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Just because you’re serving processed meat from the back of a pickup doesn’t mean you can’t treat your pals to a spectacular pregame experience.– Christopher Null
Coleman Wheeled Ultimate Xtreme Cooler
With enough room for a dozen six-packs of your favorite beverage, this 50-quart cooler is sure to keep them cold – ice will stay frozen through six days of 90-degree heat.
$60 www.coleman.com
Mustek PL8A90T
Catch the pregame show with Mustek’s battery-powered TV/DVD player. The antenna captures a good signal, and the set runs an hour on its battery or as long as you need with the included car adapter.
$300 www.mustek.com
Thermos Grill2Go
This portable propane giant has a spacious 310 square inches of grilling area, a hinged lid that tames annoying flare-ups, and handy side shelves so you’ll always have someplace to put your tongs, spatula, and frosty lager.
$139 www.grill2go.com
What's half the cost of a video iPod, has a bigger screen, and can play thousands of movies? Any of these portable DVD players. They’re the perfect way to suppress “Are we there yet?” inquisitions from bored passengers. The budget models we tested feature 7-inch screens that display only about a third of DVD’s full resolution, leaving the pictures on some a fuzzy mess. But the best produce images sharp enough to make you forget the next bathroom is 90 miles away. – Seán Captain
How We Tested
Picture quality: Charlotte Gray was used to evaluate color and shadow detail; La Dolce Vita for black level and contrast; Monsters, Inc. for animation; and Star Trek: Insurrection for motion processing.
Sound: Speakers and headphone output were tested using Kill Bill: Vol.1 and Holly Cole’s live CD It Happened One Night.
Battery life: Although all of these units include a variety of car and wall adapters, which make power consumption less of an issue, we played each unplugged until it stopped.
Philips PET724
This mini-priced player comes closest to being a mini home theater. While it sports the same 480 x 234-pixel resolution as the other models, the Philips LCD appears far sharper. Its wide tonal range and rich color palette mean the screen displays more subtle details. And the picture is bright enough to remain visible from oblique angles. The speakers produce full sound for their size but are a bit short on volume – hard to drown out the disc motor’s unusually noisy whir. But with headphones, all you’ll notice is how great your movies look.
WIRED: Fine shadow detail enlivens black-and-white flicks. DivX playback. Sturdy, high-quality fit and finish. Longest battery life in test: 4 hours, 22 minutes. One-year warranty.
TIRED: Brightness sometimes too intense, washing out highlights. Color bias renders some hues too bluish. Bulky battery pack sticks out from the back.
$149 www.usa.philips.com
Toshiba SD-P1700
WIRED: Rich, saturated colors and excellent shadow detail. Displays JPEGs from Memory Stick, MMC, SD, and xD cards. DivX playback. Solid remote feels like it’s from a full-size TV or DVD player. Battery life of four hours, eight minutes.
TIRED: Screen a bit dim, especially compared with the Philips. Overly reddish color bias. Noticeable hiss in speakers.
$180 www.toshiba.com
Coby TF-DVD7107
WIRED: Surprisingly loud speakers. Most compact player (no protruding battery pack). Includes decent headphones. Good value.
TIRED: Overall image quality weak: grayish blacks, minimal tonal range, and pinky skin tones regardless of settings. Chintzy, confusing remote: All buttons are same size and shape. Mere three-hour battery life and three-month warranty.
$130 www.cobyusa.com
Insignia NS-7PDVD
WIRED: Simple, logically arranged controls. Quiet disk motor. Cheap.
TIRED: Abysmal video quality with blurry images nearly bled dry of color. No matter the screen adjustments, many light shades blew out to pure white, erasing subtle details. Extreme shimmering effect along diagonal lines. Battery croaked after 3 hours, 12 minutes.
$120 www.bestbuy.com
Before the iPod debuted, multigig music storage meant schlepping around a device the size of a Coleco Electronic Quarterback. Those days are long gone. The latest high-capacity flash players bring it Fig Newton-thin, sport color screens, and even handle photos and video. – Sean Cooper
MobiBlu B153 (2-Gbyte)
WIRED: Bright OLED screen. Drag-and-drop file management. Built-in podcast subscription feature. 150-hour battery life. Fantastic sound quality. SRS sound enhancement. FM radio, line-in, and voice recording. Cheap!
TIRED: Stiff, squat joystick makes shuttling through menus tricky. Bizarre lyrics database software requires a PhD in poetry to parse.
