Buy AirPods with wireless charging case at Amazon – $150

GameStop Nintendo Switch game sale

Nintendo

GameStop’s latest sale remains ongoing, so you can grab some first-party Nintendo Switch games for less. Some of the discounts are even better than those we saw in Nintendo’s own start of summer sale a few weeks ago. Notable titles on sale include Super Mario Bros U Deluxe for $40, Splatoon 2 for $40 and Yoshi’s Crafted World for $40.

Shop the sale at GameStop

Buy New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe at GameStop – $40

Buy Splatoon 2 at GameStop – $40

Buy Yoshi’s Crafted World at Gamestop – $40

Apple Watch Series 3

Chris Velazco / Engadget

The Apple Watch Series 3 remains at $169 at Amazon, the lowest price ever for the smartwatch. While not the newest Apple Watch, the Series 3 has most of the features you’d expect a solid wearable to have including all-day activity and exercise tracking, built-in heart rate monitor and GPS, and on-watch apps and smartphone alerts. We gave it a score of 82 when we first reviewed it thanks to all of the features previously listed as well as its solid performance and good battery life.

Buy Apple Watch Series 3 at Amazon – $169

Macbook Air

Engadget

The base model of the latest MacBook Air is still on sale for $899 at Amazon, which is $100 off its normal price (just be sure to clip the $50 coupon on the page before adding it to your cart). It has a Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, plus the much improved Magic Keyboard that replaced Apple’s butterfly mechanism recently. It’s one of the reasons why we gave the new MacBook Air a score of 87, in addition to its sharp Retina display, smooth trackpad and accurate TouchID sensor.

Buy MacBook Air at Amazon starting at $899

Amazon Echo Plus

Amazon

Amazon’s smart speaker turned home hub is down to its lowest price ever, only $80, and that includes a free Philips Hue smart light bulb. The Echo Plus normally costs $150, so this is a great deal if you’ve wanted a smart speaker that pulls double-duty as a smart home hub. Any Zigbee-compatible device, like the Hue bulb included in the bundle, can be connected directly to the Echo Plus — no other hubs required. We gave the Echo Plus a score of 86 for its much improved audio quality, more attractive design and its new stereo audio ability that let’s you connect two devices at once.

Buy Echo Plus bundle at Amazon – $80

Weber SmokeFire connected grills

Billy Steele / Engadget

Now’s a good time to upgrade your grill while Weber has its SmokeFire series on sale. You can get $200 off both fo the grills in the lineup, bringing the SmokeFire EX4 down to $799 and the SmokeFire EX6 down to $999. We originally gave these grills a score of 71 but recently bumped it up to 80 thanks to the updates Weber has made to its connected platform. Both grills now feature remote temperature adjustment and shutdown, better push notifications and more efficient handling of temperature fluctuations.

Buy SmokeFire EX4 from Weber – $799

Buy SmokeFire EX6 from Weber – $999

New deal additions

Aukey USB-C portable charger

Engadget readers can get Aukey’s 30,000mAh USB-C power bank for $42 by using the code ENGADGETY3 at checkout. That’s $18 off its normal price and the lowest price we’ve seen it. this high-capacity power bank can charge any USB device you throw at it including the newest iPhones and Android devices as well as the Nintendo Switch. It also supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 to power up compatible devices quickly and safely.

Buy Aukey 30,000 power bank at Amazon – $42

Amazon Echo Show 5 and Show 8

Both Amazon’s Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8 are on sale right now — the Show 5 is down to $60 and the Show 8 is down to $90. This is a decent sale, even if they’re not the lowest ever prices we’ve seen for the two smart displays (that’s $50 and $80, respectively). We gave the Echo Show 5 a score of 85 for its sunrise alarm feature, good sound quality and its compact design that makes it a good nightstand device. The Echo Show 8 is much better as a communal device thanks to its larger display. If you plan on using it as a cooking guide for recipe instructions and videos, you should consider the deal Amazon has that includes one free year of Food Network Kitchen (which typically costs $40) when you buy the Echo Show 8.

