Holiday Gifts for When You Have the Urge to Splurge

The 5.5-quart Le Creuset Signature tops our Dutch oven ratings. It earns an Excellent rating in our browning tests, the only model in our tests to do so, and is a cinch to clean. It weighs 12 pounds, less than most, and has an 8-inch cooking diameter. The loop handles are nice and wide.

For more options: Best Dutch Ovens

With its pink blush exterior, white ceramic interior, and gold handles, the GreenPan Padova Reserve certainly makes a style statement. But how is it on substance? Not too shabby. In fact, its scores on all of our major cooking tasks were top-notch, including an Excellent for speed of heating. Its handles are sturdy and stay fairly cool to the touch. The nonstick coating is durable, although some of the nonstick pans we tested did even better on that test. The 10 pieces are two frying pans, two saucepans, a sauté pan, a stockpot, and four lids.

For more options: Best Cookware Sets

With just five pieces—a frying pan, a saucepan, a stockpot, and two lids—the Made in Cookware Starter Kit is aptly named. But even a novice cook will appreciate the performance of these pots and pans. The stainless steel pan aces the cooking evenness test, meaning pancakes turn out evenly browned. Speed of heating is also superb, and we quickly brought 4 quarts of water to a near-boil in the 5-quart stockpot. Food release is impressive, earning a Very Good rating, though no uncoated pan measures up to a nonstick pan in that test.

For more options: Best Cookware Sets

Okay, you have to appreciate the pun in the name of the Great Jones Holy Sheet pan. But does it live up to its name? Yes. The Great Jones earns a Very Good rating in cooking evenness, and it heats up quickly, so our chicken dinner was ready in no time. It’s fair to middling on our durability test, but it cleans up nicely.

For more options: Best Sheet Pans

The top-rated All-Clad D3 Stainless Jelly Roll Pan outscores all the rest. But—and this is a big but—it costs $150. Is it worth it? If you take a glance at the ratings, you’ll see that it falls in line with the other uncoated pans. So you decide. Heating evenness is top-notch. But like the other uncoated pans, it’s harder to clean. (A little scouring powder returned the pan to like-new condition.)

For more options: Best Sheet Pans

The Dash Digital Tasti Crisp is small but mighty. At a measured capacity of 1.9 quarts and an overall size of less than a square foot, this 6-pound model is one of the most compact air fryers in our ratings. Still, it ranks among the best. It earns Very Good ratings for controls and cleaning, and excels in our noise test. It has a 1-year warranty, which is typical for most models.

For more options: Best Air Fryers

The Breville Sous Chef BFP800XL is one of the few models that earns a Very Good rating for puréeing. Loaded with accessories, this food processor is 18 inches high and weighs 19 pounds, factors to consider if you plan to lift it out of a cupboard or cabinet with each use. The touch buttons are easy to wipe clean, and for all its power and performance, it’s also surprisingly quiet. The warranty is for one year, but the motor is covered for 25 years, the longest in our ratings. This model is available in brushed aluminum, red, and black.

For more options: Best Food Processors and Choppers

In our evaluation of cold-brew machines, the Cuisinart Automatic Cold Brew Coffeemaker DCB-10 performs better than automatic models that cost almost twice as much. It does well across all our tests, and it’s the only model to receive a Very Good rating for ease of cleaning. Most parts are dishwasher-safe, unlike the other models in its class. This Cuisinart comes with a glass carafe (not plastic, like some competing models) and brews a full 35-ounce carafe in 25 to 45 minutes, a snap compared with the 12 to 14 hours it can take without an automatic brewing machine.

For more options: Best Cold-Brew Coffee Makers

For those who prefer Nespresso capsules over Keurig K-Cups, the Nespresso Pixie Espresso Maker in Aluminum EN125S is worth a look. It comes in a sleek metallic finish and can make both espresso and coffee. It features a removable reservoir, a height-adjustable drip tray, auto-shutoff, and an adjustable brew temperature. It can brew three types of coffee—lungo (an Italian coffee), espresso, and ristretto (a more concentrated espresso)—depending on the capsules you buy. Our testers gave it solid ratings across the board, including a Very Good rating for temperature consistency.

For more options: Best Coffee Makers

The Oxo Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder is a fantastic grinder and one of the more affordable models that did well in our tests. It receives strong scores in our grind performance tests, making it a good choice for any brew method you want to use. It also earns a Very Good rating for convenience, thanks to its clearly marked and easy-to-use controls. Our testers found it extremely easy to clean, too, because it has a removable hopper. This Oxo is a bit noisy, however. It features 15 grind settings, a 12-ounce bean hopper, an auto-stop feature, and a timer.

For more options: Best and Worst Burr Coffee Grinders

The Breville BOV650XL toaster oven earns a Very Good rating in our baking tests, turning out sugar cookies and corn muffins that are done in the center and golden on top and bottom. Functions include bake, broil, and roast, and settings for pizza and toasting bagels. This toaster oven has three rack positions and offers a temperature range of 120° F to 450° F. Models in our ratings range from 800 to 1,875 watts, so this 1,800-watt model is near the top in terms of power. (The higher the wattage, the more energy is delivered.) Breville earned an Excellent rating for predicted reliability, making it one of two brands that stand out as most reliable in our survey. (The other is Panasonic.)

