33 Best Gifts for Dads

This conical burr coffee grinder from Oxo is one of the least expensive models that excels in CR tests. Respectable scores in all the grind performance tests make it a good choice for any brew method. It also earns a fine rating for convenience, thanks to clearly marked and easy-to-use controls, and the removable hopper makes cleaning it a breeze. It’s a bit noisy, though. It features 15 grind settings, a 12-ounce bean hopper (one of the largest), an auto-stop feature, and a timer.

For more options: Best and Worst Burr Coffee Grinders

A conventional drip coffee maker with a modern twist, the Cuisinart DCC-T20 Touchscreen 14-Cup Programmable offers slick touchscreen controls and makes plenty of java for a full house with a 14-cup glass carafe. This model excels in both brewing performance and convenience in our tests. In addition to more standard features like programming, auto-shutoff, a cleaning indicator, and a permanent filter, it also offers less common perks, such as a water filter, brew-strength control, and a small-batch setting. It’s a bit pricey, but for the investment, you can count on an all-around great coffee maker for busy mornings and dinner parties.

For more options: Best Combination Coffee Makers

The Tramontina Enameled Cast-Iron Series 1000 frying pan excels at two tasks you might do often in a cast-iron skillet: searing (as with a steak) and browning (perhaps scallops). It also nabs a near-top-level rating in our baking test, which is on a par with most of the top pans in this category, and it’s easy to clean, too.

For more options: Best Cast-Iron Frying Pans

The budget-friendly Dash Digital Tasti-Crisp air fryer is small but mighty. With a measured capacity of 1.9 quarts, this 6-pound model is one of the most compact models in our air fryer ratings. Still, it ranks among the best. It earns high marks for its controls and ease of cleaning, and it’s relatively quiet. It has a one-year warranty, which is typical for air fryers.

For more options: Best Air Fryers

The aluminum Our Place Perfect Pot heats up quickly and bakes bread that comes out with a crispy crust, earning an excellent rating on both tests. It’s just as good at simmering sauces, too, and it heats evenly. Best of all, it’s a cinch to clean. (That said, its handle gets hotter than we’d like it to during heating.) It weighs only 4.5 pounds, and it has a cooking surface that’s 10.1 inches in diameter.

For more options: Best Dutch Ovens

The 10-piece Oxo Tri-Ply Stainless Mira Series cookware set can cover all your dad’s cooking needs. It comes with two frying pans (one nonstick), two saucepans, a sauté pan, and a stockpot. All but the frying pans have their own lids. These pans ace our tests for cooking evenness, sauce simmering, speed heating, and food release—the last one in which we cook four eggs in a row to see how easily they slide out. These are also very easy to clean. Like most high-end pans, the handles are sturdy and stay cool to the touch as you cook.

For more options: Best Cookware Sets

The noise-canceling technology on the Apple AirPods Pro is terrific, with an effective transparency mode that pipes in outside sound to allow you to hear what’s going on around you. The latest Pros also add an adaptive transparency mode that’s supposed to attenuate loud noises, but Allen St. John, a senior product writer at Consumer Reports, found it didn’t work as well as he hoped. And, of course, the Pros offer easy interaction with all Apple devices.

For more options: Best Noise-Canceling Headphones

The Sony WF-1000XM5 wireless noise-canceling earbuds sound simply fantastic and are one of the very few models that achieve our top rating for sound quality. They replaced the highly rated XM4s, and our testers report some improvements. The WF-1000XM5s sound slightly better than the XM4s, with just a bit less distortion. They also offer top-notch noise cancellation with an effective ambient mode that allows you to hear what’s going on around you, making them a solid choice for walkers and runners.

For more options: Best Workout Earbuds

The Edifier S1000MKII provides top-notch sound. The high frequencies are clear and smooth, and the extended bass remains musical, so you can tell the difference between, say, an upright bass and an electric Fender Jazz Bass. The S1000MKII comes as a pair, and they include a variety of connections, from robust Bluetooth pairing to RCA and digital jacks. They’re not designed to work as part of a multiroom system, though. They’re all about playing music in one place with truly impressive fidelity. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

For more options: Best Smart Speakers

The Samsung HW-Q800D, a 5.1.2-channel model from 2024, is among the best soundbars in our ratings, with very good overall sound. It can be expanded to 7.1.4 surround channels by purchasing an optional rear speaker kit. It supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive audio formats—the main enclosure has upfiring speakers to create a sense of height—and can wirelessly receive Dolby Atmos signals from compatible Samsung TVs. It has a dedicated center-channel speaker and a few voice-clarity features that can help make dialogue easier to understand. This model has several Samsung features, including Q Symphony, which lets you use the TV and soundbar speakers together.

