86 TIME November 30/December 7, 2020
BEST INVENTIONS 2020
HOUSEHOLD
MEALS MADE EASY
Chef iQ Smart Cooker
The multicooking
renaissance continues:
after the Instant Pot
brought food-prep
machines to the masses,
the Chef iQ breaks ground
by upping the tech factor
and making it dummy-
proof. The wi-fi -enabled
cooker features sensors,
software and a screen to
guide you through some
200 recipes, with more
added every day. But the
Chef iQ ($200) isn’t just
for newbies: an internal
scale, variable pressure
and release, and a
“ferment” mode make the
machine highly tweakable
for gastro geeks. “We’re
still missing restaurants,”
says Chef iQ CEO Ralph
Newhouse, “but people
have been able to use this
to get some seriously good
results.” —JESSE WILLOUTDOORS
THE ULTIMATE COOLER
YETI V Series
Lamenting that the gorgeous stainless-
steel ice chests of midcentury have
been cost-engineered nearly out of
existence, the team at Texas-based YETI
decided to build their own, sparing no
expense: the stainless-steel-clad YETI V
Series, an $800 hard-sided cooler that
weighs 35 lb. empty and can keep 46
cans of beer chilly for many, many days
after your last tailgate guests have left.
Its secret is vacuum- insulated panels,
which keep the internal temperature
lower for longer, yet allow for more
space inside. “Over the course of
several engineering builds, we probably
destroyed over a hundred samples,”
says YETI manager Evan Goldberg. The
result might just last for decades.
—JESSE WILLCONSUMER ELECTRONICS
THE PHONE
THAT DOUBLES
AS A NOTEBOOK
Microsoft Surface Duo
Is it a phone or is it a notebook?
In the case of Microsoft’s
Surface Duo, the answer is it’s
both. The dual-screen Android
smartphone ($1,399) opens
like a spiral binder, revealing
a pair of screens. Unfold it and
it’s a digital notebook—drag
items from one app to another,
expand a single app to fi ll both
screens (perfect for reading),
or use a Surface Pen to get some
writing done on one screen while
you chat on the other. You can
also fold the device back over
itself and use the single screen
as a traditional cell phone. The
Surface Duo feels like a concept
device but also a glimpse into the
future of mobile computing: it
won’t replace your iPhone and
its killer camera just yet, but it’s
easy to see how it one day might.
—PATRICK LUCAS AUSTIN