More people are tearing up the traditional two-year cell phone-and-service contract and opting to go with no-contract options instead. It's a trend that started when T-Mobile shook up the industry last year, joining upstart prepaid and no-contract carriers by dropping service agreements from its lineup. AT&T and Verizon now also offer contract-free service plans alongside those that come with a two-year commitment.

But can you really save money with no-contract service? Our new study of 84 plan combinations offered by 12 carriers found that in some cases you can.

Unfortunately, the business of shopping for the best deal has become a lot more complicated. It can be difficult to get the different types of service plans to line up for easy comparisons. That’s because no-contract deals, which usually have lower monthly service charges than traditional plans, can also come with hefty price tags for their phones. Meanwhile, major carriers hide handset costs in the overall monthly fee on their traditional contract plans.

Adding to the confusion, most carriers now let no-contract customers pay for a new phone in installments, while some require that you pay full price up front. (Even though these plans have no contract for the cellular service, you do enter into an agreement for the device in the case of installment plans. If you are paying monthly for the device on an installment plan and cancel your service, you will still owe money for the phone under the equipment contract.) Most carriers also let you take the phone you already own over to their network—if it’s compatible with their system’s technology.

Price isn't everything when shopping for cellular service. Read our cell phone & service buying guide, which Ratings of 21 U.S. and Canadian carriers.

To sort all this out, you need a new cellular shopping strategy, and we developed one to help you find the best values that combine low price with high satisfaction.

We gathered up all that messy pricing data and differing details about the terms of the various plans and levels of service available from major contract, no-contract, and prepaid carriers. To allow you to also make your decision based on overall satisfaction with service, we confined our comparison to the cellular service providers rated on that score by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, based on its survey last year of 58,399 ConsumerReports.org subscribers with cell-phone service in September, 2013.

Finally, we created three model customer households—an individual user who consumed about average levels of 600 voice minutes, 600 text messages, and 2GB of data per month; a family of four devouring a total of 1,800 minutes, 7,600 texts, and 8GB of data each month; and a couple using only 400 minutes, 200 texts, and 1GB of data per month between them.

We assumed the Apple iPhone 5 or 5c was the handset of choice for our example consumers, and we calculated the cost of phone, service, and any start-up costs over two years, so that traditional two-year contract plans could be compared on a level playing field with no-contract and prepaid plans.

Here's what we found. You can save a bundle by taking your own phone to a new carrier with a no-contract plan, instead of choosing a traditional two year contract plan that comes with new phones. On average, the two-year savings on the cost of the phone plus the service were $773 for our example individual user, $2,005 for our family of four, and $1,153 for our low-use couple.

To get those savings, your phone must work with the new network. You’ll need to switch out your phone’s SIM card (a small expense) for a new one. Top-rated carriers that let you bring your own phone include Consumer Cellular, Net10, and Straight Talk; AT&T is noted for reliable 4G service.

Average 2-year cost of service & iPhone(s) 5 or 5c

Most carriers offer the bring-your-own phone option, but all phones don’t work with every network. If that’s the case for your preferred new carrier, you’ll need to consider the cost of buying a new handset using the variety of purchase options available.

To properly compare carrier costs, determine how much voice, text, and data you use each month and then shop around among your preferred carriers for the plan that meets your needs. Then multiply the monthly service charges and applicable smart-phone installment payments by 24 months. Don't forget to add in any up-front phone payments and activation or other start-up fees. Use your chosen carriers’ online shopping carts to precisely calculate the monthly costs of each.

The tables below show the comparative two-year cost of service plus iPhone(s) for our model consumers, taxes not included. Where cells are blank, the carrier either doesn't offer that handset purchase option at all or doesn't offer it for the specific iPhone 5/5c model we constructed. Some carriers, like Verizon and U.S. Cellular, offer a bring your own phone option, but the phone has to be from the same carrier, which doesn't fit our premise of customers seeking better value at a different carrier than the one they're currently with.

Carriers are ranked from top to bottom according to their Consumer Reports overall satisfaction rating, with the best ones at the top. The lowest-priced deals within $100 of each other are shown in bold type. Since the best values, provide a winning combination of high satisfaction and low price, look for the bold-type prices appearing in the top half of each chart.

Note that this comparison snapshot was conducted in late June to early July, 2014 and is intended to illustrate and spotlight the value differences between brands and methods of paying for the phone. Since prices can change suddenly, your actual cost may differ from the two-year costs shown here when you shop; your own particular usage patterns and service needs can also affect your total cost.

—Jeff Blyskal

* Because of buy-more-data pricing incentives in U.S. Cellular's Shared Connect plans, if this family bought more shared data than they need, 10 GB per month instead of 8 GB, they would actually pay less over two years: $5,316 rather than $6,276. That's because the per-line monthly connection charge is only $10 per month when you buy 10 GB or more data per month vs. $20 per month when you buy 8 GB per month.

This report, originally published on June 11, 2014, was updated on July 3, 2014 to include detailed price comparison tables and recalculated overall averages and on July 15, 2014 to include our video report.

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

With the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season under way, now’s a good time to get ready to weather the big wind that home insurers blow to knock down victims’ damage claims. 

In the business of home insurance, push comes to shove the bigger the storm and the larger the claim. So we dug into the last three surveys of 31,861 subscribers by the Consumer Reports National Research Center to find out how well insurers lived up to the expectations of 1,746 claim filers hit by four major storms over the last nine years: Katrina (2005), Ike (2008), Irene (2011), and Sandy (2012).

Surprisingly, the median payout to victims of Hurricane Sandy, as a percentage of the median claim filed, was lower than the percent paid to claimants walloped by the mega-Hurricane Katrina. The median Katrina claim was $15,000, and insurers paid a median $12,000 or 80 percent. The median Sandy claim was $4,500, but insurers paid a median $3,200 or only 71 percent.

That means you need to stand tough and stand up to make sure you get everything you’re entitled to under your policy. Here's how to do it.

• Check your policy now, well before you get glued to the Weather Channel, and make sure you’re sufficiently covered. Ask your current insurance agent about your home’s insured value and the applicable “minimum” coverage required for you to get full protection in a total loss. Review the “perils” listed in your policy, and fill “exclusion” gaps in your coverage with separate insurance for flood, wind, and hurricane. If you already have hurricane insurance, examine the special limits, exclusions, and deductibles that apply to those storms.
• Take pictures of the damage as soon as it's safe and practical after a hurricane pummels your house. Then take steps to prevent further damage, such as covering a hole in the roof with a tarp and moving undamaged furniture and other possessions to a safe place.
• Keep receipts for any money you spend to prevent further losses. But don't repair anything or dispose of ruined property until an insurance adjuster has examined everything.
• Report the loss to your insurance agent as soon as practical. Most big insurers now have smart phone apps that make taking pictures (with the phone's camera) and filing claims a snap. Alternatively, your insurer will send claim forms, which you should return as soon as you can. Ask about the time limit for filing claims, details about what's covered, and how to get repair estimates. If you have an inventory of your possessions, submit it with your claim along with any photos of damage, receipts, police reports, and other evidence that documents the loss.

Get the best protection by choosing the best home insurers. Consumer Reports subscribers can find out who those companies are by checking our latest ratings. 

• Keep notes about any promises that insurance representatives give you, the date and time of each contact, and the name and title of each person you deal with. Make sure the adjuster sees everything. Ask for a copy of his or her report and check for mistakes. You're also entitled to a copy of your entire claims file. Copy everything you give the adjuster and ask for a receipt.
• If the adjuster advises you to start repairs, get that in writing so promises and permissions can be accurately passed on if your case is transferred to another person. If you get payments up front for temporary living expenses, don't sign any documents that make them your last payments or that surrender your right to collect further payments.
• Ask to see the exclusions in writing if your insurer says your policy doesn't cover certain damages or if the damage estimate and claims payment offer are too low. If you've been misled by policy wording, contact a local lawyer who specializes in insurance law. The Consumer Federation of America says that courts have consistently ruled in favor of policyholders on such ambiguities. 
• Tap your contractor's expertise to verify proper repair costs. If you have a dispute over the damage amount, request a sit-down with the contractor and adjuster to go over the estimate line by line. Still disagree? Get a second opinion from an independent contractor. Patience, persistence, and legwork getting multiple estimates are important. 
• Consider getting help from a public adjuster if you reach an impasse with your insurance company's adjuster. You'll pay a hefty fee, typically 10 percent of the policy payout. But one Florida study of more than 76,000 claims found that policyholders who used public adjusters got payments that were 19 percent to 747 percent larger than those who didn't, though the cases took longer to settle. 
• Learn from our subscriber's hard Sandy experience. Justin Rubin, who rode out Hurricane Sandy in his Long Beach, N.Y., home and suffered $80,000 in damages, managed to recover about 70 percent of his losses through pluck, perseverence, and his expertise in home insurance. Get all the details in his success story.

By other measures, our analysis also found some good news that insurers are doing better by homeowners since Katrina.

For example, 27 percent of readers who filed claims related to Sandy, which smacked the Northeast, had problems with their insurer’s claim handling or payment, and 79 percent were satisfied with how their home insurer performed.

That’s vastly better than homeowners’ experience with Katrina, which raked the Gulf coast from Florida to Louisiana, when 50 percent of claimants suffered problems and only 51 percent were highly satisfied with their home insurer’s performance.

Claimants from Hurricane Irene assessed their insurers similarly to those from Sandy. About 35 percent of Hurricane Ike victims suffered problems with their insurers, but 73 percent were highly satisfied with their carrier. 

But note that hurricane severity plays a part in insurer performance and customer satisfaction, too. As devastating as it was, Sandy, for example, was no Katrina, the most destructive hurricane in modern U.S. history. Katrina, a category 3 hurricane, packed winds of up to 130 mph. Sandy, on the other hand, had weakened below hurricane strength when it made landfall in New Jersey.

And despite Sandy’s catastrophic storm surge along the densely populated and expensive New York and New Jersey coasts, that storm’s $50 billion in damages were less than half of Katrina’s $108 billion.

—Jeff Blyskal

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

What makes a great iron? Models that release more steam tend to do the best and fastest job, based on Consumer Reports' tests of dozens of models. And features that make ironing go more smoothly include a light that indicates that the iron has reached the proper temperature; auto-shutoff, a safety feature that powers the iron down when left stationary for a short time; a steam-surge button that releases a burst of steam for tackling stubborn wrinkles; and vertical steam, which lets you remove wrinkles from drapes and hanging garments. Here's how to get the best results from any iron.

