The Best Smart Smoke Alarm

Smoke alarms will warn you of danger, but not if you aren’t home to hear them. (They’re also typically ugly, a pain to shush, and shriek whenever someone burns toast.) Smart smoke alarms are the cure for those shortcomings, and after testing two new combo smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, along with our current pick the Google Nest Protect, we continue to recommend the Nest Protect as the only one worth buying. It sends speedy alerts of smoke or carbon monoxide to your phone and has a wonderful “heads-up” voice warning that lets you mute the siren before it goes off (in the event of a false alarm). It’s simple to mute via a button or the mobile app, and, well, it’s nice looking. The Protect also constantly self-tests to ensure its sensors are accurate and has a motion-activated path light.

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The Best Down Jacket

A high-quality down jacket can keep you comfortable during everything from backyard social gatherings to winter snowshoe adventures. To choose our favorites, 10 testers romped across every corner of New Hampshire’s iconic Presidential Range and throughout the Pacific Northwest in 45 insulated jackets, covering more than 220 miles. We took on conditions that ranged from frosty to wet to mild. After all that, we think Montbell’s Alpine Light Down Jacket (in women’s and men’s sizes) is the best puffy jacket for most people because it is lightweight, warm, and weather-resistant.

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It’s Not Too Late to Return Those Holiday Gifts You Hate

Now that the holidays are mostly in the rearview mirror, you’re probably left with some gifts you truly love, some you’re learning to live with, and some you knew you were going to dump the moment you unwrapped them. So, let’s talk about holiday return policies.

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The Best Lenses for iPhone Photography

If you’re looking for a serious tool to amp up your smartphone videos and photos, Moment’s Anamorphic Lens can add super-wide perspective and striking lens flares—which even the latest iPhone cameras can’t do yet. We found it to be the best in this category after testing more than 80 smartphone lenses over eight years while traveling to the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, and the French countryside. For more casual smartphone shooters, we also have a more budget-friendly pick, the Criacr 9-in-1 Lens Kit.

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The Best iPad Keyboard Cases

An iPad can handle many of the same tasks a laptop can, but for it to truly replace a computer, you need a great physical keyboard, too. We’ve tested several iPad keyboard cases for Apple’s 2022 10.9-inch iPad, and we’ve found that the Logitech Slim Folio is the one to get for the 10th-generation iPad. The Slim Folio provides decent protection, is pleasant to type on, and feels like a typical laptop keyboard.

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Our Favorite Printed Sheets

When we test sheets here on the home-goods team at Wirecutter, we typically stick to white sets to keep our comparisons consistent. But inside our staff’s data-obsessed exteriors beat the bedazzled hearts of print-and-color-loving design nerds. We believe printed bedding is one of the easiest, most affordable ways to change your room’s whole look, and here we’ve highlighted our favorite prints among the tried-and-true sheets we love.

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The Best Throw Blankets

The humble throw blanket is one of the best relaxation accessories money can buy—and you don’t have to spend much. A throw is a treat when you’re having a snooze, and it can also be a beautiful accent piece, setting the style of a room. Over the past four years, we’ve spent more than 100 hours researching dozens and testing 59 of them. Here we recommend 12 of our favorites.

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How Often You Should Wash Your Bath Mats

Looks can be deceiving: Though your bath mat seems innocuous, sitting there on your bathroom floor away from dirty shoes or the chaos of a kitchen, it’s actually quietly collecting plenty of dirt, debris, and microscopic squatters. That is icky enough on its own, but that ick can also cause athlete’s foot and other fungal infections.

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The Online Therapy Services We’d Use

It’s so tricky being a person, and therapy can help. When you can’t access a therapist in person, video appointments can be as effective. Online therapy services may even make the process of finding someone to speak with easier by expanding the number of licensed mental health professionals you can pick from, eliminating the need to go to a physical location for an appointment, and perhaps even reducing your out-of-pocket costs. After putting in more than 75 hours of research over four years and trying appointments on six platforms, we recommend starting your search for an online therapist with Amwell.

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The Best Mini Desktop PCs

If you’re looking for a simple, small desktop computer that doesn’t take up much space in your home or office, consider a mini PC. These computers are best for everyday tasks like working on documents and spreadsheets, browsing the web, taking video calls, or watching TV. However, our top picks are also powerful enough to do some light media editing, and our upgrade pick is fast enough even for professional photo and video editors.

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The Best Board Games

Every year, thousands of new board games are published—more than our guides for specific board games could possibly accommodate. Here we list a few Wirecutter staff favorites. Whether you’re looking for something that offers high-level strategy or narrative cooperation, or simply something that looks and feels beautiful, these are the games in heavy rotation during our game nights. If you don’t see one of your favorites, leave a comment so we can expand our collections.

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The Best Massage Chairs

Mechanical massage chairs promise comfort, relaxation, and self-indulgence, but shopping for one can be stressful. There are seemingly endless models to choose from—many of which merely vibrate, rather than knead, or tout dubious features like “air ionization,” “body scanning,” and “chromotherapy.” After testing 21 models from some of the top brands, we think the Osaki OS-Champ is the closest thing you can get to a real massage. This chair is comfortable to sit in and sturdily built, and it massages the entire body. Plus, it outperformed more expensive massage chairs in key areas like heating and reclining.

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The Best Heating Pad

Relieving aches, soothing cramps, warming kittens: These are just a few of the many reported uses for a heating pad. We tested seven plug-in heating pads and found that Pure Enrichment’s PureRelief XL King Size Heating Pad is the best for those who want rapid, reliable heat. It warms up quickly and has twice as many heat settings as other pads, its backlit controller is easier to grasp and operate, and testers preferred the overall experience of using this pad to that of all others we tested.

