2024’s Best Tech Gadgets Under $500 That Make Great Gifts

Mariah Carey is thawing from her chrysalis, emerging from hibernation to make our ears bleed with “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on every radio station and in every mall. Black Friday lurks over Thanksgiving’s shoulder, waiting for the all-clear. Silicon Valley companies making everything from smartphones to wearables are gearing up to drop their biggest deals of the year, and a whole lot of wallets are about to start hurting. Suppose your gift budget is $500 for someone who really deserves it. Specifically, what should you get for a friend or family member who loves their tech gadgets, in that price range?

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SlashGear has covered the top budget gifts under $100, Father’s Day gifts, and gifts for iPhone users throughout the year, as well as all the latest gear releases. There’s something for every person, at every price, including that very special someone who, perhaps, is worthy of bit of a splurge. Here are 12 tech-gadget gifts that make great under-the-tree Christmas gifts, stocking stuffers, or presents for any particular occasion.

The AirPods 4 are perhaps the biggest upgrade to the lineup short of the AirPods Pro 2. They come in two flavors: a budget option for $129, and an ANC (active noise cancellation) option for $179. We recommend the latter, since that noise cancellation is going to make all the difference when listening to music in a noisy environment — that, and it comes with a bunch of features once locked to the AirPods Pro 2, which cost $249 brand-new.

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The AirPods 4 have new and improved sound, and the H2 chip enables a bunch of previously Pro-only software features like Personalized Spatial Audio and Conversation Awareness. They even include some things which you won’t find on the Pro, such as a tappable, capacitive button that makes it much easier to pair or reset your earbuds. For those worried about turning their AirPods into a brick after a good splash, the AirPods 4 have IP54 water and dust resistance.

However, do keep in mind that these are a much better gift for an iPhone user than an Android one. AirPods are famously so uncooperative with any non-Apple device that, if you only have an Android one, you can only update the AirPods at an Apple Store. They do work with Android phones, but you’d be hamstringing all the awesome Apple ecosystem features like Find My and automatic device switching. So if your gift recipient has a Google Pixel or a Samsung, we recommend the next option on this list. Both versions of Apple’s AirPods 4 are available on Apple’s Amazon store now.

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The Nothing Phone is effectively a successor to OnePlus, making ultra-budget smartphones with premium specs, often to great success. The company’s venture into audio gear has been likewise auspicious. The latest Nothing Ear (Open) for $149 got 10/10 from SlashGear for its great sound and comfy fit, even if the design was so out-there that it made the list of strangest tech gadgets for 2024. Your Android-owning friends and family will love it, especially if they own a Nothing Phone; there are some ecosystem benefits like ChatGPT support.

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If they don’t have Nothing Phone, there is an even more budget option in the OnePlus Nord Buds 3. At $79.99, it’s hard to find much else at that price point that has good audio quality, noise cancellation, and solid battery life. Should you have a family member who owns a OnePlus phone, then they will enjoy OnePlus ecosystem benefits like audio controls baked into the Bluetooth settings.

If your gift recipient would appreciate a more premium option equivalent to AirPods Pro, then maybe consider the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. They look so much like AirPods and share so many features with them that it’s clear Samsung is selling AirPods in everything but name — a good gift for someone who despises Apple but likes some of the tech. We praised the Buds highly for sound, noise cancellation, microphone quality, and active passthrough. This is your go-to choice if the person you’re giving them to has a Samsung Galaxy S24. You can purchase Nothing Ear (open) from the Nothing store on Amazon right this minute.

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Choices for smart watches these days are excellent, from the Galaxy Watch to the Apple Watch. So what if your recipient wants those smart features, but doesn’t want a big, hulking square of aluminum weighing down their wrist? In that case, consider getting them a smart ring. While limited compared to a smart watch in the sorts of metrics it can track — and the accuracy of those metrics — a smart ring makes up for that in longer battery life and greater comfort. Our recommendation is the Galaxy Smart Ring. It is fairly expensive at $399, but it’s top-of-the-line among the competition, and has no silly required subscription like many smart rings do.

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Again, your recipient will get the most out of it if they have a Samsung phone; ecosystem benefits include things like being able to double-tap the ring to dismiss an alarm. If they are not a Samsung owner, then maybe consider the RingConn. It starts at $279 and includes all the most important things one would expect from such a small device. Smart rings don’t get much cheaper than that, especially not without a subscription. If you think your recipient is more amenable to a smart watch, then consider something like an Apple Watch SE for $249, or the good ole’ FitBit Versa 4 for $198.49.

The Samsung Galaxy Smart Ring can be found for sale in Samsung’s Amazon store right now.

