Cordless drills are more powerful than they’ve ever been, yet they’ve also gotten so compact and lightweight that you can probably handle one even if you’ve never picked up a drill in your life. Manufacturers like to market them to pros, but don’t be put off: Anyone going beyond the most rudimentary home improvement tasks—whether hanging a baby gate or mounting shelving—will find that a drill makes the work faster, easier, more enjoyable, and more likely to achieve solid, professional-looking results than hand tools alone. After drilling about 500 holes and sinking at least 50 pounds of screws in drill tests dating back to 2013, we’ve found the DeWalt DCD701F2 Xtreme 12V Max Brushless 3/8 in. Drill/Driver Kit to be the best one yet.
An immersion blender (also called a hand blender or a stick blender) isn’t as powerful as a countertop blender, but it can be more convenient––you can use it to puree a soup directly in the pot, or make a quick and easy mayonnaise, and throw it in a drawer when you’re done. We’ve blended gallons of soup, smoothies, and sauces. with over a dozen models since 2013, and the Breville Control Grip has always come out on top. It produces smoother textures, has a design that’s more comfortable to use, and comes with whipping and chopping attachments that actually work.
Chances are, you now know someone who works from home—someone who craves comfort, a visually pleasing workspace, and the ability to work in peace. (Is that really too much to ask?) This year, give a practical gift that any remote employee can enjoy throughout the day, from simple tech upgrades to little luxuries that put the “home” in “home office.”
Have you ever found yourself the frustrated owner of earbuds that are too tight, too loose, or just plain uncomfortable? Although most earbuds come with multiple tips, there are bound to be ears that the included tips don’t fit. If those ears belong to you, purchasing the right third-party replacement tips can improve comfort and performance and save your audio investment from becoming junk-drawer flotsam.
Friends are the family you choose, the platitude goes. And likewise, co-workers are the family chosen for you by the mysterious forces of capitalism. Whether you’re still seeing your teammates in person or simply their faces on Zoom, show the people you work with that they’re special, valued, and more than just “work friends” with these gift ideas.
You may already own a great car vacuum—and even if you don’t, we think there are much better options than buying a car-specific model that plugs into your vehicle’s 12-volt outlet. The Black+Decker Max Lithium Flex Vacuum BDH2020FL and the Bissell Multi Auto 19851 are our favorite cordless handheld vacuums for car cleaning, capable of handling the tough-to-reach areas in a car. Both models have long, flexible hoses, multiple attachments, and ample run time, meaning you can clean a vehicle from the dashboard to the trunk in one go, including the upholstery and hard-to-reach crannies like the armrest storage box. And unlike dedicated plug-in car vacs, these are multipurpose machines—both work just as well around the house.
If you awake confused and panicked at the sound of your alarm clock beeping in the dark, you may find mornings more pleasant with a wake-up light. For more than a month, we dove into the burgeoning research on circadian rhythms and woke before dawn with 10 different sunrise alarm clocks and two non-clock lighting devices. Our favorite, the Philips Wake-Up Light HF3520, emits soothing red-tinted dawn and dusk simulations and gentle wake-up sounds.
We’ve set up enough artificial Christmas trees to know that with care, decoration, and attention to detail, any of them can look beautiful. But the 7.5-foot National Tree Company Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir is a realistic, competitively priced, versatile, and especially attractive option that we recommend first among the dozen-plus trees we’ve tried since 2016.
A good set of flannel sheets should be so cozy that you want to stay in bed all day—if it’s not hard to leave them on a cold morning, they’re not doing their job. After 145 hours of research and tests of 14 sets, our favorite is still L.L.Bean’s Ultrasoft Comfort Flannel Sheet Set. They’re among the softest and toastiest sheets we’ve tried, they last for years, and they won’t break the bank.
I’m either blessed (or cursed, depending on who you ask) to have a family scattered to the international winds. So while I always have an excuse to travel to New Zealand or the UK, buying gifts is often expensive, time consuming, and a logistical nightmare. Shipping from the USA can be slow and expensive, but I have learned how to stay on budget and ensure everything arrives on time.
If you’re a cook who needs to get dinner on the table quickly, a food processor can feel like a second pair of hands in the kitchen. It will allow you to prep a range of food—whether you’re grating cheese, chopping nuts, slicing vegetables, or kneading dough—at lightning speed. We’ve been testing food processors since 2013, and we remain convinced that the simple, sturdy, and powerful Cuisinart Custom 14 Food Processor is the best choice for most home cooks.
After performing 74 hours of research, interviewing two industrial designers, winnowing a field of 110 dish racks across four categories, and doing the equivalent of 41 loads of dishes between our original testing and a new round for 2017, we’ve concluded that there isn’t “one true dish rack” that’s perfect for everyone. Still, we found that the Polder 4-Piece Advantage Dish Rack System is the best one for a four-person household that cooks at least five days a week and has a single average-size sink.
