What we bought: Our favorite gadgets of 2022

Posted on 19/12/2022 by Engadget

While plenty of gadgets cross our desks, we at Engadget also end up buying a lot of things for ourselves throughout the year. In 2022, some of us upgraded our TVs while others invested in new cookware and desk accessories that upped our productivity. But there are plenty of things we've been loving recently that haven't made it onto the site. Here, our staffers look back on the year that was by gushing about their favorite items they bought this year.

Nest Hub Max

I got a Nest Hub Max last year for Christmas and over the past 12 months, it’s probably brought me more joy than any other gadget. By setting Google Photos to automatically upload pictures of my son to an album linked to the Nest Hub, every day I’m treated to a slideshow of all the fun times we’ve had. When people say kids grow up fast, they’re totally right. But as a photo viewer with voice controls, the Nest Hub max lets me relive those memories while being also an important part of my smart home control center. – Sam Rutherford, Senior Reporter

55-inch LG B2 OLED smart TV

In prioritizing big purchases for our new home, I knew I wanted to get a better TV and soon. Not only did we need a new one quickly for our living room while my fiance used our old one in the basement he’d claimed as his man cave, but I also wanted to see if I could get a good deal during Amazon’s October Prime Day event. I ultimately decided to splurge on the 55-inch LG B2 OLED smart TV when it dipped under $1,000 during that period. To say the difference from our old LED TV was instantly noticeable is not hyperbole: as soon as we set the thing up, we were stunned by the quality. Blacks are deep and colors are much more vibrant than on any TV we’ve had before.

We’ve watched a lot of things on it so far, from live sports to documentaries to sitcoms and everything looks much sharper and more colorful than we’re used to. We’re also pleasantly surprised by LG’s webOS. This is the first TV we’ve used with it and it was super easy to get accustomed to. We like how you can customize your homescreen and navigate either with the arrow keys on the remote or the convenient little cursor that flies around the TV screen. We now refer to it as the “good TV” in the house, with my fiancé opting to watch his weekly sports games on the B2 rather than in his basement sanctuary. — Valentina Palladino, Senior Commerce Editor

Chase Bliss Gen Loss v2

I have made no bones about my love of all things lo-fi and broken. What can I say? I like warbles. In my quest to make every instrument I own sound like it’s coming out of an old tape player I’ve tried a number of things, but in June I pre-ordered the Generation Loss MKII and I think my search is now complete.

The Generation Loss is one of the most popular lo-fi pedals ever made, and last year its creator, Tom Majeski of Cooper FX, joined the relentless experimenters at Chase Bliss. One of the first orders of business was updating his classic pedal. It’s pitched as a “VHS duplicator,” but that is greatly underselling things. While the original Gen Loss was just sort of a generalized tape simulator, the MKII version digs into the highly specific sonic characteristics of a variety of tape-based devices.

The company pulled apart and analyzed VHS players, Tascam Portastudios and dictaphones in an effort to find out what makes them unique. It covers everything from the subtle frequency drop off of old ¼-inch tape running through a reel-to-reel machine, all the way to the crushed hum that results when you make a copy of a copy of a VHS cassette. And if you’re not into the newer version that faithfully recreates particular tape formats, you can always throw one of Chase Bliss’ patented dip switches to turn on classic mode. — Terrence O'Brien, Managing Editor

Apple MagSafe Duo charger

I’ll admit it: My favorite gadget of the year is, well, something I bought last year. In spring 2021,I picked up Apple’s MagSafe Duo charger, which can charge both your iPhone and Apple Watch at the same time, all in a fold-up, compact form factor. While I could (and have) used it at home to charge my Apple devices overnight, I picked it up as a compact charging kit for when I traveled. As we all know, 2021 was not the year for roaming the globe. But as travel restrictions were lifted this year, I finally got to see if the pricey charger was worth the investment.

Yes, $129 was a lot for a dual charger, but it fulfilled the brief of using just a single cable and being so much more compact than most rival Apple Watch standup chargers. It unfurls like a makeup compact, meaning it can slip into anyone’s luggage with ease. Yes, I could take the Apple Watch cable, but in recent years these cables have USB-C, not USB-A sockets. Unfortunately, a lot of hotels (and charging plugs) still don’t have those, and if I’m visiting a different country, there are only so many things I can charge at once with a travel adapter.

After unfolding the two sides, the magnetic puck for Watch charging can also be folded out at 90 degrees, attaching to the wearable and allowing me to see the time when it’s set up. The small footprint means it fits on most nightstands and bedside tables at hotels, guest rooms and even window ledges. If space is at a premium, you can fold it around to charge a single device, whether that’s the watch or your iPhone. The MagSafe charger spot can also wirelessly recharge my AirPods if I ensure they’re in the correct position.

It’s not perfect. I’m increasingly frustrated at the sluggish charging speed when wirelessly charging my iPhone – even if this isn’t a problem when charging overnight. Hopefully, Apple will bring out another model that’s hopefully cheaper and faster to charge. When Apple eventually ditches Lightning, it’ll need to make a new one anyway. – Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief

Bissell SpotClean Pet Pro

Our new house has carpet on the second floor and, while it’s in pretty good shape, there were some stains we wanted to remove if possible before moving in. We also have a cat who occasionally eats too fast and, well, I probably don’t have to tell you the rest. Investing in a spot cleaner seemed like a no-brainer, and I’m glad I went with Bissell’s SpotClean Pet Pro. It’s fairly light at 13 pounds and not very big, so I can tote it around by its carrying handle to any place in my home. All you have to do is fill the solution tank with the proper ratio of cleaning liquid and water, plug the machine in, turn it on and use the included handle to scrub away stains.

I first used it on some of the carpet’s existing mystery marks and they easily came out after a few minutes of elbow-greased scrubbing. The SpotClean’s handle has a button that lets you control the amount of solution it sprays out, and while it’s running, it’s constantly sucking up excess water, filling up a separate tank with the dirty bits. The hardest part of using it is the scrubbing you have to do, and how much weight you want to put into it is totally up to you. I found most light stains came out quickly and without too much effort on my part, but I did spend more time on tougher spots. I also love that I can use this to deep clean upholstered furniture, like our old couch which is in desperate need of a refresh. This spot cleaner certainly isn’t the sexiest purchase I’ve made for our new home, but it’s one that will keep it looking fresh and clean for longer. — V.P.

Tushy Classic Bidet 3.0

Everyone likes a clean butthole. I don’t think that’s a controversial thing to say. But while toilet paper does a decent enough job, sometimes it just doesn’t get the area clean enough. Which means you end up using more TP, potentially clogging the toilet in the process, and you still might not feel like it’s completely clean. That’s why I recently purchased the Tushy Classic 3.0, an affordable bidet that can fit with my existing toilet.

I’ve long wanted one of those fancy Japanese bidet toilets. But not only are they expensive, they require remodeling my bathroom with an additional outlet, which I simply can’t justify at the moment. The Tushy Classic 3.0, on the other hand, is only $130 or so, and it gets the job done at a fraction of the cost. Installing it is easy. All we did was attach it to our existing plumbing and we were done in about 10 minutes. It doesn’t use any electricity either. Turning the knob adjusts the water pressure while moving the toggle adjusts the angle of the spray nozzle.

We’ve been using it for a few months now, and we really do love it. We almost look forward to going number two, which is a strange thing to say. As a woman with monthly menstruation, I really appreciate that it helps get me much cleaner than with toilet paper alone. I think we end up using less TP as a result, too. I’d probably want to upgrade to a fancier bidet in the future, but for now, the Tushy Classic 3.0 more than does the job. — Nicole Lee, Commerce Writer

Blueland hand soap

Before we moved into our new home, we had nearly exhausted the available storage in our apartment. Our tiny bathrooms had little to no space to store extra hand soap, bath wash and other necessities, so I resorted to stuffing our linen closet to the brim – so much so that I had to lean on the door to get it to close properly. So I turned to Blueland, which makes hand soap, cleaning supplies and the like that come in small tablets inside compostable pouches, and most of their formulas are plant-based, vegan and more environmentally friendly than cleaners you’ll find in big-box stores. All you do is drop the formula tablet into a container of water, shake it up and let it sit for a while until the whole tablet dissolves and then you can use the product.

I was immediately impressed with the foaming hand soap for a few reasons. First, a couple of packets took up significantly less space than even a refill jug of the soap I was previously buying, plus I liked the fact that I was purchasing one less plastic bottle by switching. Second, the soap actually worked as advertised. I had tried a couple of eco-conscious hand and dish soaps before this, and most of them had left me disappointed because I felt like they didn’t clean as well as standard solutions. But Blueland’s hand soap foamed up nicely and actually left my hands feeling clean after every wash, with no weird residue left behind.

