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HTC One S and crazy-expensive headphones are the top-reviewed tech this week

CNET Reviews Editor in Chief Lindsey Turrentine dishes on T-Mobile's best phone and why we think you (or, someone, anyway) should pay $1,300 for a pair of headphones.

Lindsey Turrentine EVP, Content and Audience
Lindsey Turrentine is executive vice president for content and audience. She has helped shape digital media since digital media was born.
Lindsey Turrentine
2 min read

Sometimes, you really do get what you pay for. In this week's roundup of CNET's top-rated gear, I'll explore some premium choices, but prepare yourself for sticker rage.

Top-rated reviews of the week (photos)

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HTC One S shows T-Mobile customers how the other half lives
Case in point: On T-Mobile, cheaper phone plans mean fewer high-end smartphone choices -- and by fewer, we mean no Android Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones at all...until now. This week, T-Mo joined the ICS club with the HTC One S, which our reviewer Brian Bennett calls T-Mobile's best phone yet. It's thinner than the iPhone 4S or the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, with an 8-megapixel camera that plays with the big boys. The One S' dedicated image processer and HDR mode make your photos look deeper and brighter, too. (Don't know about HDR photography? Educate yourself with this fantastic tutorial from Sharon Vaknin of CNET How To. Your photos will thank you.)

The HTC One S doesn't have a quad-core CPU, but sometimes quad-core doesn't matter, and we found the phone snappy nonetheless. You'll have to pay $200 for the One S, though -- a lot when you can buy phones like the Nokia Lumia 900 for $50 from other carriers.

Ultrasone Signature Pro headphones sound like (really freaking expensive) butter
The One S is a downright bargain compared with the $1,300, German-engineered headphones we reviewed this week. The Ultrasone Signature Pro over-the-ear headphones sound like they cost, though: rich. Our reviewer says that this set has "vivid clarity, producing remarkable sound even compared with other high-end headphones." Plus, these headphones are made of leather. Can't beat that for fancy, but to put these cans in perspective pricewise, most rave-reviewed, audiophile-ready sets of headphones cost between $150 and $300.

The high-end products this week don't stop at headphones -- there's plenty more to make you jealous of your rich friends. Lori Grunin says that the $1,700 Fujifilm X-Pro 1 approximates a Leica with bar-none image quality, and TV reviewer David Katzmaier gives the $3,300 Samsung PN64E8000 positive marks for the kind of picture quality only plasma can muster, plus "the industry's most capable Smart TV platform."