Heed hard-water advice. Most irons work fine with tap water. But if your water is very hard, you might want to mix it with distilled water. Mineral deposits are more common with hard water, so you also might need to clean the soleplate and steam holes more frequently. Follow the owners’ manual.

Start cool. Irons heat up faster than they cool down. So start with synthetics and other fabrics that require a cooler iron, then do wools at medium and finish on high with cottons and linens. Allow a minute or so between changes for the iron to heat up.

Prevent dribbles. Leaking can occur when you iron at lower temperatures, so add water after you have pressed delicate fabrics. Remember to empty any leftover water once you’re done ironing. That reduces the chance of drips the next time you iron, and the heat will evaporate the remaining moisture.

Clean the iron, including the soleplate. Even if you don’t have hard water, do that occasionally, especially if you use starch. Some have a self-clean setting.

The best irons from our tests

• Rowenta Steamforce DW9280, $140, our new top-rated steam iron, was excellent overall and provides lots of steam. But at 3.7 pounds, it's heavier than most top picks.
• Panasonic NI-W950A, $130, emits plenty of steam and has a large reservoir so that you can do lots of ironing before you need to refill it, but this iron is also big.
• T-Fal FV4495 Ultraglide, is $45 and a CR Best Buy. It was excellent overall and provides lots of steam. And it's lighter than most.

—Kimberly Janeway

This article also appeared in the August 2014 issue of Consumer Reports magazine.

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

The federal government’s recent lawsuit against Amazon, in which it’s trying to recover mobile app charges that were made by children without their parents’ consent, may have you wondering how responsible you are for products and services your child buys without your authorization.

The answer depends on the circumstances, and even then it’s not always clear.

In the Amazon case, the Federal Trade Commission says the company collected millions of dollars in charges incurred by children who had purchased virtual items such as “coins,” “stars,” and “acorns” for gaming apps without their parents’ permission. The apps were installed on the Kindle Fire and other Android mobile devices.

Under state laws, parents of nonemancipated minors can void purchases and other contracts their children have made without adult permission, especially those involving face-to-face transactions, where sellers are in a position to know or suspect they’re dealing with an underage consumer, says Therese Franzén, a lawyer based in Atlanta. That means if your 13-year-old clears out his or her piggy bank and shuffles off to the local electronics store to buy a new cell phone, there’s a good chance the purchase is voidable, even if the store has a no-return policy.

But there are exceptions, including for necessities, such as food, clothing, and lodging. Also, parents' liability is unclear for online purchases, especially if a website asks the buyer to verify that he or she is at least 18 years old.

In the Amazon case, there’s another issue. When the apps were installed on the children’s devices, someone, presumably an adult, was required to enter a credit or gift card number. In that case, the Amazon’s contract probably is not with the child but with the adult who linked the account to the method of payment.

“If you are talking about a game for 8-year-olds, and the parents give their credit card number, they’re sort of asking for trouble,” Ted Claypoole, a North Carolina attorney who specializes in e-commerce issues, said.

But there’s yet another factor to consider that may work in the parents’ favor. If a company acted unconscionably or engaged in unfair practices, as asserted in the Amazon case, parents may not be responsible for the charges.

The Amazon case

The FTC says that Amazon enticed the children to buy app-related items, making it all too easy for them to do so without their parents’ consent. That was the same argument the agency made in its complaint against Apple, also in connection with app-related sales to children. Apple settled the complaint by agreeing to make at least $32.5 million in consumer refunds and change its billing practices.

When Amazon started its program in September 2011, the FTC says, it didn’t require visitors to enter a password to buy the virtual items, which allowed children to make virtually unlimited purchases without their parents’ consent. Some parents reported being billed for hundreds of dollars. (The most expensive purchase available at any one time was $99.99.) The FTC says there were thousands of consumer complaints, so many that an Amazon employee wrote an e-mail describing the situation as a “near house on fire,” the complaint says.

The FTC cites yet another internal document written in connection with Amazon's later decision to initiate a password requirement for app-related purchases of more than $20. “It’s much easier to get upset about Amazon letting your child purchase a $99 product without any password protection than a $20 product,” an Amazon Appstore manager wrote, according to the complaint.

Amazon later updated its process yet again—requiring passwords for some app-related purchases no matter how small. But not everyone was prompted to enter a password, and even if they were, the FTC said, putting in a password opened at 15-minute to one-hour window, during which unlimited purchases could be made.

The FTC says Amazon blurred the line between which virtual items required virtual currency and which required the real thing. The FTC cited one case in which a child who racked up charges still did not know how to read.

Find out how to get a refund from the Google Play store. And how to control your kid's in-app purchases on Apple devices.

What to do

Given the complexity of the issue, it’s best to avoid the problem from the start.

Talk to your children about what purchases they’re allowed and not allowed to make, especially online. Don’t keep credit, debit, and gift cards where children can get them. The same goes for passwords. Remember that if you link a credit or debit card to an online retail account, you could be asking for trouble if your child clicks on a bookmark that goes to the site and then charges up a storm.

If a mobile device has parental controls, adjust them to limit or stop unwanted purchases. Check with the device instructions or contact the manufacturer.

When downloading apps or allowing your child to sign up for any online service, read the terms and conditions, especially if you’re being asked to provide a credit- or debit-card number or link the service to your bank account. There’s a good chance you’ll find language holding you responsible for securing access to the site and liable for any charges made by third parties.

“Learn where and how money is charged to your account in any game program you link your credit card to,” Claypoole said.

If this happens to you

If you end up with a bill for a purchase your child made without your permission, don’t simply throw up your hands and pay it, even if it appears as though you’re responsible. Start by appealing to the company.

“You or your lawyer need to call the company you supposedly owe the money to and talk your way out of it,” Claypoole said. He said companies often forgive such transgressions one time, if only to avoid accusations that their business model is intended to prey on children.

If the dispute involves app-related purchases, you might try contacting the developer and ask for a refund; but there is no guarantee you'll get a response. The developer’s information may be available on the app store’s website.

If you think the company engaged in unconscionable or unfair practices, perhaps by encouraging and enabling the unauthorized purchase, file a complaint with your state attorney general or consumer protection agency, the FTC, and the Better Business Bureau.

If the charge is on your credit card, another option may be to seek a chargeback from your card issuer. But keep in mind that if the issuer grants your request, the company that billed you still can send your account for collection or even sue. So use a chargeback as a last resort, and be sure you’re legally in the right.

—Anthony Giorgianni

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

Even if you have the best washer and dryer, there are no guarantees that your laundry will come out perfect every time. Your fabrics may pill, colors may bleed, and after awhile the washer may start to smell. So we asked the laundry experts at Consumer Reports how to get the most from your efforts load-after-load. Here's what they said.

Problem: Soap residue
Solution: Measure the recommended amount of a top-rated high-efficiency detergent for a medium or regular load. It won’t be as sudsy as regular detergent and improves the performance of HE top-loaders and front-loaders. And be sure to use the detergent dispenser because it mixes water with dissolved detergent at the start of the cycle, improving wash and rinse performance. If you’re a fan of detergent pods, put the pod at the bottom of the washtub, then add laundry. Residue streaks can also occur when fabric softener is added during the wash cycle. If all else fails, select the extra rinse option. When adding bleach, follow the instructions.

Problem: Fabrics that pill
Solution: Pilling can happen when items with short, weak, fuzzy fibers rub against ones with long, strong fibers. To minimize the risk, don’t wash short-fiber towels, fleece, corduroy, sweatshirts, and cheap T-shirts with long-fiber items, such as sheets and most synthetics.

Problem: Colors that bleed
Solution: Larger capacities and longer wash times make it tempting to throw everything in the same load. But don’t. Wash darks apart from lights, and items that can be washed in hot water, usually cottons and whites, separate from those for cooler temperatures, such as synthetics. Lightly soiled items should be in one load, heavily soiled in another.

Problem: Mold or mildew in the washer
Solution: Moisture and debris can get trapped in a front-loader’s door seal, causing mold and odor. After doing your laundry, wipe the door gasket and glass dry, and clean dispensers monthly. If you don’t have young children, keep the washer door ajar when the washer isn’t in use to let air circulate. Some models have a cycle that washes the inside of the machine. If yours doesn’t, run an empty load with a hot-water wash or with some chlorine bleach.

The best laundry detergents from our tests

• Best liquid: Tide Ultra Stain Release
• Best powder: Tide HE Plus Bleach Alternative
• Best packs: All Mighty Pacs Oxi

—Kimberly Janeway

Check out the matching washers and dryers that cleaned up in Consumer Reports tests. The pricier pairs tend to be quieter but you can get good performance for less if noise isn't an issue.

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

Being a student can be expensive, but it can also get you deals on computers and other electronics. Some discount programs are just for college students; others include K-12 students too.

These programs are not always easy to find or well explained online. If you aren’t sure what’s being offered, call or chat online with the company’s customer service reps to get details. Some offer blanket percent discounts; others are special limited-time deals. Some limit the amount of products you can buy. And almost all require that you verify your student status, often by entering a valid college (.edu) e-mail address.

Keep in mind that your school may have specific requirements for the type of computer you need to buy. A college student’s major is often a consideration: Windows is the platform of choice for many business students, and some engineering programs are available only on Windows. Arts and sciences students should be safe with either Windows or Mac. And be sure to check your school’s website to see what it recommends.

—Carol Mangis

Amazon Student

For college students. Amazon offers students a free six-month trial of Amazon Student to those with a valid .edu e-mail address (or you can provide proof of your student status). It includes free two-day shipping, deals and promotions exclusively for students, and a $10 credit when you refer a friend. After six months, you get a discount on Amazon Prime ($49 instead of $99 a year), which adds unlimited video streaming and the ability to borrow books on a Kindle.

Apple Store for Education

For college students and their parents. Buy a Mac for school and get a $100 App Store Gift Card, plus additional education discounts up to $200. Buy an iPad for school, and get a $50 App Store gift card. And for a limited time, you can apply (along with a co-applicant with good credit) to pay no interest and make no payments for 90 days on your school supplies, via RBS Citizens bank.

BestBuy.com College Student Deals

For college students. Best Buy has discounts on computers and lots of other accessories; currently, you can get $100 off MacBooks, and $120 off certain all-in-one computers. Lots of deals include free shipping. Sign up with your .edu student e-mail address, and the store then sends coupon codes that you enter online at checkout. Right now, when you sign up for College Student Deals, you could win cash and product prizes, up to $100,000.

Find the best laptop or desktop for your needs and budget with our computer buying guide and Ratings.

Dell University

For college students. The normal student discount is 2 percent off the regular price of a computer. Currently, Dell University is offering a free tablet with the purchase of a PC for $700 or more, or certain TVs and monitors.

