Reviewed.com Weekly Roundup: March 15, 2013
This week, we reviewed a fantastic GE fridge, a great mid-range Panasonic plasma TV, a workmanlike Nikon DSLR, forgettable headphones, and took a look at the history of smart appliances.
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The Roundup
For nearly 15 years, Reviewed.com has put thousands of products to the test, all to help consumers buy, use, and understand electronics and appliances. Here’s what we’ve been up to this week.
GE Profile French Door Refrigerator Review
And we have a winner. The GE Profile PFE29PSDSS is the best refrigerator that we’ve ever tested in the Reviewed.com labs, offering up a stylish stainless finish, excellent energy efficiency, plenty of space, and fantastic performance ratings. The water dispenser can even sense the size of your glass and fill it automatically. Excellence comes at a steep price, but if you can fit this fridge into your budget (and kitchen), we suggest doing so.
Panasonic Viera S60 Plasma TV Review
Plasma is Panasonic’s forte, so we were excited to test its first new set to hit shelves in 2013. Even as one of its more affordable TVs this year, the S60 series has fantastic picture quality that in some ways surpasses flagship models from last year. It’s light on bells and whistles (no 3D, for instance), but there aren’t any real drawbacks to this otherwise first-rate TV. We tested the 60-inch model (MSRP $1,299), but it’s also available in 50- and 42-inch versions.
The History of Smart Appliances
Smart appliances are starting to pop up in showrooms and kitchens around the world, but the industry has been trying to will them into existence for decades. We explore the origins of smart appliances in the domestic bliss of the space age on through the 20th century.
Nikon D5200 Digital Camera Review
The new Nikon D5200 entry-level DSLR (MSRP $899.95) has beautiful colors, tons of pixels, and a super-snappy autofocus system. It’s a solid update to our 2011 Camera of the Year, and it’s basically everything you need in a camera like this. That said, you’d probably be better off buying the D5100 while it’s still available—you’ll save $300, and probably won’t notice a difference unless you shoot action or plan to upgrade your lenses.
Monoprice MHP-839 Headphone Review
Best known as the website that sells super-cheap HDMI cables, Monoprice is now slapping its name on a bunch of other types of consumer electronics. These $30 headphones don’t sound very good, but you probably won’t feel too bad if you buy them. But we can’t think of many reasons why you’d get these over the dozens of other $30 headphones out there.