It’s never too early to start thinking about gifts for your loved ones and to get ahead, some people do their shopping now! It helps relieve the feeling of being cash strapped at the end of the year. In that light we’re going to list ten of our absolute favorite electronics to help you in your quest to pick the best gifts.
Price Selection
Picking gifts that won’t break the budget is critical so we’re going to split up our list into two groups. The first group will have gifts between $0 and $500, the second group will list items between $501 and $1200. There are some pretty amazing things in this price spectrum so let’s get to it!
$0-$500
MPOW Streambot Mini-Bluetooth
This is such a brilliant little device it’s almost ridiculous. A lot of vehicles these days come with Bluetooth for calls but don’t have A2DP for music. This little guy eases that pain and allows people with older vehicles to get in on the fun.
The Streambot simply plugs into the 3.5mm aux port in your vehicle and it’s powered by a quick charging battery that lasts up to 10 hours. All you have to do after that is sync to the Bluetooth on your phone and you’re rocking out. Forget the wonkiness of the old FM tuner adapters this thing is crystal clear no matter where it is in your vehicle. The best part is that it’s only $20 on Amazon which is more than half off its original price!
Raspberry Pi 2
The maker on your gift list deserves a well-supported piece of hardware to make their gadgets with. The Raspberry Pi 2 is a powerful tool with features like a 900MHz quad-core ARM processor, 1GB of RAM, HDMI port, and Video Core 4 3D graphics core.
The Raspberry Pi 2 is inexpensive at $35 and has a huge following so there isn’t any shortage of guides to make stuff with.
UE Roll
The UE Roll is one of those products that is a must have regardless if you actually need one. Ultimate Ears has been dominating to Bluetooth speaker market with their Boom and Mega Boom speakers. While the Mega Boom could be considered the original HUMMER the Roll is more like the baby H3.
This thing floats in a pool, hot tub, or even river and its IPX7 rating proves it. It features a rather large built-in bungee clip that can be used to mount it on to a back pack strap among other things. Your $99 also gets you a 65ft Bluetooth range, 9hr battery life, 360 degree sound, and over the air updates. Oh and don’t forget, it’s also compatible with both Android and OS devices.
UE MEGABOOM
In the same vein as the UE Roll, I present to you the UE MEGABOOM, a Bluetooth speaker which improves on UE Boom before it. The MEGABOOM is bigger, more waterproof (IPX7), louder, and has a longer battery life than its sibling at 20hrs.
The best part about it is has just seen a reduction in price from $299 to $269! If you are camping or just hanging out on your patio the MEGABOOM has got your tunes.
GoPro Hero 4 Session
Meet the GoPro Hero 4 Session, and interesting offering from the GoPro folks. The Session is even smaller than the normal Hero 4 so it is perfectly suited to capturing all of your recipient’s adventures.
The Session packs powerful capabilities like 1080p video capture at 60fps and 720p at 100fps for slow motion playback. Even more impressive still is the ability to take 8MP photos with burst mode and time lapse capability. You can even remotely control it via optional wireless remote or phone app and its waterproof down to 33 feet! At $399 the quality and performance are hard to beat.
Apple Watch Sport
Apple’s new watch is something everyone needs if they’re even remotely active. The addition of the Apple Watch has also made Apple the second largest wearable maker so app support is going to be huge. It does everything you could possibly want like take phone calls and give directions among other things.
It’s also got hardware like a specially formulated aluminum chassis, Retina display, and a fancy fluroelastomer band. The Apple Watch comes in two sizes: 38mm and 42mm so it will fit whoever you have in mind. They’re priced at $349 for the 38mm and $399 for the 42mm in the Apple store.
$501-$1200
Oakley Airwave 1.5
This is a holiday gift guide so it makes sense to include some winter oriented devices. The Oakley Airwave is a real neat piece of kit. It uses Bluetooth to connect to your smartphone to use the GPS. Why GPS? The Airwave has the ability to display speed, vertical feet traveled, where runs are located, and where friends are located.
Yes, the Airwave has a HUD that is the equivalent of a 14in screen displayed at a distance of 5 feet. This one of the coolest gadgets for a ski bum I have seen and it provides all of the quality you would expect from Oakley. The price is $649 on Oakley’s website but it can be found for as low as $389.99 on Backcountry.com.
Microsoft Surface Pro 3
Microsoft’s Surface has made great leaps and bounds recently with the Surface Pro 3. Though still not quite a lap top killer the Surface 3 is adept at carrying out web browsing, Photo Shop, and multimedia tasks. It makes a great travel companion because you can rip off the keyboard and immerse yourself in Netflix if you wish.
The tablet side of this device lends itself well to the artistic types as it comes with a stylus and technology that lets you rest your other hand on the screen without issue. For the Surface Pro 3 a 12in HD display is standard and it can be had with i3, i5, and i7 processors with 4 GB or 8 GB of RAM. Storage comes in 64GB, 128GB, 256, and 512 flavors while the keyboard is an optional $129. Pricing starts at a reasonable $799.
Traktor S8 DJ Controller
This gift idea is for the budding/expert DJ in your family. EDM music is made using some the most high-tech equipment and it makes sense that you would have high tech equipment controlling it.
The S8 takes the traditional turntables into the 21st century with two LCD displays and touch sensitive strips for audio control. You can edit tracks and remix them on the fly with the MIDI pad. The price for the ultimate in live music control is $999.
Makerbot Replicator Mini
Makerbot is one of the pioneers of 3D printing and is certainly one of the most popular brands of 3D printers. This gift would be great for someone who wants take their maker skills to the next level.
The Makerbot Replicator Mini is small enough to sit on a desk and features built-in Wi-Fi and camera. This beast also features a 200 micron layer resolution for excellent detail on your creations. Whomever receives it will also be privy to hundreds of thousands of designs on Makerbot’s forum. It has recently been discounted to $1089.99 on Amazon so 3D printing is even more accessible.
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