HP Academy

For K-12 and college students and their parents. Students save up to 20 percent on HP products and get free shipping. HP offers an online tool called PC MatchLab to help you choose the best computer for your needs.

Lenovo Academic Purchase Program

For K-12 and college students and their parents. Lenovo asks you to select a school and then agree that you meet its student criteria; but we were able to click through to the deals page without selecting a school. It offers discounts on a variety of computers and electronics devices. Through July, you can get up to 25 percent off on select laptops and desktops.

Microsoft Store for Education

For K-12 and college students and their parents. Discounts start at 10 percent for all Windows PCs and accessories. RIght now, you can save $80 on a Surface Pro 3 tablet.

Sony Education Store

For college students and their parents. You can save up to 10 percent on computers and accessories, and Sony offers special student deals as well. You’re required to log in to verify schools and agree to terms and conditions. You can also bring your student ID to a Sony Store to get discounts.

For more news and articles about electronics, subscribe to our electronics feed.

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

The premise of the new Cameron Diaz-Jason Segel film "Sex Tape" (opening July 18) is simple enough: A couple wants to amp up their romance, so they decide to shoot video of their bedroom antics on an iPad. Unbeknown to them, their racy video is synced to the cloud and shared with their family, friends, and even mailman via the iPads the couple had given as Christmas gifts. When Diaz and Segel realize what's happened, they begin a frantic quest to recover all the iPads.

What seems to be so hard for Diaz’s and Segel's characters to understand is actually quite simple: The cloud, as portrayed by Apple’s iCloud service in the trailer for "Sex Tape," is simply a way to store files online and share them with others. (There are more highly advanced applications of the cloud, such as managing vast databases and sequencing genomes, but these are generally used by companies and research institutions—not your everyday sex-tape makers.)

Check out which cloud storage service is right for you.  

Now that we've cleared up that cloud confusion, what are the chances of something similar happening to you?

Slim to none.

If you buy an iPad for another person, that doesn't mean all your pictures, videos, and other personal content sync automatically to that iPad. The recipient of your gift would need to sign in with your Apple ID and have iCloud’s My Photo Stream feature turned on for her to see your personal content.

Another way to share your photos and videos would be through a shared photo stream, but you'd have to intentionally invite people to view your stream, and manually choose which photos and videos you would like to share.

In a nutshell, you pretty much have to want your content to be shared before it would happen.

Want to know more? Check our article on different types of cloud storage.

—Karim Lahlou

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

A programmable thermostat can help make your home more comfortable and energy efficient by automatically adjusting its temperature, say raising the air conditioning while you’re sleeping and turning it off after you leave for work. But those benefits are only possible if the thermostat is simple to set up. That’s why ease-of-use is a key criteria in Consumer Reports' tests of programmable thermostats. Several models made our latest recommended list, including a new product from Honeywell that’s both user-friendly and innovative. Other programmable thermostats left our testers scratching their heads. Here are the details.                          

Ever since the arrival of the Nest learning thermostat in 2011, manufacturers have been competing to create the smartest programmable thermostat. Our latest roundup includes voice-activated models and those with “geofencing,” or the ability to track your location and adjust temperatures accordingly, say cranking up the AC shortly before you get home. These features are pretty cool, but only as add-ons to a device that’s also very easy to operate.

That’s why we really like the Honeywell RTH959OWF, $300, one of 14 models in our thermostat Ratings that can be controlled remotely via your smart phone or computer. Its touchscreen color display offers crisp contrast and its prompts are intuitive. We also had no trouble connecting to our Wi-Fi router or downloading the easy-to-use app. And it’s the industry’s first voice-activated programmable thermostat, which we found logical and responsive. Among connected models, the American Standard AccuLink AZone950, $450, also impressed our testers with its expansive touchscreen display and equally intuitive controls. 

If you don’t care about controlling your home’s temperature from your smart phone, you can save a lot by choosing a model without remote access. Honeywell is the clear winner in this category. The Honeywell Prestige HD YTHX9321R, $250, offers an exceptionally sharp display and its ease-of-use score was the highest of all tested models. Its tabletop remote lets you control thermostats in other parts of the home. Less expensive models from Lux ($70) and Robert Shaw ($125) also made our winner’s list of thermostats without remote access. For more details, including models that earned middling marks for usability, see our complete programmable thermostat Ratings.

—Daniel DiClerico (@dandiclerico on Twitter)

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

Unless you're very absentminded, you might not feel the need to turn your slow cooker or coffeemaker on or off from your smart phone. But that's the way small appliances are going with the owner of such brands as Mr. Coffee, Crock-Pot, Sunbeam, and Oster, among more than 100 others, allying with the maker of the WeMo smart home platform. Starting with the Crock-Pot Smart Slow Cooker this summer, Jarden Consumer Solutions, will begin rolling out connected coffeemakers, slow cookers, air purifiers, humidifiers, and space heaters.

The first products of the WeMo line were debuted by Belkin at the Consumer Electronics Show two years ago, and so far Consumer Reports has tested the Belkin WeMo light switch, with plans to test more connected products as they become available. Here’s the lineup:

Crock-Pot Smart Slow Cooker, $130
Stuck at the office? This WeMo-enabled appliance lets you check status, get reminders, or change cooking settings such as extending cooking time or switching to warm. Announced at this year’s CES, the slow cooker should be available by August and can be pre-ordered on Amazon now. (The other products should ship this fall.)

Mr. Coffee Smart Optimal Brew Coffeemaker, $150
This drip coffeemaker with 10-cup thermal carafe uses WeMo to automate the traditional programming many coffeemakers offer. Should you decide to sleep an hour later on the weekend, you can set up grounds and water the night before and, upon rising, tell the machine to brew the coffee then. You can also set up 7-day programming a week ahead. The WeMo app can remind you to set up the machine.

Holmes True HEPA Smart Air Purifier, $200
Consumer Reports doesn’t recommend you buy an air purifier before taking some free or low-cost steps to improve your home’s air. But if you do feel you need one, this one can notify you when air quality is poor—so you can turn the unit on remotely—and it can tell you when it’s time to replace the filters. One thing we don’t yet know is whether the replacement feature works by a timer or by sensing an obstruction of airflow. If it’s timer-based and you don’t use the unit much, you might want to inspect the purifier yourself before ordering a new filter.

Holmes Smart Whole House Console Humidifier, $200
Even without the remote control, this is one big unit, claiming to cover 2,500 square feet over its 60-hour runtime. The WeMo app lets you set it remotely and will notify you when its filter needs replacement, even making the order for you if you like.

Holmes Smart Console Heaters, $150 and $200
You shouldn’t turn on a space heater from anywhere but the heater’s immediate vicinity, but if you’ve accidentally left it on, you can turn it off from elsewhere. In your home, your phone can act as the heater’s remote, letting you change settings or the timer. The large unit is 1,000 watts; the extra-large, which has wheels, is 1,500 watts.

The WeMo app, which controls any WeMo-enabled product, comes free with any of the above products, and Jarden representatives we spoke with say that if anything on one of the products need updating, the app itself will download the features or fixes. They, like other manufacturers in this arena, say they are learning from Nest’s recent mistakes in which a touted motion detection feature proved to be too sensitive to motion.

The time might come when you won’t be able to buy a product that isn’t “smart,” but that may be years away. And not all of us believe everything in the home needs to be connected. What's wrong with using the on-off switch? If you want a small appliance that's capable but maybe not-so-smart, see our Ratings of coffeemakers, air purifiers, humidifiers, and space heaters.

—Ed Perratore (@EdPerratore on Twitter)

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

Ways to save with student discounts
With the start of school just around the corner, you may be fretting about how much you'll have to spend on clothing, electronics, and other back-to-school must-haves. Luckily, if you or your child is a college student, many stores and services offer discounts that make purchases more affordable. Some even extend the invitation to high school or even kindergarten through 12th grade students.

How to go to college free
Starbucks made headlines recently with its plan to help finance four-year college degrees for employees. A deal between the coffee giant and Arizona State University covers the cost of tuition—full or partial, depending on credits completed—for employees enrolled in the school's online degree program.

But you don't have to be a macchiato-making maven to get a free college education. Consumer Reports has identified many ways to go to college free, no matter your household income.

How to minimize student debt
With each passing year, college costs are increasing. By one estimate, they will continue to rise at a rate of 5 percent annually for at least the next 15 years. Debt may be unavoidable, but there are several steps you can take to minimize the amount of money you will owe when you graduate.
 
As a rising junior at a state university, here’s what I’ve learned.

Student loan rates set to rise
Certain types of federal student loans will cost borrowers more beginning next month, as their interest rates adjust to reflect the higher borrowing costs of the federal government.

How to handle a college student’s money needs
Your child is heading to college this fall. After you’ve figured out the big spending issues—tuition, room, meal plan, and fees—you need to consider how your scholar will handle spending on everyday expenses, such as toiletries, supplies, laundry, travel, activities, and entertainment. Here are some smart ways to handle transferring funds and teach your child how to manage money.

How to insure your college student's stuff
College students take a lot valuable stuff with them to school: computers, printers, TVs, bicycles, cell phones, digital music players, and more. So it's important to protect your kid's possessions against loss. Several insurance options exist, and the one you choose depends on where your son or daughter goes to school and the type of coverage you want.

Best everyday products for college students
When children are in elementary school, teachers typically send home a list of school supplies that parents should buy. When they go off to college, students need some of the same everyday items but this time you have to come up with the list. Keep in mind that students will be moving into unfurnished spaces and will want familiar things such as paper towels, tissues, batteries and laundry detergent within easy reach. The experts at Consumer Reports scoured our labs and found some extraordinary everyday products.

5 best laptops and tablets for back to school
Students need a lot more than pencils and notebooks in today’s classrooms: The way they learn has changed radically since computers and the Internet arrived. As an educator and tech advocate, Vicki Davis, told us, “Tablets and laptops are the new paper, the new textbook, and the new podium from which teachers share with their classes.”

Best electronics gear for college students
For college students, one harsh reality of dorm or small-apartment living is that space can often be severely limited. Their budgets are also unlikely to be too grand, which means that no matter how much an undergrad wants high-end name-brand electronics, that gear might not be worth enduring an endless diet of cheap supermarket ramen noodles. Check our suggestions for the space-starved, budget-minded student who doesn't want to compromise on quality electronics equipment.

Best small appliances for college students
Colleges are pretty consistent about what you should bring to campus—linens, laptops, and a yearn to learn—but they vary on what’s allowed in the dorms. Some prohibit any high-heat appliance such as toasters, coffeemakers, and popcorn makers; other campuses permit them.