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The Best Hair Dryer

Most hair dryers are effective at blowing hot air toward your head—sometimes quite fast—in order to speed along your hair styling from showering to whatever’s next. It’s the small differences between models that can make a big difference overall, particularly with daily use. After putting in 20 hours of research and spending over 70 hours testing 40 dryers, we’ve found that some dryers are far more pleasant to hold and use than others. Because it provides an excellent experience for the price, we think the Rusk W8less Professional 2000 Watt Dryer is the best choice.

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The Best Steak Knife Set

When steak (or any serious cut of meat) is on the table, a set of steak knives should be, too. After 40 hours of research, interviews, and testing, we’re convinced the Messermeister Avanta Pakkawood knives offer the best value by far. Beautiful to look at, comfortable in the hand, and as high-performing as knives six times their price, they’re great tools. (And if you prefer a classic black handle, the Messermeister Avanta knives come that way too.)

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The Best Robot Vacuums

Robot vacuums never get bored or distracted, and they don’t mind cleaning every day. So with very little effort on your part, they’ll keep your floors constantly tidy. We’ve tested dozens of robots, from cheap models that bump around randomly to fancy machines that empty themselves and (usually) steer around dog poop. First, consider the strong, durable, and smart-enough iRobot Roomba i3 EVO.

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The Best Black Tights

Black tights are perhaps your wardrobe’s best supporting player. Though they may never take center stage—tights aren’t usually worn solo, since they’re not fully opaque—they readily contribute style, modesty, and warmth. The best black tights should be comfortable to wear yet also be able to handle aggressive assaults from zippers, Velcro, and fingernails (as well as kitty nails). We interviewed two experts (including a professional ballerina who wears tights daily), polled dozens of hosiery lovers, and tested 20 pairs to find our five favorites.

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The Best Chicken Broth and Stock You Can Get in the Store

Using a good-tasting chicken broth in your cooking can help ensure a better result, even when it’s just a bit player. And when it’s the starring ingredient, as in soup, the broth you use can make or break the final dish. But store-bought chicken broths range widely in quality and flavor, and if you’re staring at an aisle’s worth of options in the supermarket, deciding on the best one can be daunting: Labels and ingredient lists can tell you only so much, and a higher price doesn’t necessarily translate to better flavor.

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The Best Skillet

Whether you’re searing meat, stir-frying vegetables, or quickly reducing a pan sauce, a good skillet is an indispensable workhorse in the kitchen. After more than 90 collective hours of research and testing since 2014, we still believe the tri-ply All-Clad D3 Stainless Fry Pan with Lid 12 Inch is the best skillet for your money. It’s a durable pan that heats extremely evenly. No other pan gets the kind of raves the All-Clad receives from professionals, enthusiasts, and home cooks alike. Yes, it’s expensive, but it will last you a lifetime, making it a great value.

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The Best Touchscreen Winter Gloves

The best touchscreen gloves are ones that can differentiate between “texting” and “textjngZ.” We think the newly redesigned Moshi Digits Touchscreen Gloves are some of the best we’ve seen of the 80 we’ve tried overall. They’re warm enough, accurate, and can fit a wide range of hand sizes.

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The Best Napkins and Tablecloth

Nothing elevates a dinner table from everyday to elegant like crisp clean linens. If you’re looking to freshen up your tablescape, we recommend the Williams Sonoma Hotel Dinner Napkins and Tablecloth. Made from 100 percent tight-weave cotton, they’re the best-quality table linens we’ve found for the price, and are available in the widest assortment of sizes and sets. The napkins are soft and absorbent, and the thick tablecloth looks smooth and elegant.

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The Best Smartwatches, Fitness Trackers, and Running Watches

We’ve worn dozens of smartwatches and fitness trackers over the course of workdays, workouts, vacations, and the rest of everyday life to see which ones best track your activity, relay your phone notifications, give you access to apps, and do anything else that lets you keep your phone in your pocket. The Apple Watch Series 8 (which works only with iPhones) offers the best combination of style, message handling, apps, battery life, activity tracking, and value. But we also have picks if you use an Android phone, or if you value fitness or distance-sports tracking over style, notifications, and apps.

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The Best Cookware Set

Cookware is the cornerstone of your kitchen, so it’s worth investing in a set that is beautiful and durable and that heats evenly. We researched more than 80 cookware sets and rigorously tested 19. And we believe the Tramontina Gourmet 12-Piece Tri-Ply Clad Cookware Set is the best for most home cooks because it offers solid construction at an affordable price.

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The Gifts We Want to Give in 2022

In some ways, all of us here at Wirecutter are on the gifts-coverage team. We all spend our working days tracking down the absolute best stuff in every category, things that make both shopping and living smoother, more sustainable, and, most important, more joyful. And so it follows that by the time the holiday season rolls around, we’re all brimming with excellent ideas for our loved ones. We’ve been logging the gifts our staffers are most excited to give for years (you can see our favorites from 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017), and we are happy to report that this year produced every bit as satisfying a survey. Highlights include breathtaking cloth napkins (yes, we really mean that), better bonbons, and a grown-up gag gift. There’s also an embroidery kit that could make anyone a crafter, as well as a pair of stylish, problem-solving scooter muffs. From our sticky notes, bookmarked tabs, and wishlists to yours, we present personal holiday gift ideas from our whole staff.

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