Great gifts for under £300
Looking for the perfect present for the gadget geek in your family? Then look no further
THIS week we hit part two of our annual Christmas gift guides – and we’re in the mid-range.
Everything here costs between £100 and £300, so we’re still pushing the boat out a little.
Next week we’ll dip below £100 for some great budget tech.
ECHO SHOW 15
The latest and largest
Echo device available, the Show 15 has only just been released by Amazon.
It’s an altogether different device to the rest of the Echo range, with a large 15.6in screen. It’s so big you can hang it on your wall.
The new size of display has led Amazon to redesign the interface – more space means you can show more stuff, so you can now see video alongside to-do list, calendars and notes – it’s like the modern-day equivalent of the kitchen cork board – but you can control it with your voice…
■ £239.99 from amazon.co.uk
LINKSYS VELOP WHOLE HOME INTELLIGENT MESH WIFI 6 (AX4200) SYSTEM
I’m not sure you could give anyone a better Christmas gift than better wi-fi – especially those working from home.
A mesh system works with your current router and service
– you plug one mesh router in there, and dot others around your house for complete coverage. This starter kit includes two routers to get your system up and running, and you can add more if you find you have dead spots where you don’t want them.
These are tri-band, meaning they’re not just more reliable, they’re also a lot faster – perfect for the gamer upstairs…
■ £299 for a two pack of the 4.2Gbps version at amazon.co.uk
BELKIN BOOST CHARGE PRO
The more devices you have, the more wires you have making a mess around the home and getting in the way of your robot vacuum cleaner.
Belkin aims to solve this with this stand for your iPhone 12 or later and your Apple Watch. It utilises Apple’s MagSafe system to hold your devices securely magnetically as they charge. And there’s only one wire. Also works with Apple’s new MagSafe charging cases for AirPods and AirPods Pro.
■ £139.95 from apple.com/uk
GOOGLE NEST HUB MAX
Still the king of the good smart home castle, the Nest Hub Max gives you the complete package to bring the Google assistant into your home. Obviously, you can interact via voice, and the big screen will display video from YouTube and Netflix, as well as photos from your Google account, and an info dashboard with calendar and to dos.
It’s great for video calling, too, with support for Zoom. You can also log in to see what’s going on in your home when you are away via your phone – so it doubles as a security camera.
■ £219 from store.google.com
APPLE WATCH SE
By all accounts the Apple Watch is taking the competition to the cleaners when it comes to the smartwatch market.
The SE model might be part of the reason why – it brings much of the tech that powered the Series 6 Apple Watch into a much more affordable package. You get all the health metric tracking apart from the blood oxygen stuff, and you forsake an always-on screen. This is money well spent if you have an iPhone and want to start paying more attention to your wellbeing.
■ From £249 from apple.com/uk