30 great gift ideas that should arrive in time for Christmas
30 great gift ideas that should arrive in time for Christmas
You don’t need to deal with long mall lines or crowded parking lots just to wrap up your holiday shopping, but you probably already knew this. Some of the best deals are online, and even though Christmas is now just a few days away, a lot of Verge-approved gifts should still arrive on time if you order them online.
We know that everyone’s wishlist looks different from the next, so we’ve got you covered with 30 gift ideas to suit gamers, music lovers, bookworms, and more. Below, you’ll find products like the latest AirPods Pro to the Meta Quest 3S and Kindle Paperwhite. On a tighter budget? There are many sub-$50 presents below, too.
Headphones and earbuds
AirPods Pro 3
The recently released AirPods Pro 3 have a new design that improves their fit, superior noise cancellation, better bass, and fairly accurate heart rate sensors. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- If your recipient doesn’t need fancy features like active noise cancellation and wireless charging found in the AirPods Pro 3, Apple’s entry-level AirPods 4 are a great value at $74 ($56 off) from Walmart, which is $5 shy of their all-time low price. The wireless earbuds improve upon their predecessor with better sound quality and spatial audio with head tracking, while delivering even clearer voice call quality and a more durable IP54 rating for both water and dust resistance. Read our review.
Sony WH-1000XM5 (with free WF-C700N earbuds)
Sony’s flagship WH-1000XM5 noise-canceling headphones improve upon the previous model with richer sound quality, slightly more powerful ANC, and improved comfort. Meanwhile, Sony’s WF-C700N earbuds offer a secure in-ear fit, decent sound, and an IPX4 rating against water and sweat. Read our Sony WH-1000XM5 and Sony WF-C700N reviews.
Where to Buy:
- You can buy Google’s Pixel Buds 2 Pro for $165.04 ($64 off) at Amazon, which marks a new low price by a few dollars. The buds are our top pick for Google Pixel device owners, boasting an exceptionally comfortable and secure design that’s much easier to wear than the previous version. They deliver good active noise cancellation, a top-notch transparency mode and longer, and 12-hour battery life. If you own a recent Pixel phone, you also get access to Google’s Gemini AI and head-tracking spatial audio. Read our review.
- The Beats Solo 4 are down to a new low of $79 ($120 off) in select colors at Walmart, while Amazon and Best Buy have them on sale for $129.95 ($70 off) in a wider range of shades. The on-ear headphones don’t offer ANC, but they do deliver rich bass, along with lossless audio over USB-C or 3.5mm cables. They’re also platform-agnostic, supporting both Apple’s Find My and Google’s Find My Device networks, while iPhone users get personalized spatial audio with head tracking and Android users benefit from automatic device switching. Read our review.
Smart home tech
Tapo RV30 Max Plus
Our favorite budget-friendly robot vacuum offers high-end features, including room-specific cleaning, a capable mop, carpet boost, and smart navigation. It also features an auto-empty dock.
Where to Buy:
- The Govee Table Lamp 2 Pro is on sale for $134.99 ($45 off) at Amazon, which matches its best price to date. The color-changing smart lamp offers preset scenes to help you set the mood, but also lets you create lighting effects. It’s also a Bluetooth speaker, delivering decent sound that syncs with the lights. Plus, thanks to Matter support, it’ll work with all major smart home platforms.
- You can grab the latest Blink Video Doorbell with a Sync Module Core included at an all-time low of $29.99 ($40 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, or Target. The 1080p video doorbell improves on its excellent predecessor with a new head-to-toe view and more accurate motion alerts, while retaining perks like motion-activated recording, night vision, and two-way audio. And while it runs on batteries by default, you can hardwire it if you choose to.
- The Petcube Fountain is on sale for $54.99 ($25 off) at Amazon, which is its best price to date. The 57-ounce fountain uses a four-layer filtration system to help remove bacteria and other impurities from your pet’s water, and it can send alerts via the companion app when it’s time to swap in a new filter. It’s also rechargeable and designed to run only when your pet is nearby, helping to save power.
Amazon Echo Spot
Amazon’s Echo Spot smart speaker-meets-alarm clock has a 2.83-inch squared-off display for showing the time, weather, album art, and other bits of info you may want at your bedside. Unlike the original Spot, there’s no camera to worry about having in your bedroom — though it does have a mutable microphone for Alexa voice controls. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
Tablets and e-readers
Kindle Paperwhite (2024)
Amazon’s latest Paperwhite features a larger 7-inch display and noticeably faster performance. It also boasts longer battery life than the previous model, retains IPX8 waterproofing, and includes a USB-C port. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- Other Kindle models are down to some of their best prices too, including the ad-supported versions of the Kindle (Amazon, Best Buy, and Target) and Kindle Colorsoft (Amazon, Best Buy). The last-gen Kindle Scribe with 32GB of storage and ads is receiving the biggest discount, though, matching its best price to date starting at $279.99 ($140 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. The monochromatic e-reader comes with a stylus so you can jot notes directly in Kindle books or in the built-in notebook. It also offers AI-powered tools that can summarize your notes, and its 10.2-inch, 300ppi display has adjustable warm lighting for comfortable reading day and night. Read our reviews of the Kindle Scribe (2024) and Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition.
11-inch iPad Air M3
The new 11-inch iPad Air comes with Apple’s M3 chip and GPU upgrades. It’s available in dark gray, blue, purple, and a “starlight” cream shade. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- If you’re after an affordable tablet for a child, the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids is back at its all-time low of $104.99 ($85 off) at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy. The 10.1-inch slate features a sharper 1080p display than most other Fire HD models , while offering a long 13-hour battery life. It also comes with a case and a year of Amazon Kids Plus, which grants access to ad-free, kid-friendly books, movies, apps, and more.