$130 www.mobibluamerica.com
Apple iPod nano (4-Gbyte)
WIRED: Flashiest flash player this side of Harajuku. Intuitive menus and controls stomp the rest. iTunes software has music management down to a science.
TIRED: 12 hours of play time we squeezed out of it is pathetic by current standards. Housing and screen mar easily. So-so display of photographs on its 1.5-inch, 176 x 132-pixel screen.
$249 www.apple.com
Samsung YP-Z5AB (4-Gbyte)
WIRED: Nano-a-like has looks that kill and sound to match. Plays protected WMA files from download or subscription services. Large 1.8-inch LCD.
TIRED: Pressure-sensitive control pad cramped and sometimes unresponsive. Inconsistent display of album art. Vertical screen wastes space by presenting pics in letterbox format.
$250 www.samsung.com
Panasonic SV-MP020A (2-Gbyte)
WIRED: Exceptional 70-plus hours of playback on two AAs. Plays protected WMA files. Drag-and-drop file management.
TIRED: Shoddy construction. Miserable menus. Terrible, unpocketable shape. Very poor sound quality. Two-line text-only screen – no photo or video playback.
$150 www.panasonic.com
Need a PC that’ll take a beating? Most of these magnesium alloy notebooks can survive spills – onto concrete or from the coffee cup – and operate in extreme temperatures. Call them heavy artillery for road warriors. – Scott Taves
Rugged Notebooks Rough Rider Max
WIRED: Toughest machine tested. Meets 810F military specs for shock, water resistance, and temperature. Rubber plugs waterproof the ports. 14.1-inch display brightest of the group. Options: keyboard backlight and built-in GPS and cellular data. Three-hour battery life.
TIRED: Apocalypse-ready features at a shock-and-awe price. Large handle either presses into groin or interferes with typing.
$4,999 www.ruggednotebooks.com
Panasonic Toughbook 29
WIRED: Battle-tested tech: US troops pack ’em in Iraq. Decent visibility under direct sunlight on 13.3-inch LCD. Best-in-class five-hour battery life. Optional cell data and GPS.
TIRED: Comes standard with floppy drive only (What is this? 1987?!) – optical drive not even an option. Brittle plastic port plugs.
$3,700 www.panasonic.com
Itronix GoBook III
WIRED: Antenna and handle lend it field ops cachet. 12.1-inch display is also a touchscreen. Keyboard glows in dark. Hazardous-location certified. Optional cellular data, GPS, and hard-drive heater for cold weather.
TIRED: Hard to see the screen outdoors – unless you’re in a cave. Battery fizzled out after only two hours.
$4,330 www.gobook3.com
Twinhead Durabook N15RI
WIRED: Inexpensive. Passed spill test. 15-inch screen as bright as the Toughbook’s. Available with a 2.26-GHz Pentium CPU (others in the test top out at 1.6 or 1.8 GHz).
TIRED: Semirugged laptop not officially rated against drops – suffered minor damage to clasps during our test. Open ports susceptible to dust and moisture.
$1,774 www.durabook.com
Coleman Wheeled Ultimate Xtreme Cooler, Mustek PL8A90T and Thermos Grill2Go David Clugston, styled by Shannon Amos/Artist Untied; inset: Getty
Coleman Wheeled Ultimate Xtreme Cooler, Mustek PL8A90T and Thermos Grill2Go David Clugston, styled by Shannon Amos/Artist Untied; inset: Getty
Philips PET724
Philips PET724 
Toshiba SD-P1700
Toshiba SD-P1700 
Coby TF-DVD7107
Coby TF-DVD7107 
Insignia NS-7PDVD
Insignia NS-7PDVD 
MobiBlu B153 (2-Gbyte) Peter Samuels
MobiBlu B153 (2-Gbyte) Peter Samuels
Apple iPod nano (4-Gbyte)
Apple iPod nano (4-Gbyte) 
Samsung YP-Z5AB (4-Gbyte)
Samsung YP-Z5AB (4-Gbyte) 
Panasonic SV-MP020A (2-Gbyte)
Panasonic SV-MP020A (2-Gbyte) 
Rugged Notebooks Rough Rider Max
Rugged Notebooks Rough Rider Max 
Panasonic Toughbook 29
Panasonic Toughbook 29 
Itronix GoBook III
Itronix GoBook III 
Twinhead Durabook N15RI
Twinhead Durabook N15RI Wired Test:
