HardwareZone's personal picks for Christmas: An intimate gift guide
If you've ever wondered how the HardwareZone team pamper their loved ones, this is it. Please be responsible and do not bluff XMMs with the recommendations here. #giftguide #bbfa #hwz #personalpicks
All I want for Christmas is you. Of course, we don't mean you should get the NVIDIA DGX supercomputer pictured (but NVIDIA won't mind if you did). Photo: HWZ.
Oh, we're making this personal
One of the best gifts you can get from HardwareZone's editors or writers is a tech gadget, trinket, or accessory because these BBFAs see consumer tech items every hour, every day.
Not only does the team know the best tech gifts to buy, but their recipients are often people who don't have time to compare tables, prowl spec sheets, or decrypt consumer tech marketing jargon. The gift choices also come from a special place inside of us (contrary to popular belief that HWZ editorial folks have an AI processor where the heart is supposed to be).
In this unique gift guide, the HWZ team recommends their personal picks for loved ones across various tech product types and price ranges. If you need gifting inspiration from some of the smartest, best-looking, and most talented BBFAs in Singapore, you've come to the right place.
8BitDo Retro 18
$67.90
8BitDo Retro 18. Image: 8BitDo.
Numpads are usually the first on the chopping block when decreasing a keyboard’s footprint. Still, they're nonetheless essential for my hyper-productive partner, even if they don't need the Numpad during leisure time.
The 8BitDo Retro 18 is a discrete Numpad that adds that functionality back, doubling as a calculator with an LED screen to display calculation outputs. You can toggle between Numpad and calculator modes through a button. While the calculator mode is standalone, meaning it can’t send calculation outputs to your computer, a helpful hotkey opens the Windows calculator app for you as a workaround.
The Retro 18 comes in colourways inspired by the Nintendo Famicom and NES, IBM Model M and Commodore64. It comes with Kailh Box White switches by default, but the PCB is hot-swappable, giving my partner some room to personalise it further. The Retro 18 also supports wired, 2.4GHz and Bluetooth connection options.
DJI Osmo Pocket 3
$559.00 $729.00 23% off
DJI Osmo Pocket 3. Photo: DJI.
The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 is an ideal gift, even if it's not the first giftable gadget that comes to mind.
If your loved one is an influencer or content creator, this handheld camera's 1-inch CMOS sensor can deliver 116 minutes of 4K, 60FPS footage for their channels. The compact size (179g weight and 139.7mm length) hardly takes up precious luggage space for the travel-loving partner. The Osmo Pocket 3 can also get 9.4MP still photos with a built-in timer countdown, alleviating my Instagram Boyfriend/Husband duties.
It's also easy to use thanks to its 2-inch touchscreen. Professional videographers would appreciate its wide pan/tilt/roll range and support for 10-bit D-Log M and 10-bit HLG colour modes, which offer extra post-editing granularity.
Don't forget to get a MicroSD card (up to 512GB, sold separately) when you buy one as a gift.
Kobo Clara Colour e-reader
$239.90
The Kobo Clara Colour e-reader. Photo: Kobo
My memory is hazy, but I believe someone once said the best gift is the gift of reading. My partner already reads a fair bit, although I sometimes get comments about my memory.
This is why I’m gifting an e-reader, specifically the Kobo Clara Colour. If you want to get into reading or are already a voracious reader, an e-reader is arguably the best investment you can make. Their E Ink displays are much easier on the eyes than the LCDs of typical tablets, making them more suitable for reading.
The Kobo Clara Colour is a favourite of mine because it’s small enough to slip into pockets and has a battery that lasts weeks. It's waterproof, so my partner can take it to the beach or the tub. The colour display also makes it great for comics and picture books. The icing on the cake is that it's one of the most affordable colour e-readers you can find now.
Read our launch coverage of the Kobo Clara Colour here.
Sony PlayStation 5 Pro
$1,069.00
PlayStation 5 Pro. Image: Sony.
My loved ones deserve the best, even if it gets expensive.
Sony's latest and greatest PlayStation 5 is aptly named "Pro." Unlike the previous generation of PlayStation Pro consoles, the PlayStation 5 Pro substantially improves the vanilla variant beyond greater processing power.
These include advanced ray-tracing and upscaling (with PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution), Wi-Fi 7, and a 2TB storage upgrade. Under the same conditions, the PS5 Pro will produce higher frame rates and a sharper 4K picture than the PS5, provided the games are optimised for PSSR.
Over 50 titles currently support the Pro-based enhancements, and the list is set to grow in 2025. My loved ones enjoy many of these titles, so now is a good time as any to upgrade their PlayStation gaming experience.
UGreen Nexode 100W 4-port GaN Wall Charger
$49.49 $69.99 29% off
UGreen Nexode 100W 4-Port GaN Charger. Image: UGreen.
Far too often, I have visited friends and family to find that the only power adapter(s) they have at home is the original Apple iPhone USB-A. Did they know that these adapters are only 5W? Five watts! Bleargh. If I’m lucky, they might have an iPad charger ranging from 10W to 20W, depending on the model.
As you can guess, I feel that a charger is a gift worth giving to modern homes with too many gadgets but not enough optimised charging. I also won't give my money to brands that exclude charging bricks from their products.
My choice is the UGreen Nexode 100W GaN charger. It has one USB-A port for older cables and three USB-C ports for charging phones, tablets, and laptops simultaneously. It’s one of the better bang-for-buck GaN chargers around for $55.
As a bonus, it’s a smooth rectangular cuboid, so it’s guaranteed to fit most people’s socket configurations.
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