Gaming
Meta Quest 3S
The Meta Quest 3S is a battery-powered standalone VR headset that has the same chipset as the pricier Quest 3, but with the same lenses and screen resolution as the Quest 2. In addition to being able to play many games from the Meta Store, it can also be connected to a gaming PC to play VR games like Half-Life Alyx. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- You can grab a copy of Astro Bot at its all-time low of $39.97 ($20 off) at Best Buy, Target, and Walmart. The PlayStation 5 game stars an adorable robot on a mission to save his friends after an alien attacks his ship. The platformer draws on familiar tropes but delivers them in fresh, quirky ways, making it a delight to play. Read our review.
PlayStation 5 Pro
The “pro” version of Sony’s PlayStation 5 has a bigger GPU, new PSSR AI-based upscaling, advanced ray tracing, and 2TB SSD (with expandable storage). The new features allow for better graphics at higher frame rates, allowing for the blending of “fidelity” and “performance” modes in some games. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- Now through December 19th, you can buy Sony’s DualSense Wireless Controller starting at $54 (about $21 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. The PlayStation 5 gamepad stands out for its immersive haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, which offers various degrees of resistance. It supports USB-C, comes with built-in speaker, and works with macOS and Windows, too. Read our review.
PlayStation Portal
The PlayStation Portal is a handheld that allows you to stream games from your PS5 over the same network, or via the cloud for certain titles if you have a PS Premium Plus subscription. The Portal has an 8-inch 1080p display with a 60Hz refresh rate, decent speakers, and a long-lasting battery. It also supports DualSense features, including haptic feedback and motion sensing. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
Smartwatches and fitness trackers
Apple Watch Series 11 (42mm, GPS)
Although the Apple Watch Series 11 is the same size as its predecessor, it features a 5G cellular modem, a display that Apple claims is twice as durable, and slightly improved battery life. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- The 40mm Apple Watch SE 3 with GPS is down to its all-time low price of $199 ($50 off) at Amazon and Walmart. Despite being Apple’s entry-level smartwatch, it’s one of the best wearables we tested this year, offering impressive upgrades like an always-on display and significantly improved durability. You don’t get EKGs a blood oxygen sensor, and hypertension detection, but you do get sleep apnea notifications and Apple’s powerful S10 chip, which enables on-device Siri requests along with double-tap and wrist-flick gestures. Read our review.
Fitbit Charge 6
The Fitbit Charge 6 features a haptic side button, an improved heart rate algorithm, turn-by-turn navigation with Google Maps, and the ability to broadcast your heart rate on certain Bluetooth gym equipment.
Where to Buy:
Streaming devices, TVs, and soundbars
Google TV Streamer (4K)
Google’s terrific TV Streamer (4K) is the company’s best attempt at a streaming device yet, with built-in ethernet, an excellent interface, and smart home compatibility with both Matter and Thread. Read our review.
Where to Buy:
- You can purchase the second-generation Sonos Beam for $369 ($130 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, which is one of its better prices to date. The soundbar supports Dolby Atmos through its virtual height channels as well as HDMI eARC. It also doubles a smart speaker with Bluetooth support and compatibility with Amazon Alexa for hands-free control. Read our review.
- Hisense’s 55-inch U8QG is on sale for $727.99 ($772 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, while the 65-inch is down to an all-time low of $949.99 ($548 off) at the same retailers (Amazon / Best Buy). The mini-LED TV offers gamer-friendly features like snappy 165Hz refresh rate, three HDMI 2.1 ports, and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro to prevent screen tearing. It’s also great for watching TV shows and movies, with full-array local dimming to reduce blooming, as well as support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos in content that supports them. Plus, it runs on Google’s easy-to-use TV platform — granting quick, easy access to all the major streaming apps — and offers an impressive maximum screen brightness of 5,000 nits.
Other great gadgets you can still gift
Hoto PixelDrive
The cordless electric screwdriver delivers an adjustable six Nm of torque, along with a built-in pixelated display that lets you check information like battery life.
Where to Buy:
- Apple’s two-meter-long MagSafe Charger is on sale for $39.99 ($10 off) at Amazon, while the one-meter-long model is down to $29.99 ($10 off). Those are among the best prices we’ve seen on the magnetic charger, which supports 15W MagSafe and Qi2 charging. When paired with a 30W USB-C power adapter, it can also deliver up to 25W to compatible iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 models, as well as the iPhone Air.
- MasterClass is offering 50 percent discount on its annual subscription, with plans starting at $50. The service provides access to virtual lessons covering a wide range of subjects — from science and tech to cooking, sports, business, art, film, music, and more — all taught by experts and well-known creators, including David Lynch, Stephen Curry, Ringo Starr, Kevin Hart, and hundreds more.
- You can buy the Glocusent Bookmark Style Reading Light in multiple colors for $12.99 ($6 off) at Amazon, which is one of its better prices to date. The clip-on USB light offers adjustable warmth and brightness, providing a soft glow that makes it easy to read at night without waking anyone nearby.
2024 Tile Pro
The latest Tile Pro is its most capable Bluetooth tracker to date. It has a wider range than its predecessor and offers a user-replaceable battery. It’s platform-agnostic, and can send SOS alerts if you pay $14.99 per month for its Life360 Gold subscription.