I started off using the tablets in a mason jar outfitted with a foaming pump lid, but I’ve since graduated to Blueland’s own glass hand soap bottles, which are hefty and luxe. Ultimately, Blueland solved a few problems for me: I don’t have to waste as much space storing hand soap refills, I don’t have to create as much waste since I’m not buying those single-use plastic bottles anymore and I don’t even have to remember to buy hand soap when I go shopping because I get refills sent to my door every few months. — V.P.

Fujifilm XF 27 mm F/2.8

Earlier this year, when I started dabbling in photography as a hobby, I decided the best way for me to start honing my skills was to have my Fujifilm X-T30 with me at all times. The only issue was that, even the relatively light XF 35mm f/2 bought was a little too bulky to go everywhere. I ended up snagging one of Fuji’s 27mm pancake lenses used a few months back, and it’s barely left my camera since. More importantly, my camera has barely left my side since.

With this lens the X-T30 comfortably fits in my Peak Design Field Pouch, along with a cleaning cloth and brush, a notebook and pen, plus my keys. It’s so easy to just grab everything no matter where it is that I’m going. To my parents’ for a birthday dinner? Sure. Grocery shopping? Why not? Just around the block to walk my dog? Seems silly not to.

Obviously, the big feature here is size, but it’s not like you’re making a lot of tradeoffs to get there either. Images taken with the 27mm are insanely sharp. Even wide open at F/2.8 the corners are crisp and contrasty. Would a larger aperture have been nice? Sure. But this is plenty for street photography and family snapshots. My version doesn’t have an aperture ring sadly, but the newer model does. Honestly, my one real complaint is that the minimum focus distance is about 13.4 inches, and I often find myself wanting to get closer to my subject. Still, this is probably the best investment I’ve made in my budding love of photography. — T.O.

Anyday Everyday cookware set

Anyday product shoot in Napa, Calif. Nader Khouri 2020

After a traumatic incident where I accidentally set a small fire in a hotel room during a work trip to Barcelona, I've always been extra careful about leaving metal in a microwave. So when my friend gifted me a set of Anyday bowls, telling me it was safe to place their metal lids in my microwave and cook whole meals with them, I was blown away.

The premise of these glass bowls is that they're designed to cook food in your microwave. The bowls themselves are made from thicker, thermal shock-resistant frosted glass so they'll better withstand temperature fluctuations without cracking. The lids keep steam in the dish to cook your food, and have vents to let out the excess. A silicone rim expands to accommodate extra pressure, and the stainless steel in the lids is curved in a way that Anyday says makes it "100% microwave-safe."

As someone who mostly prizes convenience when it comes to cooking, I'm enamored with my Anyday bowls. I love steaming eggs and fish filets, but I can also cook rice, vegetables, pasta, and make nut butters, cakes and pretty much anything in the microwave with this system. Of course, anything requiring a sear, deep fry or broil won't work, and some of the recipes the company shared on its website are too complicated for my liking. But for making healthy steamed meals, the Anyday system is honestly a godsend (or friendsend). Best part: they're dishwasher safe, so I don't need to deal with the cleanup after. — Cherlynn Low, Deputy Editor

Madewell Zip-Top Transport Crossbody

My go-to bag for years has been the Pearl crossbody from Lo & Sons, which I love for its compact size and multiple compartments. But it just wasn’t big enough for all the gear that I wanted to carry around with me. So for my birthday this year, I decided to buy myself a newer, larger, bag. I knew that I wanted it to be a crossbody – it feels more secure to me than a regular shoulder model – and I would prefer it if it had top handles. I discovered Madewell’s Zip-Top Transport Crossbody while I was browsing the web, and it seemed to fit the bill.

I’ve had it for a few months now, and it’s earned its place as my new everyday bag. It’s made from a vegetable-tanned leather that’s soft and worn with a slight waxed finish which feels lovely to the touch. The shoulder straps are detachable so I can swap them out if I want, or I can use just the top handles by themselves. The best thing about it for me is its size: at around 10 x 10 x 3 inches, it’s small enough to not weigh me down, but it’s also surprisingly roomy. It fits all my essentials and then some. That includes my wallet, phone, keys, earbuds, pens, my Kobo Libra 2 e-reader, a portable battery and, if I wedge it in correctly, even my Hobonichi Techo planner.

That said, I wish it had more compartments. It only has two inside pockets, which themselves are not that big. As a result, it’s easy for smaller items to get lost; I often have to spend time searching for my lipstick or hand sanitizer. My current solution is to keep these items in a separate small makeup pouch that can fit inside the bag so that it’s easier to fish out. It’s not perfect, but at least for me, the good outweighs the bad. — N.L.

Purist Mover water bottle

I spent $50 on a water bottle earlier this year, and surprisingly, I don’t feel like an idiot months later. That’s because the bottle is the Purist Mover, and it has largely solved the problem of my water picking up a metallic taste after a few weeks. The trick is an ultra-thin, unbreakable layer of glass that lines the interior and helps prevent odors and tastes from transferring. To my taste buds, this has actually worked. I still need to wash the bottle every so often, of course, but so far my water has never tasted like anything other than water.

This might seem like a pointless thing to brag about, but the Mover just feels nice, too. Its textured finish is pleasing to the touch, and its simple design looks high-end – for a water bottle, at least. There are multiple lid and size options available; I went with the 18-ounce model and “Union” spout cap, which has been fine, though the lid tends to make a whistling sound that sounds uncannily like hitting a bong. (Be warned if you’re ever off-camera during a work call.) I still can’t tell anyone they should spend this much on a water bottle, but the Mover does the thing I want, and I’m spending way less on wasteful plastic bottles as a result. — Jeff Dunn, Senior Commerce Writer

What we bought: Our favorite gadgets of 2022

Posted on 19/12/2022 by Engadget

Nest Hub Max

55-inch LG B2 OLED smart TV

Chase Bliss Gen Loss v2

Apple MagSafe Duo charger

Bissell SpotClean Pet Pro

Tushy Classic Bidet 3.0

Blueland hand soap

Fujifilm XF 27 mm F/2.8

Anyday Everyday cookware set

Madewell Zip-Top Transport Crossbody

Purist Mover water bottle

The best immersion blenders for 2024

Posted on 16/11/2022 by Sam Rutherford

Immersion blenders (or hand blenders) might not be absolutely essential in every good kitchen arsenal. But they can unlock faster and easier ways of making soups, smoothies, sauces and more. Plus, they’re smaller than their countertop brethren, which often makes them a better choice for RVs, boats or apartments where space is a premium. Finally, because cleaning them is usually as simple as running them in a bowl of hot soapy water, there’s less hassle, too. To help you figure out which immersion blender is right for you, we’ve put together a list of our favorite models across a variety of needs and use cases.

Which device is right for you?

Before you even think about buying a new kitchen appliance, it’s important to figure out how you’re going to use it and where it fits in with any gadgets you already own. In an ideal world, everyone would have a dedicated food processor, countertop blender and a stand mixer. But the reality is that many people don’t have the room or the budget.

While handheld blenders and traditional, full-size blenders have a lot of overlap, there are strengths and weaknesses to both. For example, if you’re looking to make smoothies every day, a countertop blender might be a better choice. The bigger pitchers make it easier to blend drinks for multiple people at once, while larger motors will make short work of ice and frozen fruit. Additionally, more expensive options like those from Vitamix, All-Clad, Ninja or Robocoupe can even cook soup during the blending process using the heat generated from the blender’s motor, which isn’t something you can do with an immersion model. I’d even go so far as to say that if you have the space for it and don’t already own one, a regular blender is probably the best option for most people.

That said, immersion blenders are often less expensive and, thanks to a wide variety of accessories offered by some manufacturers, they can be great multitaskers. A whisk attachment allows you to make whipped cream or meringues quickly without needing an electric hand mixer, or risk getting tendonitis in your elbow doing it manually. Some immersion blenders also come with food processing bowls, so you can easily throw together things like small batches of hummus, salad dressings or homemade pesto in minutes. And because immersion blenders are smaller and less bulky than traditional models, they're a great choice for apartment dwellers or anyone with limited storage or counter space. That means if you’re simply trying to expand your culinary repertoire without blowing up your budget, an immersion blender can be a great way to try something new without committing too hard.

Corded or cordless?

Similar to figuring out if you should get a blender or not, trying to decide between a corded or cordless model depends a lot on the other gadgets you already own. Corded versions typically have more powerful motors, which makes them great for people who don’t have a countertop blender or food processor. But if you do own one of both of those, cordless is the way to go. Not only do you get the convenience of not worrying about wires, but the ease of use makes it fast and easy to whip out your immersion blender to add some extra texture to a sauce, or puree a large pot of soup without having to do it in batches.

A quick word about safety

The most important safety tip for immersion blenders is to always keep the blade pointed down and away from you.

