10 Best Tech Gifts Under $50

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When it comes to the holidays, it seems everyone loves tech gifts. However, not everyone has the shopping budget to cover something like a $749 iPhone 6 Plus.

Best tech gifts under $50, best gifts intro
Source: Apple

But that’s okay. You can find affordable gifts under $50 if you look, even from Apple, Inc. (AAPL).

We’re making it easier for you by pointing out some of the bargains currently available in the world of consumer electronics. Our guide to some of the best tech gifts under $50 gives you 10 of the best gifts for music lovers, smartphone owners and book lovers.

You don’t have to spend a fortune to make a technology fan’s day.

Best Tech Gifts Under $50: Apple iPod Shuffle

Best tech gifts under $50, iPod Shuffle
Source: Apple

Mobile music has become the new norm, and sometimes you don’t want to waste your smartphone’s storage on music. That’s why music players like the Apple iPod shuffle come in handy.

Apple’s smallest iPod has 2GB of storage, includes Apple earbuds and plays music for up to 15 hours on a charge. At $49, it’s also about the cheapest thing you can buy with an Apple logo on it.

The iPod Shuffle is available in a range of colors, and Apple will even engrave a personalized holiday message on the back — for free.

Best Tech Gifts Under $50: Fitbit Zip

Best tech gifts under $50, Fitbit Zip
Source: Fitbit

Technically, the Fitbit Zip retails for $60, but you can usually find one of these excellent gifts for  $50 or less on Amazon (AMZN) or at big box electronic stores.

The Fitbit Zip is a great little battery-powered activity tracker that clips onto clothing, counts steps and uploads the data to a smartphone or PC. You can even set specific goals, have Fitbit track your success and then share the results with your friends.

It’s also pretty close to indestructible — mine has survived two cycles in the washing machine.

Best Tech Gifts Under $50: Raspberry Pi

Best tech gifts under $50, Raspberry Pi
Source: Raspberry Pi Foundation

No, the Raspberry is not in any way related to BlackBerry (BBRY). But at just $20, one of the big technology stories of 2012 is still one of the best tech gifts around — and one of the biggest bargains.

The Model A+ Raspberry Pi is a complete Linux PC on a chip, with a microSD card slot, 256MB of RAM, audio, video and even a USB port.

Best Tech Gifts Under $50: Kinsa Smart Thermometer

Best tech gifts under $50, Kinsa smart thermometer
Source: Kinsa Health

The $29.99 Kinsa Smart Thermometer promises fast and accurate temperature readings with 10-second results and professional accuracy.

The “smart” part is that this thermometer plugs into an iPhone or Google (GOOG) Android smartphone’s headphone jack to track temperature readings for your entire family.

These make great tech gifts for parents of young kids, or health-conscious techies in general.

Best Tech Gifts Under $50: LaCie RuggedKey Thumb Drive

Best tech gifts under $50, LaCie RuggedKey
Source: LaCie

Saving your data in the cloud is a nice option, but sometimes “sneakernet” can’t be beat. And when you need to move a lot of data from one PC to another, a USB thumb drive is a must-have.

The LaCie RuggedKey Thumb Drive is the uber thumb drive. You can drop it from the roof of a 328 foot high building, freeze it, bake it or splash water on it and the data will survive. It’s also protected by 256-bit encryption.

The RuggedKey starts at $39.99 for the 16GB version, and goes up to $99.99 for 64GB. This is one of the most useful tech gifts you’ll find and the funky orange case is just a bonus.

Best Tech Gifts Under $50: Jabra Style Bluetooth headset

Best tech gifts under $50, Jabra Bluetooth headset
Source: Jabra

Smartphones can be used as telephones. Unfortunately, having a mobile conversation can be a frustrating experience thanks to background noise, and holding a big chunk of metal, plastic and glass to your face is the worst.

A phablet like the iPhone 6 Plus magnifies that frustration to comic proportions.

That’s why we included the $49.99 Jabra Style Bluetooth headset on our list of best gifts.

Smartphone calls become hands-free and wireless, with background noise eliminated and the speaker’s voice enhanced.

And no one has to see the recipient of one of these tech gifts with a phablet stuck comically to their ear.

Best Tech Gifts Under $50: Kobo Mini E-Reader

Best tech gifts under $50, Kobo Mini
Source: Kobo

Got someone on your holiday shopping list who loves to read and hasn’t yet made the jump to digital?

The cheapest Kindle e-reader on Amazon is $59 and you have to put up with ads. Kobo — the digital book division of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten (RKUNF) — will sell you a new, pocket sized, touchscreen Kobo Mini for $49.99.

Save yourself the trouble of storing books and lugging them around with the Kobo Mini e-reader.

Best Tech Gifts Under $50: Mota Portable Charger Stick

Best tech gifts under $50, Mota Battery Stick
Source: Mota

No matter how big a smartphone’s battery might be, running out of power is always a concern.

That’s why portable batteries like the Mota Portable Charger Stick make such great gifts.

The Moto is available on Amazon for under $30, it has 2600mAH of power (enough to fully charge most smartphones), it’s the size of a lipstick and it comes with adapters for virtually any smartphone, including micro and mini USB, Apple Lightning and Apple 30-pin.

Bonus: It also has a built-in flashlight to use in case of power outages.

Best Tech Gifts Under $50: Hubsan X4 Micro Quad Copter Drone

Best tech gifts under $50, Hubsan Drone
Source: Hubsan

Many people who want tech gifts are asking for drones this year. But not everyone has $1,000 to drop on the kind of high flying drone that offers CNN-quality aerial footage.

As an affordable introduction to drones, the Hubsan X4 Micro Quad Copter is a popular choice. It can fly up over 300 feet from the receiver, offers 30 minutes of flight on a charge, has blue LED lights for night flying and a six axis flight control system.

The Hubsan X4 Micro Quad Copter Drone is under $50 on Amazon, meaning a crash is unlikely to break the bank. And with the drone weighing just 1.3 ounces, it’s also much less likely to injure someone.

Best Tech Gifts Under $50: Sony Extra Bass Earbuds

Best tech gifts under $50, Sony extra bass earbuds
Source: Sony

There’s a good chance that anyone on your list who owns a smartphone or MP3 player is using the earbuds that came free with the device.

If that’s the case, one of the best tech gifts you can give them is a rescue from the horrible, tinny sound they’re enduring.

You can offer a significant improvement on a budget with these $49.99 Sony (SNE) Extra Bass earbuds, featuring 12 mm drivers, a gold-plated conductor, integrated mic and comfortable silicon covers.

As of this writing, Robert Martin did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2014/12/best-tech-gifts-under-50/.

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