The Echo Flex is also on sale for $17.49. This is the lowest price we’ve seen on the handy little adapter — it plugs into a wall outlet, allowing you to put Alexa in rooms that maybe don’t have room for a standalone smart speaker.

Buy Echo Show 5 at Amazon – $60

Buy Echo Show 8 at Amazon – $90

Buy Echo Flex at Amazon – $17.49

SteelSeries Arctis 1 gaming headset (PS4)

The SteelSeries Arctis 1 is one of our favorite wireless gaming headsets and now the PS4 model is on sale for $80 at Amazon. That’s $20 off its normal price and close to the lowest we’ve seen it. We like the Arctis 1 for its clear, consistent wireless connection and its detachable microphone. Also, SteelSeries makes some of the most attractive gaming headsets you can get.

Buy Arctis 1 (PS4) at Amazon – $80

Amazon Music Unlimited (3 months)

Prime members can try out Amazon Music Unlimited for free for three months with this offer. Aside from being an Amazon Prime subscriber, you also have to be new to Music Unlimited (so you can’t have paid for it or tried it out before). If you meet those requirements, you can snag this offer and try out Amazon’s Spotify competitor. It offers most of the same features as other music subscription services: unlimited music listening, an ad-free experience, unlimited offline listening and convenient voice control with Alexa. Just keep track of time — your subscription will renew at the standard $10-per-month price after the trial is up.

Get Amazon Music Unlimited (3 months)

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. If you buy something through one of the links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.

As promised, Weber added a feature that lets you really saturate your food with smoke at the beginning of the cook. It’s called SmokeBoost, and it sets the grill between 165 and 200 degrees for this initial period. The Weber Connect app provides some guidance for times based on the food you’re cooking, but if you really want to enhance the smoke flavor, this is now an option. To me, the SmokeFire grills already imparted a ton of smoke flavor, especially over longer cooks. But I can see the utility here in things like reverse-seared steaks and other things you might cook hot-and-fast, but still want that kiss of smoke flavor. If you’re worried about exact temperatures, Weber says this will vary based on ambient conditions. In my experience on days in the low 80s, SmokeBoost was 175 degrees.

“What we didn’t want to do was to make that temperature visibility a source of concern or drama,” he said. “If anything goes outside of those parameters, we have steps that are automatically taken to react to that.”

Right now, SmokeBoost is independent of the grill presets that give you guided cooking directions and estimated completion times. You run the feature for the recommended time and then you can select the preset for what you’re cooking. Scherzinger said Weber could incorporate SmokeBoost into one of the cook programs and have it activate automatically. “It’s not there today, but I’m drawn to that [idea],” he noted.

Following the recent software update, there was also a major firmware upgrade that went out last week. First, Weber improved the preheat times. Basically, SmokeFire grills reach their target temperature faster. That’s pretty impressive considering they were already on-par with other grills I’ve tested. This tweak should also remedy issues some owners were having with slow heating times. Plus, the new firmware also reduces fluctuations when you’re preheating or grilling. I haven’t clocked the SmokeFire since the updates rolled out, but I have completed three cooks on the grill since installing them. I can tell you the grill keeps a consistent temperature much better, even after I opened the lid for a quick peek or to flip some pork chops. 

Weber was careful to address the temperature fluctuation aspect. More specifically, how SmokeFire reacted to changes — like you opening the lid to inspect, sauce or flip. The company found that the grill was overcorrecting to those events, but that’s not the case anymore. 

“What we’re trying to do now is just soften that curve so that we’re not freaking out the operator of the grill when you’re just making a minor tweak,” Scherzinger explained. He went on to say that the grill will still let you know when things drop 10 degrees or more. Weber did this by adjusting the algorithms that control fan speed and the auger to smooth out how the grill adjusts to changes to temperatures both inside and outside the grill.

Billy Steele/Engadget

And Weber isn’t done. Scherzinger said the company is continuing to work on the regular updates it promised. The challenges of remote working have slowed some aspects of the workflow down — particularly new cooking programs. Weber hasn’t been able to get its culinary and technical teams in the same room to sort out new additions there. But Scherzinger is clear they are coming, and you won’t have to wait long. 