No one should be ashamed of being nervous around a device that is essentially a motorized blending wand with a spinning blade at the end. But with proper care and use, an immersion blender doesn’t have to be much more dangerous than a chef’s knife. The most important safety tip is to make sure you always keep the sharp blades pointed down and away from you or anyone else nearby. That includes your hands, along with any utensils (like a spoon), that might be in or around your mixing bowl.

Thankfully, all consumer immersion blenders are designed to prevent their blade from directly hitting the vessel holding your food (be it a mixing bowl or a pot). However, to be extra safe, you should avoid blending things in glass containers or nonstick cookware, as glass can chip or shatter while the metal blades and shroud of an immersion blender can damage teflon and ceramic.

Immersion blenders are extremely useful kitchen gadgets, especially when it comes to making creamy soups like this roasted cauliflower chowder.

You’ll also want to make sure you keep water away from the plug or outlet of corded immersion blenders. And if you want to remove the blade or clear away any food that might have gotten tangled, first make sure the blender is off, disconnected from its power source (either its battery or wall socket) and in safety mode with a lock button or other feature.

On the bright side, cleaning an immersion is rather simple and straightforward. All you have to do is fill up a bowl or cup with soapy water, submerge the immersion blender, and then run it for 10 to 20 seconds. That’s it. If it’s still not clean, you can repeat that process again until it is. And if hand washing is too much work, the blending wand on a lot of models (including all of the ones on this list) are dishwasher safe too.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-immersion-blenders-150006296.html?src=rss

The best gifts for home cooks in 2022

Posted on 11/11/2022 by Sam Rutherford

To me, cooking nirvana is when you have a recipe in mind, your mise en place all set, and you can focus on getting that perfect sear or saute. But before you get there, having the right equipment for the job goes a really long way. So for the adventurous cook in your life, here are some of our favorite kitchen gadgets that would make excellent gifts this holiday season.

KitchenAid Cordless Variable Speed Hand Blender

While KitchenAid’s cordless hand blender isn’t as powerful as some of its wired rivals or countertop models, what it lacks in oomph it makes up for with convenience. There are no speed dials to adjust, just squeeze harder on the trigger to make it go faster. Meanwhile, the lack of wires gives you one less thing to worry about when you’re making sauces or smoothies (especially if you’re doing it on the stovetop). And with a battery life that can blend up to 25 bowls of soup on a single charge, your loved one will probably run out of energy before this thing does. — Sam Rutherford, Senior Reporter

Buy KitchenAid hand blender at Amazon - $100

Kyocera Ceramic kitchen knife

Everyone has their preference when it comes to cutting tools, but I think everyone could use a ceramic knife in their arsenal. Starting at under $50, they’re relatively affordable. But more importantly, they are much sharper,hold an edge up to 10 times longer and are lighter than traditional steel blades. That makes them less tiring to use, and you don’t ever have to worry about them rusting either. Just remember, ceramic is more brittle than metal, so tell your giftee to stick to slicing fruits, veggies and boneless meats – leave hacking through bones to other knives. — S.R.

Buy Kyocera knife at Amazon - $60

Mise En Non-stick pans

After being disappointed with a bunch of non-stick pans from big names like All-Clad to smaller brands plastered across social media, I went on a quest to find something I could trust. And after trying out Mise En’s options, I found a winner. Not only are Mise En’s pans significantly cheaper than premium legacy brands, but I’ve also found they maintain their non-stick coating (which is also PFOA-free) much better over time. So if you know someone who would appreciate a good, affordable no-nonsense pan for cooking eggs, crepes or anything else that can get a little gummy, look no further. — S.R.

Buy Mise En pan at Amazon - $81

Instant Vortex Plus air fryer

Air fryers might seem like just a fad. After all, they’re just compact convection ovens, right? That’s true, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work. In our experience, pod-shaped air fryers are able to produce crispier foods than their convection oven counterparts and they’re much easier to clean too. If you have someone in your life who loves the idea of “frying” foods without the oily mess, an air fryer could potentially be a fantastic gift.

Our favorite air fryer is the 6-quart Instant Vortex Plus with ClearCook and OdorErase. It has a display window so your giftee can check how the food looks. It also uses odor-eliminating filters that help reduce cooking smells – a feature that many air fryers lack. The six-quart size in particular is what we recommend; it’s large enough to fit four large chicken thighs or a whole pound of wings. The basket internals are nonstick so it’s easy to clean, plus the inner rack is dishwasher safe. — Nicole Lee, Commerce Writer

Buy Instant Vortex Plus at Amazon - $133

Hedley & Bennett Essential apron

Any home cook will tell you cooking is a messy affair. No matter how neat and tidy you think you are, you’ll inevitably encounter oil spitting at you as you’re frying potstickers or perhaps an accidental splash of tomato sauce as you mix in meatballs. If you have a loved one who cooks often enough, they’ll certainly appreciate an apron to avoid getting any of that mess on their clothes. Hedley & Bennett makes perhaps the best commercially-available apron on the market. The Essential Apron is made from 100 percent cotton twill fabric that’s durable enough to withstand frequent use, and it comes with pockets – one breast pocket for a perhaps pen or a clip-on timer and two large front pockets big enough for a phone or a small tablet each. These aprons are also sold in a wide variety of colors and patterns, so you’re sure to find at least one that’ll fit your loved ones’ taste. — N.L.

Shop Hedley & Bennet aprons

Anova Precision Cooker

An immersion circulator (aka a sous vide machine) isn’t for everyone. But it can do things that no other gadget can. It can take the guesswork out of nailing the temp on a steak before finishing it off with a quick sear in a cast iron skillet. A sous vide machine can also create the perfect jammy center on a soft-boiled ramen egg or simply add a range of aromatics to various types of meat while they cook. This is the kind of thing that a lot of home cooks dream about but can’t quite justify buying, which is precisely what makes it a perfect gift. — S.R.

Buy Anova Precision Cooker at Amazon - $219

Microplane classic grater

A good grater is a must-have in the kitchen, and just like Band-Aid is to adhesive bandages and Kleenex is to tissues, Microplane has become synonymous when it comes to zesting and grating. The classic model comes with a no-slip plastic handle and an included protective cover and it can handle anything from parmesan cheese to garlic to nutmeg. And priced at $16, it’s an ideal kitchen gadget gift even if you don’t have a ton to spend. — S.R.

Buy microplane at Amazon - $16

ThermoWorks ThermoPop

There’s no shortage of instant-read thermometers out there, but ThermoWorks’ ThermoPop has been a staple in my kitchen for a long time. Yes, it’s cute, but that’s only one reason to buy it over others. I like that it’s quite accurate and provides temperature readings in just a couple of seconds, plus it's splash resistant and pretty easy to clean. It also has a screen that you can rotate to show you the temperature in different orientations, making it easy to use in all kinds of positions. Plus, you can’t beat its $35 price tag, which is a steal for an accurate thermometer like this that also has an attractive, pocketable design. If you want the latest and great, spring for the ThermoPop 2 that just came out, which is even more accurate than the previous generation, faster and can read temperatures up to 572 degrees Fahrenheit. — Valentina Palladino, Senior Commerce Editor

Buy ThermoPop 2 at ThermoWorks - $35

John Boos cutting board

Anyone who has watched even a handful of cooking shows or videos has probably seen this cutting board in the background. And the reason is that they’re just great products that deliver everything you need and nothing more. Boos blocks are available in a huge range of shapes, sizes and woods, from small circular boards to huge maple slabs with juice grooves. That said, if you’re planning on gifting a cutting board this nice, don’t forget to include proper care instructions, which at the very minimum include oiling it once a month. — S.R.

Buy Boos board at Amazon - $95

The Good Shears by Material

Everyone needs a good pair of scissors, and it doesn’t hurt if they look good too. The Good Shears sport soft silicone handles and sharp micro-serrated blades that should make quick work of anything short of beef bones. And unlike a lot of cheaper competitors, the Good Shears are dishwasher safe and can be taken apart for sharpening or cleaning. — S.R.

Buy Good Shears at Material - $35

Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker

Those who eat rice regularly know that rice cookers are a much easier way to prepare the popular grain than using the stovetop alone, especially if you’re cooking for a crowd. Our favorite model is the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy thanks to its “fuzzy logic” tech (yes, that’s a technical term), which ensures perfectly cooked rice even if your water and rice measurements aren’t exact. It has settings for different sorts of rice: white, mixed, porridge, sweet, semi-brown, brown, rinse-free and quick-cooking. Other features include a timer and a keep-warm setting. The Zojirushi rice cooker also makes fantastic polenta, not to mention oatmeal from steel-cut oats.

There’s also an updated (and pricier) option called the Zojirushi Induction Heating System Rice Cooker. In addition to the fuzzy logic tech mentioned above, it features an induction heating tech that heats the inner cooking pan. According to the company, this allows the device to make precise temperature adjustments to cook exceptional rice. This also means the food will heat evenly, as the bottom, side and lid will all generate heat. — N.L.

