Apple gear — from AirPods and iPad models to high-end noise-canceling headphones. Verge deal roundups during the October event highlighted major markdowns: Apple Watch Series 10 dipping to $279, and many earbuds at more than 30–50% off. If you need a replacement pair for travel or work, the sale is as good a time as any to buy.

But here’s a consumer-reporter reality check: a cheap headphone or smart speaker isn’t worth it if it won’t play nicely with your ecosystem. Buying Echo hardware during a discount makes sense if you already use Alexa; buying an Echo to unlock Alexa Plus features for a Google-centric home will frustrate you. Similarly, a long-awaited Sennheiser release — the HDB 630 (preorder $499.95, ships October 21, 2025) — promises aptX Adaptive high-res streaming and a bundled USB-C dongle for wider phone compatibility, but it’s a pricey buy if your phone can’t take advantage of aptX Adaptive without that dongle.

How to shop right now: questions to ask before you click

Start with three checks: (1) ecosystem — which assistant do you live in (Alexa, Google, or Apple), and does the device you’re buying support it natively? (2) codec and ports — for audio, does your phone support aptX Adaptive, LDAC, or only SBC/AAC? The Sennheiser HDB 630 supports 24-bit/96 kHz over USB-C or 3.5mm and aptX Adaptive over Bluetooth; the company includes a USB-C transmitter for phones that lack native aptX support. (3) long-term updates — is the feature an app toggle or an AI service that could be subscription-locked later?

Sources

• The Verge — The problems with AI in the smart home and how Amazon and Google plan to fix them (2025-10-08)

• The Verge — The 207 best October Prime Day deals (2025-10-08)

• The Verge — Sennheiser’s new HDB 360 headphones support high-res audio without a wire (2025-10-08)

• The Verge — Google’s AI try-on imagines your feet in new shoes (2025-10-08)