Christmas may be the most traditional time of the year, but when it comes to Christmas gifts, old-fashioned can go out the snow-flecked window. All we want for Christmas are the latest techie gifts, with all the whizz-bang and razzle-dazzle that modern technology can offer. Nothing seems to say Christmas more than the latest iPhone X or Samsung Galaxy Note 8, all wrapped up and ready to go, so here are the top techie gifts for Christmas 2017. Just email this list straight to Santa – he'll know what to do.
Amazon Kindle Oasis 2018, £229 with 8gb, £259 for 32gb, Amazon.co.uk
Don’t know why they’ve named this after the popular Britpop band from the 1990s, but I guess we gotta roll with it. Some might say the Kindle is just a tablet with fewer functions, but it’s really come into its own in the past couple of years, and does its primary job as an ereader so well, you don’t actually want it to do anything else. It comes in a lovely shiny aluminium casing, with a 7in display and lovely eInk letters. It’s water-resistant, and has Bluetooth connectivity so you can listen to audiobooks. The champagne supernova of Kindles.
Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet, £149, Amazon.co.uk
If you want a handy stocking-filler, but don't want to fork out for an iPad or Samsung tablet, the Amazon Fire might just do the job. It's ridiculously cheap, and though it may not have the wide scope of the high-end tablets, it will do the everyday stuff efficiently and quickly. Alexa is in there too, and it's perfect for doing all your shopping through Amazon, or catching up on the latest antics of The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime.
GoPro Hero6 black action camera, €569, Harvey Norman
If anything can motivate you to shake off the post-Christmas lethargy and get active, then finding the GoPro Hero6 under the tree should do it. Taking 4k quality clips at a dizzying rate of 60 frames per second and capable of going 30ft underwater without its casing, the latest-model GoPro is perfect for capturing your action-packed 2018 (it will be action-packed, won’t it?).
Fitbit Ionic smartwatch, €349.95, Fitbit.com
The appeal of wearables has not worn out just yet – and Fitbit is staying ahead of the game with its new Ionic smartwatch. The Ionic allows you to customise your workout, and also change wristbands. It will monitor your heart rate, track your location via GPS, and bring you your smartphone notifications so you don’t miss out on that all-important deal while out running or in the gym.
B&W PX Headphones, €399, Savins.ie
Whether you’re a globetrotter or a homebody, the new Bowers & Wilkins PX wireless headphones will give you all the headspace you need to enjoy your sounds. It’s B&W’s first noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones, and while it may not rival the noise-cancelling nous of the headphone honcho itself, Bose, this is a beautifully designed set of cans with superb sound.
iPhone X, €1,179, Littlewoods Ireland
It's easily the most expensive phone on the market, but for most techies who've tried it out, it makes complete geekonomic sense. The 10th-anniversary iPhone boasts facial recognition, and it's abandoned the umbilical cord of the home button in favour of a sleeker, more efficient interface. Apple CEO Tim Cook has called it "the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone" in 2007. That may be a bit of typical Apple hype, but there's no doubt the iPhone X outsmarts every other phone on the market right now, so if you're asking Santa for a smartphone, make sure it's this one. Why else do you think it's called Xmas?
Samsung Galaxy Note 8, €1,219, Littlewoods Ireland
About the only android that can hope to rival the new iPhone X and iPhone 8, the Galaxy Note 8 has resolved all the burning issues of its Note 7 predecessor, and packed in some great new features to really up the cool quotient. It’s got a nice big screen with edge-to-edge display, and making quick notes on the go is made simple with a stroke of the S Pen.