Colleges usually allow dorm residents to buy or rent a refrigerator, but students who like to make their own Pop-Tarts and coffee should check the college website. Of course, the rules are different for students who live off campus. Here are some of Consumer Reports’ top-rated small appliances for small spaces.

Laundry tips for college students help them take a load off
With all the studying and, ahem, extracurriculars that are part of campus life, doing laundry is the last thing college students want to do. Still, unless you're going to pay to get it done or wait until an upcoming break to wash your clothes at home (who has that many pairs of underwear?), it's a necessity. But if you don't do it right, all kinds of problem can ensue.

5 best used cars for teen drivers
School's out for summer, and teens have places to go. Whether heading to a friend’s house, commuting to work, or preparing for school in the fall, many young drivers need (or at least want) their own car. While there can be the temptation to buy whatever cheap model is being advertised in your neighborhood, or to provide a hand-me-down car, choosing the best used cars for teens warrants a bit more strategy.

Tips for safe carpooling
As summer winds down, kids will soon return to school, complete with hectic schedules and extra-curricular activities. For many families, dealing with the logistics of an active child means sharing transportation duties in a carpool. But not every parent adheres to safe practices when it comes to strapping young children into safety or booster seats and that can put your child in danger. Likewise, many are content to buckle a child in an adult three-point belt before they are large enough.

Smart car-packing tips for heading back to school
After endless trips to stores to stock up on back-to-school supplies and dorm essentials, you’re ready to send your child off to college. Of course, it never looks like a lot of stuff until you try to fit it in a car. College necessities don’t just include clothes and toiletries, but bigger items such as computers, electronics, furniture, and small appliances. The challenge is to pack your car safely in a way that doesn’t interfere with visibility and secures all items so they don’t become dangerous projectiles. Use our tips on how to pack up your car for a back-to-school road trip.

Best new cars for teens
If you are looking to buy a new car for your teen driver, there are some good options that are safe and reliable, and won’t break the bank. Plus if you buy one this summer, you can take advantage of model-year-end deals on 2012 vehicles before the 2013s arrive in showrooms.

Our list also highlights models that perform well in our testing and government and insurance-industry safety tests, plus have average or better predicted reliability, based on our subscriber surveys. (Consumer Reports maintains reliability Ratings on our website going back 10 model years.) Making selection easier, all 2012 cars offer standard electronic stability control, a proven lifesaver that is especially beneficial to less-experienced drivers.

How to choose the best GPS navigator for back to school
As families prepare to send their students off to college, most have a mile-long shopping list filled with essentials for independent living. One great gift that may not be on the radar is a GPS navigator to help the student get around campus area and back home safely.

Does your child use a booster seat when carpooling?
Most parents routinely strap their young school-aged kids into boosters, even for a 1-mile trip to the supermarket. But when it comes to carpooling, parents are a lot less consistent in their use of booster seats, according to a study published online in January 2012 by the journal Pediatrics.

School bus safety tips for motorists
Riding the bus to school is a safer mode of transportation for children than driving or walking, but the real risk for injury is from motorists who don’t follow the proper laws and procedures when driving near a bus. Here are some rules to make sharing the road with buses safe for everyone.

6 back-to-college health tips
Staying healthy at college is no easy task between busy schedules, limited budgets, and lots of germs. Here are six ways to maintain your well-being when you head back to college.

Healthy food choices for students on the go
Raiding the refrigerator is a cinch when you want a late-night snack at home. But when you’re living in a dorm without a full kitchen, it can be slim pickings. Fortunately, there are plenty of good, healthy choices that take little or no preparation and can be easily stored in a dorm room or compact refrigerator. Here are some breakfast foods, snacks, and frozen entrees that received high marks from the food testers at Consumer Reports.

How to get rid of lice
For parents, back to school means packing lunches, getting kids out the door in the morning, and countless other tasks big and small. For students, the return to the classroom brings the joy of seeing friends as well as the burdens of homework, class projects, tests, and more.

And for parents and kids alike, back to school can also include one major nuisance in a tiny, sesame-seed-size package: head lice, which are wingless insects usually transmitted by head-to-head contact. If you notice your child scratching his or her scalp a lot, especially behind the ears or at the back of the neck, check for head lice.

There’s a chance that the itching could be caused by eczema, dandruff, or an allergy. But if it is a case of lice, it will not clear up on its own, so treat it right away.

Make healthy school lunches your kids will love
You won’t necessarily save money by packing lunch for your kids—school cafeteria fare is pretty cheap. And the lunchroom offers choices that can be just as nutritious as anything you pack. Ah, but will your child choose the salad bar and an apple? Or is he more likely to grab the chicken nuggets with a side of fries? Making lunches at home can help you keep control of your kids' school-day meals and also ensures that picky eaters will have something they like to eat.

Sure, the do-it-yourself approach takes time. But we have good news: By following the guidelines below, you’ll not only shave precious minutes off of your lunch-making routine, you’ll also get new ideas for healthy, palate-pleasing meals—plus expert tips on food safety and cool gear to transport lunch to school in style.

6 tips for keeping off the pounds during college
According to a recent study in the journal Social Science Quarterly, most first-year college students don't gain the "freshman 15." But they do pack on some weight, typically about three pounds. Those numbers, like student-loan debt, grow over the four years of college: Men add on about 13 pounds; women, about 9 pounds. Here you'll find easy solutions to common dietary problems faced by college students.

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

Washers and dryers are getting bigger and better and some are more expensive. Once you've made the investment, you'll want to make sure your machines perform at their best for years. Here's some tips from the experts at Consumer Reports on how to extend the life of your washer and dryer.

Make your washer last

• Make sure that it’s level, which helps to prevent vibration.
• Remove grit from the screens where hoses attach to the water supply to improve water flow into the machine.
• Use the right type of detergent and the proper amount. A surplus of suds makes the washer work harder. It can also trigger extra rinse cycles, extending wash time.
• Wash larger loads rather than more frequent smaller ones to save wear and tear on the machine.
• Don’t overfill the washer; check the manufacturer’s recommended capacity. Regularly overstuffing it could shorten its life.

Make your dryer last

• Remove lint from the filter after each use to keep air flowing freely.
• Check the exhaust duct periodically. As it fills with lint, the dryer may take longer to dry clothes, and that uses more energy.
• Clean the exhaust duct yearly to prevent clogging and fires.
• Replace plastic or foil dryer ducts. They can sag and let lint build up at low points. Metal ducts, either flexible or solid ones, are far safer because they don’t sag.

Select matching washers and dryers from our tests

• Kenmore Elite 41073 front-loader and Kenmore Elite 81073 electric dryer ($1,200 each)
  
• LG WM8500HVA front-loader and LG DLEX8500V electric dryer ($1,600 each)
• Maytag Maxima XL MHW7000AW front-loader and Maytag Maxima XL MED7000AW electric dryer ($1,150 each)
• Samsung WF457ARGS[GR] front-loader and Samsung DV457EVGS[GR] electric dryer  ($1,550 each)
• Whirlpool Duet WFL98HEBU front-loader and Whirlpool Duet WEL98HEBU electric dryer ($1,500 each)

For more prices in every price range, read our full report "The best matching washers and dryers from Consumer Reports' tests."

—Kimberly Janeway

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

Are mainstream consumers ready for smart watches? This early in their evolution, these devices still might appeal more to the early adopter than to the average person. According to a Parks Associates survey released in June of this year, just 4 percent of U.S. broadband households say they are very likely to purchase a smart watch in the next 12 months. But as smart watches become more streamlined and sophisticated, offer more functionality, and drop in price, their appeal may become a lot more widespread.

What sets a smart watch apart from a conventional digital watch, or, for that matter, a wearable activity tracker? Smart watches are wearable-technology devices that maintain a relatively persistent wireless connection to your mobile device—usually a smart phone—and can receive notifications of incoming calls, texts, instant messages, social-network updates, and more, from your mobile device.

Smart watches can also run a wide variety of apps via your smart phone or on the watch. There are health and fitness apps, apps that control functions such as music and the camera on your phone, navigation apps, and more. Because most smart watches have open software platforms (at least so far), developers are coming up with new and innovative apps that can increase the functionality of the devices.

A barrage of new smart watches from small startup companies, including Pebble and MegaWatch, hit the market in 2013, and big companies have arrived as well: Sony, Samsung, LG, and Qualcomm all offer smart watches. Rumor has it that Apple will be joining the crowd later this year. And Google recently launched a new operating system, called Android Wear, that’s designed specifically for wearable-technology devices. LG, Samsung, and Motorola, among others, are making smart watches that run on this new OS.  

In our first impressions of the LG G Watch, Android Wear seems like a winner—it features Google Now, the company's Siri-like "intelligent personal assistant," which works very well on this type of device. And Android Wear will make developing smart-watch apps an easier, uniform process. Our next batch of tested watches will include Android Wear models.

For this current batch, we tested five currently available smart watches: the Pebble Steel, Martian Passport, and Samsung Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, and Gear Fit. (Our first group of tested smart watches are also included here.)

Manufacturer claims

All of the smart watches we tested pair via Bluetooth with a smart device to receive notifications of incoming calls, e-mail, texts, and other information. Some of the smart watches we tested in the previous batch have NFC (near-field communication) built in. It ostensibly makes Bluetooth pairing simpler, but none in this batch have the NFC feature.

Each of the tested watches is Android-compatible; the Pebble and the Martian models also work with Apple iOS devices.

Only the Pebble Steel claims to have a display that is “daylight readable.”

All but the Martian Passport claim some degree of water resistance. The Samsung models claim to be resistant in up to 1 meter of water depth for 30 minutes, and the Pebble Steel claims up to 5ATM (ATM stands for atmospheres and indicates the degree of water resistance, in terms of pressure) with the metal band—the Pebble comes with metal and leather bands. The Steel and the Passport claim to have scratch-resistant screens.

Each of the Samsung watches’ displays go dark when they’re inactive, but you can reactivate them by pressing a button on the watch or by raising your arm to look at the watch. For this latter gesture to work, though, you must enable it via the Wake-Up Gesture setting in the watch’s mobile-device app. And it doesn't work when you're leaning back or lying down. The Pebble Steel’s display doesn’t time out, so it’s always visible. And the Martian Passport has a traditional analog watch face—so of course, it’s always on.

How we tested

Price: $300
Claimed battery life: More than 2 hours of talk, 7 days of standby
Weight: 2.4 ounces
Claimed water resistance: None claimed
Works with: Any phone with Bluetooth and an HPF (hands-free profile); additional features with Android and iOS devices

The Martian Passport wants to give you the best of both watch worlds, by offering a mechanical, analog watch face and a small LCD. If you prefer a traditional-looking watch and want the “smart” component to be unobtrusive, this model may work for you. It comes in three varieties, all with silver bezels: a white face with a black or white band or a black face with a black band.

