Christmas Gift Guide 2014 – Technology

Christmas is only a week away, so time is ticking away for getting presents! The last date for UK Christmas post is Friday 19th December for 1st Class, some online shops are still offering next day delivery until Monday 22nd December, and of course there’s always good old traditional shops if you wanna go in store and grab a last minute pressie! 😉

One thing most guys love is technology, we can’t get enough of it, and there’s so much out there these days, from cheap bargains to high end luxury tech, there really is something for everyone. If you’re looking to get yourself something with Christmas money you may get, or if you’re buying for someone and don’t know where to look, here are a couple of tips which are pretty good!

JBL Pulse Bluetooth Speaker  – It’s a speaker, and a lightshow! This is a NFC and Bluetooth speaker, which means it will work with any smartphone or tablet, or in fact anything with Bluetooth support. When it came out it was around £179.99, but at the moment you can get it from places like John Lewis  for an amazing £99.99! That really is a bargain! It’s 6W and not going to be the most powerful Bluetooth speaker on the market, but at this price it’s a steal, and you get the LED light show which you don’t get on any other speaker.

Samsung Galaxy TABPro 12 – Don’t like Apple? Want a larger than life 12″ tablet? This is your guy 😀 I am excited by larger tablets, I’ve always wanted one and wished the iPad was bigger (I’ll get my wish soon if the rumours are to be believed!). The Samsung Galaxy Tablet products (the Tab and the rest) are really good tablets, most are less expensive then Apple and run Android if you like that. £400 for the 12″ Tablet, or you can get the standard 10″ TAB 4 for £279 and 7″ TAB 4 for £139.

Apple iPad Air 2 – Yes, I do like my iPad so I can recommend it highly. I am still on my iPad 2, I’ve had it for a good few years now but it still works perfectly fine. If you want the latest shiny Apple gizmo, you can get the iPad Air 2 which start at £399 and are available in most retailers these days.

Bose Soundlink Mini – They are synonymous with high quality sound and have been for some time, I’m talking about Bose. They’ve had a couple of Sound Docks and Speakers designed for phones and tablets for a while, their latest is a smaller speaker aimed at people who want quality sound but don’t need to fill a huge room. At £149, this is quite reasonable for a brand such as Bose.

HP Stream 11 – It’s a tiny, 11″ laptop. It’s a little bit low on power, and does not hold much hard drive space, but for £180 it’s quite an impressive little machine. If you know someone who’s just a casual browser, but wants something a little bit more than a tablet and more of a proper PC, this could be good for them.

XBOX ONE – I got one last Christmas, and I have to say they are good. I’m not going to talk about the debate on the PS4 vs X1, because I’d be here all day :p It now comes cheaper than last year, some retailers are doing it for £350 with 3 games! That is impressive. No wonder it had more sales last month then the PS4, finally outselling it in one month. I think at the moment it has better exclusive games for an all round gamer, and of course games like GTA and FIFA.

B&O Play H6 Headphones – Bang & Olufsen have been making high quality audio equipment for a long time, and one of their most coveted and loves lines is their B&O Play line. Designed to be high end and for a luxury lifestyle, the H6 headphones are brilliant. Forget Beats, these are the headphones you truly want to be seen in. Made from leather and aluminium the limited edition blue pair are currently available for around £200 which is a steal, if you want the more traditional colours of natural leather or black that will set you back around £280 if you shop around, the RRP is £329.

Samsung 40″ 4K TV – Only a year ago you couldn’t get a 4K TV for under £2000, but as with all technology a year is a long time. There were only a handful of 4K TV’s available for the general public back then, but now there’s a much bigger choice, in both size and price. Samsung are doing some really competitively priced ones, none other than a 40″ 4K TV with Freeview HD for under £600! If you want to go bigger you can get some really good deals. If you want a TV for years to come it’s best to invest in 4K, even though there is more or less nothing in 4K at the moment, you’ll be thankful that you did in the near future.