Great Gifts for Moms

A more affordable take on Ninja’s Coffee Bar brewers, the Ninja Specialty CM401 is a terrific all-in-one machine, capable of brewing hot and iced coffee, lattes, macchiatos, and other specialty brews. In our tests, it receives an Excellent rating for brew performance, and its glass carafe handles with ease. This model is also packed with features, including an over-ice brew mode for iced coffee, a built-in milk frother, brew-strength control, and brew-size adjustment for everything from travel mugs to full carafes. It’s one of the most versatile coffee makers we’ve tested.

For more options: Best Drip Coffee Makers

This Cuisinart coffee grinder earns a Good rating in overall performance and is a breeze to clean, earning an Excellent score in that regard. It also features dial, button, and slider controls, and can hold about 8 ounces of coffee. At this price, it's a solid pick for turning out a tasty cup of joe.

For more options: Best and Worst Burr Coffee Grinders

The Vitamix 5200 scores top marks in our tests for making icy drinks, puréeing soup, and crushing ice. It’s also one of the few models we’ve tested that makes hot soup from raw ingredients using just the friction from the blades to heat things up. Vitamix beats the competition in terms of owner satisfaction, too, earning an Excellent rating for that and for predicted reliability. Yes, you’ll pay a premium for this blender—it’s one of the most expensive we’ve tested—but you’re getting a hardworking machine that can make smoothies and more on a daily basis. Plus, it comes with a 7-year warranty.

For more options: Best Blenders for Making Smoothies

KitchenAid’s classic 5-quart mixer has been among our highest-rated models for a long while, and at $200 it’s a very good value. It combines excellent whipping, mixing, and kneading functions, plus it can take on an assortment of power attachments, including a pasta maker and food grinder. It comes with a whisk, flat beater, and dough hook.    

For more options: Best Stand Mixers

If you’re a fan of Apple’s earlier Watches, you should like the new Series 8 as well. It looks and feels a lot like the Series 7 model. The case and display are the same—with just a slight change in the color selection—and the interface and main features look familiar, too. The Series 8 features new body temperature sensors and a high g-force sensor for car crash detection. It also has an ECG function designed to detect unusual heart rhythms and a blood oxygen sensor for added sleep-tracking accuracy, which differentiates the Series 8 from the value-priced SE.

For more options: The Best Smartwatches

The Bose Smart Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 are the long-awaited successor to the company’s flagship QuietComfort 35 Series II headphones (which are usually at least $100 cheaper). The two models are almost identical in performance: Both deliver superb sound quality and noise cancellation. But the Bose 700 earphones have a much slimmer profile when folded up, and they have a few updated elements, including more integration with digital assistants, touch controls, and sensors for Bose’s “augmented reality” apps. Bose has kept some of the best-loved features from its older models as well, such as adjustable levels of noise cancellation, a monitoring mode to let in sound from your environment, and an advertised 20-hour battery life.

For more options: Best Noise-Canceling Headphones to Buy Right Now

The 1000XM3 headphones are a popular noise-canceling model from Sony with a true wireless design, meaning there’s no cable connecting the earpieces. They get solid marks in our ratings for audio quality and blocking out sound. They have touch controls, adjustable levels of noise cancellation, a generous battery life, and a slew of other features. They aren’t our No. 1 noise-canceling pick, but at this price they’re a great value.

For more options: Best Wireless Headphones

The Jabra Move Style Edition, an on-ear Bluetooth model with a sleek appearance and better-than-average sound quality, comes with convenient features, like controls for calls, playback, and volume, and the option to forgo Bluetooth and use the detachable audio cable included with your purchase. The headphones have a closed, isolating design that will keep some noise from leaking in or out during a listening session. The headphones have an advertised 14-hour battery life, more than enough to get you through a day of listening.

For more options: Best Headphones Under $100

This 12.3-inch 2-in-1 detachable laptop shows fast speeds in our tests and is suitable for complex school or office work. But you might notice a lag when media editing or playing video games. The display is bright, has wide viewing angles, and shows lifelike colors. Battery life is reasonably long at 10.5 hrs in web-browsing tests, and at just 2.4 pounds, it’s lighter than typical laptops in this size category. And of course, there’s something to be said for being able to remove the keyboard to use like a tablet.

For more options: Best Laptops

The Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus has an 8-inch screen that makes it a solid choice for those who enjoy reading or watching movies. It has 3GB memory and is available with 32GB storage, but you can also add a micro-SD memory card for more storage. Battery life is impressive. But our tests found that it’s slower than most other tablets we’ve tested, though it’s acceptable for most everyday tasks, such as web browsing or email.

For more options: Best Tablets

The Apple Watch SE packs in a vast majority of features most people desire in a smartwatch and leaves out the higher-end tech and add-ons that sometimes go unused. And in exchange, the price is lower than for other Apple Watches. The SE comes in two sizes (40mm or 44mm) and two hardware configurations (GPS-only or GPS plus cellular). The bands are interchangeable, too.

For more options: Which Apple Smart Watch Should You Buy?

It’s been a stressful year, so why not give Mom something that can help her drop out and tune in? The Edifier S1000MKII powered Bluetooth speaker provides top-notch sound with tight and musical bass and a midrange that lets her hear every nuance of her favorite singer’s best performance. And for a very reasonable price of about $350, Mom gets a stereo pair of Edifiers, which allows the speakers to create a convincing illusion that the musicians are right there in the room with her.

For more options: Best Wireless Speakers Under $200

This Brooklinen set will fit a 14-inch mattress (or shorter). Our testers noted that these sheets don’t shrink as much as some other cotton sheets we’ve tested. They earn a Very Good rating for both fit and shrinkage, which means though they do tend to get smaller during washes, they don’t deform all that much over time. Luxe Core sheets are on the softer side based on our sensory test. Labels along each side that read “short side” and “long side” make clear which way to make the bed.

For more options: Best and Worst Sheets