“We were jamming out in the office a few months ago, and so [COVID-19] slowed us down a bit,” he explained. “But there is still a really aggressive stream of additional support or programs coming in.” 

Part of those new cook programs are presets that are based on time rather than a calculation between the grill temperature and the internal temperature of your food. For things like ribs, you can’t really stick a probe far enough away from a bone to get an accurate reading for the entire cook. You’ll still get guidance from the app — push notifications, etc. — but those will be driven by how long you’ve been on a particular step instead of how the food is progressing. 

“The next wave of cook programs will be released on June 15th,” Scherzinger said. Ribs should be in the update after that one, but the chief executive explained that Weber is “trying to launch a new chapter every couple of weeks over the summer.” You know, when people are using their grills the most. 

Having tested the updates myself, I can tell you they make a huge difference. From the handy and informative software tools to the background tech that runs the grill, Weber has taken its work-in-progress and made it a more complete product. I can’t stress enough how much easier SmokeFire is to use with detailed notifications and remote temperature controls. And if the company continues to improve, things should get even better. 

“The key for us is making sure that everyone gets that [ideal] experience every time they grill,” Scherzinger noted. “It’s not good enough to have 90 or 95 percent of cooks going well, so we’ve been trying to make sure everyone’s having that same great experience consistently.”

The SmokeFire grills run on Weber Connect, which is built on JuneOS — the same software that powers June’s smart ovens. It can monitor the grill and internal food temperatures to guide your cooks. Like the Smart Grilling Hub, Weber Connect will lead you through cooking a variety of meat and seafood, from prepping to final slicing, and every step in between. The app will tell you when to complete each step, estimate how long until the next one and offer video how-tos if you need a visual aid. 

You can also run Weber Connect in a more manual mode, with the target-temperature option. Here, you’re overseeing the process on your own without the step-by-step instructions. As you might expect, you can control everything on the grill itself — including setting and adjusting temperature, timers and more. However, if you want to employ the estimated-doneness times, you’ll need to select a meat or seafood preset and send it to the grill. 

Even though Weber Connect gives you a specific cooking temperature, picking a preset doesn’t send that info to the grill for you. You have to manually set it yourself before beginning the ignition process. This sounds like an inconvenience, but it’s not. No WiFi pellet grill will allow you to start it remotely, for safety reasons. Some grills, like Traeger’s, will send temperature info, but you still have to physically push the ignite button, so it’s not exactly a huge time saver.

When I reviewed the Smart Grilling Hub, I didn’t have any issues with the estimated cooking times. Almost always, the time frame the device provided once the grill recovered from me putting the meat on was accurate. There were fluctuations when I’d lift the lid to check, or if there was some other environmental trigger, but both short and long cooks were finished pretty close to the initial estimate. 

With the SmokeFire, that wasn’t always the case. Notifications to flip and remove quickly seared steaks were fine, but the time estimates on both of the smoking sessions that lasted eight hours or more were way off. Weber Connect said a brisket I was cooking still needed another two hours, even after it hit an internal temperature of 200 degrees. I had a similar outcome with a pork shoulder. The time estimate to wrap was also slightly off on the latter, showing an hour and a half about 20 minutes before pinging my phone that it was time to complete that step (of course I had left the house to run an errand). These time estimates can be handy for longer cooks, and they were a welcome feature on the Smart Grilling Hub. However, on the SmokeFire grill, there’s room for improvement. 

Weber has pledged to do just that. The company committed to adding more cook profiles to the app on a quarterly basis. Like I mentioned in the Hub review, there are some limitations and omissions right now (specific steak cuts and pork ribs, for example). Weber Connect is also missing key SmokeFire tools like the ability to adjust the grill temperature from your phone. That’s a basic feature that nearly every other WiFi-enabled pellet grill has onboard. Weber has already pushed software updates to improve how SmokeFire runs, so I hope it can move quickly to add the temperature adjustment as well. 

Weber is admittedly a late entry into the pellet-grill game. It did its homework, however, and rather than simply put out a line of pellet grills with the Weber logo on them, it brought its wealth of grill knowledge to the table. It also listened to pellet-grill users, collecting info on what they did and didn’t like about using these machines.

