At Christmas we usually down tools and devote our holiday time to fun pursuits: putting up the deccies, bingeing on festive telly, gorging on Cadbury’s Roses, commandeering the kids’ Xbox console. The last thing we want to think about is going back to our lonely, bare office desk and facing the 2025 workload. And we certainly don’t want any work-related gifts under the tree to remind us of the drudgery, thank you very much. Or do we?
In this age of hybrid working, a good tech gift that’s useful at home, in the office and in the home office could be just the job. And the good news is it’s not all that hard to find a versatile gadget that can adapt to both the work and home environments, as well as to the ubiquitous work-from-home space. Portability is a plus: many of us are yo-yoing between home and workplace, and we want to be able to throw our gadgets into a bag and just get going. Ease of use is another – your boss won’t like you wasting the whole working day trying to decipher a baffling set of instructions.
We’ve picked out some of the best tech gifts for the hybrid worker in your life – once they open one of these very useful pressies, instead of dreading going back to work, they’ll be counting down the days to the end of the Christmas holidays.
I can’t believe it’s not paper
We love writing but we don’t love going through all that messy paperwork to find that note we scribbled last week, and we definitely don’t love the overflowing wastebasket when yet another written draft gets crumpled up and thrown away. But imagine having a notebook that gives you the feel of writing on paper, only, instead of a pile of paper cluttering up your desk, it’s all stored, tagged and organised in this compact tablet.
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The reMarkable Paper Pro is ultra-slim and portable, and its full-size 11.8-inch colour display has a textured surface that mimics paper, creating just the right amount of friction to make it feel as though you’re writing on the finest-quality stationery. And the Paper Pro has an ultra-fast response time from pen to screen, with almost zero lag, so as soon as you make your pen stroke, your writing appears on the screen in 12 milliseconds – far less than the blink of an eye.
The screen lighting is also beautifully balanced to reduce glare and resemble paper whatever the ambient lighting, so whether you’re sitting in the park on a sunny day or sitting up in bed, you’ll still be able to jot down those brilliant ideas without straining your eyes.
- reMarkable Paper Pro, from €649, remarkable.com
An echo in the room
Say ‘Hello Alexa’ to Amazon’s best-sounding smart speaker, which lives up to its name by offering studio-quality, crystal clear sound, along with a range of other excellent features. The Echo Studio is compact, sitting neatly on your desk and delivering an immersive listening experience thanks to its spatial audio processing technology.
The Echo Studio also has Dolby Atmos to give extra space, clarity and depth to the sound, and an uncanny ability to sense the acoustics of any space and optimise for the dimensions of any room – so, no matter where you put it, the Echo Studio will always sound its best.
It’s also voice-controlled, so you don’t have to interrupt your work to fiddle with controls. Just ask Alexa to stream songs from streaming services including Amazon Music HD, which give you access to 90 million tunes in lossless audio formats. And the Amazon Echo can also be a valuable assistant during your working day – just ask Alexa for the latest stock exchange figures, the flight times for that tech conference or a list of nearby restaurants for that business meeting.
- Amazon Echo Studio, €299, Currys and currys.ie
Turn on, tune in
We’re old enough to remember the little wireless in the corner of the office, blaring out Gerry Ryan and Larry Gogan in a nice, tinny timbre to complement the clacking of the Olivettis and the hum of the fax machine. Alas, the Tivoli Model One BT can’t replicate the tinny sounds, but it can deliver a natural analogue sound replication with musically accurate tonal balance and bass response.
It’s both a radio and a bluetooth streamer with superb sound quality and a classic handmade wood design that will enhance any home or office space. With just three knobs – one for power and source, one for volume and one for tuning – it’s ridiculously easy to operate and tune in to your favourite AM or FM station.
It’s also easy to connect a Bluetooth-enabled device to stream your own music or podcasts. The only drawback is that the Model One doesn’t have a station preset, so if you want to flip between Newstalk and RTÉ Radio One, you’ll have to get up from your desk and turn the tuning dial. It’s good to get out of your desk, though, and move around every once in a while.
- Tivoli Model One BT bluetooth speaker and radio set, €179, tivoliaudio.eu
At one with the music
Noise-cancelling headphones have come a long way but Sonos claims to have come an even longer way with its new Ace headphones, which boast superior precision and clarity, and maximum immersion via lossless streaming, spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, and active noise cancellation.
Not to get all Zen about it, but Sonos reckons these headphones will make you feel at one with your music and create a deep connection with the sound – just what you need to keep out all the distractions of a busy day.
If you need to stay in touch with your surroundings while listening, Aware mode will let you hear what’s going on around you and still enjoy the music. The headphones are lightweight and cushioned with plush memory foam and soft vegan leather, so you’ll hardly know you’re wearing them – apart, of course, from the fantastic audiophile sounds in your head.
- Sonos Ace Active Noise Cancelling headphones, €499.99, DID Electrical and did.ie
Power boost on the go
When you’re flitting back and forth between home and office, and between business meetings (yes, they’re back), there’s always the danger that one of your devices will run low on power, just when you need to upload that presentation or do a last-minute edit on that spreadsheet. In such a scenario, you’ll be glad you have the Belkin 26000 mAh Boost Charge power bank tucked away in your work bag, just in case you need that extra surge of power to get that big deal over the line.
The Belkin power bank is pre-loaded with 32 watts of juice and ready to use, and can quickly charge up your iPhone, Galaxy, tablets and other devices – all at the same time – via two USB-C ports and two USB-A ports. There’s enough power here to give your smartphone 115 additional hours of battery life, so you can watch movies, listen to music and do FaceTime on the go, safe in the knowledge that you’ll have enough battery power to get you to journey’s end.
- Belkin 26000 mAh Boost Charge power bank, €69.90, Harvey Norman and harveynorman.ie
All the family photos
No office set-up is complete without the requisite photo of your family sitting in a prime position on your desk, but why stop at just one picture? With the Aura Carver digital photo frame, you can display all your latest snaps from home and holidays, just to remind you that there is a life outside the workplace, and it looks bright and high-res.
There are lots of digital photo frames on the market but we like the Aura Carver for its grooved design and earthy sea salt and gravel colours. It’s a wifi-connected frame, allowing you to send photos straight from your phone to the Carver via the free Aura app, so when you sit at your desk on Monday morning, you’ll have all the fun from the weekend to look back on.
The Carver has a 10.1-inch landscape display, and doesn’t just show your photos; it can also pair up complementary photographs and display them side by side in portrait form. And if you’re giving the Aura Carver as a gift, you can even personalise it by adding photos in advance. Just not that one from last year’s Christmas party.
- Aura Carver digital photo frame, €159, Conn’s Cameras and connscameras.ie
