From earbuds to e-books: the best tech gifts for holidays 2024

TP-Link Tapo RV30 Robot Vacuum & Mop Pretty much since their inception, robot vacuums have by and large felt better in theory than in reality. No longer. The TP-Link has a ticket price of $800 but is less than $400 on sale, offering great value and plenty of smarts to boot. The RV30 uses LiDAR technology to map out your house in minutes and avoid repeated cleaning, and its 5000 mAh battery is good for five hours of continuous cleaning. Oh, and it cleans pretty darn well, too.

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 For a low-cost, high-value stocking stuffer it’s hard to go past Xiaomi’s $60 Smart Band, which is probably the cheapest fitness tracker money can buy. While lacking some of the features of rivals from Apple and Fitbit, Xiaomi’s wearable offers sleep tracking, step counting, heart rate monitoring, and calorie counting, which are all reasonably accurate. As a gift for someone’s first fitness tracker, Xiaomi’s gadget is an easy recommendation.

Garmin Fenix 8 At the total other end of the spectrum is Garmin’s latest effort, the $1850 Fenix 8, which is targeted at serious athletes (and wannabe athletes). Boasting some significant hardware upgrades from its predecessor – a new speaker and microphone let you take calls while you’re on run – the watch has had a user interface overhaul, including revamped icons, widgets and settings. Its battery lasts for weeks, not days, and when Garmin calls its device the “ultimate GPS smartwatch” it’s hard to disagree.

Sound and audio

Sonos Ace When Sonos released its first portable headphones in the $700 Ace earlier this year, it also added a whole host of bugs and issues to its app, which have frustrated customers to no end. Thankfully, most of those problems are now resolved, and what we’re left with are some of the highest quality Bluetooth headphones that cost under $1000. Featuring superior noise cancellation, excellent sound quality and a TV audio swap feature for Sonos soundbar users, the Sonos Ace is an impressive piece of kit.

Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 Bone conduction technology sounds rather threatening, but the concept is pretty simple: headphones that sit next to your ears, rather than in them. They wrap around the back of your head and are ideal for runners and swimmers, given they let you hear your surroundings including sirens and oncoming traffic. Perhaps the best of the bunch is the OpenRun Pro 2, from Shokz, which somehow manages to offer strong sound quality and 90 minutes of battery life with just a five-minute charge. You can find them for around $200.

Apple AirPods 4 with ANC Even if you don’t like invasive silicon ear tips, or the idea of paying $400 for earbuds, Apple’s latest non-Pro AirPods give you a taste of noise-cancelling goodness. The $300 AirPods 4 with ANC have an open design, like the non-ANC version, but they do a pretty good job at blocking out most sounds. You can also turn on transparency mode to amplify ambient noise, or adaptive mode to hide droning background sound while letting speech through. They’re also all-round great earbuds, with a water resistant design, long battery life and support for Spatial Audio.

KZ EDX Pro You can’t get much more wallet-friendly than the KZ EDX Pro in-ear monitors, which offer incredible bang for buck at less than $10 if bought through AliExpress or Temu, or about $27 through Amazon. For those who like their music bassy, these small but muscular in-ear headphones offer plenty of punchy punch, and pair great with an iPhone (just remember to also buy one of those 3.5mm adapters to be able to plug them in). Some prefer wired earbuds to Bluetooth, and these offer stunning sound at a puny price point.

Tablets and e-readers

iPad The standard iPad (10th Gen) is a wonderful tablet from $600 and will be more than enough for most people. Its A14 chip (from the iPhone 12) is getting a bit long in the tooth but still delivers plenty of power. Stepping up to the iPad Mini ($800) or Air ($1000) will get you a nicer screen, more performance, Apple Intelligence and support for the fancier Apple Pencil. For a less expensive option you can find the 9th Gen iPad for less than $400, just be aware it has an old Lightning port (instead of USB-C) if you’re also picking up accessories.

Pixel Tablet Google’s entry is the best all-round Android slab on the market. It won’t win against-high-end Samsungs in terms of spec, but it looks great and is filled with useful Google software thanks to the AI-forward G2 chip it shares with the Pixel 8 phones. You can also buy it in a bundle with a magnetic stand that charges it, gives its audio a bassy boost and allows it to act as a smart home display. The recommended price is $900 with the stand or $730 without, but you can currently find it pretty deeply discounted.

Kindle If it’s been a while since your book-loving giftee has updated their Kindle, now is a great time. Amazon’s newest $200 entry-level model is quite small with a 6-inch screen, but it has the sharp 300dpi screen and built-in light that you used to have to pay extra for. One step above that, the $300 Paperwhite has adjustable colour lighting for late-night reading, a larger 7-inch screen and a waterproof body. Or there’s the $550 Kindle Scribe, which is much bigger (but not waterproof) and comes with a pen you can use to mark up books or keep your own digital notepads.

Kobo If someone doesn’t have an e-reader at all or is open to changing brands, I tend to recommend Rakuten’s Kobo. While the Kindle is more or less locked to Amazon’s services, the Kobo has a comparable store and also works with ebooks from other retailers, digital files from the internet and many local libraries via the Overdrive service, meaning cheap or free access to books. The Clara has a 6-inch screen, adjustable colour light and is waterproof, available with a regular black and white screen for $240, or a new colour screen (which makes book covers and magazines pop) for $260.

Consoles and video games

PlayStation 5 The standard PS5 goes for $800, though you also have the option of a digital version for $680 (meaning you can’t play games from discs) or a pro version for $1200 (more storage and better performance on 4K TVs). Most major games come out for PS5, including some key titles that are exclusive to the platform, making it very popular. For existing PS5 owners, the $330 PlayStation Portal could be a good upgrade; it’s a handheld device that streams games from the console so users can play away from the TV. It does require a very strong Wi-Fi network to work well though.

Xbox The Series X is also $800, though you can once again save some money by dropping the disc drive (with the digital version going for $700). Most of the new games available on Xbox are also sold on other platforms, but it remains a very strong console with a lot of older games available as well, plus it’s the best place to play games from Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service. Another option is the less-expensive Series S ($500 or $550 depending on storage size). It has no disc drive and isn’t powerful enough for 4K graphics, but it plays all the same games as its bigger sibling.

Switch Nintendo’s console is old and due to be superseded next year, but anyone who doesn’t have one yet will still love it. The standard model can play on the TV or as a handheld and goes for $450, while the nicer OLED screen model is around $500. The cute Switch Lite is cheaper at $300 but does not connect to the TV. A good option to go with a Switch is a $100 Pro Controller (for TV compatible systems) or a nice case to keep it safe (from around $25). There are plenty of gift card options too, including for the Switch Online service that provides access to a library of classic games.

Games Gift cards for digital stores are the best option, but if you prefer to go physical here are some guaranteed hits from 2024. On PS5, the best recent exclusive games are Astro Bot (G, $100) and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (M, $70). On both PS5 and Xbox, some other great new games are Star Wars Outlaws (M, $100) and Dragon Age: The Veilguard (MA15+, $100). For new Switch exclusives, you can’t go past The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (PG, $80) or Super Mario Party Jamboree (G, $80). And on all platforms I’d also recommend Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (M, $50) and Sonic X Shadow Generations (PG, $80) from this year.

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