“We developed from the ground up with a white sheet of paper a completely new approach to the pellet grill designs,” Scherzinger continued.

The first area Weber tackled on SmokeFire was the actual cooking process. In order to convince people to invest at least $999 on a grill, it has to be versatile enough to cook everything well. The company discovered that most existing pellet grills max out at around 400-450 degrees, despite claims of 500 or higher. This is fine for a lot of high-temp uses like roasting or even pizza, but for a true quick sear, you need a grill to get hotter. Weber devised a solution for SmokeFire that ensures temperatures of up to 600 degrees.

“You can get a steak that doesn’t look like it was baked in an oven, but one that looks like it was grilled on a Weber grill.” Scherzinger said. “We sought to make this grill the first pellet grill that can really be a grill.” In other words, instead of offering both low-and-slow barbeque-style cooking alongside a higher temperature range, Weber wanted true searing ability — whether you’re cooking burgers, steaks or something else.

Next was grill performance. Those Flavorizer Bars not only protect a grill’s heating element and enhance flavor, but they also help evenly distribute heat. Most pellet grills have a solid sheet of metal that protects the fire pot and directs grease to a collection container underneath or on the side. That large element also helps keep ash from flying up on your food. Weber chose to bring a battle-tested element of its gas grills to its pellet model, rather than include one large piece of steel. And by doing so, the company also made a much less sexy task — cleanup — a lot easier.

That piece of metal in most pellet grills has to be protected, otherwise it will rust quickly if you’re not careful. Grill makers offer aluminum liners to help with this, or you can simply wrap the entire thing in aluminum foil. Either way, it’s extra work, and extra cost. With the Flavorizer Bars, you don’t need a cover, and they’re much easier to remove and handle.

But that’s just one piece of the grill. In order to clean most pellet models, you have to completely remove everything from the inside. When you count the grates and other protective pieces, we’re talking six or more items. Then you have to break out the shop vac. Yes, most companies advise you to clean out the ash and dust that accumulates during the cook with a vacuum. It’s fine if you already have one, but if you don’t, that’s an additional purchase on top of a pricey grill. Either way, the the cleanup process is awful, and you need to do it after every third or fourth cook to keep your grill running smoothly and safely. And, most importantly, to keep ash out of your food. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience: It’s the worst thing about these grills.

Weber realized this wasn’t a great experience, so it did something about it.

“We developed a different design in our engine, and in our shields and filters, inside the grill box that prevents the ash from flying up and landing on top of the food,” Scherzinger noted. “All of the ash lands in the drawer.” That drawer is a slide-out compartment that’s easily accessible from the front of the grill. Here, both ash and grease collect for easy removal. Sure, you’ll want to take the SmokeFire’s internal components apart and give it a deep clean from time to time, but if what Weber claims is true, you won’t have to do it nearly as often. That’s a welcome change.

The company also opted to put the pellet hopper around back. This isn’t a novel decision — some other grill makers have done the same — but that location does provide its advantages. There’s less potential for an auger jam since the setup is now partially gravity-fed. The auger is a drill-like spiral that moves the pellets from the hopper to the fire pot. When the hopper is on the side of a grill, the auger path is longer, so there’s more space for something to go wrong.

Where most companies offer one or maybe two food probes, Weber has opted for four. This isn’t unique to SmokeFire, either, but the ability to monitor that many things simultaneously isn’t a common feature on these grills.

“We increased the number of probes to add a level of versatility,” Melanie Hill, Weber’s director of IoT, explained. “Let’s say you’re grilling for a large party and someone wants medium rare, someone wants rare and someone wants a well-done steak. You have the option to have up to four probes.”

I’ve reviewed Traeger’s Timberline and Ironwood connected grills that allow you to control and monitor the machine remotely. The connectivity offered via that company’s WiFire tech is extremely useful, especially during longer cooks like a brisket or pork shoulder. Trager’s app has a massive library of recipes and you can automatically set grill temperature based on the recipe you choose. The software does offer some guidance, but it’s not quite on the level of what Weber Connect will provide.

