Gifts for your favourite geek (end of 2024 edition)

It’s that time of the year where everyone starts to wonder “what DO I get someone that they’ll like?”

As a self-proclaimed geek, I approached this list by thinking about any and all items that I have either personally used in the last year or pined over and wanted really REALLY badly. Here’s is a mish-mash of wonderful technology and lust of drool-worthy gadgets, carefully separated into a few price ranges (correct at the time of writing).

Some of the links will be affiliate ones. Others are just good ol’ fashioned links to the products I’ve loved.

It’s inflation season (Gifts under $100)

• Bellroy Key holder — Stop the jingling keys and enhance your EDC cool factor in 1 move
• Tom’s studios pen — it’s like a refillable fineliner pen. Like a mix between a fountain pen and a normal one
• Manta Sleep Mask — is there a frequent traveller in your life? They will *love* this! One of the hardest things while travelling is good sleep and blocking out light so that you CAN sleep. I never thought it’d make that much of a difference, but boy is my sleep measurably better with this.
• Infinity Cube Fidget Toy — know someone who’s a constant fidgeter? This is a perfect fidget toy. I have a 3D printed version of this and I love it!
• Memento Mori Coin — Have an aspiring stoic in your circle who can quote Marcus Aurelius at the drop of a hat? This could be the perfect gift for them…
• Levitating Lightbulb Lamp — I bought mine from the orginal company that made it, Flyte, and it *still* turns heads. This one is significantly cheaper
• Retro Desktop Flipclock — I have this in white, but boy does this version look cool! It adds a bit of retro flair to your desk setup.

Times are tough but they deserve it (Gifts between $100 and $500)

• Raspberry Pi 5 — Ideal for the tinkerer. It’s essentially a mini-computer that can form the basis for a near infinite number of projects for the tinkering kind.
• Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo — for the retro photographer, this instant camera replicates the Polaroid experience but adds in some new technology with the ability to send your phone photos to be printed on here.
• Meta Quest 3S — VR/AR is definitely something that’s coming. If the Apple Vision Pro is a bit out of the budget, this is probably the best value even compared to the other one Meta sells.
• Amazon Kindle Scribe (2nd gen) — honestly, the perfect mix of tablet and notetaking device. I love that it has a built-in bookstore and basic browser and not any more bells and whistles. The writing experience is top-notch and I keep going to it as my daily pad to note ideas.

What cost of living crisis? I’m splurging! (Gifts over $500)

• Bose QuietComfort Ultra — For the audiophile/traveller, this is the class leading headphone that arguably sets the industry standard in noise cancelling. If a more luxurious version is required, you could also try the B&O H95
• DJI Mini 4 Pro / DJI Neo — drones have come a long way in recent times and these days, I find myself flying the Mini more than my advanced drones. These 2 are cheaper but very well spec’d for most content creators
• Sony A7c II — I have the upgraded A7R model but have recently taken the plunge and bought this exact camera instead. This model is the perfect balance between resolution for photography and the features for creating videos too. On top of that, the “c” stands for “compact” which it certainly is compared to the other cameras in this bracket.

Hope that gives you some gift ideas for this festive season. IF you have any suggestions, please do let me know in the comments. More than anything, I love hearing about new gadgets that I might have missed!