Top-rated reviews of the week (photos)

Apple iPod Touch 2010 (64GB)

Editors' rating: 4.5 out of 5

The good: The fourth generation of Apple's iPod Touch offers nothing but improvements, including an HD camcorder, front-facing camera, integrated microphone, FaceTime video calling, Retina Display, gyroscope sensor, and a slimmer, lighter design.

The bad: Photo quality doesn't hold up to the iPhone 4's; there's no GPS, and no option for 3G data service.

The bottom line: The iPod Touch is the best iPod yet, offering all the fun of the iPhone experience without a carrier contract or monthly bill.

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Price range: $383.99-$399.99

Samsung Fascinate (Verizon Wireless)

Editors' rating: 4 out of 5

The good: The Samsung Fascinate offers a gorgeous Super AMOLED touch screen, a 1GHz processor, and a great multimedia experience. The smartphone can be used as a mobile hot spot.

The bad: GPS positioning isn't always accurate. For now, you can't save apps to an SD card or voice dial over Bluetooth. Search is locked to Bing.

The bottom line: Sleek and powerful, the Samsung Fascinate is another strong addition to Verizon's Android lineup. Its user interface won't appeal to everyone, particularly seasoned Android users, but it's a good smartphone for the masses.

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Price: $199.99

Western Digital WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit

Editors' rating: 4 out of 5

The good: The Western Digital Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit offers excellent performance and comes with a total of eight network ports. The kit is easy to use and has detachable power cables that won't obstruct the adjacent power sockets.

The bad: The WD Livewire kit is a little bulky.

The bottom line: The WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit is arguably the best powerline adapter kit for homes to date. It's fast, comparatively affordable, and offers plenty of network ports.

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Price range: $99.95-$129.99

Apple iPod Nano 2010 (8GB, silver)

Editors' rating: 3.5 out of 5

The good: The iPod Nano (sixth generation) is nearly half the size of the previous model, uses unique multitouch screen navigation, and includes a built-in clip.

The bad: Many features have disappeared, including video playback, camcorder, microphone, speaker, games, calendar, contacts, notes, and alarm clock. The touch-screen interface is overkill, requiring more attention than the time-tested click wheel design without delivering many practical benefits.

The bottom line: The sixth generation of the iPod Nano is the smallest yet, but it comes at the expense of valuable features and practical controls.

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Price range: $143.00-$149.99

Apple iPod Shuffle 2010 (2GB, blue)

Editors' rating: 3.5 out of 5

The good: The iPod Shuffle returns to its big-button glory days, only this time around it offers support for playlists, audiobooks, podcasts, Genius Mixes, and a multilingual VoiceOver feature that announces track information, battery status, and menu navigation.

The bad: The 2GB capacity can't hold much; there's no headphone remote nor radio; the track controls tend to get pinched when clipping the iPod to your clothes; and the chances of you accidentally running it through the washing machine are quite high.

The bottom line: The iPod Shuffle's buttons are back, and the lightest, smallest MP3 player on the planet is now better than ever.

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Price range: $47-$49

Asus TS Mini (2TB)

Editors' rating: 3.5 out of 5

The good: The Asus TS Mini is a convenient storage and backup solution at an affordable price that offers fast performance. It has a lot of peripheral ports to host additional storage.

The bad: The Asus TS Mini takes a long time to set up and doesn't come with many extra features other than what Windows Home Server offers. The server's design makes servicing its internal storage quite a task.

The bottom line: The Asus TS Mini is a fast and easy-to-use NAS server for home networking. However, it could be frustrating and time-consuming if you want to service its internal storage.

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Price range: $449.99-$533.99

Garmin Nuvi 1490T

Editors' rating: 3.5 out of 5

The good: The Garmin Nuvi 1490T's 5-inch touch screen greatly increases road visibility. Bluetooth hands-free calling, free FM traffic data, and a fuel-saving EcoRoute function further increase this Nuvi's value. Garmin's interface remains one of the easiest to understand.

The bad: The bigger screen doesn't get an increase in resolution, resulting in jagged edges on some of the graphics. Ad-supported traffic may be a turn off to some users.

The bottom line: Anyone who wants a reliable and simple navigation device with a bit more screen real estate won't be disappointed by the Garmin Nuvi 1490T.

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Price range: $189.99-$499.99

LG GS170 (T-Mobile)

Editors' rating: 3.5 out of 5

The good: The LG GS170 has a compact and slim design, and the call quality is very good. It's also very affordable.

The bad: The LG GS170 has no real music player, and photo quality is poor.

The bottom line: The LG GS170 doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but it works as a good and affordable entry-level phone for T-Mobile.

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Price: $0.01

Motorola Charm (T-Mobile)

Editors' rating: 3.5 out of 5

The good: The Motorola Charm is a slim and portable handheld with a roomy keyboard and decent call quality. It comes with Android 2.1, a full HTML browser with Flash Lite, Wi-Fi, 3G, and GPS.

The bad: The display on the Charm is not as vibrant as most other Android phones, and the small screen real estate really makes MotoBlur feel more cluttered than ever. We also think the photo quality is not that good.

The bottom line: If you can look past its design pitfalls, the Motorola Charm is an affordable and usable entry-level Android handheld. Android power users, on the other hand, may want to look elsewhere.

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Price: $9.99