The Passport is versatile in that it works with Android and iOS mobile devices. And it features the ability to make phone calls with its built-in microphone and speaker. You can use voice commands (the Passport leverages your phone's voice recognition system; such as Apple's Siri for iOS devices or Google Now for Android) to control the mobile device from the watch. And because of the analog watch face, you can easily see the time in bright sunlight.

Features that aren't so versatile: The Passport’s monochrome OLED display is very small, and it's not a touch screen. You use buttons to navigate, so it's not as intuitive to use as the watches with touch-screen displays. And in bright sunlight, we judged the OLED display to have the worst readability in this tested batch.

Price: $230 with one band, $250 with two bands (see below)
Claimed battery life: 5 to 7 days
Weight: 1.9 ounces
Claimed water resistance: 5ATM
Works with: Devices running Android 2.3.3 and up; iOS 4 and up; iPhone 4, 4s and 5; and iPod Touch, 3rd and 4th generation

The Pebble Steel is a stylish new version of the Pebble Watch, which we reviewed previously. But as its name states, the Steel is made of stainless steel and comes in either a steel or black finish. It ships from GetPebble.com with a leather and a metal watchband ($250) and also sells at Best Buy with just a metal band ($230).

On the inside, though, it’s the same as the original Pebble—except for the Steel’s water resistance. The device passed our water-resistance tests.

Our testers judged the Steel’s display readability in bright sunlight to be the best in this batch. But like the original Pebble, it’s a basic device, with a small monochrome non-touch-screen interface that you navigate using buttons. This may be enough functionality for many people—it's a personal choice.

Price: $300
Claimed battery life: Up to 6 days, typically 2 to 3 days
Weight: 2.4 ounces
Claimed water resistance: 1 meter, no longer than 30 minutes
Works with: Most Samsung devices running Android 4.3 or higher

Samsung’s three second-generation smart watches arrived with real improvements and refinements. At $300, the Gear 2 is the most sophisticated—and expensive—of the trio. The Gear 2 Neo is basically a less expensive version of the Gear 2: It has similar functionality, but it's housed in a plastic body instead of metal and has no built-in camera. And the slimmer Gear Fit is a hybrid smart watch and activity tracker.

Like the other Gears, the Gear 2 works only with some Samsung devices. The company has been increasing the number of compatible devices, but check before you buy. Also, these three Gear watches run on the Tizen OS, not on Android. Apps come from the Samsung app market.

The Gear 2 has a metal body and comes a variety of color combos, including all black, a rose-gold-color body with a brown strap, or an orange body and strap, You can change out the strap with any aftermarket strap.

Like the other two new Gear watches, the Gear 2 has an intuitive and vivid color touch-screen interface. It also has an abundance of features: You can make phone calls with its built-in microphone and speaker, and use voice commands to the watch to control your paired mobile device.

The Gear 2 also includes a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and a heart-rate sensor. It also can control a TV or set-top box remotely using a built-in IR blaster, and it has the ability to function as a stand-alone music player. And its built-in camera—handily built into the watch itself rather than on the band, like the original Galaxy Gear—takes 2-megapixel stills and 720p video.

It passed our water resistance tests.

Price: $200
Claimed battery life: Up to 6 days, typically 2 to 3 days
Weight: 1.9 ounces
Claimed water resistance: 1 meter, no longer than 30 minutes
Works with: Most Samsung phones running Android 4.3 or higher

The Gear 2 Neo is similar to the Gear 2 in most ways, except that it lacks a camera, and its body is plastic instead of metal. It’s an attractively priced alternative to its more-expensive sibling, especially if taking photos and video from your wrist isn’t a priority.

Like the other Gears, the Gear 2 Neo works only with some Samsung devices. The company has been increasing the number of compatible devices, but check before you buy. Also, these three Gear watches run on the Tizen OS, not on Android. Apps come from the Samsung app market.

Like the Gear 2, the Neo has an intuitive, color touch-screen interface and built-in heart-rate sensor. Also like the Gear 2, it can make phone calls with its microphone and speaker, send voice commands to your mobile device, remotely control a TV or set-top box using its IR blaster, and function as a stand-alone music player.

The Gear 2 Neo passed our water-resistance tests.  

Price: $150
Claimed battery life: Up to 6 days, typically 2 to 3 days
Weight: 0.9 ounces
Claimed water resistance: 1 meter, no longer than 30 minutes
Works with: Most Samsung devices running Android 4.3 or higher

Of the three second-generation Samsung smart watches, the Gear Fit is the most creative and stylish departure from the original Samsung Galaxy Gear. It's just as much an activity monitor as it is a smart watch, and it has a markedly new look—slim, sleek, and light. It also has an unconventional sideways display that’s unlike any of the other tested watches; it takes a bit of wrist-twisting to view it. (You can opt to view your display vertically, but you'll be reading a lot of truncated words that way.)

Like the other Gears, the Gear Fit works only with some Samsung devices. The company has been increasing the number of compatible devices, but check before you buy. Also, these three Gear watches run on the Tizen OS, not on Android. Apps come from the Samsung app market.

Also like the other two new Gear watches, the Gear 2 has an intuitive and vivid color touch-screen interface. It also includes a gyroscope, an accelerometer and a heart sensor, for tracking your physical activities.

It passed our water resistance tests.

Qualcomm Toq, $200 

Claimed battery life: Multiple days
Weight: 2.4 ounces [corrected 3/4/14]
Works with: Android 4.0.3 and above

The Toq (pictured above) looks a bit large and clunky compared with the others in this tested group. But the Toq's color display, which uses Qualcomm's low-power Mirasol technology, has very good readability in direct sunlight.

The Toq showcases Qualcomm technologies—in fact, a company spokesman described the watch as a "proof point" for those technologies. In addition to Mirasol, another is AllJoyn, which lets the Toq easily connect to and interact with other AllJoyn-enabled gadgets and appliances. But it has no built-in camera or mic.

The Toq takes a different approach to apps than the other smart watches. Numerous features—music control, weather, stock into—are preloaded, and you can configure the watch via your phone to send notifications from any app you have installed already on your phone.

What we liked
The Toq's interface was quite easy to navigate. Its display’s readability in bright sunlight was very good—along with the Sony, the next best to the Pebble. And uniquely, the battery is placed in the bottom of the watchband, which keeps the watch face thinner. It includes a wireless charging base that works via magnetic resonance.You can accept and reject phone calls from the watch and also initiate a call.

What we didn't like
This smart watch doesn't include NFC. You have to find the interface app in the app market and download and install it on your mobile device before you can start to configure the Toq. And to change the strap's length, you must cut it with scissors and re-pin it (why not just make it adjustable?).

Bottom line
The Toq is a sophisticated and innovative smart watch in many ways. [Edited to reflect price drop: 2/28/2014.]

Samsung Galaxy Gear, $175

The Gear started with 70 apps, but there's a much larger app selection now. Finding apps was really easy; they're organized and displayed well on the phone by category, such as Entertainment, Health/Fitness, and so on. You just click on an app to install it.

The Gear, like the Sony SmartWatch 2, has NFC connectivity, and was the easiest watch in this group to set up and pair. It has an intuitive color touch-screen interface; the only external button is Power/Home. You wake the watch up by shaking it on your wrist or pressing that button. Go through the menu by swiping, tapping, double tapping, and tapping with two fingers.

The camera embedded in the strap takes 1.9-megapixel stills and 720p H.264 MP4 video; there are also two microphones, which Samsung claims are noise-canceling.

You can make phone calls with the Gear—by dialing them and by voice, right through the watch. It also has a gyroscope and an accelerometer.

For now, at least, the Galaxy Gear works only with a limited number of phones. And the display’s readability in bright sunlight was middling.

This is a very versatile smart watch in so many ways. It has the most functionality of the smart watches we tested, with NFC, a color display, voice control, a built-in camera. But it's pricey at $300, and pretty much useless if you don't already own a compatible Samsung phone.

Samsung recently shipped three news models, the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, and Gear Fit. In our exclusive preview demo, we found the the company made some very smart improvements. Check our story and video for details. We'll test the new models as soon as they're available. Meanwhile, here are our initial reviews of the Gear 2 and Gear Fit.

Sony SmartWatch 2, $150

Claimed battery life: 3 to 4 days
Weight: 1.6 ounces
Works with: Android 4.0 and later

The SmartWatch 2 is a streamlined version of Sony's first smart watch (which went on sale in 2013) with a number of new features. The SmartWatch 2 has a thin bezel; it's almost all screen, which gives it a modern, sleek look. You choose from one of two strap designs, black plastic or black stainless steel, or you can swap those out for a leather strap in one of seven colors ($20 each). We tested the model with the plastic strap, which is light and flexible and can fit close to your wrist.

The Sony SmartWatch 2 uses Android apps only. Sony has an open app platform, so third-party developers contribute apps too. There is a very wide selection of available apps, and many are free.
 
What we liked
The SmartWatch 2 has NFC, in addition to Bluetooth, and pairing is quite fluid. It works with any phone with Android 4.0 and above (not iOS).

The  attractive color touch-screen interface is intuitive to use. The OLED color display had very good readability in bright sunlight, and the touch-screen interface is intuitive. It's one of the lighter watches, at 1.6 ounces.

What we didn't like
Setup is more time-consuming with this smart watch than with others, as you need to download extension apps to your mobile device for every function you want, including messaging and phone call notifications. It's compatible only with Android (4.0 and later) mobile devices, so forget about it if you own an iPhone.

Bottom line
This is a good-looking and versatile smart watch. We love the easy NFC pairing. But it's a pain to have to download additional extension apps for basic features or functions, which you don't have to do on most other models.

Pebble Watch, $150

Claimed battery life: 5 to 7 days
Weight: 1.4 ounces
Works with: Android 2.3.3 and up; iPhone 4, 4S, 5 and 3rd and 4th gen iPod Touch, iOS 5 or newer required

The Pebble Watch ($150) was one of the first to market (check our first-look Pebble review). Although it's more basic than the offerings from Samsung, Sony, and Qualcomm, it's pretty useful, channeling e-mails, texts, and other notifications from your smart phone or tablet.

The Pebble also runs a wide variety of apps from third-party developers, including fitness apps for bikers, runners, and golfers. In fact, Pebble very recently announced its own App Store, which is reachable through the Pebble phone app. The company says that more than 1,000 apps are available currently.