Buy Zojirushi rice cooker at Amazon - $231

Vitamix Low-Profile blender

Engadget

The Vitamix 5200 is often cited as the premium blender of choice among experienced cooks and professional chefs. But the default 64-ounce container is often much too tall to fit under most cabinets. Enter the Vitamix Low-Profile blender, which still has a 64-ounce container but has a much shorter stature so it easily fits in most kitchens. Aside from looks, it’s just as capable and powerful as the original. It can crush ice, make quick work out of frozen fruit and tough vegetables and puree soups with ease. — N.L.

Buy Vitamix Low-Profile blender at Amazon - $375

OXO Good Grips Precision scale

A good kitchen scale is an essential kitchen gadget, especially in times when loose volumetric measurements just don’t cut it (like baking). Not only does OXO’s Precision Scale support both metric and imperial measurements, it also features accurate 0.1-gram measurements that go up to six pounds. There’s also an easy-to-read digital display with a built-in timer, and its minimalist design will look good in practically anyone’s kitchen. — S.R.

Buy OXO scale at Amazon - $55

Sodastream Terra

Admittedly, this might not strictly be a gift for a cook, but it’s definitely handy to have around the kitchen and great for creating a custom sodas or cocktails. The Soda Stream Terra, is the company’s most affordable sparkling water maker. For just $100, the starter kit includes the device itself, a reusable 1L bottle and a CO2 cylinder. You can also spring for the $130 hydration pack if you’re shopping for an avid cocktail maker or seltzer addict. That tacks on two more 1L bottles, two 0.5 liter dishwasher-safe bottles and 40ml lemon flavor drops. The whole setup is super easy to use too, and doesn’t even need to be plugged in. Just attach the CO2 tank, fill up the bottle with water and then tap to add bubbles. From there your giftee can mix and match flavor packs to suit their taste while also cutting down on waste from packaging and transporting heavy cans or bottles. — S.R.

Buy Terra at Sodastream - $120

ButcherBox Favorites

If you have a meat lover in your life, ButcherBox’s Favorites is quite possibly the best gift they’ll ever get. Each shipment will have all of the company’s bestsellers lovingly vacuum-packed and frozen for their enjoyment. The contents include two pounds of ground beef, four eight-ounce boneless pork chops, three one-pound packs of boneless chicken breasts, two six-ounce filet mignons, one pound of sirloin tips, a 12-ounce pack of apple gouda sausage and a 10-ounce pack of bacon. That’s more than enough to keep them satisfied for at least a month, perhaps even longer. At least, if they don’t gorge it all in one go. — N.L.

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The best gifts for home cooks in 2022

Posted on 11/11/2022 by Sam Rutherford

KitchenAid Cordless Variable Speed Hand Blender

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Kyocera Ceramic kitchen knife

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Mise En Non-stick pans

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Instant Vortex Plus air fryer

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Hedley & Bennett Essential apron

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Anova Precision Cooker

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Microplane classic grater

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ThermoWorks ThermoPop

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John Boos cutting board

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The Good Shears by Material

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Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker

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Vitamix Low-Profile blender

Engadget

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OXO Good Grips Precision scale

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Sodastream Terra

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ButcherBox Favorites

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The best robot vacuums for 2023

Posted on 31/10/2022 by Valentina Palladino

Robot vacuums have come a long way over the past few years. They’re smarter, more powerful and (marginally) better at avoiding chair legs during a cleaning session than they ever were before, and some of them even have built-in mopping functionality and a penchant for pet hair. Plus, you don’t have to shell out as much money to get one either. The space is pretty saturated now, with established names like iRobot and Shark competing with companies like Anker and TP-Link that are not necessarily known for their dirt-sucking tech. With all those choices, deciding which is going to be the best vacuum for you isn’t as simple as it was a few years ago. We tested out many of the newest models available now to see how they stack up against each other and to help you choose the best robot vacuum for your needs. Here are our top picks.

Are robot vacuums worth it?

We tackled this question when we reviewed budget robot vacuums and the answer is yes, especially if vacuuming is one of your least favorite chores. Robots take the hard work out of cleaning your floors – just turn the thing on and watch it go. Any robot vacuum cleaner worth buying is semi-autonomous in that it will suck up dirt around your home until its battery is low and then make its way back to its charging dock. Unlike a regular vacuum, you should only have to interact with it to turn it on, empty its dustbin and untangle it if it were to get stuck somewhere.

That’s not to say robot vacuums are perfect. They’re almost always less powerful and less flexible than traditional vacuums. Since most robo-vacs are much smaller than traditional models, they often don’t have the same level of suction you’ll get in an upright machine. Plus, their dustbins are smaller, so they will need to be emptied more frequently. While Wi-Fi-connected robot vacuums give you the flexibility to start a cleaning job from anywhere using an app, targeting a small area of your home can be more complicated. Some robo-vacs have spot-cleaning features that focus the machine’s attention on a specific area, which almost – but not quite – mimics the spot-cleaning you’d be able to do yourself with a regular or cordless vacuum.

What to look for in a robot vacuum

Wi-Fi connectivity

As we explained in our budget guide, Wi-Fi connectivity is a key feature for most robot vacuums. Some of the affordable devices aren’t Wi-Fi connected, though, so it’s best to double check before you buy cheap. Wi-Fi lets a robot vacuum cleaner do things like communicate with a mobile app, which then allows you to control the device from your phone.

Vacuum suction

Suction power is another important factor to consider. Unfortunately, there isn’t a standard power scale that all robo-vacs adhere to, so it’s difficult to compare among a bunch of devices. Some companies provide Pascal (Pa) levels and generally the higher the Pa, the stronger the vacuum cleaner will be. But other companies don’t rely on Pa and simply say their robots have X-times more suction than other robots.

Floor type

Ultimately, we recommend thinking first about the floors in your home: Do you have carpet throughout, or tile and hardwood floors, or a mix? Robots with stronger suction power will do a better job cleaning carpets as they can get into the nooks and crannies more easily. Some machines have “max” modes as well, which ups the suction power but also typically eats at battery life faster than the “normal” cleaning mode.

Mapping features and object detection

Past a certain price threshold, you’ll find advanced perks like home mapping features, improved object detection and automatic dustbin disposal. Home mapping is exactly what it sounds like: The vacuum uses sensors to map your home’s layout as it cleans, allowing you to send it to particular rooms or areas. Most robo-vacs have object detection, but some will be better than others at actually avoiding things like chair legs and children’s toys. Higher-end models like iRobot’s j7 series even go so far as to promise obstacle avoidance to steer clear of things like pet poop that can potentially ruin your machine.

Robot vacuums with mopping capabilities

We’re also now starting to see more robot vacuums with mopping capabilities. Machines with this feature have a water reservoir either built into the robot’s chassis or as a separate piece that you swap in for the dustbin when you want to mop your floors. It makes the robo-vac more useful if you have hard floors in your home that you like to keep squeaky clean, but it does require more work on your part. Filling and emptying the reservoir remains a human’s job.

Auto-empty station

Finally, for peak convenience, consider a robot vacuum that comes with a self-cleaning base. These are basically garbage bins attached to the machine’s docking station. At the end of each job, the robo-vac automatically empties its small dustbin into the large clean base – that means you won’t have to empty the dustbin yourself and you’ll only have to tend to the base once every few weeks. Just keep in mind that most self-emptying bases require proprietary garbage bags – another long-term expense you’ll have to factor in. Also, any vac-and-mop robot with a water tank will not dump its dirty water into the clean base, so you’ll still have to clean up that yourself.

Best midrange robot vacuum: Shark AI Robot Vacuum with Base

Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Obstacle avoidance, home mapping, LiDAR navigation, Alexa/Google Assistant voice control
Mopping capabilities: No
Self-empty: Yes

Shark’s RV2502AE AI robot vacuum with self-emptying base ticks all of the boxes that a mid-range machine should. It offers reliable cleaning performance, its mobile app is easy to use and it produces accurate home maps. On top of that, its base is bagless, which means you won’t have to spend money on extra bags every few months.

Setting up the Shark is as simple as taking it and its base out of the box, plugging the base in and downloading the companion mobile app to finish things up. The machine connects to Wi-Fi, allowing you to control it via the app when you’re not at home, or using Google Assistant and Alexa voice control. The first journey the Shark makes is an “Explore Run,” during which it produces a map of your home that you can then edit from the mobile app.

The Shark produced a pretty accurate floorplan of my two-bedroom apartment, and I was happy to see a “re-explore” option that I could use if the map wasn’t up to my standards. With a completed map, you’re then asked to label rooms in your home. That way, you can send the Shark to only the bedroom for more direct cleaning jobs, select “no-go” zones and more.