If you want that big-screen front projector experience in your home but need to spend less than the cost of a refrigerator, we think the BenQ HT2050A is the best projector for less than $1,000. Its best-in-class contrast ratio, bright output, and impressive color accuracy help it compete against projectors costing twice as much.
Most 6-year-olds attend school daily (whether online or in person), many participate in extracurricular activities, and just about all of them have begun to form more strongly defined opinions about what they like and don’t like. Kids this age may also be aware of what’s cool among their peers at any given moment.
Lots of people see leaf blowers as loud, fume-spewing wastes of fuel—but newer corded and cordless models offer plenty of power without those drawbacks, which apply primarily to gas-powered blowers that are rarely necessary at home. Most folks should start their search by considering a corded leaf blower like the Toro PowerJet F700, the best blower we’ve found in our years of researching and testing leaf blowers in the woods of New Hampshire since 2014.
You don’t have to spend as much as a few trips to the movies on a good glass screen protector for your iPhone—after testing six models, we found the affordable Maxboost Premium Tempered Glass Screen Protector to be the best for the iPhone XS/11 Pro, XS Max/11 Pro Max, and XR/11. It covers the entire active area of the iPhone’s display, it’s crystal clear, it’s as scratch-resistant as anything else we tested, and fingerprints wipe right off. It includes a nice selection of cleaning tools, and we found installation to be easy enough. And if you get a speck of dust under the glass on your first attempt, it’s not the end of the world—you get three Maxboost protectors in each package. If you have a 2020 iPhone SE, 8, 7, 6S, or 6, we recommend TechMatte’s amFilm.
No matter what you’re watching today or plan to watch tomorrow, the JVC DLA-NX5 is the best projector for a dedicated home theater. It has the highest contrast ratio and best black level of all the sub-$10,000 projectors we tested, along with a true 4K resolution, HDR support, and a wider color gamut. Your 4K movies will have all the pop and depth you demand for a premium home theater experience.
Stocking stuffers are often the final piece of the gift-giving puzzle. That said, this collection of small gifts needn’t be scraped together during an 11th-hour mad dash to the drug store. Whether they’re part of a long-standing family tradition or a recent addition, petite presents—given with a mix of familiarity and surprise—can be as meaningful, thoughtful, and memorable as the big stuff.
Wrapping up in a great comforter should feel like enveloping yourself in a warm, plush cloud. After hundreds of hours of sleeping with dozens of comforters, we recommend the Riley Goose Down. Lots of down comforters are lofty, warm, and well-constructed—the real trick is finding one that’s well-priced and guaranteed to last. The Riley is it, and we think you’ll be happy sleeping under it for many years.
The Wirecutter Deals team scans the virtual aisles of the internet, searching for great discounts on Wirecutter-recommended products so you don’t have to. In our Deals blog posts (like this one), we highlight the discounts that we think Wirecutter readers will love. For more deals information, check out our Deals page, follow us on Twitter @WirecutterDeals, and subscribe to our daily deals newsletter.
After a seven-year run, Microsoft has stopped making the Xbox One, and a new generation of video game consoles is about to launch. Unless you’re looking for a used Xbox or lucky enough to find clearance stock somewhere, if you’re an Xbox shopper you will need to choose between the forthcoming $500 Xbox Series X and $300 Xbox Series S.
Today’s high-end toaster ovens are Mini-Me versions of full-size ovens, useful for so much more than just making toast. They can also do everything from roasting a beautiful, golden-brown chicken to baking a cake. After many hours of testing since 2015—making stacks and stacks of toast, mini pizza bagels, and cookies—we think the small Panasonic FlashXpress toaster oven and the large Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven are the best options, depending on your space and needs.
Even if you don’t regularly shower your mouse and keyboard with Dorito crumbs and lunch mishaps, they’ll eventually become gross as a result of dust, skin particles, hair, and natural hand oils. But less than five minutes of attention each week can keep them feeling fresh. (And, please, don’t eat over your keyboard!)
Your smartphone is an extension of your brain, filled with all your emails, search history, and communication with other people. Regardless of whether you’re concerned about corporations collecting your data to monetize your habits or a snooping roommate with a penchant for side-eyeing your incoming messages, or you just don’t want some random stranger to gain access to everything in your phone, here are the settings to change on your iPhone for increased privacy.