The Pebble comes in five colors. There's also a new, stylish-looking version of the smart watch shipping soon, the Pebble Steel ($250), that comes in stainless steel or black matte finishes.

What we liked
The Pebble works with Android and iOS mobile devices. Its so-called "e-paper" monochrome display has excellent readability in bright light. And there's a very active user community at the company's online forums. We had fun turning on its backlight with a flick of the wrist, and the magnetic charger is easy to use.

What we didn't like
The Pebble doesn’t have NFC, and you have to find the smart watch app in the appropriate app market for your smart device, download it, and install it. And it has a button-based (non-touch screen), small monochrome interface.

Bottom line
Of the basic watches, we like the Pebble best, for its display, platform, and engaged online community.  

MetaWatch Frame, $100

Claimed battery life: 5 to 7 days
Weight: 2.7 ounces
Works with: Android 2.3 and up, iPhone 4S and 5 with iOS 6

We looked at two versions of the MetaWatch. The Frame is a little sleeker looking and slightly heavier than the Strata (below). The Frame comes in black or white; there isn't much difference otherwise.

Basic features are preloaded, and you use apps that are on your phone already for notifications, as you do with the Toq. Some third-party apps are also available. The Frame has no touch screen, so all your menu navigation is done by button presses. It's not particularly intuitive.

What we liked
The Frame works with Android and iOS devices.

What we didn't like
To charge the watch, you have to clip on the charger and align it with contacts that you can't see when you're clipping. Why make it so complicated? There's no NFC for easy pairing, and you have to find the smart-watch app in the app market, download it, and install it on your mobile device. The Frame's display readability in bright sunlight was judged to be only good. It's relatively heavy, at 2.7 ounces (only the Toq is heavier).

Bottom line
This is a truly basic smart watch with a small, monochrome screen. There's not much to recommend it.

MetaWatch Strata, $80

Claimed battery life: 5 to 7 days
Weight: 2.1 ounces
Works with: Android 2.3 and up, iPhone 4S and 5 with iOS 6

The Strata is a little heavier looking than the Frame (although it weighs less, at 2.1 ounces). It comes with a choice of five strap colors. Deciding between the Strata and the Frame is more a style decision than anything, as pretty much everything else is the same.

Basic features are preloaded, and you use apps that are on your phone already for notifications, as with the Toq. Some third-party apps are also available. The Strata has no touch screen, so all your menu navigation is done by button presses. It's not particularly intuitive.

What we liked
The Strata works with Android and iOS devices.

What we didn't like
As with the Frame, you have to clip on the charger and align it with contacts that you can't see when you're clipping. There's no NFC for easy pairing, and you have to find the smart-watch app in the app market, download it, and install it on your mobile device. The Strata's display readability in bright sunlight was judged to be only good.

Bottom line
This is a truly basic smart watch with a small, monochrome screen. Like its sibling, it has little to recommend it.

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

If you're a TV buyer with a budget as enormous as your dreams, we have a set for you: the new Samsung UN105S9W, a 105-inch UHD TV with a curved, 21:9 screen and a $120,000 price tag. And it's now available for pre-order this week.

The TV, which we saw at CES, is a follow-up to the company's $40,000 85-inch set introduced last year. That means that for the price of the 105-incher, you could buy two of the 85-inch UHD sets, plus a regular 65-inch 1080p TV, and still have enough money left over for a decent car and gas money—which you'll probably need when you get kicked out of the house for spending so much money on TVs.

If you do buy this set, you'll get the white-glove treatment from a Samsung field engineer, who'll come to your home, explain the TV's features, help you optimize it for your viewing environment, and, presumably, whip up the first batch of popcorn.

Other than its ginormous size, the TV has a few unique features, including a curved screen with a 21x9 aspect ratio and 5120x2160 resolution to accommodate the extra screen width. These 21:9 TVs are likely to appeal to movie buffs, as they let you watch the many Blu-ray movies that are shot in the wider 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 aspect ratios without "letterboxing"—having black bars appear above and below the image.

That also means that regular 16:9 high-def programs, such as those from cable or satellite TV service providers, appear as "pillar boxed" images, with black bars appearing on either side. But thanks to Samsung’s Quad Screen Multi-Link feature, you can divide the screen into four quadrants so you can watch live TV, stream video and access the Web, all at once.

Find the right television for your needs and budget with our TV buying guide and Ratings.

As you'd expect, given its price, the TV is loaded with features, including a quad-core processor, Samsung's smart TV platform with access to lots of online content and apps, and Samsung’s UHD Dimming and Precision Black technology, which claims to deliver deeper blacks and brighter whites. Like other UHD models, the UN105S9W has a separate One Connect Box that houses the TV's brains and connection; the box can be replaced to upgrade the set to newer features and technologies.

Despite its size, the TV is quite attractive, with a metallic frame and super narrow bezel, and a sparse curved back panel that sports a wood finish. The TV can be removed from the stand and wall mounted, but you'll have to spring extra for the special mount.

At CES, LG Electronics also showed a 105-inch UHD TV, but we haven't yet heard any details about price or availability. We'll let you know when we do.

—James K. Willcox

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

Q. Is drinking 100 percent fruit juice as healthful as eating the whole fruit?

A. No. Juice derived from fruit with no added ingredients, or 100 percent fruit juice, is certainly healthier than juice from concentrate or with added sugar. And it contains many of the vitamins found in the equivalent whole fruit. But it still lacks the dietary fiber found in whole fruit, which may help reduce heart disease risk, control weight, and aid digestion. Juice also has more calories per serving than whole fruit—112 calories in an 8-ounce serving of 100 percent orange juice, for example, compared with 65 calories in a medium-sized orange.

Read our report on arsenic in apple and grape juice and learn how to protect your family. If you want to make juice yourself, find out which blenders and juicers did well in our tests.

If you prefer to drink your fruits and vegetables, using a juicer is an easy way to reap most of the vitamins, minerals, and certain other disease-fighting substances. But juicing strains out most of the fiber and possibly other, unknown beneficial substances. In contrast, using a blender retains everything in the produce.  

The best foods to juice in a blender are cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, pears, apples, and watermelon, and easier-to-mince softer greens like spinach and chard. Skip hard vegetables like carrots, broccoli, and asparagus, which make for a gritty, mushy concoction. Also forgo low-liquid avocados and bananas. Papaya and mango will juice, but they can clump up.

A version of this article also appeared in the August 2014 issue of Consumer Reports on Health.

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

The Amazon Fire Phone goes on sale this week—July 25—from AT&T, the exclusive provider, but we can offer you a sneak peek based on hands-on experience with a press sample this weekend. Overall, I’d say the phone has a few fun features that will attract potential users and a few that will annoy them.

On the plus side, cool features include Firefly, an onboard app that scans objects or listens to songs, then finds them in Amazon’s immense retail and digital content so you can buy them. Another intriguing technology, Dynamic Perspective, can make certain flat images appear three-dimensional on the phone’s 4.7-inch display, allowing you to view them from different angles as you tilt the phone in various ways. You can also scroll up and down Web pages, summon app menu options, or view messages and other notifications by jerking or tilting the phone. These features generally worked well for me but were occasionally buggy.

Fire Phone includes 12 free months of Prime, Amazon’s $99-a-year two-day-shipping-and-media-streaming service. Existing members will get an additional 12 months tacked on to their current subscription. Prime membership, which doesn’t have to be renewed, also includes unlimited Amazon Cloud storage for photos taken with the Fire Phone.

Not so hot, at least for Android fans: App choices are confined to Amazon’s Appstore, which is notably bereft of Google apps. That means no Google Maps, Google Music, Gmail, YouTube, Google Now, Google Plus, Google Drive, and of course, Google’s Play app store. You may get be able to jump in via the phone’s Silk Web browser or some third-party app developer, but you won’t enjoy the synergy of Google apps working together on the same device.

Consumer Reports engineers will be putting the Fire Phone through a grueling battery of tests—including its 2400 mAh battery. In the meantime, here are my impressions of this interesting phone.

Dynamic Perspective

The Fire trains four front-facing cameras (one on each corner) on your face so that when you move the phone, onboard technology called Dynamic Perspective alters the onscreen image so it looks like you can peek around it. The effect was amazing, particularly when looking at some of the included wallpapers that depict floating balloons or jungle passages. Even the desktop icons move slightly when you tilt the phone. This effect also works with the Map app and games that came with the phone. This effect is assisted by the Fire’s onboard gyro and accelerometers. If you block three or four of the cameras with your fingers, 3D will stop working until you move them. But until there’s more to look at in “3D,” the main effect of Dynamic Perspective may be to drive up sales of Dramamine.

A great entertainer

The Fire Phone was built for viewing content. Besides having access to Amazon’s ample entertainment ecosystem, you can stream stuff from Netflix, HBO Go, Hulu Plus, and ESPN. Of course, Amazon give its content an edge, with features like X-Ray, which feeds you details on videos you’re watching, such as the actors in the film or the music playing in the background. The Fire’s Second Screen feature allows you to beam Amazon Instant video and Netflix content to Miracast-compliant enabled, which are now plentiful. When beaming Instant Video content to a TV via Second Screen, you can look up an actor or song on the phone without interrupting the movie or show that’s playing on your TV.

The Fire Phone lets you see the lyrics of some songs, which you can access by pulling a tab from the left side of the screen. Tap any stanza shown in the lyrics tab, and the music player will jump to that part in the song.

Get the right model for your needs and budget with our cell phone buying guide and Ratings.

Tilt me

If you’re thumb-tied, you can tilt the Fire rather than touch the screen to scroll up and down Web or e-book pages or to see different product views in Amazon’s shopping app. For example, you can tilt the phone away or toward you to move up and down a line of models wearing different versions of a particular dress. I personally find it silly to keep tilting or jerking a phone to change what’s on the screen when my thumb is already close enough to do a better job.

Firefly

This app brings the functionality of the optical and audio scanning tools that have been around from third parties into one place. When launched, the app uses the Fire’s rear camera to scan objects or listens to music or movie dialog to help you identify and, Amazon hopes, buy the product or content. What it finds is stored in a list, so you can always come back later.

The audio scanner often worked well in my informal trials, IDing a movie or song within a few seconds. However, it had trouble “hearing” in noisy places such as restaurants, and some of its movie IDs were hilarious. For example, it confused the 1980s Tom Hanks movie “Big” with some kids’ puppet show I never heard of.

The optical scanner was even less successful than the audio scanner. When you aim the camera at an object, tiny little firefly-like artifacts (hence, the name) are supposed to swarm around the object’s logo or bar code until an ID is made. But it often gave up, for instance, failing to identify well-known objects such as a bottle of San Pellegrino water, a Krups coffeemaker, and a Bic pen. Despite glitches with my press sample, I believe Firefly will get better as more people use it.

