Every product, price, deal and evidence count on this site is sample content written to exercise the design. Nothing here is a real recommendation yet. How we’ll choose
A buying publication that only ever says buy this is an advertisement with a serif font. These pieces cost us money, which is precisely why they get a page of their own rather than a footnote.
2 entries
Extended warranties on televisions
SkipPanel failures in modern televisions cluster in the first ninety days, which the manufacturer already covers, or after year seven, which the extended plan does not. The middle years — the ones you are being sold insurance for — are the years almost nothing happens. The margin on these plans is the reason the salesperson's demeanour changes when you decline.
Smart fridges
SkipThe screen will keep working long after the software behind it stops. You will own a dark rectangle in your kitchen that cannot be uninstalled. Buy the dumb version of the same fridge, which is usually mechanically identical and several hundred dollars cheaper, and put a tablet on a magnet if you want a calendar.
1 entry
8K televisions
Not yetThere is effectively no 8K content available to a normal household, upscaling from 4K produces a difference you cannot see at domestic viewing distances, and the panels cost multiples of a very good 4K set. This will change. It has not changed yet, and buying early does not reserve you a place in the queue.
1 entry
Mid-range robot vacuums
WaitThe refresh cycle in this category is unusually predictable and unusually consequential: docks get better, navigation gets better, and last year's model drops by a third within a fortnight of the announcement. Our current pick is still the right buy today. It will be a $150 better buy in three months, and it is not an urgent purchase.
1 entry
$299 electric toothbrushes
$$$The motor at the top of the range is the same motor that appears three rungs down. What the extra $220 buys is a travel case, a display, and an app that awards you points for an activity you were going to perform anyway. It is a genuinely good toothbrush. It is a stupid price.
1 entry
Racing-style gaming chairs
We don'tThey are shaped like a bucket seat because bucket seats hold you in place during cornering, an event that does not occur at a desk. The bolsters push your shoulders forward, the lumbar pillow is a strap-on afterthought, and the foam takes a permanent set inside two years. A used task chair at the same price is a better object in every measurable way and looks less like a novelty.
1 entry
Robot vacuums between $700 and $1,100
NoToo expensive to be a simple vacuum, too cheap to mop in a way that would survive inspection. This band exists because it is where the marketing department found the most people, not because it is where the good machines are. Buy below it or above it.
1 entry
Bose QuietComfort Ultra
We recommended the Bose outright on the strength of its cancellation figures. Two weeks of side-by-side listening changed our view: the Sony is more pleasant for the four-hour stretches that are the actual use case, and cancellation depth past a certain point stops being the thing you notice. The Bose remains the pick if silence is the only goal. We should have said that the first time.
Full-length
Sometimes the whole category fails, and that deserves an article rather than a paragraph.
No winner — on purpose
There is no correct smart fridge. Buy the dumb version of the same fridge and put a $12 whiteboard on it.