Weber Connect runs on JuneOS, the technology that powers the June smart oven. Essentially, the oven uses algorithms and other tech to help you produce perfectly cooked meals, whether that’s juicy chicken or a well-cooked steak. The smart oven has a meat probe that monitors internal temperature to ensure things turn out like they should. Weber is bringing this tech to the backyard, equipping SmokeFire grills and the Smart Grilling Hub with the ability to tap into the cooking knowledge of JuneOS.

For at-home grill masters, Weber Connect will provide you with step-by-step guidance on how to prep the grill, prep your meat, when to put it on, when to flip, how long to rest it and more. The system can even give you an estimated completion time based on the type and weight of meat or seafood you tell the app you’re cooking. Inside the Weber Connect app, the steps are queued up in order, so you know what’s next and how long you have until you need to move to the next step. Both the grills and the Hub will send real-time temperature readings to the app for up to four food probes. And in the case of the Grilling Hub, you can designate one of those for ambient grill temp.

Not every aspiring pitmaster will want this level of oversight. However, I can tell you that I’ve experienced first-hand how liberating it can be not to have to walk outside every hour or so to check the temperature, even if you don’t open the grill to visibly inspect things. It’s also a massive upgrade to be able to monitor things when you need to run to the store, or while you’re doing other things that aren’t within Bluetooth range of the grill. And with Weber Connect, the estimated completion times will take all of that convenience a step further. If I have an idea of when a 14-pound brisket will be done, I can better plan sides and the rest of the meal. I’m not just relying on a thermometer telling me when the meat hits target temperature. Trust me, that’s far from an exact science when it comes to timing.

This week at CES, I got to see the entire Weber Connect setup in use. The company’s pitmasters were smoking and grilling beef ribs, steaks, brisket and more on both Weber’s SmokeFire pellet grills and Weber gas models with the Smart Grilling Hub. Both options produced some stellar food, and the amount of smoke flavor from the pellet grills could’ve easily convinced me that the meats were cooked in a wood-fired pit. Both SmokeFire and the Hub work as advertised, and the staff were relying on Weber Connect to track when things needed attention or were ready to come off.

Back in November, grilling giant Weber joined the WiFi-connected pellet grill game when it announced its upcoming SmokeFire grills. A fancy pellet grill is a nice thing to have, and while they’re versatile, not everyone wants to pay several hundred dollars, or even over a thousand or more, to buy one. At CES, Weber is introducing another tool that will bring wireless connectivity to any grill. With the Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub, you can use four food and ambient temperature probes with the grilling gear you already have.

Like the SmokeFire pellet models, the Grilling Hub works with the Weber Connect app: a step-by-step sous chef that will let you know how to prep the grill, when it’s time to flip a steak, how long to rest your food and more. It can even provide an estimate for how long it will take something to cook. The software component is powered by JuneOS, from the company behind the June smart oven. Additionally, the Grilling Hub packs in both Bluetooth and WiFi, so you can choose the connectivity that best suits your needs on a given day.

The Grilling Hub sends real-time temperature info to the Weber Connect app on either and Android or an iOS device. There’s also a display on the Hub itself that will show the temperature data for the selected probe. The app also houses a library of grilling info, and Weber says it will continue to add more over time. The company plans to continue to add new features to the software as well. Alexa integration is in the works for later this year.

This isn’t Weber’s first time offering temperature monitoring on your phone. The company has the iGrill line of devices that sends grilling info to your phone via Bluetooth. It allows you to pick the type of meat your cooking and your desired doneness, or you can choose to simply cooked to a specific temperature. Those devices are handy (I use the iGrill Mini often), but the companion app doesn’t provide anywhere near the detailed guidance that the Weber Connect app will offer. This new Hub is the logical evolution of the iGrill devices, and it gives aspiring pitmasters some of the tools of the SmokeFire grills without having to make a big investment.

The Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub will be available in over 30 countries when it goes on sale “in early 2020.” When it does, you can expect to pay $130 to equip your favorite grill with WiFi smarts.