Tech and Home Gear, Ranked on Real Buyer Data

Four portable SSDs ranked on 124,000+ buyer ratings. Three of the four collect owner reports of the drive failing or losing files. One does not.

Four USB flash drives ranked on 265,000+ buyer ratings. Every speed on every box is a footnoted maximum, and one drive gets genuinely hot.

Four external hard drives, four brands, 518,000+ buyer ratings – and every single one has drive failure recorded as an outright negative theme.

Three car phone mounts ranked on 51,000+ buyer ratings – including two listings that flatly contradict each other on magnet strength.

Four Bluetooth trackers, 82,000+ buyer ratings, and battery is a complaint on every one. Three only work with a single brand of phone.

Four fitness smartwatches, 48,000+ buyer ratings, and the deepest record on the page belongs to the only one with no praised theme at all.

Two Kindles, 42,000+ buyer ratings, seven praised themes each – and each one has exactly one theme buyers argue about, which the other one gets praised for.

Curve radius, ‘up to 200Hz’, 165Hz and a long spec sheet – four monitor claims checked against 31,000+ buyer ratings.

Three dash cams, 46,000+ buyer ratings, and on every single one of them something about the recording itself is what buyers question.

Two photo light boxes, 13,000+ buyer ratings, a tenth of a star apart – and the two things a light box has to do land on opposite sides.

The Ekrin Kestrel holds 4.2 stars, but from only 56 ratings. Here is what that small a record can and cannot tell you before you spend.

The Jumper 33.3 laptop averages 3.6 stars – the lowest we have published. A quarter of its buyers gave it one star, and the record is small.

The ANERIMST speaker holds 4.5 stars from 5,100+ ratings. Its title says waterproof and its description says water-resistant. Those differ.

The Kingamei speaker stand holds 4.3 stars from 400+ ratings with no negative theme – but its listing never fills in which phones it fits.

This K9 crystal prism set holds 4.2 stars from 500+ ratings. The seller’s own listing explains the biggest disappointment in the reviews.

The iOttie Easy One Touch holds 4.2 stars from 3,900+ ratings. Its three biggest arguments are all about the same thing: staying stuck.

The Hoya Pro ND64 holds 4.6 stars from 600+ ratings with no disputed theme at all – and the number in its name is the thing buyers misread.