The basis upon which many Consumer Reports ratings are set may seem insane to the technology savvy among us. For a long time they would not recommend the iPhone for its lack of removable battery, for example. But the site still holds weight among older generations and so it’s worth taking a look at what they have to say about the top smartphone manufacturers’ newest flagship devices. Like how they recommend the last-gen Samsung Galaxy S5 over the newer Galaxy S6…
Consumer Reports ranked the Sony Smartwatch 3 bottom out of 11 smartwatches after it twice failed tests of its waterproofing claims. The well-respected non-profit carried out a rigorous set of lab tests on 11 competing watches, including the Apple Watch, Asus Zen, the LG G Watch R, Martian Notifier, Moto 360, Pebble Steel, Samsung Gear S and Sony Smartwatch 3.
The organization tested the watches for durability, water-resistance, health functionality, readability in bright and low light, ease of use, and ease of interaction …
To address these claims, several different phones were tested under up to 150 pounds of pressure to see when each model would stop “snapping back” to its original shape. The devices tested were the iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 5, HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and LG G3.
Consumer Reports just published its annual ratings report on wireless carriers, and the general consensus is that the Big Four tend to promise a lot—but their customer satisfaction scores prove they struggle to deliver.
None of the major carriers —Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile— could deliver an overall satisfaction score above 72 percent, as NBCNews mentioned, and Consumer Reports further added that cellphone companies rate the lowest among service providers.
Meanwhile, three smaller companies —Consumer Cellular, U.S. Cellular, and Credo Mobile— held the highest scores for customer satisfaction. U.S. Cellular, for instance, which is the largest of the three with service mostly in the Midwest, topped with a score of 88 percent.
The ratings report complied rankings from over 63,000 reader responses. The final results placed Big Red, a.k.a. Verizon, at No. 1 for overall service quality and availability, while Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T soon followed, respectively.
Verizon is apparently preferred by heavy-data users, but the latter three carriers scored better in the 4G-service department. AT&T had the fewest amount of problems for 4G service overall. Satisfaction scores also varied by location, however. The survey cropped data from 23 metropolitan areas and found AT&T rated significantly better than Verizon in places like Chicago.
Consumer Reports is a nifty website that provides product tests and update availability while serving as a general buying guide for consumer electronics and gadgets, and it just announced the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx as its highest-scoring Verizon Wireless smartphone.
The Razr Maxx is $299.99 on Verizon Wireless with a standard two-year contract. Consumer Reports named it the top-rated phone due to its “exceptionally capacious battery” that surpassed 13 hours during talk-test sessions…
