6.7/10
Audio
Apple AirPods Max
One lab scored comfort 4.6 out of 10 and found glasses cut wearable time to less than sixty minutes. Everything else about them is very good, which is the frustrating part.
Tech & Gadgets reviews
Keyboards, monitors, headphones and desk gear, scored from the labs that put a meter to them.
All tech & gadgets reviews
7.5/10
Audio
Apple AirPods Pro 2
Measured runtime came in at 5 hours 43, 6 hours 03 and 8 and a half hours depending on who ran the test. The noise cancelling has a hole in it at 1kHz that only one of them looked for.
8.3/10
Audio
Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro
One reviewer calls the frequency response impressively flat. Two others measured a V shape with a treble peak they recommend cutting by 5dB. The cable is soldered in either way.
7.0/10
Audio
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II
One lab measured almost 42 decibels of reduction through the midrange, and another found them beating full-size Sony headphones between 800 and 2,000 Hz. Then the feature list runs out.
7.8/10
Audio
JBL Charge 5
It gets louder past that point but not deeper, and distortion arrives instead. Everything else about it is built to be thrown in a bag and forgotten.
7.5/10
Audio
JBL Flip 6
The Flip 5 had no dedicated tweeter. This one does, and it is the difference you can actually hear. The twelve-hour battery claim is the part to discount.
6.9/10
Desk & Power
Logitech Brio 4K
Two independent reviewers found the same fault: the camera does not store its configuration between sessions. The 4K image underneath it is genuinely sharp.
9.0/10
Audio
Shure SM58
One source calls the two microphones the same product with a different grille. That is close to true, and it explains both why this costs so little and why it lasts so long.
7.8/10
Audio
Sonos Era 100
One reviewer says the mids are more transparent than the speaker it replaces. Another says they lost the clarity the old one had. Everyone agrees the bass got bigger.
8.1/10
Audio
Sonos Move 2
Three kilograms, a carry handle, and a battery Engadget could not run flat in 23 hours. This moves between rooms, not to the beach.
7.6/10
Audio
Sonos Roam 2
Same drivers, same battery, same codecs as the original. The upgrade is a Bluetooth button that lets you pair without the app, and for some people that is worth the whole purchase.
7.6/10
Audio
Sony WF-1000XM5
Two labs that tested calls came away unimpressed, one scoring them 5.1 out of 10. The noise cancelling, meanwhile, is measured at over 30 dB and is genuinely class-leading.
7.0/10
Audio
Sony WF-C700N
SoundGuys measured no difference between the cancelling switched on and the seal alone. Two other reviewers found it effective. The N in the name is doing a lot of work.
7.7/10
Audio
Sony WF-C710N
SoundGuys beat the claimed battery by nearly an hour and found a deep treble dip. A second reviewer, measuring nothing, described exactly the sound that dip would produce.
7.8/10
Audio
Sony WH-CH720N
Two sources say these support only AAC and SBC. One says LDAC is in there too. What nobody disputes is that they are the lightest noise cancelling over-ears you can buy.
8.2/10
Desk & Power
CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4
Most docks give you the ports and quietly share the bandwidth between them. This one runs every USB port at full speed at once, and charges the laptop at 98W while doing it.