Kenmore 27132 review – CNET

The Good The $950 Kenmore 27132 top-load washing machine is extremely gentle on clothes and you can find it on sale at Sears for $700.

The Bad This washer’s instrument panel looks nice enough, but its small digital screen isn’t very easy to read. Competing models perform better.

The Bottom Line Kenmore’s 27132 doesn’t distinguish itself in any significant way. Consider other top-loaders before you buy this model.

Order from Sears.

Everything about Kenmore’s $950 27132 top-load washing machine is middle-of-the-road.

• The 27132 looks fine, but the digital screen on its display is small and difficult to read
• This washer has a steam function, but fewer advanced options than GE’s $900 GTW810SSJWS
• It performs decently well, but not as well as Kenmore’s $720 22352 or GE’s $650 GTW485ASJWS

The 27132 is ultimately tough to recommend given its average performance and lack of features.

This Kenmore washing machine doesn’t quite…
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Gettin’ to know the 27132

While this $950 Kenmore top-loader has a standard white design finish, its LED status lights, transparent top lid and curved display panel give it a slightly more luxury look. The 27132 also features a high-efficiency impeller cleaning mechanism in its 4.8-cubic-foot bin. That’s something you won’t find on Kenmore’s 22352 or GE’s GTW485ASJWS, both of which rely on traditional agitators to wash clothes.

Want more details on the difference between impellers and agitators? Check out my washing machine buying guide.

Take a look at this chart for an overview of the 27132’s specs versus other sub-$1,000 washers:

Comparing washing machines

As far as side-by-side comparisons go, Kenmore’s 27132 holds its own pretty well. It may have one or two less cleaning cycles than the competition, but it has a larger cleaning capacity than Kenmore’s 22352 and GE’s GTW485ASJWS (due to its space-saving impeller).

But when you compare it directly to its closest competition — GE’s GTW810SSJWS, the 27132 loses appeal. GE’s GTW810 has a larger cubic-foot capacity, two additional cleaning cycles and a related app for advanced automation. The GTW810 also has a larger digital display on its control panel, making it easier to read how much time is remaining on a cleaning cycle.

Related links:

• This affordable washer is tougher on clothes than stains
• Wi-Fi smarts can’t save this underperforming washer from itself
• How we test washing machines
• There’s a speed demon hidden behind this dryer’s stodgy looks

Cleaning power

To test a washer’s ability to remove stains from clothes, we run fabric strips stained with skin oil, mineral oil, pig’s blood, cocoa and aged red wine through three identical cleaning cycles. Then we calculate how much of the original stains remain. The lower the stain remaining score, the better the washer removed stains.

2017 Kia Niro Release Date, Price and Specs – Roadshow

LeEco Le S3 review – CNET

The Good LeEco’s Le S3 is fast and affordable.

The Bad The phone lacks a headphone jack and NFC, has a clunky interface and its video streaming service doesn’t offer many compelling shows.

The Bottom Line The LeEco Le S3 is a decent budget phone, but the Motorola G4 Plus is better.

The Le S3, the second widely available phone from Chinese phone/TV/video streaming/electronics/basically everything company LeEco, is a less expensive variant of the more powerful LePro 3. At $250 it’s relatively cheap, and packs in some pretty decent hardware. But it isn’t as good as the Moto G4 Plus, our current favorite for the price range. (UK and Australian details have yet to be announced but the US price converts to £200 or AU$340.)

LeEco’s Le S3 phone shines silver
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A few things I liked:

• Clean design: At sub-$300 you’d expect a cheap-feeling phone made out of plastic. But the S3 has a polished aluminum body and shiny metallic trimmings that give it a smart look.

• It’s fast: On paper, the S3 was much faster than other similarly priced Android phones (like the G4 Plus and Samsung Galaxy J3) in benchmark scores to popular testing apps. Day-to-day tasks like launching the camera and scrolling through sites were smooth.

Live content from the internet is accessible with this Live button in the center of your home screen.

Josh Miller/CNET

Things I didn’t like:

• Clunky interface: Just like the LePro 3, the software layer that dresses up Android needs work. Navigating around can be unintuitive, there’s no app drawer (Huawei and Xiaomi do this, too) and your recent apps are merged together with quick settings in one messy page.
• All the video stuff: LeEco’s live broadcasting video service — which sits in your home screen dash and can’t be removed — has clips you can browse from time to time. But there’s nothing really there that I’d actually watch on the regular. The other Le video app and the LeView YouTube video curator don’t have compelling content either.
• Camera’s meh: The phone takes good enough shots for casual pictures and social media, but they aren’t as sharp as other 16-megapixel cameras. And while you can’t tell on a smaller phone screen, images look a lot blurrier and muddier when zoomed in or on a computer desktop.
• Battery life is only OK: The phone has enough battery life to last a workday without a charge and during our lab tests for continuous video playback on airplane mode, it ran 11 and a half hours. While that’s decent, other rival phones lasted 13 to 16 hours.
• No headphone jack or NFC: Unless you love dongles, it’s a drag not to be able to plug in my regular headset to listen to music and calls. And without an NFC chip, you can’t do things like purchase stuff with Android Pay.

The phone also doesn’t have a headphone jack.

Josh Miller/CNET

Other phones you should consider for $200-$250

• Moto G4 Plus ($250, £229 and AU$399): It’s got expandable memory, is water resistant and takes sharper pictures.
• Asus ZenFone 3 ($199, which converts to £159 and AU$269): This one has a more advanced camera that also includes laser-guided autofocus.
• Samsung Galaxy J3 ($110-$180 depending on US carrier, £140 and AU$329): Super cheap and available through major carriers and retailers. Not as powerful as the Le S3, but it’s easier to use and has a long-lasting battery.
• The Google Nexus 5X or OnePlus 2 (prices vary): If you’re willing, look into deeply discounted devices that were released in 2015. Though they may have “last year’s technology,” they are reliable and are still more powerful than the S3.