Yeah, books smell nice and there’s nothing more rustic than holding one, but let’s just admit that e-readers are often a much better alternative. You can carry thousands of books on a single, waterproof device that has a backlight for nighttime reading and doesn’t need a charge for several weeks — plus a bunch of cool stuff like dictionary look-up and note clippings. If you know an avid reader, then they will really love something like the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite for $139. They can buy books straight from the Amazon bookstore, or upload their own provided they are in the .mobi or .azw file format. Pair that with a nice cover case, and you have perhaps the greatest book-reading platform ever made.

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If your recipient likes to read and draw, then there’s something even better: the Kindle Scribe. Think of it as a digital notebook for jotting down your thoughts, without getting eye fatigue from a bright screen. The Scribe lets you draw, write, and then convert those handwritten notes into text later on. It’s also a nifty way to mark up documents, and Amazon says it has months long — as opposed to weeks long — battery life. Of course, this all comes at a considerable markup. It’ll last for years, though, and your recipient will be happy as a clam. 

You can purchase the Amazon Kindle Scribe from Amazon right now for around $340. 

Remember the GoPro? Not too long ago, it was the only camera around that could take crisp video in a small package while withstanding incredible abuse. Nowadays, it has fierce competition on all fronts, and one is the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro. For $349, you get a 40MP sensor with excellent low-light footage, four hours of battery life, 64 GB of space, and an incredibly rugged rig that will easily take tumbles and splashes. This is the camera you bring with you for hiking, skydiving, and everything in between.

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A more expensive option that still sits under the $500 threshold is the Insta360 Ace Pro at $449.99. Shelling out the extra hundred bucks gets you a flip-up screen for spontaneous vlogging, 8K video, and more. At the very edge of the spectrum is the Insta360 X4 at $499.99, a full 360° camera to give complete coverage to those shots that demand it. 

You can purchase the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro from the DJI store on Amazon right this minute — with a variety of bundles available, too.

If someone you know struggles to wake up in the morning, then you’ve got plenty of gift options: some alarms shake your bed, and some require you to hit said alarm with a nerf gun to turn it off. On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have light sleepers who would rather not be woken up like they are under attack. For that second type, consider gifting them a Hatch Restore 2 Alarm (as listed on Amazon) for $144.48.

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The idea behind the Hatch Alarm is to wake up as our ancestors did, not the highly unnatural way we are used to with siren-like alarms in our rise-and-grind society. It uses a slowly brightening light that mimics natural sunrise as if it were coming through your window — great especially if you don’t sleep by a window. That, and it doubles as a sleep sound generator for those who need a bit of white noise or who want to drift off to a story.

The Hatch Alarm is a bit on the expensive side, but it combines several devices (alarm, noise generator, bedside light, etc.) into one and looks like a nice decoration rather than an ugly old alarm clock. There’s also an optional subscription service (Hatch+) that offers personalized tools for improving your sleep. Reviews are incredibly high, making this a great choice for the family insomniac.

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Dyson is famous for that bizarre ball-shaped vacuum and for its blade-less fans. Continuing in that tradition, the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer seems to magically produce hot air from its torus-shaped head. This was no mean feat; according to ThoughtCo., it took $71 million in R&D and hundreds of prototypes and patents to get the end result. Like the other “blade-less” designs of Dyson products, this one conceals a small, supersonic motor in the handle to achieve a slim, balanced design without a huge enclosure for the blades — and one that still produces a miniature hurricane of hot air. Importantly, Dyson didn’t just build the hairdryer to look fancy, they engineered it to stay below the temperature threshold where heat damage occurs to hair, and to produce a more even flow that (allegedly) mitigates tangling.

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So, is this hairdryer worth $399? Can any hairdryer be worth that much? Perhaps. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, and $399 here is going towards an exceptionally well-engineered product, not one that’s luxury priced for the sake of clout. The beauty guru in your family can keep this hairdryer for life — especially if they have hair that is particularly sensitive to heat, or an uncommon hair type that most hairdryers ruin. You can purchase the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer on Amazon right this minute.

The best upgrade any gamer can make to their gaming rig (short of a better GPU) is a monitor with a higher refresh rate, lower latency, HDR, and a curved screen. A high refresh rate gives a smoother image, especially in competitive, fast-paced games like “Fortnite.” Low latency reduces the time between when you press the button and that action registers on screen — so, things feel more responsive. HDR provides unparalleled contrast with more vibrant colors and deep, deep blacks. The curved monitor aspect doesn’t just look sleek, it may reduce eye fatigue for those long sessions. There are countless monitors that meet these conditions, many with a “gaming” tag slapped on them, but we personally recommend the Samsung 32-inch Odyssey G55A QHD.

