All the Gear We Loved in November

Amazon's easy-to-use security camera lets you peek inside your home from anywhere. It can send you alerts when it detects moving objects or actual humans, comes with infrared night vision to give you a clear picture when it's dark, and, naturally, it works with Alexa. The Cloud Cam can also be used along with Amazon Key to keep an eye on those friendly gig economy workers placing your Amazon prime deliveries in your entryway. Nothing creepy going on here! Read the review here.

Microsoft’s new revved-up Xbox One X packs a faster CPU, beefier graphics cores, and zippier GDDR5 memory. The X’s spec sheet reads like a gamer took the old Xbox One and modded it with a bounty of parts from Newegg. Sure, it’s smaller, but it’s not a typical mid-cycle refresh after all—like the competing PS4 Pro, the Xbox One X is a faster, better version of the Xbox that already exists. Read the review here.

The closest thing to robotic friends we have right now are the growing number of smart speakers, like the Amazon Echo, each with an voice assistant inside them. Instead of a faceless, static speaker, social robot Jibo looks like a cartoon. The robot has no legs, but its shiny white plastic body is a curvy cylinder with a head on top that can move so naturally it looks like a Disney animator sketched it. At $900, adding this bot to the family is a serious investment—but he’s just a seed of what the future of robotics has in store. Read the review here.

Amazon’s updated Kindle Oasis seems to have been designed for people who want to read anywhere and everywhere. It has a larger battery than the last model, so you’ll never be stuck sans reading material. It’s waterproof, so you can read in the shower. (Try it! It’s fun.) The $249 reader even syncs with Audible. This is certainly the most useful Kindle ever, but with an extra inch of screen size and a higher price tag, it's not quite the most usable one. Read the review here.

We know what you’re thinking: Firefox? That browser sucks. But that’s the old Firefox. The new Firefox actually manages to evolve the entire browser experience, and is designed for the mobile-first world. It’s better than Chrome, faster than Chrome, and smarter than Chrome, and should be your new go-to browser. Read the story here.

No matter your personal feelings on kids and screen time, most parents will admit that a screen is a fast and effective way to pacify and angsty toddler. The Fire 7 Kid’s Edition is rugged and can summon kiddo-friendly content in a pinch, and it does so at the reasonable price of $100. It even comes with a year’s subscription to Amazon FreeTime Unlimited. This spaghetti-proof tablet is portable and durable enough to shove into a diaper bag on your way out the door. Read the review here.

It’s been five years since Microsoft first debuted the Surface tablet. At the time, a slim slate that could also replace your laptop was a crazy idea. But the thinking around that concept—and the PC industry—has changed. Yes, the Surface could use some smoothing. But when it comes to 2-in-1 devices that can switch modes between drawing and typing, between work and play, the 2017 Surface Pro is just about as good as it gets. Read the review here.

Razer’s first phone, as you’d expect, is built for gamers. It’s stuffed with all the high specs a gamer could want, and its display has the smoothest scrolling we’ve seen on an Android phone. Whether you’re snapping pictures, churning through the day’s news, or crunching away in Hearthstone, this phone’s got you covered. Read the story here.

Back in 2013, we said we’d hit “peak Bluetooth speaker” when we reviewed Ultimate Ears' first Boom speaker. This year, we’ve hit peak Alexa. The Boom and Megaboom now have two more explosively-named Alexa-powered siblings: the Blast and Megablast. They look and feel almost identical to their older brethren, but these Bluetooth bombs come packed with Wi-Fi, microphones, and everything else Alexa needs. Read the review here.

Smart watches are good for fitness tracking and feeding smartphone notifications to our wrists, but smartwatches remain more of a computing side dish than a main course. But as side dishes go, the 2017 Samsung Gear Sport comes with all the trimmings. It has one of the best smartwatch interfaces around with a fantastic rotating bezel, it’s waterproof up to 50m, has offline Spotify support, and has battery life for days. Read the review here.

Together with Gore-Tex, Converse is diving into the tech market with Urban Utility, a new line of weatherproof mens shoes and outerwear. The shoes and jacket have Converse's casual DNA on the outside and Gore's technology on the inside, and Converse’s first crack at truly technical products is a promising entrance into the streetwear market. Read the story here.

Want an easy way to get a straightforward, no-nonsense look at the state of the art in smartphones? Just check out the OnePlus 5T. It’s a lot like the OnePlus 5, but it packs a bigger 6-inch screen, facial recognition, and a dual camera setup for all your holiday portraits. You'll be able to get a 5T with 64 gigs of storage for just $499. If you're counting, that's half the iPhone X. Read the story here.

There’s no better way to say this: The Plantronics BackBeat Fit earbuds sound amazing. At $80, these headphones aren’t dirt cheap, but they’re durable and offer great workout performance at an accessible price. Just don’t go out running in a tornado—which is good life advice, whether you’re wearing wireless headphones or not. Read the review here.

Is your life lacking a little click and clack? This mechanical keyboard has 104 backlit keys, including the 10-key pad and a full row of function keys. It’s got blue switches, which, for the uninitiated, means this thing is loud. But if you can tolerate your coworkers’ disdain for your new keyboard, the loud and proud Aukey will give you a more satisfying typing experience for under $70. Did we mention that it has flashy lights? Read the review here.

The LV V30 isn’t likely to jump out at you on a crowded store shelf, but it’s secretly one of the best Android phones you can buy. It’s covered in glass on the front and back—glass with curved edges, which is just so 2017—and a beautiful high-resolution OLED screen that covers most of its face. There’s no big sparkly reason to buy a LG V30 over any other phone, and its $800+ price tag doesn’t win it any points. But you won’t regret buying it. Read the review here.

In 2017, making a good laptop is really all about refinement, with one of the best ultrabooks on the market getting just a little bit more polished. The HP Spectre 13 has an attractive design, wildly fast boot speed, snappy performance, and a solid build for all your on-the-go needs. Read the review here.

This smart suitcase looks elegant, rolls with ease, and has the capacity to save your tuchus right when you need it most—when your phone is about to die and you have no way to text your ride or check your car rental confirmation number. Beautiful, yes, but not quite perfect. But there are just too many other moderately-priced smart carry-ons out there right now with features that make a bit more sense. Read the review here.

You may think your wired gaming headset is already sort of wireless. It likely plugs right into the audio jack on your console’s controller. But there is a new level of freedom you can attain. Fully wireless gaming headsets are liberating, and Turtle Beach’s Ear Force Stealth 700 (for Xbox One or PlayStation 4) is one of the better mid-range options out there. Read the review here.

This is a really, really nice controller. It’s customizable, ruggedly-built, has Razer’s signature Chroma lighting, and includes a carrying case. It has a pleasant grippy texture on the back of the hand holds that doesn’t slip no matter how sweaty your mitts get. Read the review here.

Fully wireless earbuds are the closest thing you’ll get to piping music directly into your brain. While there are a number of options out there, Samsung’s latest IconX headphones are the company’s second bite of the apple. They’re far from perfect, but these buds are small, light, and come with a neat charging case to keep the jams going. Read the review here.