Help from Mayday

Mayday, Amazon’s video-chat tech support (already available on the Kindle), lets you see a representative on screen, although he or she can see only your phone’s desktop. A tech-support rep can take control of your phone to help you get out of scrapes or connect you to AT&T to straighten out account issues. You need a strong Wi-Fi or cellular-data connection to use Mayday. If the connection is not strong enough, you won’t see your assistant’s face. In our one-on-one demonstration with Amazon, the Mayday assistant seemed a little unfamiliar with the phone. While expertise with this brand new device will likely improve by the time the phone becomes available to the public, it will be interesting to see if Amazon will be able to handle the demand for help.  

A great display

Text and images on the phone’s 4.7-inch LCD display, with 1280 x 720 resolution at 315 pixels per inch, appeared crisp and dynamic, though not as sharp as some I’ve seen on other phones, including the LG G3 I’m currently reviewing.

Comfortable feel

With its flat, rounded edges, the Amazon Fire Phone looks like a large, black iPhone. Measuring 5.5 x 2.6 x 0.35 inches, it fit neatly in my hand and allowed my thumb to comfortably reach all of its onscreen icons and menus. The soft material along the Fire’s edges seemed to reinforce my grip on the device, though it didn’t appear “giving” enough to offer the device much protection if it were dropped.

New interface, new tricks

The Fire Phone’s unique interface borrows some elements from Amazon’s Kindle tablets, though it took this Kindle owner a bit of effort to master them. Pushing the physical home button at the bottom of the phone toggles the view between the home screen and the app drawer. The home screen includes a carousel of recently used apps, which should be familiar to Kindle tablet owners. To shut an app down, delete it from the phone, or perform other maneuvers, you keep your finger on any app on the carousel until the options menu pops up. Icons for the phone, messages, e-mail, and the Silk Web browser appear on the bottom of the home screen, but move to the top when you’re in the app drawer. I found having these controls on the top of the screen instead of the bottom made these apps harder to reach.

A virtual switch at the upper-left-hand corner of the screen lets you toggle between apps on the device and others you may have downloaded from Amazon in the past for other devices. You can download these apps onto your Fire, but they may not always work. For instance, the NY Times app I downloaded kept crashing at launch.

There’s no back button. To go back a step or return to a previous menu, you swipe your finger up the screen from the bottom of the phone. As your phone fills with apps, you can scroll down to the next page to access them. You can herd icons into folders and easily manage documents via the onboard file manager.

Flipping flaps

Amazon went hog wild on menus, which are like flaps you can pull from the top or right and left sides with your finger.  You can also summon them by jerking your hand to the left, right, or sideways. Pulling down the top flap usually summons Settings, a search key, a flashlight, Mayday, and other controls. But what the left and right flaps show you largely depends on the app you have open. For instance, from the home screen the left flap menu provides quick links to apps, games, and other content on your phone and Amazon’s ecosystem. Pulling out the right flap will show you the weather, recent messages, and other alerts. But if you’re using the music app, the right flap will show either more albums from that artist or the lyrics for the song (not always available). One neat trick: Tap any stanza shown in the lyrics tab, and the music player will jump to that part in the song. There’s not enough room for me to list all such cool features.

Meager maps

Amazon decided to go with its own Map and GPS Navigation apps. And it seems it had help from Microsoft’s Nokia (you’ll see a Nokia’s Here logo at the bottom right of the screen when you have it open). Searches worked well. And you can get traffic and satellite views by bringing in the left panel by tilting the phone or swiping the screen from the left side. Unfortunately Amazon’s Maps lacks many of the terrain details and other features that have spoiled Android, iPhone, and Nokia Windows phone users. And while you can “fly” around 3D renderings of such landmarks as the Empire State Building and Seattle Space Needle, they, too, lack the detail of their counterparts on Apple and Google Maps.

[Corrected on July 23, 2014]

Pricing

You can get the 32GB version for $200 down with a two-year contract, or pay $650; the 64GB version costs $300 down with a two-year contract, or $650. You can also pay for the phone in monthly, interest-free installments if you sign up for AT&T’s early-upgrade Next plans.  

Bottom line

The Amazon Fire Phone is really fun and has a lot of potential—especially as developers design more apps that take advantage of its Dynamic Perspective technology and Firefly feature. But this Amazon device may have Lilliputian appeal unless Amazon allows its users to enjoy the many popular apps available from Google’s Play app store.

—Mike Gikas

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

Consumer Reports' top-rated front-loader, the LG WM8500HVA, has 14 cycles, holds about 26 pounds of laundry, and comes in eye-catching graphite stainless steel, but it costs $1,600. That’s $3,200 if you also buy the matching dryer, the LG DLEX8500V, and $3,800 if you add optional pedestals to raise the machines by almost 14 inches so that you don’t have to bend as much to load and unload laundry. Blame the rising cost of manufacturing and transportation, as well as much larger capacities, stainless-steel drums, added ­cycles and features, and even ­improved styling for machines that are meant to be seen.

But you can save money by following these tips: Specialty cycles take out the guesswork, but they also up the price. Our tests have found that basic cycles can handle most laundry chores, and our surveys have found that most subscribers use the normal cycles most of the time anyway. So ask yourself if you really want to pay for a dedicated bedding cycle to wash your sheets and comforters, or a special cycle for your jeans.

Before you shop, look online for rebates and special offers from manufacturers, retailers, and utilities. Then haggle to bring down the price, or have delivery or installation costs waived or lowered. If the price is still too high, search manufacturers’ online outlets, which sell overstocked and discontinued models. But see how the models did in our tests or the brand’s performance history. Remember, they’re only a bargain if they do their job.

Matching pairs for $1,600 or less

The best washers and top dryers in Consumer Reports' tests are typically among the most expensive. But if your budget is around $1,600 or less, take a look at the pairs that did well in our tests and that won't break the bank. A word of caution. Some are relatively noisy but that's okay if your laundry room is in the basement. Here are four pairs to consider.

• LG WT1001CW high-efficiency top-loader and LG DLE1001W electric dryer ($600 each)
• LG WT4870CW high-efficiency top-loader and LG DLE4870W electric dryer ($800 each)
• Maytag Bravos XL MVWB725BW high-efficiency top-loader and Maytag Bravos XL MEDB725BW electric dryer ($800 each)
• Whirlpool Cabrio WTW5800BW high-efficiency top-loader and Whirlpool Cabrio WED5800BW electric dryer ($700 each)

Find more top-notch matching washers and dryers.

—Kimberly Janeway

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

When you buy a TV, lamp, or even a mesh chair for your teenager to take to college this fall, what business is it of the manufacturer to ask about your income, education, hobbies, and the car you drive? Frankly, none. It’s a tactic called data mining, the harvesting of personal information for companies to sell to marketers.

Companies make money from the data; you get peppered with spam and unsolicited sales pitches. Yet many consumers are scared into filling out those pesky product registration cards (or doing so online), fearing that failure to do so will void their warranty rights.

According to the California-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer education organization, the demographic questions amount to a deceptive data collection practice that has nothing to do with product registration. If you need to file a warranty claim, a sales receipt should suffice.

Do you know your consumer rights when it comes to warranties, credit cards, return policies, and advertising? Take our quiz to find out. And read our extended warranty guide.

None of the demographic and lifestyle information is necessary to register the product with the company, according to the PRC. Yet, registration forms don’t typically say so. Instead, there’s often a warning about the importance of filling out and mailing in the form, with the implication that failure to do so can invalidate the product warranty. The opt-out notices on such forms are usually written in vague terms, small type, and appear at the end of the survey.

Federal regulations actually require companies to disclose to consumers if the return of a registration card is a requirement for warranty coverage and vice versa.

The Federal Trade Commission says that the Code of Federal Regulations allows companies to ask consumers to complete warranty registration for products that come with a “limited” warranty (the kind of coverage that accompanies most products) if they disclose up front precisely what is required. Products that come with a “full” warranty, a relative rarity, cannot require registration as a condition of coverage.

There is a plus side to product registration. If you make available your college-bound teen's name and contact information, along with a product model and serial number, a company can reach her if there’s a safety recall. In fact, many children’s products must be accompanied by registration cards for that very reason.

Bottom line: Read the warranty to determine the coverage requirements and provide the bare minimum. If registration is required, consider whether the likelihood of making a claim is worth the disclosure of personal information. It’s probably unwarranted for, say, an inexpensive, nondangerous product such as a flash drive for storing electronic files, but worth considering for a product such as a lawnmower, though that is something your child is unlikely to need. 

—Tod Marks

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

You may not be able to do anything about the high cost of tuition, but you don't have to spend a bundle to get a great set of headphones. But with so many models out there, which one should you choose?

Relax—since school hasn't even started, we're going to do the homework. To make things easy, we've picked five satisfying headphones, the cheapest of which costs only $10. Here are our choices.

Nixon Microblaster, $50. These in-ear models have been around for a few years and they're getting a bit hard to find, unless you frequent skate and snowboard shops. But they're well worth the effort, as they're among the top-rated portable stereo headphones in our headphones Ratings, with very good sound and medium-high sensitivity, meaning they'll play well even with lower-powered portable devices.

JBL by Harman J22i, $50. Designed with Apple devices in mind—the earphones have a three-button in-line Apple-compatible remote control with an integrated mic—these earphones deliver very good overall sound that's warm in the bass but neutral otherwise. Their high sensitivity is a good match for almost any portable.

Sennheiser CX300-II Precision, $50. With its black-and-silver color scheme, this Sennheiser model is a bit more reserved-looking than its flashier sibling (below), but similarly delivers very good overall sound and high sensitivity. Like the CX215, it has a slightly warm character and good dynamics.

Find the right model for your needs and budgets with our headphones buying guide and Ratings.

Sennheiser CX215, $40. Offered in several colors, these in-ear earphones can be found for less than $30 online. Sonically they're very similar to the CX300-II (above), with very good overall sound and an open, slightly warm character with good dynamics.

Panasonic RP-TCM125, $10. Don't settle for bad sound from the cheapie earphones that came bundled with your phone or player. For about the price of two fancy iced coffee drinks at your local java emporium, you can get these in-ear earphones, which have very good sound and a one-button remote and mic. As a bonus, they're offered in a variety of colors—some striking—in case your back-to-schooler has a flair for fashion.

Monoprice Noise Canceling Headphones, $110. Active noise cancellation can be a godsend for a student trying to study, but most of the highest-ranked models in our Ratings are also higher priced. Not this over-ear headphone from Monoprice, which delivers very good sound and excellent noise reduction at about a third of the price of most other top-rated models. It's somewhat plain looking, but that's a small cross to bear for savings.