The first few times I ran the Shark robot, I had it clean my whole apartment. I was impressed by how quiet it was – or rather, how much quieter it was compared to other robo-vacs I’ve tried. You’ll have to turn up the volume on your TV if it’s cleaning in the same room, but it’ll be hard to hear when it’s sucking up debris down the hallway. It also did a decent job maneuvering its way around the cat toys I left out on the floor. The device’s object detection feature claims it can avoid things as small as four inches, but I found that it was much better at sensing and moving around the three-foot-long cat tunnel on my floor than the many tiny mouse toys.

But even if Mr. Mouse caught the edge of the Shark’s wheels now and then, the robo-vac took it all in stride. One thing I look for when testing robot vacuums is how much attention they need from me during cleanings. The best ones are hands-free and require no extra attention at all – once they start a job, they’re smart enough to putter around your home, move around objects and return to their base when they’re finished. With Shark’s robo-vac, I never had to tend to it when it was cleaning. Now, I did my due diligence and picked up pieces of clothing and charging cables off the ground before running the Shark (ditto for every other robot vacuum I tested), so those things were never in the way. Most companion apps will actually remind you to do this before starting a cleaning job.

This Shark machine comes with an auto-empty station, so it will empty its dustbin after every cleaning run – and also during a job if its bin gets full before it’s done. In the latter situation, the Shark will go back to cleaning automatically after it’s freed up its bin. That’s a great feature, but I found the best thing about the base to be its bagless design. Shark’s device is unlike most other robot vacuum clean bases because you don’t have to keep buying proprietary garbage bags to outfit the interior of the base. When you want to empty the base, part of it snaps off and opens to eject debris, and it easily locks back in place when you return it. Not only is this quite convenient, but it also brings the lifetime cost of ownership down since you won’t be buying special bags every few months.

Its worth noting that Shark has a couple of models that are similar to the RV2502AE that just have a different color scheme, a 30- versus 60-day self-cleaning base capacity and other minor differences. The biggest feature that would impact how you use the machine is the clean base capacity: we recommend springing for the 60-day models if you want to interact as little as possible with your robo-vac.

Runner up midrange: Roomba j7

Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Advanced obstacle avoidance, home mapping, Alexa/Google Assistant voice control
Mopping capabilities: No
Self-empty: No

Not much has changed since Amazon bought iRobot a little while back – the Roomba j7 remains a great option if you want the latest obstacle avoidance technology from the company in an attractive package. The $600 j7 doesn’t come with a clean base, but you can get the same vacuum with one for $200 extra.

The biggest selling point of the Roomba j7 series is its upgraded AI-driven computer vision which helps it detect and move around objects. This includes pet poop – a robot vacuum’s arch nemesis – and iRobot even promises pet owners that it will replace their j7 machine if it runs into pet poop within the first year of ownership.

That’s one feature I was happy I never got to test while reviewing this Roomba, as my cat kept all of her activity to her litter box. Otherwise, the Roomba j7 did a good job sucking up dirt and debris around my apartment and it didn’t make too much noise while doing so. All of the robo-vacs I tested at this mid-range level had roughly the same level of suction, so there wasn’t a big difference between them when it came to cleaning power.

Like other robot vacuums, you can set cleaning schedules in the iRobot mobile app so you never have to start a cleaning job on the fly. The app also has a “favorites” section, which lets you create profiles that you’ll use all the time like “clean the living room and the entryway.” And if you prefer to use voice commands, the robot supports Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant.

The Roomba j7 has Imprint Smart Mapping, but unlike the Shark, it took more than one runthrough of my home for it to create a complete map. iRobot’s app distinguishes between a regular cleaning job and a “mapping run,” so make sure you’re choosing the latter the first few times you run the machine.

I tested the j7+, which means I was treated to the roaring sounds of the machine emptying its dustbin into its base. The emptying process isn’t as simple as an automatically opening flat that shakes dirt from one garbage can to another – the base actually sucks the dirt from vacuum. This was the case for all of the machines I tried that came with self-emptying bases; they’re all quite loud, but the Roomba j7+ was the loudest of them all. The whooshing sounds last for only five to 10 seconds, but it was shocking the first time it happened. Just keep that in mind if you ever decide to run your self emptying robot vacuum at night when others are sleeping.

Honorable mention: Anker Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid

Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Obstacle avoidance, home mapping, laser navigation
Mopping capabilities: Yes
Self-empty: No

You may be unfamiliar with Anker’s robot vacuums, but they’re often more affordable alternatives to the iRobots and Sharks of the world. The Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid isn’t a budget machine by any means, but it’s a solid robot vacuum that offers a few key features that many competitors don’t have. Plus, you can often find it on sale for $549 or even $449.

Unlike our other midrange picks, the X8 Hybrid doesn’t come with a self-emptying base, nor is there one you can purchase separately. It’s just a standalone robo-vac, but the “hybrid” indicates that it’s also a robot mop. It has both a dustbin for collecting debris and a 250-milliliter water tank that you can fill whenever you want to run a mopping cycle. Plenty of other robot vacuums have this feature, and it could be even more useful than a self-cleaning bin if you have lots of tile or hardwood floors throughout your home.

Besides that, I was impressed with how easy it was to set up the X8 Hybrid, how accurate its mapping capabilities were and how many extra features it supports. It has four cleaning modes – auto, room, zone and spot – and four suction levels starting with Pure at the low end and topping out at Max. These features give you a lot of control over where the machine cleans and how powerfully it will do so. The X8 Hybrid was in Pure mode the first time I ran it, and I was surprised by not only how quiet it was but also how thoroughly it cleaned considering it was on the lowest suction setting.

There’s also a “tap and go” feature that lets you pinpoint any spot on your home map in the EufyHome app, sending the robot there to clean. Manual controls are also available, which isn’t something you see on a ton of robo-vacs. This option lets you control the machine almost like a slow and slightly clumsy RC car, giving you more control over where it cleans.

It may not have the name recognition that iRobot or Shark do, but the Eufy RoboVac X8 Hybrid is a solid choice nonetheless, especially if you don’t care to add a clean base into the mix. It’s an even more tempting choice if you can snag it at a lower price when it’s discounted.

Best robot vacuum and mop: iRobot Roomba j7+ Combo

Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Advanced obstacle avoidance, home mapping, Alexa/Google Assistant voice control
Mopping capabilities: Yes
Self-empty: Yes

Vac-and-mop devices aren’t new, but they are new to iRobot’s lineup and the company made a great one in the Roomba j7+ Combo. This machine offers an elegant solution to what usually is a more manual process of instructing the robot vacuum where to mop and where to actually vacuum. The 2-in-1 version of the Roomba j7+ has a mop pad built in that only flips down when the machine senses that it’s rolling over hard flooring, dispensing water and cleaning solution before lighting scrubbing your floors. When it’s on carpet, it’ll act like a standard robot vacuum.

Arguably the most compelling reason to get a robot vacuum at all is convenience, and iRobot managed to figure out how to incorporate mopping into an already stellar robot vacuum without removing any convenience. Sure, you have to add water and cleaning solution when you want to mop, and dispose of the remnants when it’s finished, but that’s about it. The Roomba has enough smarts to take care of the rest, without accidentally dampening your carpet along the way. The included self-emptying base still comes in handy as it will suck up the vacuumed debris that the robot catches, but just know that it will not take care of excess water for you.

Aside from the adding mopping abilities, the Combo is basically just a Roomba j7+ and that’s not a bad thing. It’s been one of our favorite robot vacuums since it came out thanks to its improved obstacle avoidance, strong suction power, accurate home mapping technology and a decent runtime. The iRobot mobile app, from which you can start and schedule jobs, edit your home map and more, is easy to use, and you can even control the machine using Alexa or Google Assistant commands. The hardest thing to swallow about it (besides how it sounds like a jet engine when emptying debris into the clean base) is its sky-high, $1,100 price tag.

iRobot understood that caveat fairly quickly and recently introduced the Roomba j5 series to remedy it. The Roomba Combo j5 and Combo j5+ machines come in at $600 and $800, respectively, and the biggest difference between them and their j7 siblings is that users will have to swap out their bins when it's time to mop instead of vacuum. The more advanced of the two, the Roomba Combo j5+, can identify no-go zones that you set in the app as areas to avoid while mopping, plus it has advanced obstacle avoidance. We haven't fully tested these yet, but we expect them to perform similarly to the j7 Combo series. So as long as you're ok with a bit more manual work when you want to mop, the j5 Combo series could be a good option if you want to save a bit of cash.