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This monitor ticks all the boxes. One, it supports 1440p, which is a noticeable improvement over 1080p without requiring a beefy graphics card to hit the less-noticeable 4K target thereafter. Two, the refresh rate is a tiny bit higher than most monitors in this category at 165 Hz, so it’s future-proofed, so to speak. The 1 ms response time is as low as you can get, and it supports HDR10. Add on the fact that it’s curved, and there’s not much else you can ask from a gaming monitor. It’s original (MSRP) pricing is a reasonable $329.99 — it sometimes going on sale as low as $199.99 and is currently listed on Amazon for around $280. 

With a budget of $500, we can only assume you’re looking to do a bit more than gifting socks and $25 gift cards. For the coffee drinkers, nothing is worse than a hectic morning that causes their homebrew latte to go cold before they can a sip it. Enter the Ember Travel Mug. This is a self-heating mug and longer-term heating coaster combo that maintains your beverage at a pleasant temperature throughout the day. It includes a smartphone app for a precision temperature control, and when the smartphone’s not in reach, a touch display for quick adjustment. As a nice little bonus, it can be tracked down with Find My in the unlikely event that it’s misplaced.

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Make no mistake, the Ember is pricey at $199.95. For some, this is going to look like a complete waste of money for something that just keeps liquid warm. That said, this might be a good investment for someone who hates drinking anything lukewarm and treats coffee brewing as a sacred ceremony. Reviews are an acceptable 3.9 out of 5 stars, with the primary complaint being that the battery life isn’t as much as advertised, and build quality can be iffy. Maybe give your recipient the return receipt on this one, just in case, and wait for a sale. You can purchase this device on Amazon now.

Shopping for electric toothbrushes, the prices start to make you feel like you’re looking at professional dental equipment. A kingfisher Oral-B iO Deep Clean can decimate your wallet at $219.99, but considering how important dental health is, many people are willing to pay that premium to make sure their pearly whites stick around for the twilight years. The Laifen Wave Electric is the answer to overpriced electric toothbrushes. It costs all of $69.99 and offers all the features the big dogs do. Stylish, lightweight, high-quality toothbrush? Check. Customizable Bluetooth user settings through an external app? Check. Affordable, replaceable brush heads that get into every crevice? Check.

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Speaking from personal experience, this toothbrush punches way above its weight. Your dentist is going to pat you on the back at your next appointment and compliment you on your flossing — even if you, er, didn’t. It has an oscillating, high-frequency vibrating head that leaves your mouth feeling cleaner than the top of the Chrysler Building. It wakes automatically when it feels that you have picked it up. Plus, it has a fancy MagSafe-like charger that tops up your brush in 2.5 hours and leaves you with 45 days of battery life. The app has all the customization you could ever need. Of all the devices on this list, the Laifen has the highest bang-to-buck ratio.

The Kindle Scribe is for those who want the paper feel without an eyeball-frying backlight. But what if you’re looking for actual paper, without giving up digitized notes that can be accessed on a smartphone later? Then try this Moleskine Smart Writing Set (as listed on Amazon) for around $250. You get a notebook that looks like any other, plus a smart writing pen. Moleskine’s N-Code technology uses a combination of the pen and N-Coded paper to accurately capture anything you write or draw on the page — so fair warning, this pen won’t work with anything but proprietary Moleskine pages. Then, you can upload your scribblings to your digital devices and copy it over to your existing notes.

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Of course, there are some obvious downsides. One, you’ll have to top up the pen from Moleskine and get a new notebook from them once the pages are all filled. This isn’t the best option for people who detest having to buy all their refills and parts from the manufacturer. Two, users sometimes report difficulty setting it up, and less than stellar language recognition. Your mileage may vary.

However, when it does work, users are amazed; seeing your notes and drawings backed up, stroke-for-stroke in a digital format feels really cool. So this gift set will be a breath of fresh air for someone who loves digital convenience, but misses the good ol’ days of paper free from internet distractions.

A good power bank is a must during travels, and if you’ve traveled a lot, you know the cheap ones charge slow and last only a few dozen charges before their capacity drops off a cliff. Investing in a good one is well worth the money, so we recommend the Anker Prime 27,650mAh. It’s pricey at $179.99 (or thereabouts, as listed on Amazon), but as you will see below, you are getting your money’s worth.

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That 27,650mAh capacity fits into a slim package and leaves you with battery for days; Anker says the bank can charge an iPhone 14 almost 5 times, and yet is still legal to carry on an airplane. Next, it supports 250 W charging across multiple devices, so you won’t be awkwardly hefting around a power brick until your phone is charged. Plus, the high output means it can also charge a tablet or laptop — or both at the same time. Lastly, unlike most power banks out there, this one has a screen that displays battery capacity, power output, time to charge, and other helpful statistics.

Speaking again from personal experience, this power bank is nothing short of excellent. Really, the only downside is the weight. It’s not the ideal power bank to toss in a backpack or purse for a long day of travel, especially if you’re prone to back pain. Otherwise, this is a must-have gift for globetrotters and regular road-trippers.

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