For more options: Best Toaster Ovens

You’ll see eight Vitamix full-sized models in CR’s ratings; this is the best one that goes for less than $500. The Vitamix 5200 has an 8-cup capacity and a 7-year warranty. And it’s skilled at making more than smoothies; it can make hot soup, too. At 20 inches, this model is on the tall side, so if you’re buying it for someone else, you may want to ask them to measure their undercabinet space first.

For more options: Best Blenders for Making Smoothies

The KitchenAid Classic K45SS excels at mixing, kneading, and whipping. It gets a middling score for noise, however. The 10-speed mixer comes with a 4.5-quart stainless steel bowl, flat beater, dough hook, and wire whisk. It’s compatible with all KitchenAid attachments, so you can branch out from baking into making more savory foods like sausage or pasta—perfect for the home chef on your list.

For more options: Best Stand Mixers

Sweet dreams are made of cozy sheets. This Brooklinen set will fit a mattress up to 14 inches deep. These sheets don’t shrink as much as some other cotton sheets we’ve tested. The Brooklinen set scores well for fit and shrinkage, which means that even though they tend to get smaller during washes, they don’t change all that much over time. Luxe Core sheets are on the softer side, based on our sensory test.

For more options: Best and Worst Sheets

The Coop Home Goods Premium Adjustable Loft pillow is made of shredded memory foam and earns an Excellent rating in our tests for support, no matter your size and whether you sleep on your side or back. It comes with a kit with extra foam so that you can adjust the filling to your liking. The Coop also keeps its shape well, showing little or no change in height or fluffiness in our resilience tests. Our panel of testers liked the look and feel of this pillow, too. The only test where this pillow falls slightly short is in how well it allows air to circulate. It sleeps slightly warm, so your head might feel a little sweaty at night.

For more options: Best Pillows

The top-rated Oral-B iO 7 grabbed an Excellent rating for cleaning and battery life, and strong scores for both ease of use and noise levels. It has a timer, a pressure sensor, five cleaning modes, and a battery-level indicator, and can connect to a smartphone app.

For more options: Best Electric Toothbrushes

The Bose Smart Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are the successor to the company’s flagship QuietComfort 35 Series II headphones, and the two models are almost identical in performance. Both deliver superb sound quality and noise cancellation. But the Bose 700 earphones have a much slimmer profile when folded up, and they have a few updated elements, including more integration with digital assistants, touch controls, and sensors for Bose’s “augmented reality” apps. Bose has kept some of the best-loved features from its older models as well, such as adjustable levels of noise cancellation, a monitoring mode to let in sound from your environment, and an advertised 20-hour battery life.

For more options: Best Noise-Canceling Headphones

Apple’s popular notebook aimed at everyday consumers combines powerful performance with long battery life, light weight, and (finally, after many years) a solid webcam. It should be at the top of your list if you’re looking for a laptop in this size range. This latest MacBook Air has Apple’s M2 processor, the company’s second-generation desktop processor that’s able to make short work of tasks like editing audio and video, not to mention less demanding tasks like browsing today’s ad-laden websites.

For more options: Best Laptops

The eagerly anticipated Pixel is the first Android smartwatch from Google. This sleek, round watch certainly is elegant, but what truly sets it apart is the way it interfaces with the Google ecosystem. While it will work with other Android phones, it’s designed to work with a Pixel phone and the company’s Pixelbuds earbuds. The Pixel Watch sits near the top of our ratings with strong grades for ease of use, readability in bright and low light, and heart-rate accuracy.

For more options: Best Smartwatches

The Edifier S1000MKII provides top-notch sound. The high frequencies are clear and smooth, and the extended bass remains musical, so you can tell the difference between, say, an upright bass and an electric Fender Jazz Bass. And for a very reasonable price of about $350, you get a stereo pair of Edifiers, which allows the speakers to create a convincing illusion that the musicians are there in the room with you. They include a variety of connections, from robust Bluetooth pairing to RCA and digital jacks. They’re not designed to work as part of a multiroom system, though. They’re all about playing music in one place with truly impressive fidelity. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

For more options: Best Wireless Speakers

This soundbar from Sonos delivers great sound. Given the Arc Soundbar’s sound quality, it’s a decent choice for the more critical listener for both music and movie soundtrack playback. This full-featured model has 5.0.2 non-surround that’s expandable to 5.1.2 surround channels. It offers WiFi audio streaming via Sonos and Apple AirPlay 2. It can access various Internet services such as TuneIn, Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, SiriusXM, Amazon Music, Google Play Music, Apple Music, and more. It can also be used as part of a multiroom WiFi audio system. And it has the built-in Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant digital voice assistant.

For more options: Great Soundbar Speakers at Every Price

Sporting a sharp-looking, angular design, the Nvidia Shield TV Pro is at the upper end of streaming player price range, but it’s a top-notch 4K player that combines access to lots of streaming services with fairly extensive audio/video features, plus consolelike game-playing ability.

One unique feature of Nvidia models is AI upscaling that will upconvert lower-resolution content to the player’s 4K capability. The Pro supports Dolby Vision HDR, as well as Dolby Atmos and DTS-X immersive sound, which can add the element of height to surround-sound tracks. It comes with a wand-style backlit Bluetooth remote control, and you can buy a game controller as an option.

For more options: Best 4K Streaming Media Devices

The Samsung QN65QN90B is a top-tier 2022 Neo QLED TV that combines Mini LED backlights with local dimming and quantum dots. It offers top-notch overall picture quality and very effective HDR performance, among the best we’ve seen.

For more options: Best TVs