User Rating:
Good: The Sony Xperia S flaunts an eye-catching design, Android 4.0, and a connection to Sony's large movie and music library.
Bad: The Xperia S has quirky capacitive buttons, slow 3G data, an uninspiring screen, and a pokey processor. Its $559.99 price is also steep.
Bottom Line: Sony's pricey, stylish Xperia S is packed with multimedia tricks but is undone by a slow processor and lackluster display. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: The Sony Xperia S flaunts an eye-catching design, Android 4.0, and a connection to Sony's large movie and music library.
Bad: The Xperia S has quirky capacitive buttons, slow 3G data, an uninspiring screen, and a pokey processor. Its $559.99 price is also steep.
Bottom Line: Sony's pricey, stylish Xperia S is packed with multimedia tricks but is undone by a slow processor and lackluster display. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: The Kyocera DuraXT has an indestructible design, a decent camera, push-to-talk direct connect, and solid call quality.
Bad: The DuraXT isn't easy on the eyes, it has a nonstandard 2.5mm headset jack, and it can accumulate moisture underneath its screens.
Bottom Line: Though its clamshell design isn't pretty, the Kyocera DuraXT is tough as nails, with great call quality, and a respectable camera to boot. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: The Id America Spark earphones are lightweight, comfortable, have a unique, appealing design, and sound quite good for their price point. They also include an inline remote for making cell phone calls, and they come with a protective carrying case.
Bad: The build quality of the inline microphone button is suspect. There are no volume controls in the inline remote. The microphone works with the iPhone but may not work with other smartphones.
Bottom Line: Though they have some small shortcomings, Id America's Spark earphones look sharp, are comfortable to wear, and sound good for the money. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: The Id America Spark earphones are lightweight, comfortable, have a unique, appealing design, and sound quite good for their price point. They also include an inline remote for making cell phone calls, and they come with a protective carrying case.
Bad: The build quality of the inline microphone button is suspect. There are no volume controls in the inline remote. The microphone works with the iPhone but may not work with other smartphones.
Bottom Line: Though they have some small shortcomings, Id America's Spark earphones look sharp, are comfortable to wear, and sound good for the money. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: The Id America Spark earphones are lightweight, comfortable, have a unique, appealing design, and sound quite good for their price point. They also include an inline remote for making cell phone calls, and they come with a protective carrying case.
Bad: The build quality of the inline microphone button is suspect. There are no volume controls in the inline remote. The microphone works with the iPhone but may not work with other smartphones.
Bottom Line: Though they have some small shortcomings, Id America's Spark earphones look sharp, are comfortable to wear, and sound good for the money. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: The Id America Spark earphones are lightweight, comfortable, have a unique, appealing design, and sound quite good for their price point. They also include an inline remote for making cell phone calls, and they come with a protective carrying case.
Bad: The build quality of the inline microphone button is suspect. There are no volume controls in the inline remote. The microphone works with the iPhone but may not work with other smartphones.
Bottom Line: Though they have some small shortcomings, Id America's Spark earphones look sharp, are comfortable to wear, and sound good for the money. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: The Id America Spark earphones are lightweight, comfortable, have a unique, appealing design, and sound quite good for their price point. They also include an inline remote for making cell phone calls, and they come with a protective carrying case.
Bad: The build quality of the inline microphone button is suspect. There are no volume controls in the inline remote. The microphone works with the iPhone but may not work with other smartphones.
Bottom Line: Though they have some small shortcomings, Id America's Spark earphones look sharp, are comfortable to wear, and sound good for the money. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: The LG PZ950 series is the best plasma the company has ever produced, with deeper black levels than last year. Bright-room picture quality is very good thanks to the matte screen finish. The LG offers a good mix of features including the Magic Motion remote, onboard laptop mirroring, and a Web browser.
Bad: This LG has a worse picture, with lighter black levels and less accurate color, than some cheaper plasma rivals. There's overbearing, undefeatable smoothing applied to every mode except Game. 3D image quality is the worst the company has released this year.
Bottom Line: The LG PM9700 series improves on the company's 2011 plasmas, but it's unable to compete with similarly priced TVs. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: The LG PZ950 series is the best plasma the company has ever produced, with deeper black levels than last year. Bright-room picture quality is very good thanks to the matte screen finish. The LG offers a good mix of features including the Magic Motion remote, onboard laptop mirroring, and a Web browser.
Bad: This LG has a worse picture, with lighter black levels and less accurate color, than some cheaper plasma rivals. There's overbearing, undefeatable smoothing applied to every mode except Game. 3D image quality is the worst the company has released this year.
Bottom Line: The LG PM9700 series improves on the company's 2011 plasmas, but it's unable to compete with similarly priced TVs. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: The Asus Zenbook UX32A is much less expensive than previous Asus ultrabooks, but keeps the same sharp design.
Bad: Saddled with last-gen components, the UX32A missed out on CPU and GPU improvements from Intel.
Bottom Line: Asus makes some of the most full-featured ultrabooks available, but this stripped-down Zenbook UX32A version is missing those extras and faces tough competition in its price range. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: The QNAP TS-469 Pro NAS server offers great performance, a practical design, and a vast number of features.
Bad: The QNAP TS-469 Pro's user interface has a lot to offer, but it's not that easy to use. The server is comparatively expensive.
Bottom Line: The QNAP TS-469 Pro is one of the best four-bay NAS servers on the market and will eventually justify the price you pay for it. [Read more]

User Rating:
Good: Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion's new iCloud integration and syncing features give you the same experience on all your devices. Upgrades to several core apps bring new and useful features for sharing and social connectivity.
Bad: Game Center, while finally available for Mac, still only has basic features. Dictation sends your voice to be translated at Apple servers, so you can't use it while offline. Gatekeeper keeps you from downloading unsafe programs, but it seems mostly unnecessary.
Bottom Line: Though it's not a complete system or interface overhaul, Mountain Lion's improved core apps and new features make it well worth the $19.99 price. [Read more]