A good Chromebook can do almost anything a regular laptop can do, and the best ones feel better to use than their Windows counterparts. After testing most of the Chromebooks released in the past six years, we recommend the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 (13″). It’s comparatively inexpensive, and it offers fast performance and an excellent keyboard and trackpad. In addition, it’s compact and light, and its 1080p touchscreen is vivid and bright. The battery should survive a full day of work or classes, but our other picks last a couple of hours longer.
Great audio in a video game can draw you into a digital world with bold effects, realistic details, and moving soundtracks. A great gaming headset can make that possible while you chat with your friends and teammates, too. But even the best sound quality won’t do you any good in a headset too uncomfortable to wear for long stretches. After testing more than 50 headsets for this update, we found that the HyperX Cloud Alpha is still the most comfortable, best-sounding gaming headset for the price.
Thousands of new board games are published each year, more than our guide to the best board games for beginners could possibly accommodate. Here are a few Wirecutter staff favorites that may not be as approachable for new gamers but have other traits to love. Whether you’re looking for high-level strategy or narrative cooperation or simply something that’s beautiful to see and touch, these are the games that have earned heavy rotation at our game nights—games that we think you’ll love too. If we left out one of your favorites, leave a comment so we can expand our collections.
If you like filming video with your smartphone and are comfortable spending a little more than $100 to achieve more professional-looking results, a smartphone gimbal might be right for you. A gimbal is a handheld mechanical stabilizer that can help you shoot smooth, cinematic footage without the need for a larger tripod or an expensive dolly. After spending 30 hours researching and testing top-rated gimbals for smartphones, we found that the Zhiyun Smooth 4 is the best at reliably stabilizing video. It’s also simple to set up and use, and it’s equipped with the best apps of any gimbal we tested.
The next generation of the Xbox and PlayStation will be here in November 2020, and if you aren’t already excited for a particular one, it’s a complicated time to decide what to buy. But it’s also the point when you can get the most value from whatever you choose—whether that’s a used, last-generation console with hundreds of games for cheap, or a brand new console that has many years of support and new releases to look forward to, and plays many of your old games as well.
The clearest decision right now is for anyone drawn to the Nintendo Switch—it’s a nice console with fun games and few downsides. Among Wirecutter staff, there are casual Switch players that haven’t owned another video game system in ages (or ever), and even folks with every console and a PC that still love playing the Switch. You can read more highlights about the Switch, and why it appeals to so many people, in the section below.
If you’re shopping for a console to gift to someone else and know that they want an Xbox or Playstation, we’d recommend sticking with whatever brand of console they last had (and saving the receipt). Sticking with one brand will generally mean they can still play the games they already have, and connect with the same friends online. It also means they’ll be able to play the sequels to any platform-exclusive games they already love. A warning though: the new PS5 and Xbox Series X and S will likely be in short supply through the holiday season. If you see one available without price-gouging, be ready to jump on it.
The coronavirus pandemic and its associated quarantines and social restrictions have also caused a lot of people to look toward video games as alternatives to activities that are just harder to do right now. If that’s you, don’t feel like you need to jump on the latest and greatest. With new consoles launching, you can pick up a used or refurbished Xbox One and PS4 and get an incredible value—we’d look for prices around $200—plus access to hundreds of great games from the last 7 years already available for cheap.
For everyone else ready to jump into the next generation with the Xbox Series X and Series S, or the PlayStation 5, we’re testing early access hardware right now and will have hands-on impressions soon. In the meantime, you can compare the highlights of the two platforms below.
The pandemic has thrown a wrench into just about every possible routine, including many of the things we used to do for relaxation. For better or worse, we’re home a lot more now. And we’re leaning into it: beautifying our apartments, tinkering in our gardens, and picking up hobbies we can do solo or share with roommates and family. Things alone can’t solve today’s stressors, but they can help us create and maintain relaxing routines.
The PlayStation 4 era, which started in 2013, is almost over. Unless you want a used console or encounter clearance stock somewhere, finding a PS4 will likely become more and more difficult. PlayStation shoppers have a new choice: the forthcoming $500 PlayStation 5 and its somewhat slimmer sibling, the $400 PlayStation 5 Digital Edition.
Popcorn is a timeless snack: Since it was first cultivated in the Americas several thousand years ago, it’s been munched on by Aztecs, Depression-era vendors, movie theater patrons, and money-tight students alike. Methods for making it abound, and as a longtime popcorn connoisseur, I wanted to know which technique was the best.
High-end Android phones can cost $1,000 or more, but you don’t need to spend that much to get a great phone. The Nokia 6.2 is fast enough for most people, it has a usable camera, and it’s guaranteed to get Android updates quickly—something even top-of-the-line phones like the Samsung Galaxy S20 can’t promise. It works only on GSM networks such as T-Mobile and AT&T, however; if you’re on Verizon, the Moto G Power is your best option.
