412 reviews · Updated weekly
Smart Home Gear Reviews & Gadget Buying Guides
Every review below is scored out of ten from measured results, carries a plain pros and cons summary, and shows the live price. Filter by category, or read how we test further down the page.
Showing 8 of 8 reviews
Pixel Fold 2 Review: The Fold That Finally Folds Flat
Two years of crease complaints answered. Battery life is the compromise, and it is a real one — 8.2 on our drain test against a 9.5 for the cameras.
Pros
- Crease is genuinely gone
- Best-measured folding camera
- 7 years of updates
Cons
- Only 8.2 on battery drain
- Slow 23 W charging
- Costs more than a laptop
Framework Laptop 16 Review: Repairable And Now Genuinely Fast
The highest score we have given a laptop, earned mostly on sustained clocks and a repair story nobody else offers. The hinge still is not good enough.
Pros
- Swappable ports and GPU bay
- No throttle in 2-hour load test
- Parts listed at fair prices
Cons
- Hinge flexes one-handed
- Merely adequate speakers
- Thicker than rivals
Aqara Hub M3 Review: Local Control That Survives An Outage
We cut the WAN for 48 hours and every local automation kept firing. That is rarer than it should be, and it is most of why this scores 8.7.
Pros
- Local Matter and Zigbee routing
- 48-hour outage survived intact
- Quiet on the network
Cons
- Onboarding is fiddly
- No Thread border router
- App translation is rough
Sony WH-1000XM6 Review: Measured −34 dB, Warmer Than You’d Expect
The best noise cancelling we have measured, full stop. Whether you like the new tuning is a taste question, and we say so rather than pretending otherwise.
Pros
- −34 dB cabin-noise reduction
- 32 hours real battery
- Excellent call clarity
Cons
- Bass-forward by default
- Bulkier case than XM5
- No dual-device 3-way
MacBook Air M5 Review: Still The Default, Still 8 GB Too Mean
Eighteen hours of measured real-world battery and silence under load. The base memory configuration remains the one thing keeping this off a 9.5.
Pros
- 18 h measured battery
- Fanless and genuinely silent
- Best trackpad on sale
Cons
- Base RAM is stingy
- Upgrades priced punitively
- Only two ports
Galaxy S26 Ultra Review: Re-scored After The March Firmware
Launch thermals were poor enough that we held the score at 8.4. The March update fixed most of it, so we re-ran the suite and moved it to 8.8.
Pros
- Brightest panel we’ve measured
- Thermals fixed post-update
- Superb 5× telephoto
Cons
- Shipped needing a fix
- Heavy preinstalled software
- Flat battery gains
Anker Prime 27K Review: 87% Efficient, And It Tells You So
Measured 87% end-to-end efficiency, the best in a nine-bank round-up. Heavy enough that it is a desk-bag item, not a pocket one.
Pros
- 87% measured efficiency
- Honest onboard wattage display
- 250 W total output
Cons
- 620 g is a lot
- Charging base sold separately
- Warm at full draw
Nest Cam Wired 2 Review: Good Camera, Awkward Subscription
Excellent on-device detection with almost no false positives across two weeks. Nearly everything useful past three hours of history sits behind a paid tier.
Pros
- 3 false alerts in 14 days
- Sharp night footage
- Local fallback recording
Cons
- History needs a subscription
- No Matter camera support
- Wired power only
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Buying guide · How we test gear
The Five Stages Every Gadget Goes Through
Identical for every device in a category, run in the same order, by the same two people. If you want to sanity-check one of our scores, this is the procedure to argue with.
Buy it at retail
Ordered from a normal shop with our own money, on a normal delivery date. We never accept a pre-briefed review sample, because a unit hand-picked by a manufacturer is not the unit you will receive.
Log the claim sheet
Before switching anything on we record every published specification. That becomes the column our measurements are compared against, which is how gaps between marketing and reality end up visible in the review.
Run the fixed bench suite
28 measurements per device — brightness, colour accuracy, sustained load temperature, throttle onset, real battery drain, charge curve, network latency, acoustic response where relevant. Same instruments, same room, same order.
Live with it for two weeks minimum
Bench numbers cannot tell you that an app logs you out weekly or that a hinge loosens. One tester uses the device as their daily driver for at least fourteen days and keeps a defects log.
Score against price, then re-check
The final number weighs measured performance against the price on publication day. When a price moves more than 15%, or a firmware update lands, the device goes back on the bench and the score is revised in public.
Tech FAQ
Questions Readers Ask Most
How does Gadget Crunchie make money?
Affiliate commission and the newsletter, in that order. When you buy through a “Check Price” link we receive a small percentage from the retailer at no extra cost to you. Commission rates are never a factor in a score or a ranking, and no brand can pay to appear in a roundup. We publish an annual breakdown of revenue by source.
What does a score out of ten actually mean?
It is a weighted average of measured sub-scores — build, performance, battery, software and value — with value carrying the heaviest weight. A 7 is a good product with a real compromise; an 8 is a confident recommendation; a 9 is class-leading. We use the bottom half of the scale, which is why you will see devices here scored 5 and 6.
Why does your score differ from other review sites?
Usually timing and price. Most reviews are written in a pre-launch window on early firmware, and scored against a recommended retail price that lasts about six weeks. We test retail units on shipping firmware and re-score when prices move, so our numbers drift apart from launch-day consensus over time.
Do you accept sponsored reviews or paid placements?
No — not in reviews, roundups, the newsletter or comparison tables. We do accept display advertising, which is sold without any access to editorial and cannot be targeted at a specific review. If you are a brand wanting to send hardware, our pitch page explains what we can and cannot accept.
How current are the prices shown on this site?
We poll nine retailers hourly and the figure on each card reflects the most recent successful check. The 30-day sparkline exists so you can tell a genuine reduction from a list price that was quietly raised the week before a sale. Always confirm the final price at the retailer before you buy.
Can I see the raw measurements behind a review?
Yes. Every review has a “download the log” link at the foot of its spec section that returns the full CSV of that device’s bench run, including the discarded outliers and the ambient conditions on the day. If a figure looks wrong to you, email us and we will re-run it.