Top News

It is the festive season, which means for a lot of us, getting overwhelmed with gifting choices for our near ones and looking to stick with the old trusted options. Many times, though, a nice little gadget or gizmo can be more than useful as well as less boring as a gift. For that, here are a few suggestions across a number of categories that you can think about and choose from:

Home entertainment and convenience

Sony Bravia II:

For those who prefer a large screen with great display quality as well not cutting out on looks, you can consider Sony’s Bravia II series of 4K LEDs. Not splurging too much but getting good performance and smooth navigation for the price tag. The Bravia app bundled gives you 10 free movies to watch on it supporting IMAX format and high bitrates up to 80mbps for select titles.

Available at Rs 51,490 for the 55-inch model.

Dreame F10 Robo Vacuum Cleaner:

What is more suitable this festive season than an automatic cleaning machine that does the job of plotting the map of your floor, corners and size via LiDAR and going about its job with minimal input necessary? The Dreame F10 not only does dry sweeping your floors as well as carpets but also does wet mopping for more satisfying and cleaner floors. Powered by a 5,200 mah battery inside, it can last close to five hours on a single full charge, and just pressing the home dock button makes it go to the pre-assigned charging station location on its own.

Available for Rs 16,999 on Amazon.

Sonos Arc Ultra and Sub 4:

If somebody is really looking to up their home entertainment with a solid combination for the audio part, Sonos’s Arc Ultra coupled with Sub 4 offers a really loud, deep and clear audio for your TV shows, movies and live sports needs. With clear dialogue delivery, room-filling Dolby Atnos experience and looks, the combination isn’t low-budget but they do offer a top quality audio experience for your music and binge-watching needs.

Sonos Arc Ultra at Rs 84,999 and Sub 4 at Rs 67,999.

Accessories

Sandisk Creator SSD:

If one of your close ones is a content creator, and on the lookout for making videos or editing one on the go, there’s a decent chance they would be looking for a storage companion to store and backup their footage. The Sandisk Creator SSD is a convenient option that connects to your iPhone and Android devices to transfer and store files. What it does extra for the older iPhone Pro models is add 1TB storage and enable ProRes video recording option. So, you add 1TB to your 128GB base variant without having to shell out in total as much you would for a 1TB variant while also getting that extra feature to edit your videos in further details. The IP6 dust and water-resistant disk can latch on to the back of your iPhone as a MagSafe accessory, too.

Available at Rs 10,999 (1TB).

Stuffcool Lucid Plus:

Looking to get that powerbank that doesn’t look boring, is sleek and charges fast enough and doesn’t make things go warm? This 10,000mAh powerbank has a half transparent back panel showing some of the inner machinery. It supports MagSafe with Qi standard; you can charge iPhone 12 onwards (with Standby mode supported) and some newer Android devices that can pluck it magnetically at up to 15watts max. You can also charge a device wired at 20watts max – all this without any heating issue.

Available at Rs 2,299.

Redmi Watch Move:

For a watch that shows you notifications reliably, takes count of your daily steps, has a great battery life and weighs under 40g, the Watch Move is a solid budget option. You get fairly bright display for outdoors usage and software that’s smooth enough for your daily needs keeping the price tag in mind.

Available at Rs 1,799.

Smartphones

Oppo Reno14 5G Diwali Edition:

This is quite a looker for the festive season, specifically – with a Mandala inspired design on the entire back panel; a unique design that features a peacock. Pour a little hot water on it – thanks to its industry first heat sensitive colour changing tech –  the gold deepens and becomes prominent.

It is an Ip66/68/69 dust and water-resistant device that’s decked in an aluminium frame. The phone itself is quite feature rich – running ColorOS 15 and boasting a nice vivid 6.59-inch AMOLED display with a capable set of triple camera system at the back that takes sharp and detailed shots, including in not-so-friendly lighting conditions.

Available at Rs 36,999.

Apple iPhone 17:

The regular variant of the new iPhone 17 is also the one providing most value this time. With its taller display – 120Hz – and an upgraded dual camera system at the back, the phone offers a lot in terms of hardware capabilities currently. You get a smooth performance as well as a refreshingly new take on iOS that has added features in the camera app, OS customisation as well as the growing apps selection.

Vivo X Fold5:

A slim foldable phone with a carbon fibre supporting Hinge, the X Fold 5 has several things going for it. It sports a 6.53-inch AMOLED cover display and an 8.03-inch main AMOLED display. There is a triple camera system that boasts both an ultra-wide camera and telephoto lens that can take detailed and sharp shots in most conditions. Powered by a 6,000mAh battery unit, the phone sports up to 80watts faster charging and weighs under 200g; that’s lighter than some regular flagship smartphones today.