It’s the time of year when everyone has gifts to buy and never enough time to do the shopping. This is especially true when it comes to buying good tech gifts.
They’re always in high demand, but there are so many choices.
To help save time and help you to make the right choices, we’re here with a guide to the best tech gifts to buy in 2019. This edition is for products with a price tag of $500 or more, so expect to see some pretty cool gear that would make anyone’s day.
Tech Gifts for $500 and Up: Vizio 75-inch P-Series Quantum X TV
Vizio makes some great TVs and its latest flagship is the award-winning P-Series Quantum X, introduced at CES 2019.
The $2,699.99 75-inch P-Series Quantum X TV has a whopping 480 local dimming zones — double its previous best — allowing for deeper blacks and improved contrast that rivals OLED displays. Furthermore, 2,900 nits of peak brightness make this one of the brightest TVs on the market.
The TV also features Quantum dot technology with 4K resolution, up to 165% more color than standard 4K TVs and Dolby Vision HDR. It runs Vizio’s SmartCast 3.0 smart TV platform, with integrated Google Chromecast and support for Apple AirPlay 2.
Nanoleaf Canvas Puff Azure Kit
Canadian green lighting startup Nanoleaf makes some really amazing smart lights, consisting of LED flat panels that interlock together and can then be wall-mounted. Nanoleaf smart lights are compatible with Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa, as well as the IFTTT standard.
Its latest creation is Canvas, square panels that respond to touch and can also pulse to the beat of music. The $699.99 Puff Azure Kit contains 25 Light Squares — enough to make the namesake “puff azure” layout — and the lucky recipient can also assemble them to make their own custom creation.
The kit has everything needed for spectacular LED wall art, along with a screw mount kit for more permanent wall installation than two-way tape (also included).
Apple iPhone 11 Pro
If you have holiday gifts to buy for someone who could use a new smartphone, the current model to beat is Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 11 Pro.
It may not fold (we’ve seen how that goes) and lacks 5G support (not that it matters this early in the 5G rollout), but the iPhone 11 Pro is arguably the best overall smartphone on the market today. It has a beautiful AMOLED Super Retina XDR display, the powerhouse A13 processor, long battery life and IP68 water resistance.
With Apple’s new triple camera system and AI-powered Night Mode, it’s also the current smartphone camera champ. The 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro starts at $999, or $1,099 for the 6.5-inch iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Boosted Rev Electric Scooter
Boosted is best known for its high-tech electric skateboards, but the company has expanded its product line. The Boosted Rev is now one of the most popular electric scooters on the market
The $1,599 Boosted Rev is promoted as a “vehicle-grade” electric scooter. That means it’s built to be rugged and durable, with weatherproof construction and a 12-month warranty.
It has wide air-filed tires for a more stable and comfortable ride, dual-wheel drive, both headlights and brake lights and uses regenerative brakes to help achieve a range of up to 22 miles on a charge. With a top speed of 24 miles per hour and an easily folded steering tube, the Boosted Rev makes for a great urban commuting option.
Como Audio Three Room Music System
Multi-room wireless streaming audio is big on many wish lists. But the systems offered by the usual suspects — Apple, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google and even Sonos (NASDAQ:SONO) — tend to all sort of look the same. A lot of white or black plastic.
Como Audio from Boston is a premium alternative. Its music systems deliver high-quality audio with multi-driver configurations enclosed in retro-look housings covered with real wood veneer.
Each has a built-in color display to show album artwork. The company is offering a Three Room Music System for $1,249 that includes three units, one a stereo system equipped with a CD player to supplement the Wi-Fi wireless streaming.
Alienware M17 Gaming Laptop
Got a gamer on your shopping list? Give them the gift of mobile gaming that goes far beyond what a Nintendo Switch can deliver with Dell’s (NYSE:DELL) Alienware m17 gaming laptop.
At just 0.73-inches thick and 5.8 pounds, this is one sleek gaming laptop — Alienware’s thinnest 17-inch model ever — with a premium magnesium alloy case. Despite the sleek form factor, it’s packed with an Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) 9th generation Core processor, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) GeForce GTX or RTX graphics, Cryo-Tech cooling and a 17.3-inch Full HD display.
Prices for the Alienware m17 start at $1,449.99 for a well-equipped version.
Orbi AX6000 Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router System
One of the best gifts to buy anyone — especially someone who is into technology — is better Wi-Fi. Mesh router systems are one of the best ways to improve Wi-Fi. They ensure whole home coverage and automatically optimize performance. I switched to a Netgear Orbi AC3000 mesh system a year ago, and it was a game changer.
The new Wi-Fi 6 standard has started to come into play this year. It’s designed to improve Wi-Fi performance in an era when homes may have dozens of connected devices. Smart TVs, smartphones, smart thermostats, streaming cameras, smart door locks, game consoles and video streamers are all fighting for bandwidth. The ultimate tech gift for someone in need of better WiFi is the new Orbi AX6000 a mesh router with Wi-Fi 6 support. At $699.99 it’s not cheap, but it delivers higher speeds and four times the connected device capacity of 802.11ac routers, with 5,000 square feet of mesh coverage.
Dyson V11 Torque Drive Cordless Vacuum Cleaner
It can be risky to go with a cleaning product as a gift, but the nice thing about the $699.99 Dyson V11 Torque Drive Cordless Vacuum Cleaner is that its cool factor goes a long way toward outweighing any potential misinterpretation.
This cordless stick vacuum comes equipped with a huge list of accessories. The high torque cleaner head automatically adjusts speed as you move between floor types, always optimizing suction power. Its motor produces twice the suction power of any other cordless vacuum, and rivals many plug-in vacuums. You can convert it from a one-hand stick vacuum into a hand-held that’s perfect for cleaning cars and other tight spots.
And there is no worry about battery range anxiety with the Dyson V11. The battery is good for up to 60 minutes of run time, and a sensor checks battery levels 8,000 times per second, showing the exact time remaining (in hours and minutes) in real-time on the vacuum’s built-in LCD display.
+ Record Player
When you have gifts to buy for a music lover, one product I recently reviewed is pretty much the ultimate, especially for someone who’s getting into collecting records (once again, the hottest way to buy music).
The + Record Player is a premium, modern take on the classic record player. The cabinet base houses a powerful, two-way bi-amplified speaker system. Four drivers each have their own Class-D amplifiers totaling 100W of output.
The speaker enclosure is engineered to prevent feedback or vibration from traveling to the top of the unit, where a European-made Pro-Ject Essential III turntable is mounted. The $1,300+ all-in-one system also supports Bluetooth wireless and has inputs for a Chromecast or Echo for streaming music services.
Traeger Timberline 850 Wi-Fi Pellet Grill
Grilling and barbecue are always popular, but how does a grill qualify as high tech?
The Traeger Timberline 850 Wi-Fi Pellet Grill delivers the ultimate in wood-fired grilling, with its direct drive motorized wood pellet system. Three tiers of stainless steel grates have the room to grill nine chickens or eight racks of ribs at once. But the high-tech element of the $1,799.99 Timberline 850 is its WiFIRE technology. The grill is internet-connected, so you can monitor everything from wood pellet levels to meat temperature remotely, even use your smartphone to deliver a blast of “super smoke.”
The mobile app also automates the cooking process for hundreds of Traeger barbecue recipes.
As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