If you're looking for a new set of headphones, make sure you check out our full stereo and noise-canceling-headphones Ratings (available to subscribers), which now includes 160 fully tested models, including wireless headphones, at all prices.

—James K. Willcox

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

Now that you’ve finally outfitted almost every room in your house with a flat-panel HDTV, there’s a new technology being touted as the next big thing: ultra high-definition, or UHD, TV. It sounds impressive, with super-detailed pictures that have four times as many pixels as a 1080p HD set.

And UHD isn’t just a concept that will take years to materialize. It’s here. At press time, there were a few dozen major-brand UHD TVs, all LCD/LED models, with screens from 49 inches up to 85 inches, and prices from about $1,500 to $10,000. (We’re testing several of the newest UHD sets in our labs.)

So are 1080p TVs past their prime? Not by a long shot. This isn’t like the move from standard definition to high def, which was a huge jump in quality. With 1080p and UHD, the difference can be difficult to detect. It’s more of a baby step, and one you don’t have to take immediately—unless you’re ready for a new TV, you want the state of the art, and you’re willing to pay for it. We’ll start with the basics, then help you decide what the UHD transition means to you.

Despite the fanfare, UHD TVs aren’t a new kind of TV. UHD is simply higher-than-high-def resolution. The first UHD sets are all LCD models with LED backlighting. A 1080p TV has 1,920 pixels horizontally by 1,080 vertically, which is about 2 million pixels. A UHD TV has a screen resolution of 3840x2160, or more than 8 million pixels. With all of those extra pixels, even the smallest details stand out—the finest strands of hair and the subtle texture of a cotton shirt, for example. (The 3840 number is close to 4,000, which is why UHD TVs are also known as “4K” sets.)

If it were that simple, all UHD TVs would look great—but that’s not the case. We’ve seen some that had only middling picture quality despite having extra detail. Top picture quality also requires rich, accurate colors, high-contrast images, deep blacks that render shadow detail even in very dark scenes, and sufficient brightness. Like top-scoring HDTVs, the best new UHD TVs have all of that, plus amazing detail, and the resulting picture quality is stunning.

Not really. It depends on a few factors. In our labs, experts scrutinizing 1080p and 4K versions of the same movies on HD and UHD sets sitting side by side could see noticeable differences, including finer texture, sharper type, and smoother edges on the UHD set. But when they stepped back to a normal viewing distance, the differences were hard to ­detect—in fact, a casual viewer would have trouble telling the HD and UHD sets apart. On a very large screen, say, 84 inches and up, you can really appreciate UHD. But with a 65-inch screen like the ones we tested, most viewers would probably think that the HDTV looked just as good.

Find the best flat-panel TV for your needs and budget with our TV buying guide and Ratings.

There’s a limited amount of 4K content available now. Netflix is streaming a few programs such as “House of Cards” in 4K, and Amazon and M-Go should have offerings later this year. The Sony FMP-X1 4K Ultra HD media player, $500, comes with 50 free titles and pay-per-view downloads. Samsung offers a hard drive, $300, loaded with a handful of titles. Both work only with the same brand of TV. DirecTV plans to offer 4K programming within the next year, and Comcast has announced plans to stream 4K video on demand. You can also play your own high-resolution digital photos and home videos from a 4K camcorder. But it will take a while until we have Blu-ray discs, and even longer for 4K broadcasts. Until then, you’d be watching a lot of high-def programs on your UHD set.

You might be pleasantly surprised. We found that Blu-ray movies actually looked a bit better on a UHD TV than on an HD set. That’s because 1080p content is upconverted to the ultra HD TV’s higher resolution, and the greater pixel density of the 4K screen enhances the detail. (Note that the quality of upconverted HD will vary depending on how well a particular model handles the video processing.)

No. Current high-speed HDMI cables will work fine with an ultra HD TV, despite what you might be told in a store. We’ve been testing UHD TVs in our labs using the same high-speed HDMI cables we use to test 1080p TVs, and they’re absolutely fine. So don’t let someone tell you that you need a new, more expensive “Ultra HD” HDMI cable. They’re just looking to sell you a high-margin accessory.

They’re not cheap. Generally speaking, the latest UHD sets cost $2,000 and up—way up—depending on screen size. Expect to pay anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 for a 55-inch set from a major brand, and in the neighborhood of $3,500 to $6,000 or so for a 65-inch set. Prices range from $6,000 to $10,000 once you get into the 70- to 85-inch range (and bigger sets are coming). That’s a lot more than you’d pay for a first-class HD set. For example, several highly rated 55-inch 1080p sets in our Ratings sell for less than $1,500. But expect UHD prices to come down big-time later this year. A few words of caution for bargain-­hunters: You might be tempted to buy a leftover 2013 UHD set at a discount. We advise against that. Those sets lack the latest features (for you techie types, a built-in HEVC decoder for streaming 4K video, and HDMI 2.0 inputs), which you’ll need to get the most out of 4K. And we’d pass on low-priced UHD sets from lesser-known brands. Those we’ve tested haven’t done as well as big brands.

Hold on to your recliner. We’ve seen prototypes of TVs with 105-inch and 120-inch screens from companies such as LG, Samsung, and Vizio. The companies didn’t say exactly when the jumbo sets would arrive or how much they would cost, but we imagine they will be budget busters. There’s a reason to go big with UHD. The larger the screen, the better you can see and appreciate the detail. In fact, you might not notice it much on a screen smaller than 70 inches or so if you sit about 8 feet from it, a typical distance in many homes.

We’d advise most consumers to wait. (Even our TV experts are holding off!) Prices will come down, and there will be more 4K content to watch—possibly even 4K Blu-ray movies—in a year or two. Also, new features, such as high dynamic range for improved contrast and an expanded range of colors, could be incorporated into ultra HD TVs during that time. If you need a new TV now, stick with a top-rated 1080p set—unless you’re a well-heeled early adopter who wants to experience the current state of the art in TVs. Then consider an ultra HD set, the biggest you can afford, to get the best experience.

You haven’t even bought a UHD set yet and you’re already worried about obsolescence? As long as a UHD TV has HEVC and HDMI 2.0, it won’t be outmoded for years. That’s not to say newer models won’t have added features (such as high dynamic range, more realistic colors, and even faster frame rates for improved motion resolution), but they’ll be incremental improvements, not must-haves. The next big thing could well be OLED (organic LED) TVs, which combine the best of LCD and plasma technology. There are a few pricey 1080p OLEDs for sale now, and an even more expensive ultra HD model is expected later this year. It’s likely to take a few years for OLED to become mainstream. So if you’ve decided to buy a UHD set now, enjoy it and stop worrying about what comes next.

After years of pushing ever-flatter, thinner TVs, manufacturers are throwing buyers a curve—literally. LG, Samsung, and Sony now offer TVs with curved screens. The design is eye-catching, but the curve doesn’t add much to the viewing experience.

With a 100-inch screen, we found that the curve added an immersive, cinematic aspect, but that wasn’t the case on smaller TVs. And there’s a downside to the design. The curve can make for uneven brightness and a reduced viewing angle on the sides of the screen. Keep in mind that it won’t be flush against the wall if wall-mounted. So is it worth it? It’s more of a design choice, and it depends on whether you like the look.

Sharp claims that its new Aquos Quattron Plus (Q+) TVs go beyond regular high-def resolution to approach Ultra HD in picture quality, thanks to its pixel technology. All Aquos Quattron sets add a yellow sub-pixel to the usual red-green-blue mix; Q+ models subdivide each pixel to create more detail on a 1080p screen. We put three Q+ sets--the 60-inch LC-60TQ15U, $1,800; 60-inch LC-60UQ17U, $2,000; and 70-inch LC-70SQ15U, $2,400--through a slew of tests and found that the picture did look a bit more detailed with UHD content. But with 1080p programs, we saw some jaggies along the edges and a smearing of detail on dark images. In addition, the TVs lack HEVC decoding and HDMI 2.0 inputs, two features on all 2014 UHD TVs. Given the limits of Q+ technology and the comparatively high prices, it would make more sense to buy a top-performing 1080p TV or a true Ultra HD TV, especially when prices drop.

This article also appeared in the September 2014 issue of Consumer Reports magazine.

Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.

As Mr. TV—that is, my colleague Jim Willcox—just reported, the 105-inch Samsung UN105S9W UHD TV will be available for preorder soon—for a jaw-dropping $120,000. Once the sticker shock subsided, the news got me to wondering what else I could get for $120,000 (which is more than twice the median U.S. household income).

Here's how I would spend some of that $120,000 on highly rated products from Consumer Reports' tests. Join the discussion and tell us how you'd spend $120,000.

Our 25-year-old Sub-Zero has a space-wasting side-by-side design, it's something of an energy hog, and it lacks the latest convenience features, such as those on the Samsung RF31FMESBSR. This Samsung bottom-freezer has an external water dispenser with a built-in Sodastream sparkling-water maker, and a convenient middle drawer between the fridge compartment and the freezer. 

My New Jersey town got slammed during Superstorm Sandy in the fall of 2012, and we were without power at home for an extended period. We managed okay, but I'd still rather not deal with a blackout ever again. That's why a chunk of fantasy money will go to a whole-house generator. In our tests, the Kohler 14RESAL stationary model delivered ample smooth power and is among the quietest units we reviewed.

My 4-year-old Infiniti G37x is a great ride, but this new BMW, with one of the highest overall scores of any car we've tested, sounds awesome: "This car, successor to the laudable 135i, is just the right size for a little sportster, and it feels taut, quick, and eager, the way a BMW should," our Cars team noted. Sold.

Those three products total $58,000, but after tax, delivery, installation (epecially for the generator), I'd still have about $50,000 to $55,000 of my $120,000.

There are plenty of other things I'd get, including the Canon EOS 70D digital camera ($1,150) and the Sony Bravia XBR-65X900A UHD TV (at $2,900 it's $117,100 less than the Samsung UN105S9W). But as the team that covers personal finance for Consumer Reports would advise, my wife and I should invest this imaginary $120,000 for our three daughters' college funds.

Our oldest kid is about to start her sophomore year at Yale (nearly $60,000 a year for room and board, but not textbooks and sundries), and our 16-year-old twins are only two years from college. My colleagues' advice is smart for sure, since the cost of student loans is on the rise—as is student debt. Maybe the twins will go to a free college.

No doubt that such practical advice should win the day, so I'd invest the remaining fantasy funds. Got any hot stock tips?

—Steven H. Saltzman

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