For more options: Best Soundbars

The premium-priced Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd gen) has a motorized 10-inch touchscreen that pivots to follow you around a room. The voice-enabled touchscreen is a handy way to view recipes or make video calls without having to touch a laptop, tablet, or smartphone with your messy fingers. While the Echo Show 10 falls short of the previous-generation Show in terms of audio quality—a slight distortion in the midrange is the most significant flaw—it still sounds quite good. Our testers also report that the Echo Show 10 is a breeze to set up; you just follow the directions on the touchscreen.

For more options: Which Amazon Smart Speaker Should You Buy?

As with its predecessor, the Sonos One, Sonos’ Era 100 smart speaker has two features that make it a great choice for a wireless multiroom system: its small size and relatively low price. The Era 100 outperforms the One in several key ways, including delivering a deeper bass while maintaining the clean, detailed midrange that has long been a Sonos strength. More importantly, it also offers single-box stereo, so you can get impressive stereo sound at a modest price.

For more options: Which Sonos Speaker Should You Buy?

The second-generation Apple Watch SE packs in many of the features most people desire in a smartwatch, such as a heart rate monitor, step tracking, sleep tracking, calorie tracking, and a touchscreen display. Plus, it leaves out the higher-end tech and add-ons that sometimes go unused, like a blood oxygen sensor and the ability to take your own electrocardiogram. In exchange, the price is lower than other Apple Watches. You can even personalize the SE with one of the new bands designed for the higher-end models.

For more options: Which Apple Watch Should You Buy?

The LG Gram 17" (17Z90TL-H.AUB8U3) was tested with an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V 3.3GHz processor, 32GB of memory, integrated Intel Arc 140V graphics, a touchscreen, and a 1TB solid-state drive. This laptop has a longer battery life compared with other laptops of this size and is lightweight at 3.1 pounds. The matte display helps to reduce distracting glare in bright rooms or outdoors.

For more options: Best Laptops

If you’re looking for a tablet to do simple tasks, the Amazon Fire Max 11 is a solid pick. The device has an 11-inch display and is powerful enough to stream Netflix or Disney+, play simple games like Minecraft, and scroll through social media. It weighs just over 1 pound and has a battery that lasts an impressive 13.3 hours in our web-browsing test. You also get 64GB of built-in storage. 

For more options: Best Tablets

The Plank by Brooklyn Bedding Premium Shredded Foam pillow impressed evaluators in every test. It offers top-tier support for both back and side sleepers, which, along with its firmness and height, is expected to remain unchanged with use. Because it excels in our breathability assessment and has cooling properties, sleepers can expect a comfortable surface that helps regulate their body temperature throughout the night. This pillow is adjustable, so you can remove, add, and reposition the filling to fit your needs.

For more options: Best Pillows

The top-rated Oral-B iO 7 electric toothbrush earns excellent ratings for cleaning and battery life in CR’s tests, and strong scores for both ease of use and noise output. It has a timer, a pressure sensor, five cleaning modes, and a battery-level indicator, and it can connect to a smartphone app.

For more options: Best Electric Toothbrushes

Want to get your dad a luxury he probably wouldn’t buy for himself? For around $80 for the set, the organic Turkish waffle bath towels from Quince are a relative bargain given their high quality. They’re exceedingly soft, even after washing. Although softness is often antithetical to a quick drying time, the Quince waffle towels manage both. This was the only brand to excel in all tests except one—shrinkage. 

For more options: Best Bath Towels

The Samsonite Outline Pro Carry-On Spinner is the only hard-shell carry-on luggage in our ratings to earn a top mark for usability. That’s in part because it can be expanded and its handle can be raised to six positions, a boon for travelers of different heights. Special features include a compartment divider, a lock, and a built-in USB port for charging electronics. One caveat: Its listed dimensions of 23x15x10 inches might exceed the carry-on dimension limits of some domestic airlines.

For more options: Best Hard-Shell Carry-On Luggage

With its relatively low price and admirable test performance, the expandable Amazon Basics 21-Inch Hardside Spinner is a worthwhile pick for those who don’t care about the bells and whistles. It aces most of our durability tests. In tests of usability, carrying and pulling, construction quality, ergonomics and design, and safety, the Amazon Basics racks up strong scores. It’s 7.1 pounds. But its warranty covers the bag only for one year. And the manufacturer’s listed dimensions of 22x14.9x10 inches are slightly larger than the carry-on dimension requirements of most domestic airlines.

For more options: Best Hard-Shell Carry-On Luggage