Runner up robot vacuum and mop: Shark AI Ultra 2-in-1 Vacuum and Mop

Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Obstacle avoidance, home mapping, LiDAR navigation, Alexa/Google Assistant voice control
Mopping capabilities: Yes
Self-empty: Yes

The main reason why Shark’s machine is our runner-up pick is its more manual nature. It comes with two dustbins, one for vacuuming only and one for vacuuming and mopping that has a water reservoir and a detachable mop pad. You have to switch to the appropriate dustbin when you want to mop your floors, and after each job, the dustbin will not automatically empty into the clean base since it has the reservoir in it. You’ll have to manually empty it instead, but you would have to do that anyway to clean and refill the water tank in preparation for the next job.

Despite being a more hands-on machine, Shark’s robotic vac and mop was a pleasure to review. Setting it up was as quick and simple as one of the company’s standard robot vacuums, and its first run will create a map of your home, which you can then label with room names, edit with no-go zones and carpeted areas and more. You can even choose to have the robot do a dry run first before doing any actual mopping, so you can make sure it doesn’t enter into the carpeted areas you’ve indicated in your home map. In my testing, the robot accurately stayed away from these zones that I set and I actually like having that little bit of extra control over where the machine goes. But of course, that’s just another thing you have to do manually that iRobot’s vac and mop takes care of using built-in tech.

The Shark’s water–and-solution based cleaning abilities are basic but much better than having to schlep out an old-school mop and bucket yourself. My mix of hardwood and tile floors appeared noticeably cleaner after the Shark passed over them with its mopping pad. I know I’ll have to whip out my floor steamer every once in a while to really get a deep clean, but the Shark’s capabilities are more than enough for biweekly runs – and it’s hard to beat the convenience of not having to do it yourself.

Shark’s machine has a few other things going for it, too: the auto-empty station is bagless, which means you won’t have to shell out more money over time for extra bags like you will have to with iRobot machines; its mobile app remains easy to use and one that newbies will be able to pick up quickly; and, maybe most importantly, this device comes in at $700. That’s still a good chunk of change, but it’s a far-cry cheaper than the Roomba j7+ Combo.

Best premium robot vacuum: iRobot Roomba s9+

Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Obstacle avoidance, home mapping, Alexa/Google Assistant voice control
Mopping capabilities: No
Self-empty: Yes

The Roomba s9+ is admittedly overkill for most people – but it’s nothing if not one of the best vacuums out there. You’ll notice its premium features as soon as you unbox it. The s9+ is the biggest but also the most attractive robo-vac I tried, with a corner-friendly design, copper accents and a 1.5-foot tall self-emptying base. The setup was quick and easy, with the machine taking only a few minutes to connect to my home’s Wi-Fi and the iRobot app.

While the s9+ doesn’t have the Precision Navigation feature that the newer j7 does, it has something called “Careful Driver” that uses a 3D sensor to detect and clean around objects. It seems that the main difference is that the s9+ isn’t specifically wired to avoid pet poop, so keep that in mind if you have furry friends around the house. However, with 40x the suction power of a standard Roomba, the s9+ does a great job cleaning up pet hair.

It’s also louder than the j7 when it’s cleaning, but not irritatingly so, and I noticed a deeper clean in my carpets thanks to the extra suction. And it changes its cleaning mode automatically when transitioning from, say, carpeting to a hardwood floor.

Even this $1,000 robot vacuum bumped into a few table legs while cleaning, but it was noticeably better than other machines at navigating around my furniture and correcting itself when it got stuck. It also moves faster than the j7, so it was able to cover a bit more of my apartment before it had to return to the base for charging after about one hour of cleaning. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the s9+ wasn’t nearly as loud as the j7 vacuum when emptying its dustbin into the clean base.

With the iRobot app experience being the same across all Roombas, the s9+ stands out for its subtle premium features like its elegant design, elegant-looking clean base, superior cleaning intelligence and top-of-the-line suction power. Aside from the extra suction, those are all nice-to-haves rather than must-haves, so most people – including you! – probably don’t need the Roomba s9+. It’s the fanciest robot vacuum iRobot has to offer, but you’ll get a similar level of quality with the Roomba j7 while spending a couple hundred bucks less.

Honorable mention: Roborock S7+

Wi-Fi connectivity: Yes
Floor type: All floor types
Features: Obstacle avoidance, home mapping, LiDAR navigation, Alexa/Google Assistant/Siri voice control
Mopping capabilities: Yes
Self-empty: Yes

Roborock’s high-end S7+ deserves a mention for its cleaning power and number of additional features that many other competitors don’t have. First, the S7+ is a vac-and-mop combo, and its mopping map automatically lifts itself out of the way when the machine reaches the carpet. That means you can have it clean your whole home, vacuuming and mopping in the right spots, without you giving it any extra attention (besides filling its 300ml water tank at the start).

The expensive machine has a longer setup process because its self-emptying base comes in two pieces. You must attach the bottom of the base, where the robo-vac charges, to the garbage-bin upper portion using a few screws and a tool that attaches to the bottom of the base. Roborock provides everything you need to do this in the box, so while it takes a bit more time, it’s still an easy process.

What wasn’t so easy for me at first was connecting the S7+ to the Roborock app. The vacuum had trouble connecting to my home’s Wi-Fi network, but I was able to connect it to the Mi Home app, which is Xiaomi’s main smart home companion app (Xiaomi is an investor in Roborock). There aren’t a ton of differences between the two apps when it comes to robo-vac controls, but the S7+ is designed to work with Roborock’s program. After troubleshooting with a Roborock representative, I was able to fix the problem by factory resetting the vacuum and that allowed me to connect it to the Roborock app properly.

That said, the Roborock app isn’t nearly as polished as those from iRobot, Shark and others. The main page shows your home’s map along with the battery level, cleaning time, cleaning area in feet, and buttons that let you quickly start a cleaning job and empty the dustbin. You’re also able to select specific rooms or zones to clean, but the rest of the control options live in the menu accessible by the three-dot icon at the top-right corner of the app. Things are a little buried, and that might make the S7+ harder for robot-vacuum newbies to use.

When it comes to cleaning performance, the Roborock S7+ did a great job sucking up dirt around my home. In addition to the usual features like cleaning schedules, zone targeting and others, the vacuum also has things like child lock, which will disable the physical buttons on the machine; different auto-emptying settings to choose from; “pin and go,” which lets you tap on your home map to send the robot to a specific location; and manual direction controls so you can move the machine like a toy car. This isn’t the robot vacuum to get if you want the most polished experience – and you may very well want that if you’re dropping $1,000 on one – but it remains a powerful vac-and-mop machine with a handful of extra perks.

Best budget robot vacuum: Roomba 694

iRobot’s $279 Roomba 694 is a good robot vaccum option for most people thanks to its good cleaning power and easy-to-use mobile app. We won’t get too deep into it here since we have a whole guide to cheap robot vacuums with additional recommendations. But suffice to say, the 694 gives you all the essentials you’d expect from a robot vacuum, along with all of the convenience that comes with iRobot’s mobile app.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-robot-vacuums-130010426.html?src=rss

The best smart light bulbs for 2023

Posted on 13/10/2022 by Valentina Palladino

One of the best places to start when building a smart home ecosystem is smart light bulbs. Not only are they relatively affordable compared to other IoT gadgets, often costing between $10 and $50 a bulb, but they can also completely change the feel of your home. You can go from boring and analogue to colorful and automated within minutes, and there are endless possibilities when it comes to using smart light bulbs to create funky-colored light scenes, setting schedules and more.

But like the rest of the smart home space over the last few years, there are now more players in smart lighting than ever before. We tested out some of the most popular smart lights on the market and found that most of them are quite good, but there are differences in compatibility, color quality and mobile app usability that are worth considering before deciding which smart bulb system will be right for your home.

What to look for in smart light bulbs

Connectivity (To hub or not to hub)

One of the biggest appeals of smart lights is being able to control them from your phone. Most of them are able to do so by connecting to it via WiFi or Bluetooth, or via an external hub, which handles the connection for them. Bluetooth connectivity limits the range in which you’ll be able to control the light, so it’s only best for a limited number of bulbs and ones you don’t expect to control when you’re away.

WiFi smart lights are easy to set up and can be cheaper overall since they don’t require a hub to connect them. However, having something like a central Zigbee hub can make your whole system more reliable since its connection is separate from your home’s WiFi network. For that reason, hub-based bulbs tend to be more expandable, so we mainly recommend those if you want to eventually have dozens of smart lights around your home.

White or color?

Most smart bulbs you’ll find today are “white and color” bulbs, meaning they can glow in vibrant blues, pinks, greens and everything in between, as well as shine with different temperatures of white. But there are some white-only bulbs out there, and they are often a bit more affordable than their color counterparts. While we recommend springing for the white-and-color devices, if you’d prefer white only, make sure you’re getting a bulb that can span the color temperature spectrum (typically from about 2000 to 5000 Kelvin), offering you various levels of warm and cool white light.

