Product reviews & rankings

We installed the Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium without a C-wire, tracked its temperature accuracy against a separate thermometer, and measured real energy savings over two months of daily HVAC use.

Six weeks of camping, kayaking, and beach trips show the Bose SoundLink Flex's IP67 rating and PositionIQ orientation sensing are genuinely useful, with honest limits on bass and max volume.

A dual-frequency GPS running watch that trades AMOLED shine for weeks of battery life at a fraction of the price of flagship rivals.

We mounted the Nanit Pro smart baby monitor above a crib for seven weeks to test its night vision, video latency, alert accuracy, and whether the sleep-insight subscription is worth the extra cost.

A tripod-friendly, Android TV laser projector that's genuinely bright in a dark room but hamstrung by no HDMI input and under-three-hour battery life.

Six weeks of daily drift logging on a 135-dollar Seiko 5 automatic: plus 22 seconds a day out of the box, plus 4 after a 60-dollar regulation, and a measured 41-hour power reserve.

Four months with a 34-dollar caged tube feeder: 14 species, zero squirrels through the 45 mm cage, and a seed test where a cheap mix wasted 40 per cent onto the ground.

A 17-dollar digital tyre gauge tested against a pencil gauge, a dial gauge and a forecourt airline over 90 readings: it repeated to ±0.5 psi while the forecourt machine read 4 psi high.

Fourteen months and 900 litres through a 59-dollar static compost bin, measured weekly: it peaked at 46 C, produced first usable compost at seven months, and shrank inputs by 70 per cent.

A 65-dollar No. 4 smoothing plane measured out of the box and after tuning: a 0.15 mm hollow sole and a blunt blade became repeatable 0.04 mm shavings in 95 minutes.

Three months and 84 daily sessions on a 26-dollar 13-rod soroban: it settled at 41 seconds against a calculator's 33 on our benchmark, but made a third as many errors.

Five months and about 60 grinding sessions pitting a 34-dollar granite mortar against an electric blade grinder: it loses badly on dry spices and wins outright on anything wet.