Product comparisons with the trade-offs left in

A good comparison doesn't crown a winner. It tells you which option wins for which person. Two robot vacuums with the same suction rating can behave very differently on a shag rug. Two phone plans with the same price can split sharply once you add a second line or travel abroad.

Our comparisons use tables for the specs and plain sentences for the parts specs don't capture: how loud something is, how hard it is to get a replacement part, whether the company is known for honoring its warranty. We note whether a comparison is based on our own hands-on use or on published testing and manufacturer documents.

If you want independent lab results, Consumer Reports runs large testing programs, and we link to their headlines below. We'd rather point you to real testing than pretend to have done it.

Coming up: how to set up your own side-by-side comparison, and the beginner mistakes that make two products look more alike than they are.