App features

One of the perks of smart lights is the amount of control you have over them thanks to their various app-connected capabilities. Most companion apps let you do things like set lighting schedules, group individual lights into room designations and create your own custom light “scenes” with different colors. But we have seen other features that aren’t as ubiquitous like vacation mode for automatically turning lights on and off to enhance your home security, and sync with media, which changes the colors of lights depending on the music you’re listening to or the game you’re currently live-streaming.

Smart home compatibility

If you use a smart assistant like Amazon’s Alexa or the Google Assistant regularly, make sure the smart lights you get work with your favorite. All of the bulbs we tested supported both Amazon’s and Google’s virtual assistants, allowing you to use voice commands to turn lights on and off, dim them and more. The wildcard here is Siri and Apple’s HomeKit; while numerous smart bulbs have added HomeKit to their list of compatible connections, not all lights support Apple’s smart home framework.

Expandability

We alluded to this above, but you’ll want to consider how many smart lights you eventually want in your home. Some brands and systems are easier to expand than others, and we generally recommend going for hub-based bulbs if you plan on putting smart lights in every room in your home. If you’re only looking to deck out your home office or living room with some fancy lights, WiFi options should serve you well. Thankfully, these are some of the most affordable smart home devices you can get, so even if you don’t have a clear answer to this question now, you can reconsider your options down the line if you do decide to outfit your home with multiple smart bulbs.

Best overall: Philips Hue White + Color Ambiance

If you’ve done any research into smart lights, you’ve probably come across Philips Hue bulbs. The range is popular for a variety of reasons, and we agree they’re the best smart light bulbs you can get thanks to their wide compatibility, easy to use mobile app and their expandability. Particularly, if you know you want to outfit more than one room in your home with these IoT devices, Philips Hue is the way to go.

The first thing that’s important to know about Hue bulbs is that they are now Bluetooth enabled. That means you can buy a few to try out first, then easily expand your system with a hub when you want to add more lights to your home. Previously, the hub was required for any and all lights, but now it’s much easier to dip your toe into the range before fully taking the plunge.

Like all of the other smart lights we tested, you only need to screw in a Philips Hue bulb, turn on your light, and follow the instructions in the mobile app to start using it. Even if you only have the lights in one room to start, we still recommend grouping them into their own “room” in the Hue app so you can easily control the entire space’s environment at once.

Hue’s White + Color bulbs provide a range of warm to cool whites and millions of colors to experiment with in your smart home. Colors are rich and vibrant, and Philips’ pre-programmed scenes, such as Energize, Bright and Relax, let you quickly emulate your old “dumb” lights with different warmth levels of white light. You can pick from a number of color scenes in the app, too, but it’s also easy to create your own color temperature. So if you’ve always wanted to flood your office with a rainbow of colors while you’re live-streaming on Twitch, you can find the precise presets you want, save them and then turn them on with just a few taps in the app.

The Hue app is pretty easy to use, and the bulbs support voice commands from Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant. That means you don’t even have to open the app to control your lights; you can simply say “Alexa, turn off the bedroom lights” and only the lights in that designated room will extinguish. You’ll be able to add up to 10 bulbs to your system using Bluetooth alone – at which point you’ll have to add a Philips Hue hub into the mix to support up to 50 lights. The hub also enables things like HomeKit connectivity, light schedules and automations, home and away modes and syncing with movies and music.

Arguably the most useful of those features is automations, which lets you set on/off schedules for your lights, including automatically turning the lights off when you leave the house. It’s understandable why Philips would make these few features exclusive to those with Hue hubs – adding a hub into the mix makes the system more reliable, allowing you to do more with increasing numbers of connected lights, plus it will encourage many to invest in a hub and more Hue bulbs over time. We like Hue’s hub not only for its reliability, but also because it allows finer and more flexible control over your devices. So if you’re on vacation and want to turn on your living room lights to see what’s going on, you can do that.

Expandability goes beyond the number of lights you have in your smart home: It also includes multiple smart bulbs you can install outside, too. The Hue range has a ton of indoor and outdoor bulbs to choose from, including recessed lights, outdoor pedestal and flood lights, light strips and more. It’s one of the few ranges available today that gives you a ton of options to make every bulb in and out of your home smart, which is important to consider if you know you want to go all in on the smart light front.

But that brings us to the biggest downside of Philips Hue, which is the price. Hue bulbs are on the expensive side, with a two-pack of White + Color Ambiance bulbs costing $80. If you’re looking for cheap bulbs to test out smart lighting, some of our other picks below, like the Kasa smart light bulb, will be better choices since most of them have lower prices per bulb. However, if smart lighting is something you want to invest in going forward, we recommend going with one of Philips’ Hue starter kits: the White + Color Ambiance starter kit, including three bulbs, a hub and a smart button, comes in at $180, which is cheaper than if you were to buy all of those components separately.

Runner up: LIFX Color A19

Overall, LIFX’s color smart lights are similar to Hue’s White + Ambiance bulbs in that they’re easy to set up, they offer striking, saturated colors and work with three major platforms: Alexa, Google Assistant and HomeKit. But the main difference is the LIFX bulbs are WiFi only, so you can’t connect them to a hub even if you wanted to, and some are slightly more expensive than Hue devices. The Color A19 bulb, which supports 1100 lumens, normally costs $50, but there’s an 800-lumen equivalent that’s a bit cheaper, coming in at $35 per bulb.

LIFX’s mobile app is also undoubtedly the slickest we tested. While that may not mean much to you, it’s worth mentioning because mobile apps are the way most people interact with their smart lights on a daily basis. The homepage features all of the room groups in your household, along with the names of the lights in each room. You can easily turn a whole room, or a specific light, on with just a tap, and do the same for all of the lights in your smart home.

LIFX lights support scheduling, so you can program lights to work for you so you rarely (if ever) have to control them manually, plus there are a plethora of scenes and effects to choose from. While all of the color lights we tried had pre-made scenes or presets ready to go in the app, Philips Hue and LIFX clearly had the most out of them all. Personally, I found LIFX’s scenes and additional effects to be a bit more fun and engaging than Hue’s. You can pick from scenes like “spooky” or “pastel” and use effects like “strobe” if you want to make your living room feel a bit more like a nightclub. While most people probably won’t use these niche scenes and effects on a regular basis, they’re great perks to have when you’re entertaining or just want to set the right vibe for your next movie night or game-streaming session.

LIFX has a number of products in its ecosystem, from standard A19 bulbs to lightstrips to candles. It has switches, too, so you can physically control your smart lights if you wish. But Philips Hue has all of those options too and more, including not just switches, but standalone floor lamps, outdoor spotlights, downlights, light bars and motion sensors. You’ll have more options with Hue if you want to convert all of your home’s lights to smart ones, and have multiple ways to control them, too.

Best budget: TP-Link Kasa Smart WiFi Light Bulb

TP-Link’s Kasa brand is known for its solid yet affordable smart home devices and its smart lights are no different. We tested out the WiFi-only multicolor smart light bulbs and found them easy to install and use, and they provide a bunch of features at an affordable price; a four-pack of multicolor bulbs will only set you back $40.

Besides having a simple installation process, Kasa’s multicolor smart lights stayed reliably connected the whole time we tested them and the companion mobile app is simple and clean. All of the main functions for each light live in that bulb’s dedicated page in the app, allowing you to change brightness, white levels, color, schedules and more without navigating through a bunch of different menus. Changing colors is nearly instantaneous, and the light changes as you drag your finger across the color wheel in the app. Editing the four presets you’re able to save takes only a few taps, as does grouping multiple bulbs into rooms and creating lighting schedules. For the latter, if you do set on/off schedules, the app will show you the next step in that schedule (i.e., off at 8:35pm) next to each individual light.

There’s also a handy “usage” section in each light’s page that shows you the bulb’s energy use over time, plus an estimate of how much energy you’re saving by using a smart light instead of a regular one. This is something that would be fun to observe over many weeks and months of using these bulbs, especially if conserving energy is one of the main reasons you invested in smart lights in the first place.

TP-Link claims you can connect “unlimited” smart devices to its mobile app, which technically means you can have as many Kasa smart lights in your home as you’d like. We only tested a few together, so we can’t say for sure how dozens of connected devices would affect app speed and light response time. These are WiFi-only bulbs, which means connecting them to a Zigbee hub isn’t an option, so keep that in mind before deciding to invest in a house-full of these gadgets. It’s also worth noting that these lights aren’t compatible with Apple’s HomeKit, although you can control them using Alexa and Google Assistant commands.

Best all white: LIFX White E26

Maybe you don’t want to bother with colored lights. If that’s the case, LIFX’s White E26 is your best bet. You get all of the non-color features in the mobile app that we explained above, including schedules and virtual assistant controls, but in a more basic light bulb that only costs $10.