An AV receiver serves as the backbone of a great home theater and music system, providing a level of flexibility and upgradability that you won’t get from an all-in-one option like a soundbar. While sound quality is a huge consideration in picking an AV receiver, it’s equally important to find one that has the specific features you need and is easy to operate, which is why we offer multiple recommendations for different users.
Four-year-olds are learning to master their environments—and to negotiate boundaries, push limits, and question everything. Some of the best gifts for 4-year-olds engage kids’ endless curiosity, rapidly developing physical skills, and desire to understand everything around them.
Indoor cameras are great for keeping an eye on your kids and pets, but if you’re concerned about security, you don’t want to risk missing a second of the action. That’s why we recommend the corded version of the Logitech Circle 2, which provides continuous recording, sharp 1080p video, and a day’s worth of cloud storage for free, with options for more via subscription.
By the time kids are 5, they’re developing skills and more-specific interests that open up new gift-giving possibilities. Many 5-year-olds are starting kindergarten, and they’re exploring new subjects and ideas in school for the first time. Toys and kits that let them engage in project-based inquiry—such as performing simple science experiments and exploring nature—can help them make connections between what they’re exposed to in the classroom (be it virtual or in-person) and what they experience out in the world.
You don’t have to run a business to benefit from a business laptop. They’re easier to repair and upgrade than other laptops, and they’re built with sturdy materials that will hold up well to traveling and frequent use. We’ve tested dozens of business laptops over the years, and HP’s EliteBook 840 G7 is the best for most people: It’s lightweight, it has plenty of ports, all-day battery life, and a great, reliable keyboard and trackpad. But if you don’t care about being able to upgrade or fix your laptop yourself, a good ultrabook is usually cheaper.
The Wirecutter Deals team scans the virtual aisles of the internet, searching for great discounts on Wirecutter-recommended products so you don’t have to. In our Deals blog posts (like this one), we highlight the discounts that we think Wirecutter readers will love. For more deals information, check out our Deals page, follow us on Twitter @WirecutterDeals, and subscribe to our daily deals newsletter.
Anyone who wants to learn more about their ethnic roots or discover connections to past and contemporary relatives may be curious about at-home DNA kits. The appeal is obvious: By simply spitting into a tube or swabbing the inside of your cheek, you can unlock genetic mysteries that may stretch back generations. But such DNA testing services also come with inherent privacy concerns, and they’re bound by few legal guidelines regulating the use of your data. The ramifications of sharing your DNA with for-profit companies are continuously evolving, and opting into a recreational DNA test today will likely lead to future consequences that no one has anticipated. If you’re comfortable with that, we think AncestryDNA is the most effective service. We’ve come to this conclusion after more than 90 hours of research and nearly three years of reporting that included evaluating the results from a test panel consisting of every major population group.
If you’ve ever scrambled out the door with your phone’s battery in the red, you know that power is precious, and the faster you can get it, the better. Anker’s PowerPort III Nano and Aukey’s Minima 18W PD Charger (PA-Y18) are the best options for charging any phone fast: They’re tiny and inexpensive, and they’ll get a fully drained phone battery up to 50% in half an hour.
A portable movie projector combines the convenience of a phone or tablet with the big-screen appeal of a TV. None of these small, portable projectors rival the performance of a good TV or traditional home-theater projector, but the Xgimi MoGo Pro comes the closest of any we’ve tested so far. Plus, the MoGo Pro has Android TV built right in, so you can access a ton of movies without having to connect an external media player.
Keeping up with the rapidly developing skills and interests of a 2-year-old can feel like a sprint (at times literally). “Play is how they start to understand the world,” says Heather Singh, associate director of school and gallery education at the Thinkery, a children’s museum in Austin, Texas.
When it comes to presents, 1-year-olds aren’t picky. In fact, they’re likely to be as excited by the packaging as they are by what’s inside. (Be sure to save those boxes.) But by investing in the right toys and gifts, you can set your child up for years of fun.
After washing hundreds of dollars’ worth of fabric stained with pig blood and body oils of mysterious origin, visiting some washer brands’ quality-testing labs (and one factory), investigating the sorry state of appliance reliability, and trying to unravel some urban legends about laundry, we’ve found a handful of great washing machines to suit different budgets and ways of washing clothes (and the best dryers to match). At the top of our list: the LG WM3900H front-loader.
At age 3, the gift-giving game changes. Kids are more likely to know what they want. They have opinions, interests, and the language to express their excitement for presents. But that doesn’t negate the thrill of a good surprise. “Often the idea of receiving a gift is what’s exciting for them, not necessarily what the gift is,” says Heather Singh, associate director of school and gallery education at the Thinkery, a children’s museum in Austin, Texas.
