For as long as gift-giving has been a tradition, there’s also been the inability to come up with good gift ideas. Whether it’s for your mom, dad, sister, brother, partner, friend, colleague, they, them, him, her, cat, dog, secret Santa, or for a White Elephant party, it can often be tricky to select the perfect present for your recipient. Price can also be a huge factor in holiday shopping — whether you have a tight budget and / or a long list of friends and family members to buy gifts for. This season can make things pretty rough on your wallet.
So as the 2017 holidays approach, I have put together a tech gift guide of the many wonderful things that would make great presents for all ages, sizes, genders, and budgets. At the very least, we hope these recommendations spark an idea for what you might gift your loved ones.
Microsoft Surface Laptop
Finally Microsoft made a simple, everyday, portable, reasonably priced, and reliable laptop. Just like Google finally made their own phone is a big deal, Microsoft doing this is a big deal because when you control the software (operating system) and the hardware, you get a smooth experience with solid battery life at 8-9 hours. With the base model at $1000 and good for most people, there are some holiday sales going around that will put this at $100 for $900. It has a Alcantara (really nice high end fabric) laptop deck to place your wrists when typing which might seem weird but comfortably different. The display is also a touch screen. The downside would be the ports. You get one traditional USB 3.0 A port, a mini display port, headphone jack and a proprietary Surface connector for power. A small silver lining is the power brick has a USB A port as well for technically one more port. This is a solid laptop for anyone not doing high graphic gaming and video editing. If you do purchase this, it comes with Windows 10 S. The first thing you should do is immediately upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for free. When you activate the laptop and set it up, it will be just the click of a button.
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Dell XPS 13
For those that might be a little nervous on Microsoft first venture into laptops with the Surface, there is the tried and true Dell XPS 13. For the past couple of years this has been my recommendation for a solid daily laptop for most people and still is but I think the if you are going to buy something, buy from the people making the hardware and software. At $900 for the model just above base (DO NOT BUY THE BASE i3 processor model) with 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD for storage, and 7th generation i5 processor from Intel, you will get a good 8-9 hours of use in a light weight and portable design. For ports you get 2 USB A 3.0 ports, USB C Thunderbolt 3 port, SD card reader, headphone jack, traditional Dell power port, and a external battery indicator button that lights up small LEDS to show you battery life without having to open up the laptop. Overall a solid laptop that is great for anyone not using it for high end graphic gaming and video editing.
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Razer Blade Stealth
Easily the best maker of laptops you have never heard. Plus, they have a 14 inch portable version that is great for high end graphic gaming and video editing and is very reasonably priced at $1749. But this is about their 13 inch very mobile and very powerful laptop coming in at $1250. This is for those mobile workhorse people that need great battery life as well as powerful processing that would slow a Dell XPS 13 or Surface Laptop down with a touch screen to boot. You are getting the 7th generation Intel i7 duo core processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD for storage. A great unique feature of all Razer laptops are the Chroma (rainbow) back lit keyboards so that even in the dark, you can see what keys you are typing. For ports you are getting an HDMI port, 2 USB A 3.0 ports, headphone jack, and a USB C 3.0 Thunderbolt 3 port.
ASUS Chrombook Flip C302
For most people in their everyday life, a Chromebook is all that is needed. A bigger screen than your phone, a keyboard, and a web browser to do social media, media consumption, and some documents and emailing. One that stands out that is kinda pricey, just around the $450, for a Chromebook but supports Android Apps as well and can be flipped in tent and tablet mode (touch screen) is the C302. It has great battery life, a good keyboard and track pad, and as I said before will be able to use Android apps as well to add to the overall experience of Chrome OS. It has a backlit keyboard, 64GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, with an Intel M processor with a USB C 3.1 port (for charging and data access) and microSD card slot. As I said, sometimes you don't need a laptop to do work and take with you out and around in your travels. Sometimes you just want a screen bigger than your phone, a good keyboard and trackpad, and a web browser.
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Samsung's Chromebook Plus
Another Chromebook option that has slightly better hardware and design than the ASUS C302, but also reflected in the price as well. While it doesn't have an Intel processor, it has a ARM processor so it should run Android apps better with less stutter. A good display, with good battery life, 32GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, a touch screen that comes with a stylus (and a place to put it!), no backlit keyboard, and the ability to go into tent and tablet mode, this is for someone who wants to get some stuff done, use social media, and consume media around the house whether it be a desk, couch, or lying in bed. With 2 USB C 3.0 ports (one for charging), microSD card slot, and a headphone jack. So why pick this over the ASUS 302: you want to use the touch screen without fingerprint due to the stylus, want a great quality screen, and a less plastic like design and more aluminum body.
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Apple Macbook Pro 15
This is only reason this is here is because out of all the very recent disappointing MacBook Pro and MacBook releases, this one is the most powerful for powerful video and high end photo editing. If you can hold off until next year, or maybe even the following then do so. I do own this version but that is because of one of the reasons above. It is very powerful, very capable, but also very expensive with the base model being around $2700. Two reasons why this might be more inconvenient than convenient: the only ports it has are 1 headphone jack and 4 USB C ports and the mushy keyboard that is now standard on any MacBook and MacBook Pro 2016 and older. With 4 USB C ports, you will almost definitely be buy an adapter (dongle) to plug in your iPhone and use a SD card. The keyboard you can get use to but it takes a while. There are less expensive MacBooks, not the Pro line, but they have the same mushy keyboard and only 1 USB C port with a headphone jack. So with one USB C port, you definitely need an extra dongle that could run you an extra $50 on top of the $1100 for just the MacBook.
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Extra tips when buying laptops (not Chromebooks) and desktops
- Don't ever get a device with an Intel i3 processor. Aim for i5 for regular everyday use or i7 if you are planning on making it a workhorse device.
- Aim for a 7th generation processor from Intel (Kaby Lake). If you can get a good deal with 8th generation processor (Coffee Lake) then do it. But don't go below 7th generation
- NEVER buy a hard drive in your laptop or PC (HDD). They break and crash more than a SSD. Yes a SSD is more expensive but what if you lose those family photos you didn't back up some where else. Also, don't go lower than 128GB of storage for an SSD. Try to aim for 256GB.
- 8GB of DD4 RAM or more, never less.
- Don't ever get a device from Target or Walmart. The reason they have the same model as Best Buy or Newegg is they use less reliable hardware on the inside (RAM, motherboards, storage, etc).
- Yes there are some employees of tech stores that know what they are doing and saying, but always go in with the mind set that this is their job and not their hobby / passion until they prove otherwise. Always try to go in know more of what you want than don't.
- Always test out the keyboard and trackpad.
- Ports are important. Think about on a daily basis what you would need and a few extreme examples of how many you would need. Think charging your phone while charging the laptop and maybe having a USB flash drive plugged in, all at the same time.
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