My biggest gripe is that it doesn’t span the cool-to-warm temperature range that other bulbs do. Rather, you’re stuck with just one shade of white: 2700K, which is on the warmer side. This makes the LIFX bulb better for intimate settings like a bedroom or a living room, but since it’s not overly warm, it could work in a home office, too. It’s also dimmable, so you can control its brightness.

If you have a specific use case in mind for your smart lights that doesn’t involve a rainbow of colors, then a LIFX bulb will more than suffice. They would work well in a child’s room, for instance, allowing you to set wake-up and sleep schedules that gradually turn on and off the lights, or in a home office where you just want a bit more control over your lights without extra frills.

Honorable mention: Sengled Smart Light Bulbs

Sengled’s Smart Light Bulbs deserve a shout because they’re essentially more affordable versions of the best bulbs mentioned here, just with a few compromises. Key among those is that their colors are less nuanced than most others we tested and the mobile app is less polished.

That said, you’re still getting millions of colors out of Sengled’s smart lights and the app is easy to use. It also provides all of the features you’d want from a smart light bulb, including grouping, schedules and automations. The fact that the Sengled mobile app isn’t as slick as Hue’s or LIFX’s may actually work in its favor with newbies – the basic controls and labels will be very easy for smart home novices to understand.

The bulbs we tested were WiFi-based, so they do not require a hub. However, Sengled has a bunch of other smart lights that work via WiFi, Bluetooth or hub connectivity. A pack of four WiFi color bulbs will set you back $30, while a set of six Zigbee hub-based lights costs only $100. Overall, Sengled’s devices are much more affordable than Hue’s, making them a good budget option regardless of whether you want to stick to WiFi or invest in a smart home hub like Sengled’s own or a smart device like Amazon’s Echo with a built-in hub.

Best smart lamp: Philips Hue Signe Table Lamp

Philips’ Signe table lamp is a slick way to add a wash of color into your living room, or a more controllable light source on your desk. The nearly two-foot tall lamp can be customized with up to three colors of light at once, plus it supports a full array of cool and warm hues as well. Shine it towards a wall to set the mood with colored lights during your game night, or use it to give yourself sufficient lighting during your next Zoom meeting – you can make it as fun or as practical as you need. It also supports effects like “candle” and “fireplace,” both of which produce moving light that emulates flickering flames. We also appreciate that the Signe lamp is a totally standalone device, like most of Philips’ new Hue bulbs: you don’t need a Hue bridge to use it. But if you have one, you’ll be able to do things like control the lamp when you’re away from home.

The Signe lamp is a splurge, though, coming in at over $200. It’s certainly worth it if you need just one powerful light source, but a more affordable alternative would be the Philips Hue Go portable table lamp. It too supports millions of colors and a full spectrum of warm and cool light, but it runs on a rechargeable battery and can be used wirelessly. Depending on the setting you choose, you’ll get up to 18 hours of continuous use, making it a good option if you want a controllable light that can go anywhere you need it without fuss.

Best smart light strip: Govee M1 RGBIC LED Strip Light

Light strips can bring illumination to hard-to-reach places, or give a whole new vibe to your living room or office. The latest light strip from Govee, the M1 RGBIC model, gets super bright and supports a wide range of colors. It’s WiFi-connected but requires no central hub, so even if you have other smart lights throughout your home, this one will fit in easily. One strip measures nearly 16.5 feet long and it’s divided into 15 segments that you can control individually from within the Govee app.

We’ll get into the app features, but it’s worth noting where the M1 sits in the smart light strip space. There are various different lengths out there and you can even find some two-packs that will cover up to 100 feet. The 16.4-foot length is pretty common in single packs, although you can find some that run up to 33 feet long. You can expect to pay $25 to $50 for a basic, multi-color, 16.4-foot light strip and the price will go up from there depending on how many segments the strip has, the color range it supports, if it’s WiFi-connected and other additional features. Govee’s M1 Light Strip is on the higher end of the spectrum, coming in at $110 for 16.4 feet of light, but it still costs less than arguably its biggest competitor: Philips’ Hue Light Strips, which come in at $80 per 6-foot strip.

I was impressed by not only the color spectrum the M1 Light Strip supports, but also how bright it is. This strip gets almost blinding, and I usually had it operating at just 75 percent of its full brightness. While you can’t control each individual light on the strip, you can customize all 15 segments in the Govee app.

The sheer number of options and effects Govee provides is remarkable: the “effects lab” gives you pre-made basic colors, scenes that mimic sunrises, starry nights, different kinds of movies like thrillers and dramas, gaming genres and more. On top of that, you can make your own custom scenes (and choose to share them with others in Govee’s Explore page) as well as your favorite colors and hues that you can save for frequent use. The strip’s color is saturated and vibrant – combine that with the overall brightness and it was easily able to give my office an attractive, ambient glow when positioned around the periphery of my couch.

Aside from the higher price tag, my only other complaint about the M1 light strip is actually Govee’s mobile app. It’s a bit chaotic and takes some getting used to, so it might not be the best choice for anyone that wants something basic. However, I was able to get the hang of all the controls, and then some, after about a half hour. And you can always default to using Alexa or Google Assistant voice commands to control your light strip if you prefer, or you can set automations in the app that can take care of all your most used controls.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-smart-led-light-bulbs-143022856.html?src=rss

LG’s MoodUP refrigerator comes with color-changing LED doors and a built-in speaker

Posted on 01/09/2022 by Steve Dent

IFA 2022 (Europe's answer to CES) starts tomorrow, so you know what that means — some wacky new appliances and home products. LG is kicking off the proceedings with the MoodUP refrigerator that has color-changing LED door panels, offering something completely different for your kitchen than the usual white or brushed metal.

Using LG's ThinkQ app or tapping on the door, you can choose from 22 colors for the upper door panel and 19 colors for the lower one. Or, you can let it choose various color themes like 'Season,' 'Place,' 'Mood' and 'Pop,' that represent things like the colors of nature or "a feeling of wellbeing through the use of soft, soothing colors," according to LG's press release.

LG’s MoodUP refrigerator uses LED panels to color shift your kitchen

The panels will blink repeatedly if you leave the door open for too long, or flash a welcome when someone approaches. The freezer door will also glow brighter at night "to help midnight snackers find and open the door." (Never stop, LG.) With the LED panels switched off, it offers a combination of gray and white for a more traditional look.

It also comes with a built-in Bluetooth speaker that connects to mobile devices or PCs. You can get it to play songs from LG's Music Collection playlist that match the color theme, or have the LED panels change colors in sync with the music. The idea is to add "a sense of liveliness and fun" by apparently transforming your kitchen into a discotheque.

Details are scarce on the refrigerator itself, but it looks like LG has both a wide, four-door model and a regular single-door version with two freezer compartments. The top image appears to show both models side by side.

It also offers upgraded voice recognition along with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Several PR photos appear to show the company's "InstaView" camera/display tech as well, though LG didn't mention that in the news release. There's no word on pricing, but LG will be showing off the "Dios Object Collection MoodUP" refrigerators at IFA 2022 in Berlin, starting Friday.

LG’s MoodUP refrigerator comes with color-changing LED doors and a built-in speaker

Posted on 01/09/2022 by Steve Dent

IKEA’s latest AR app can erase your furniture to showcase its own

Posted on 22/06/2022 by Steve Dent

IKEA already lets you preview furniture in your home via AR, but its latest AI-powered iOS app offers a big leap in capability. Called IKEA Kreativ, it can scan your rooms using LiDAR and build a complete 3D replica of them, then let you delete your existing furniture. From there, you can try out new IKEA couches, tables, etc. and get a much better idea of how they'll look in your home.

The scanning is done via something IKEA calls the Kreativ Scene Scanner, which uses LiDAR if it's available on your iPhone. It also works on iPhones or iPads without LiDAR, though having it allows the app to "pull in additional spatial detail," IKEA told Engadget.

IKEA's new AR app can scan your home and erase your current furniture

To use it on the web or a mobile device without LiDAR, you simply have to input a series of photographs of a room. Those are then "automatically processed and assembled into a wide-angle, interactive replica of the space, with accurate dimensions and perspective," IKEA said in a press release. From there, you can erase existing furniture and position new IKEA pieces, quickly try alternatives and fully design the room. All of our ideas can be saved for later or shared with others. Naturally, the app also lets you add preferred pieces to your shopping cart.

If you're looking for further inspiration, IKEA also unveiled 50 new 3D showrooms. Those let you browse the IKEA catalogue virtually and try out products in 3D settings, "quickly swapping, moving, rotating, stacking and hanging IKEA products," the company said.

The app is the latest high-tech move by IKEA, which has launched a raft of connected speakers, smart home hubs, connected lights, charging pads and more over the last few years. On top of that, IKEA joined a new group created by Microsoft, Meta and others to create metaverse standards — so, you might be able to at least find furniture in virtual reality.