12 Cool Gadget Gift Ideas For Techies: 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
CRN’s 2024 Holiday Gift Guide includes a range of cool gadget gift ideas for the techies in your life, ranging from the Odd Ball musical instrument and minimalist Light Phone II to the Playdate handheld gaming system and Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.
Yes, it’s that time of year again, and you must once again figure out what kind of gifts you’re going to buy for your tech-loving friends and family members.
Thankfully, CRN has assembled a 2024 Holiday Gift Guide that provides you with some compelling gadget gift ideas, whether it’s the Yoto Mini audio player for a little one, the Odd Ball for the eclectic music fan in your life or the Light Phone II for that friend who needs life to be a little less noisy and distracting.
What follows are 12 cool gadget gift ideas for techies, which, in addition to the aforementioned hardware, includes the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, Playdate handheld gaming system and Nightside NS01 personal task lamp, among other things.
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
Starting list price: $299
Where to buy: Meta website
The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses combine style and a light-weight form factor with features like an HD camera, open-ear speakers and a capture button that enable capabilities ranging from capturing hands-free photos and videos to AI-powered voice commands. These specs also make hands-free voice or video calls possible. You can use them to listen to your favorite music and podcasts too on top of livestreaming your surroundings. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are available in different styles and with prescription lenses.
Playdate
List price: $199
Where to buy: Playdate website
The Playdate eschews expectations for handheld gaming systems with a small and bright-yellow form factor, a unique black-and-white display and a Gameboy-like button arrangement that is augmented with a quirky crank control. The handheld comes with a library of 24 free games, and it can play other titles on the Playdate digital store—all of which were developed to take advantage of the system’s unique traits.
Yoto Mini
List price: $69.99
Where to buy: Yoto website
The Yoto Mini is a screen-free audio player that gives kids a fun way to listen to music and stories on the go. Kids can use the audio player to load stories with Yoto cards available to purchase on the company’s website. It can be loaded with more than 600 hours of audio using Wi-Fi, and it can also serve as a Bluetooth speaker.
Analogue Pocket
List price: $219.99
Where to buy: Analogue website
The Analogue Pocket is your gateway to video game nostalgia, thanks to its field-programmable gate array chip that can mimic the circuitry of several classic gaming systems, including the Nintendo Game Boy and Sega Game Gear. Sporting a minimalist design inspired by the Game Boy, the handheld can play Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges out of the box in addition to supporting cartridges for other handheld systems with adaptors. The Analogue Pocket can also be loaded with downloaded games, and it can be modified to support a broader array of consoles.
Light Phone II
List price: $299
Where to buy: Light Phone website
The Light Phone II is designed for those who tire of a standard smartphone’s many distractions. What makes the Light Phone II different is its minimalist design, which uses a touch-based E-ink display to show a menu of custom-designed apps, ranging from a music player and a podcasts tool to a calendar and GPS navigation tool. The phone is available on the Light Service, which is based on AT&T’s network, with plans starting at $30 a month, but because the phone is unlocked, it can also be used with other providers.
iPhone 16 Pro
Starting list price: $999
Where to buy: Apple website
The iPhone 16 Pro is one of the new devices from Apple to support the recently launched Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI features that includes writing assistance tools, an updated version of Siri as well as call transcription and summarization. The smartphone comes with Apple’s new A18 Pro chip, which comes with a more powerful and efficient CPU, GPU and Neural Engine. It also features the all-new Camera Control button, which combines a “tactile switch” for clicking, “high-precision force sensor” for light-press gestures and a “capacitive sensor” for touch interactions.
ASUS Vivobook S 15
List price: $899.99
Where to buy: Best Buy website
The ASUS Vivobook S 15 is a 15-inch laptop with a 3K OLED laptop that is part of Microsoft’s initial set of Copilot+ PCs, which includes exclusive AI features on Windows 11 such as Paint Cocreator, Live Captions and capabilities from third parties. Weighing at only 3.13 pounds and measuring at just 0.63 inches thin, the laptop is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor, and it comes with 16 GB of LPDDR5X memory and a 512-GB SSD. Other features include a 120-Hz refresh rate screen, a customizable RGB keyboard, AI-powered noise-cancelling technology and several connectivity options.
Alarmo
List price: $99.99
Where to buy: Nintendo website
Alarmo is an alarm clock designed by Nintendo that uses some of the company’s most popular video game characters and titles to give you a new and fun way to wake up. The clock allows you to select from five themes based on popular Nintendo games, such as “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” and “Super Mario Odyssey.” It will then use characters and music from those games to animate the clock’s screen and sound the alarm. Alarmo comes with a motion sensor, which allows it to respond to your movements. For instance, it will play a brief victory fanfare when you get out of bed.
Odd Ball
List price: $127
Where to buy: Odd website
The Odd Ball is a unique musical instrument that allows you to make music by tapping, twisting, touching, throwing and moving it to create different rhythms, melodies, percussive sounds and special effects. This is made possible with the Odd Ball’s Bluetooth connection and motion-sensing technology that is interpreted by a free companion app for smartphones, which lets you record your performance and share it anywhere.
Nightside NS01 Personal Task Lamp
List price: $349
Where to buy: Nightside website
The Nightside NS01 is a personal task lamp that gives a soft glow at its base and comes with a reading spotlight that automatically extends out at the press of a button.
Clicks Keyboard for iPhone
List price: $139
Where to buy: Clicks website
The Clicks Keyboard essentially turns your iPhone into an old-school Blackberry device with a tactile keyboard that attaches at the bottom via a case that houses the iPhone. The keyboard is “ergonomically designed to help you type faster, longer and more accurately.” The case supports MagSafe accessories, and it comes with a data transfer port.
Looking Glass Go
Starting list price: $299
Where to buy: Looking Glass Factory website
The Looking Glass Go is “crystal clear” holographic display that allows you to turn any photo into a “stunning 3-D hologram in seconds.” The display connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi, and it comes with a free companion app for turning images into holograms.