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Best products of the year

475+ top picks and great buys

Consumer Reports magazine: November 2012

Consider this special section—available to subscribers as a PDF—the ultimate buyer’s guide. A supreme cheat sheet. The best electronics, appliances, and other products among the thousands our secret shoppers bought throughout the year and that our testers rigorously tested. (The whopping bill was $4.1 million: $1.6 million for products and $2.5 million for cars.)

All of the products we list are recommended, which means that they performed well in our labs, and where we’re able to assess a brand’s reliability, we believe the brand to be reliable. We’ve also included many choices in each category, so you’re bound to find at least a few that meet your needs. (In some cases, most but not all recommended models are listed because of space constraints.)

We highlight CR Best Buys across a range of prices. CR Best Buys perform well in our tests and are of exceptional value. Enjoy!