If Santa Claus is feeling generous this year...

HERE’S SOME TOP SPEC TECH FOR YOUR STOCKING

READY to splash the cash this Christmas? After the year we’ve had, who wouldn’t be? The first of our three-part festive gift guide is for those who want the best of the best. Next week we’ll be looking at some great tech that comes in under the £300, with our final instalment a week later offering up some ideas with price tags down in the double digits.

SAMSUNG GALAXY FLIP

THIS is the phone for those who need to be right on the cutting edge of what’s possible, or just like to pretend they live in a episode of Star Trek. The Galaxy Flip is the smaller of Samsung’s foldable phones, and yet offers a huge 6.7in screen when fully opened.

Fold it in two and it measures just 87.4mm by 73.6mm. The convenience of that is enhanced by the hinge system allowing for operation at different angles – so you can open it to 90-degrees like a laptop and use it for video calling or vlogging without the need for a tripod.

Plus, it’s also an excellent phone, with 5G connectivity (a 4G-only version is £99 less), a great dual-lens camera system, and the power of Android.

£1,399 from Samsung (samsung. com/uk) or £88 per month, (£49 upfront cost) from Vodafone (vodafone.co.uk)

IPHONE 12 MINI

THIS year’s iPhone comes in four flavors, and while the 12 Mini is not the highest specced version, it’s undeniably the best value.

It harks back to the days before everyone was lugging around phones with massive screens, adopting a

smaller form factor with a 5.4in display.

Apart from that it’s identical to the larger 12 model, with the same snappy speed, fabulous cameras, stylish good looks, and access to the millions of apps on the App Store.

£699 from Apple (apple.com/uk)

MACBOOK AIR

ONE of the first Macs to ditch Intel chips for Apple’s own in-house made silicone, the Air was already Apple’s best-selling computer, but the combination of high-speeds and efficiency from the new chips mean it’s now capable of much more than before – like running Apple’s own pro-level video and music apps Final

Cut Pro and Logic.

Incredibly, Apple has managed to pull this off while improving battery performance, and keeping the price the same.

£999 from Apple (apple.co.uk)

ROBERTS RADIO STREAM 67 ALEXA VOICE CONTROLLED SMART AUDIO SPEAKER

IN a world where a minimal feature set and focused design seem to dominate most tech companies’ thinking, it’s almost refreshing to see a device like the Radio Stream 67.

It does a LOT. For a start, it works with Amazon’s Alexa AI assistant, so you can control it via Echo devices, and it has access to various music streaming services. It’s a bluetooth speaker, too, so you can stream music to it from your devices, and it includes a DAB and FM radio.

On top of all that it also plays CDs. Oh, and it sounds incredible, as you would expect from a Roberts device.

£509.99 from Amazon (amazon. co.uk)

FUJIFILM X-S10

FUJIFILM’S X-series cameras seem to have hit the sweet spot sp for retro looks combined co with powerfu powerful leading edge photo techn technology. And they just keep getting better.

There is an awful lot to like a about the latest – the X-S10. It has a compact, co lightweight, go-anyw go-anywhere form factor, and yet manag manages to pack in the same sensor sensor, processor, and focus system as the pricier p X-T4 model. While you can’t ca call it an entry-level camera at the price, pric if you want a step up from mobile bil or beginner DSLR photography, there’s a lot of camera for your money with this unit.

£999 (with XC15-45mm kit lens) from Fujifilm (fujifilm-x.com)

GOOGLE PIXEL 5

SOLID is the word I would use to describe Google’s flagship mobile device. It’s excellent, if not spectacular, in all departments.

And it is spectacular where it matters – most notably in the camera which, while relatively modest in terms of the hardware, leverages all of Google computational photography skills in the software to produce some stunning results.

Offering an unencumbered pure Android experience (without carrier bloatware), it’s also the simplest and most pleasing entry into the Google mobile ecosystem.

In other words, it does everything you want it to without fuss, looks great, and comes in at what these days is considered a mid-range price.

£599 from Google (store.google.com)