Time is rapidly running out to complete the present buying sprint, with the last minute Christmas shopping chaos undoubtably about to ensue, as shoppers flock online to find those perfect gifts for loved ones. Lucky for you, we’ve compiled a list of our top picks for gadgets that would make a great stocking filler.
There’s no point wasting money on tat they won’t really love, which is often what happens when it comes to filling those Christmas stockings. But we’ve found some great bits of tech that are sure to put a smile on your recipient’s face and, more importantly, that they’ll enjoy for years to come.
Cheap gadgets to buy for men, women and kids this Christmas
Whether you’re shopping for your dad, brother, sister-in-law or niece, there is a real handful of gadgets below that will make great gifts for a number of your relations, including fitness trackers, speakers and other great tech accessories.
Tech stocking fillers for under £30
Honor Band 5
The Honor Band 5 is a great value fitness tracker. We awarded it four a half stars in our review, thanks to the fact it has all the features you would want and need from your wearable.
It boasts a flashy AMOLED 0.95-inch touchscreen display that you can smoothly flick through, taking you from watch face to incoming notifications and activity tracking. With a heart rate monitor and water resistance up to 5ATM, the Honor Band 5 also has an impressive 14 day battery life.
Tile Mate (2020)
This may be the perfect gift for dad – because there’s just something about dads and their penchant for misplacing possessions. The Tile Mate will fix all his problems, able to attach this tiny square device to the likes of your keys, bag or other easily lost items and locate it with the help of your phone. Connecting to your smartphone, you can then effectively ring the item its attached to with a range of up to 200 metres with the latest Tile Mate, the more affordable of the Tile range.
You can also delight in reverse finding. Lost your phone? It happens. Press the button on the Tile Mate and it’ll call your phone to help you better unearth it from down the side of the sofa. Seeing vast improvements from its predecessors, the Tile Mate now also comes with a replaceable battery. We liked it so much we gave it four and a half star in our review.
Teckin Pack of 3 Smart Plugs
For smart home geeks this is a great, lumpy one to slip into their stocking, allowing its recipient to turn multiple standard appliances and electricals into ones with smart personalities. This means you can remotely turn on – or even schedule – boiling the kettle, switching on and off lights without the expense of Philips Hue, or even turning on the radio. All you need is to plug in and have a decent Wi-Fi connection.
However you choose to use the Teckin smart plugs, you can either control via the Smart Life app on your smartphone or, if you’re an Alexa or Google Assistant infiltrated household, with voice command. Compataible with the likes of the Amazon Echo, you can ask Alexa to turn on the Christmas lights this festive season, or get the radio on for some holiday jingles.
Google Home Mini
When it comes to AI assistance, Google Assistant is up there with the best, and this nifty little speaker means you can bring all the fun of it to your household without spending a fortune. The more affordable variant of Google’s smart speaker range, the Google Home Mini, goes far beyond simply playing music – though you can ask Google to do that, too.
Able to help run your household, Google can organise your to-do list with reminders, assisting you in getting a good nights sleep with its sleep schedule feature, as well as fetching interesting facts, the weather report, recipes and creating voice commands so you can control your other smart home devices.
Tech stocking fillers for under £50
Garmin Vivofit Jr 2
Looking to keep the kids active? Garmin is making it fun with their range of wearables designed specifically with children in mind, from cool incentives to a variety of fun designs incorporating some of their favourite film characters. With designs featuring characters from the likes of Frozen 2, Disney Princesses, Marvel and Star Wars, children are going to want to put these on immediately and never take them off.
The tracker lets you monitor how active your child is throughout the day, as well as promoting health and wellness with children able to work towards at least 60-minutes of exercise a day with the reward of Garmin’s fun companion app for them to play on as a reward.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
When it comes to Nintendo Switch games, it doesn’t get much better than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a fun-filled game to have in their Christmas stocking this year with the potential for the whole family to get involved post-Turkey. Battle it out in the Grand Prix with 48 different courses to whizz around and 42 possible characters to choose from.
You can also enjoy the revived Battle gameplay mode, which allows you to truly go off-course and quite literally battle it out to be the last vehicle standing. A Nintendo Switch essential, it is of the utmost importance Mario Kart 8 Deluxe features in your Nintendo Switch game collection.
Amazon Fire 7 Tablet
The more affordable and compact of Amazon’s very own tablet range, the Fire 7 tablet comes in a variety of interesting, muted hues including the standard black, as well as Plum, Sage and Twilight Blue – or, you know, a pinky/red sort of hue, green and blue. With a 7-inch IPS display, the Fire tablet sits as a far more accessible option compared to the likes of Apple, and comes with lots of nifty features including hands-free Alexa, as well as seamless integration of the Kindle app so you have your digital library in the palm of your hand.
With improvements to its 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 1GB RAM, you can also expect up to 7 hours of battery life, with a 2MP front and rear facing camera combination. Of course, the Fire tablet also works seamlessly with the likes of Fire Kids for easy to use parental controls, as well as the likes of Prime Video and Music Unlimited.
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom Speaker
Looking for a wireless Bluetooth speaker that can pack a punch with sound and also provide great portability? The Ultimate Ears Wonderboom is a great shout with its sheer strength, taking the rough with the tumble and also producing an excellent sound that has the potential to be buildable with Ultimate Ears’ dual-speaker system.
Waterproof and with a durable design that is easy to clean, the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom is designed so it can float and be taken just about anywhere you venture to with shockproof capabilities to boot. Packing a 10-hour battery life, the party need never stop. It also goes without saying it can play a Christmas jingle or two, too.
For more amazing offers, follow us @TrustedDealsUK
We may earn a commission if you click a deal and buy an item. That’s why we want to make sure you’re well-informed and happy with your purchase, so that you’ll continue to rely on us for your buying advice needs.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
