The 16 Best Tech Gifts for Any Gadget Lover

The heavy-duty Raptic Link + Lock polycarbonate combination carabiner securely attaches Apple AirTags, our favorite Bluetooth trackers, to anything big that your gift recipient may want to keep track of, from a bike to a suitcase to a car. Simply slide an AirTag into the protective case and close the carabiner lock around whatever needs tracking. It’s bigger and heavier than it looks—about 4 inches and 4 ounces—but it can’t stand up to bolt cutters if someone is determined to remove it.

The Belkin BoostCharge Plus 10K, our favorite portable charger, weighs about 8 ounces and is the perfect size and shape for slipping into a pocket. With its USB-C Power Delivery port, it can charge most handheld devices—it has enough juice to charge most smartphones up to three times—and can recharge itself at top speed with the right USB-C cable and wall charger. Because it has two cables, it can receive and give a charge at the same time. But it comes only in basic black.

The Mophie 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Stand is our pick for wirelessly charging an iPhone (8 or above), an Apple Watch, and AirPods simultaneously. Its angled stand makes proper alignment practically foolproof. The cross-shaped AirPods divot properly fits either the basic or Pro headphones case, and the Apple Watch charger puts the display in landscape orientation for Nightstand Mode. This Mophie dock charges a little quicker than other non-MagSafe charging stations, but if your gift recipient has an iPhone 12 or later, consider a MagSafe-compatible wireless charging station like the Belkin Boost Charge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charger with MagSafe or the Apple MagSafe Duo Charger.

Especially popular with Gen Z, smart strip lights are made of a flexible rubbery material with embedded LEDs and are designed to be more permanent than seasonal string lights. Our favorite smart strip light is the TP-Link Tapo Smart Wi-Fi Light Strip L930-5 because getting it up and running involves a minimal learning curve. Setup and control are both simple, and all of the features are straightforward and easy to use. This smart strip light also produces accurate colors and brightness and has a bunch of less common features, such as Scenes, Animations, and Away Mode.

If your giftee takes a digital approach to all things—playing music, communicating, turning off the lights—consider the world’s most techy bird feeder. The Bird Buddy has an integrated camera to capture 1080p photos and videos of visiting avian friends (and squirrels). It connects to the cloud wirelessly and takes a crack at AI-led species identification. If your gift recipient wants to brag about an indigo bunting, they can share photos and clips with other Bird Buddy owners in the community section of the Bird Buddy app.

Tech-savvy creators, creatives, and engineering types can have a ball with a 3D printer. Our top pick for a relatively affordable home version is the Bambu Lab P1P. It has a blessedly simple setup procedure, automatically calibrating itself and removing one of the most annoying hurdles to getting started. The P1P prints tiny details reliably and has a bed measuring 256 by 256 by 256 mm (about 10 inches cubed), which is large enough for both hobbyists and people who design and sell prints.

This compact smart outlet comes in a pack of four, so it’s an easy addition to everyone’s stocking. The TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim (EP25) combines all the best features you could want in a smart plug—reliable control and scheduling, energy monitoring, and an Away Mode for vacations—for an affordable price. Though it isn’t the smallest smart plug available, it doesn’t block the neighboring outlet when plugged in. If you think your gift recipient might want an entire strip of smart outlets stuffed into their stocking, pick up the TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip (HS300), which offers six independently controlled outlets.

Instant cameras and photos never go out of style, and Fujifilm’s latest instant photo printer makes it easy to print any photo on your camera roll. The Fujifilm Instax Mini Link 2 prints consistently beautiful images that are a little smaller than a credit card; the device itself is about the size of a portable hard drive and comes in white, pink, or black. It’s easy to set up—your gift recipient could be printing photos within five minutes of unwrapping it. Make sure to get them a pack of film, too.

A digital photo frame can be enjoyed by many, including parents and grandparents who want to easily enjoy family photos, travel lovers who have too many photos of their adventures for a fridge, or people who have lots of new photos from a big milestone. The Aura Carver in particular is a fantastic gift for any of these people in your life. Though cheaper options are available, the Aura Carver is the best choice for easy uploading, fantastic photo quality, and security for the uploaded photos. Plus, it allows many people to add photos to the frame, so it’s a great pick for giftees who have large households or extended family and friends they would like to see photos from.

Help a radio listener tune in to their favorite FM stations with a stylish, new tabletop radio. The sleek Victrola Houston radio isn’t just nice to look at; it also offers impressive sound quality, great reception (thanks to its retractable antenna), and less static than more expensive models, and it includes Bluetooth capabilities, which allow it to double as a speaker. The only thing it’s missing is support for AM radio, so make sure that isn’t where your gift recipient’s favorite channel is.

Give the gift of enjoying vinyl with the Angels Horn H019 record player. This all-in-one turntable eliminates the complexities of organizing the separate pieces of a turntable, so it’s simple to set up and simple to give as a gift, too. It has a beautiful build and impressive sound for an all-in-one system. It also includes Bluetooth capabilities, so your giftee can jam to their favorite records and their favorite playlists all in one place.

The Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen) is made for the bedside. This small, 7-inch smart display doesn’t take up too much space on a nightstand, and its camera-free design makes it a more comfortable addition there, too. (The little circle at the top is a light sensor, which ensures that the display never shines brightly in a dark room.) This model also focuses on sleep: After a few minutes of calibration, it can give your gift recipient a report on how well they slept the previous night. That’s on top of all the regular features in the Nest Hub, from voice assistance powered by Google to smart-home control to weather and calendar information to music and video streaming. Get this smart display for anyone who wants a better alarm clock that also doubles as a sleep tracker and a handy assistant.

Everybody knows someone (or is someone) who loses their keys on a daily basis. Associate staff writer Haley Perry is one, and she has a Bluetooth tracker attached to her keys to make them easier to find. This is a great gift for anyone prone to losing smaller items. If you’re shopping for an iPhone owner, get them an Apple AirTag, which employs the massive network of nearby Apple devices to help find the item; when the AirTag is within the iPhone’s Bluetooth range, it can pinpoint the item within inches. If you know an Android owner, the latest model of the Tile Mate is a great choice.

Give your favorite driver a wireless charging phone mount so they can worry less about bringing along charging cords and getting directions. Mounting on an air-conditioner vent, on the dashboard, or in a CD-slot base, the iOttie Easy One Touch Wireless 2 Dash & Windshield Mount makes life easier when your giftee drives, and it keeps their phone from jostling while their car is in motion. Of all the wireless charging phone mounts for cars we tested, this model is our favorite.

The DJI Mini 3 is our favorite less-expensive drone for most drone-photography beginners because it’s by far the easiest model to fly in its price range. For less than half the price of our top pick, it still offers a 4K camera, a long (38-minute) battery life, and a compact, lightweight build that just slides under the FAA’s 250-gram limit. This model also comes with all the important features your giftee might need from a video drone, such as image and flight stabilization, an included controller, and smart flight modes, in which the drone flies itself to easily capture cinematic shots. But it lacks the obstacle-avoidance sensors of more expensive models.

The flexible Joby GorillaPod 1K Kit is useful in so many situations. Our team especially recommends it for taking time-lapses, videos, and low-light photos. This tripod has a small build and moldable legs, so it’s easy to throw in a backpack or to bring on road trips, and it’s ideal for taking timed group shots or selfies. Give this to your favorite traveler or budding videographer, and they’ll be able to get their dream shots more easily.

We love finding gifts that are unusual, thoughtful, and well vetted. See even more gift ideas we recommend.

This article was edited by Hannah Morrill and Jennifer Hunter. Nena Farrell contributed reporting.