We are now in the final few weeks before Christmas and you may be on a last minute dash to find great stocking fillers. In this weeks blog we have pulled together a list of 10 gadgets in the price range of £5 - £50 pounds that would make great fillers for Christmas stockings!
1. Zacro VR Headset
First on our list is a mobile VR headset from Amazon. A cheap and very easy to use VR headset that you pair up with your Android or iOS smartphone. There are a whole plethora of apps available on the market focused around VR, from panoramic photo and 360 degree video apps, to various VR games. All you need to do is place your smartphone in the headset, open up the VR app that you wish to use and you are away. The Zacro VR headset is available from Amazon for £16.99.
2. VicTsing clip in smartphone lenses
Next on our list are a set of clip on smartphone lenses, which allow you to capture wide angle, fish eye and macro style photo's on your smartphone. The lenses are incredibly easy to use as they simply clip over the existing camera lens on your phone, allowing you to capture a whole range of artistic photos. The macro lens inparticular is fantastic for getting very close up and detailed photographs. The VicTsing smartphone lenses are available on Amazon for £7.59
3. Google Chromecast
Google's Chromecast is a fantastic device which allows you to convert a non-smart TV to a Smart TV. The Chromecast simply plugs in to a spare HDMI port on your TV and to your home broadband, allowing you to stream and share content direct from your iOS or Android smartphone or tablet, such as; Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Facebook videos, YouTube, or you can mirror the entire devices display onto the big screen, (a great alternative to a laptop and projector when presenting). The Chromecast has recently been discounted, and is available to buy from Tesco for £18.
4. Miniature Drones
There are a variety of miniature and full size drones on the market at the moment. Some of which measure less than two inches in diameter and therefore make fantastic stocking fillers. If you are looking for one that doesn't necessarily offer video capture capabilities, then the DHD D1 available for £14.54 through Amazon is a great bit of fun and is surprisingly robust. If you are looking for a similarly sized drone capable of capturing video and images, then the EACHINE E10W available on Amazon for £39.99 is also great. It allows you to capture video and images to a micros SD card or watch your flight through a smartphone app in First Person View.
5. Sega Megadrive
For those of you that remember some of the retro games consoles available in the 90's, the Sega Megadrive would most likely have been one of the ones that you owned. You may still have it sat in the loft somewhere gathering dust, but for those of you have since moved on, but want to go back and play some of the classic titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Ecco, you can buy a revamped version with 80 built-in games from Argos for £39.99. You can even plug in the original games cartridges if you still have them lying around!
6. Tile smartphone and key finder
The Tile phone and key finder has been available for a while now, but that doesn't make it any less useful. If you are the sort of person that regular misplaces their phone, keys, wallet or anything else then the Tile could be a great gadget for you. It connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth and regular monitors the location of the object that it is paired with and allows you to tell it to play a loud tune to help you find it. The Tile also works two ways, so if you lose your phone, simply press the tile and it will set your phone to ring. Tile is available on Amazon for £19.99
7. Anker PowerCore 20100
If you carry a number of gadgets around with you, such as a smartphone, tablet, wireless headphones, digital camera, etc. there is nothing worse than finding that they have run out of juice halfway through the day. There are a number of portable power banks available on the market, but the one that constantly receives great reviews are from an American manufacturer called Anker. There most recent version offers a 20,100 mAH battery capacity. To put it into perspective, that is the equivalent of recharging your iPhone 6 from empty a total of 7 times! The Anker PowerCore 20100 is available on Amazon for £29.99
8. JBL Go Bluetooth speaker
There are plenty of different portable Bluetooth speakers available on the market. The JBL Go is one of them and it is great! It supports up to 5 hours of playtime, is available in a range of vibrant colours and the sound quality really packs a punch for its size. Amazon have recently reduced the price of the JBL Go from £24.99 to only £17.99
9. DBPOWER waterproof action camera
GoPro is more than likely the name that comes to mind when you think of action cameras, but they do come at quite a price. There are a huge amount of cheap alternatives available online, but if you simply want an action camera capable of capturing Full HD video footage of your various activities take a look at the DBPOWER Waterproof Action Sports Camera. It does in fact look very similar to the GoPro and comes with all of the waterproof casings and mounts that you need for your various sports and activities. If the 5 star reviews on Amazon are anything to go by, then £34.99 seems a fantastic price for the amount of kit that you get.
10. Misfit Flash fitness and sleep monitor
Wearable fitness trackers are still massively popular, one of which is the Misfit Flash fitness and sleep monitor. The first thing to note about the Misfit is that it is very minimalistic. It is a circular device about the same size as a 50p coin and has a ring of led lights around the circumference of its face. When paired with a smartphone app, it allows you to track walking, running, swimming (yes it is waterproof), cycling and much more. Although this wearable isn't rechargeable, it does have a replaceable battery that lasts as much as 6 months. The Misfit is a great wearable that is available on Amazon for £24.00