Quick Answer: After 12 months, my Alexa Plus review is mixed. Alexa Plus is better than the old Alexa for smart home commands, but it fails at memory and conversation.

Alexa+ Review: I Spent a Year With Her and I’m Disappointed

• My 12-Month Experience
• Is Alexa+ Better Than Alexa?
• Amazon and Alexa History
• Biggest Failure
• Should You Buy Alexa+?

Is Alexa Plus actually better than Alexa? After a full year of daily use, my Alexa Plus review is in: Yes, Alexa Plus is better — but Alexa Plus is still a major disappointment as a real home assistant. This is my honest long-term Alexa Plus review.

Alexa Plus Review: My 12-Month Experience

Exactly twelve months ago, in February 2025, Amazon announced a new smart home assistant, Alexa Plus was coming soon. I signed up on Day One for this Alexa Plus review. Good thing I didn’t hold my breath. She didn’t arrive at my Amazon voice assistant empire until June, supposedly part of a phased rollout. Word on the street: she wasn’t really ready to be released that quickly and a few more bugs needed to be squished.

In any event, I welcomed Alexa Plus with open arms and began using her superior talents immediately. A year later, here is my full Alexa Plus review after one year of testing.

Is Alexa Plus Better Than Alexa?

Absolutely, categorically YES. Full stop. But did Alexa Plus measure up to the worldwide February 2025 announcement from Amazon? No, in my honest opinion. This Alexa Plus review is about expectations vs reality.

Everything is relative. The original Alexa was downright dumb and limited. So saying Alexa Plus is better is not that difficult. It depends on how you use her. For basic commands, my Alexa Plus review is positive. For AI features, it is negative.

Alexa Plus was supposed to be my chatty, full-service companion, helping me with daily, weekly, and monthly tasks to stay more organized and efficient. If you read my Hubitat Elevation smart home guide, you know I rely heavily on automation. She was supposed to effectively control my Hubitat system and be a real home assistant. That promise fell flat in this Alexa Plus review.

A Short Amazon and Alexa History Lesson

Since inception, Alexa has been a supreme financial failure for Amazon, losing tens of billions of dollars. That context matters for this Alexa Plus review.

The original idea behind Alexa was a smart speaker designed for you to order products from Amazon. Period. As a heavy Alexa user going back to the early days, I have never placed even a single order by voice…nor have the vast majority of Alexa users. I need a full-size monitor to view Amazon’s website to make financially responsible purchasing decisions.

Smart speakers were sold to you at cost by Amazon, ad-supported. For years Amazon’s thinking was to make more money from you in other ways as an Amazon customer. It never happened. Billions went south.

Internal turmoil proliferated in Amazon’s Alexa division for a very long time — then massive RIFs. Thousands of employees lost their jobs, up to and including the head honcho of the division leaving. The dawn of Alexa Plus was also to christen a new financial model — increase hardware prices to be profitable and still be ad-supported.

Alexa Plus Review: Her Single Most Notable Failure

Her chattiness and lack of memory is the biggest failure in this Alexa Plus review. Here’s a telling example from my Alexa Plus review testing:

• If I ask Alexa Plus when an upcoming TV program will be televised, she will answer giving me the time in the Eastern time zone. But I’m in the Mountain time zone.
• I then remind her of that and tell her that I always want times expressed in Mountain time.
• She acknowledges her error, profusely apologizes, and promises to use Mountain time from now on.
• A few minutes later I ask her the same question. She responds again in Eastern.
• I remind her again. A different, longer apology this time. Swears it won’t happen again.

Guess what? It DOES happen again. Though it sounds like I can reason with her, I am just wasting my time. I can’t reason with Alexa Plus. For a supposedly advanced AI assistant, Alexa Plus has no persistent memory for preferences. This memory issue ruins the entire Alexa Plus review.

My Bottom Line: Should You Buy Alexa Plus?

I currently use Alexa Plus just as I did her predecessor. “Alexa, turn on the living room lights”, etc. Those types of smart home commands have always worked.

Do I try to chat with her anymore? No. In this Alexa Plus review, my conclusion is she’s still dumb as a box of rocks — a new kind of dumb. She fails as a conversational AI assistant.

Come this September, I am anxious to experience Apple’s new revamped Siri AI. My fingers are crossed. I’d dump Alexa Plus in a heartbeat. That concludes my Alexa Plus review after one year.

Frequently Asked Questions About Alexa Plus

Is Alexa Plus worth the upgrade?

If you only use Alexa for basic smart home controls like lights and timers, my Alexa Plus review says it is slightly better. If you wanted a true AI companion that remembers your preferences, this Alexa Plus review shows it is not worth it yet.

Can Alexa Plus control Hubitat?

Yes, Alexa Plus can control Hubitat for basic on/off commands, but it struggles with complex routines and contextual memory, which is a major disappointment for serious smart home users.