Christmas is less than a week away and closing it at a terrifying speed if you feel you are one of the late shoppers and haven’t managed to finish getting all the presents you needed to.
Getting the perfect present is probably one of the most difficult things to do this time of year – especially given the pressure that might settle in given that the holidays are so close – and that’s taking holiday preparations in consideration.
Image Source: NorthDallasGazette
Christmas has stopped being a holiday just for kids to enjoy a long time ago. Now both children and ‘older’ children – or adults as we like to call ourselves – get to enjoy the holiday in equal amounts especially when it comes to presents that involve technology and clever gadgets. And let’s be honest, tech presents can not only fit every single person that you’re willing to buy a surprise for since they have such a big part in our life nowadays, but offer such great diversity and products to choose from, it’s near impossible to not find something suitable for your loved ones.
While most devices would normally shake quite substantial funds from you, the holidays are not a bad time to consider upgrades and tech-related purchases. A lot of distributors, retailers and even developer companies themselves offer a various and wide array of deals with the occasion, making it a shame to miss on. If you move fast, you might still be in time to take advantage of some of them and make someone tech-happier this Christmas. Even if that someone is yourself.
In order to make your life a little easier, we have compiled a short list of present ideas that you can draw your inspiration from. They include the latest releases on the market and will suit the highest end needs of the most tech-savvy individuals, so brace yourself for tech Christmas is coming with some really great things. Here is our Christmas Gift Guide for 2014.
Smartphones & Phablets
Lumia 1520
Image Source: Gigaom
The first item on our Christmas Gift Guide is the Nokia Lumia 1520, arguably one of the best flagships of 2014.
While it may not be one of the newest releases on the market, the Nokia Lumia 1520 still packs an impressive punch considering it has been out for more than a year. It comes fully equipped with the latest 8.1 Windows version in a 209 gram, 6 inch display phone, easily making it fall into the phablet category. And just like any other phablet, it has to prove it’s got what it takes to still make an impression next to all the other popular devices on the market.
Here are a few things that might help in that direction: when the Lumia 1520 first came out, it was easily one example of state of the art technology, packing a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 at 2200 MHz processor, 2 GB of RAM and at last 32 GB of storage, complimented by a microSD card slot that could go as high as 64 GB.
The impressive display will go as high as 1920 x 1080 resolutions with a pixel density of 368 ppi. One of the most impressive features of the powerful phablet is probably its read camera – a 20 megapixel wonder that features the same optical image stabilization that we can find in most recent releases as well, and an auto-focus with two stage capture key. In addition, it features a front HD 1.2 MP wide angle camera as well, capable of recording in 720p quality.
iPhone 6
Image Source: Cdn.bgr
One of the biggest hypes of 2014 by far, the iPhone 6, is not something to be taken lightly. In comparison to what its predecessor’s release meant to iPhone fans all around the world, this time around the transition from the 5th generation to the 6th of one of the most successful smartphone developer out there is finally highly tangible and a real breath of fresh air for us.
The iPhone 6 comes with an all-new design, a much larger display than ever, and even 2 variants – the classic one with a 4.7 inch display, or the phablet variant, with a dazzling 5.5 inch surface. The developers of the iPhone 6 have surely exceeded themselves with the release of this phone, bringing to the table a new generation of Ax processors, much larger storage than what we have been accustomed to so far and the new iOS 8, heavily packed with new apps and functionalities.
People have called it the best phone of the year. We are going to settle for “one of the best phones of the year” since preference does normally play a bigger role in choosing a favorite. But for the tech lovers out there, the iPhone 6 will surely be a delight, no matter the model. Let’s take a look at the next device on our Christmas Gift Guide for 2014.
Samsung Galaxy Note 4
Image Source: Cnet
The most recent Samsung release, and the last before the next Galaxy S comes out has been an absolute blast. The phablet in question is by far a flagship of Samsung and has come in the last quarter of the year, marking it with incredible design and outstanding power in its production.
Everything that represents the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is a technological wonder from start to finish – the 5.7 inch QHD display is probably the best we have seen on the market until now, sporting a 1440 x 2560 resolution with a shocking 515 ppi pixel density, far superior to most competitors.
Until the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor was released, the 805 model present in the Galaxy Note 4 was undoubtedly the strongest you could get, and probably the only one who could take your phone up to 3 GB of RAM; that’s right, the Galaxy Note 4 if challenging tablets and medium-performance laptops with a rather huge amount of memory contained in the palm of your hand.
The cameras present on the Note 4 are as powerful as 16 megapixel, 5312 x 2988 pixel resolution for the rear, and a 3.7 megapixel front facing camera, capable of recording and streaming video in 1440p. Multitasking is an amazing trait of the phablet, which – come the 5.0 Lollipop update that is scheduled to be released for it by the beginning of February 2015 – will only become better.
And if you have a taste for the unusual, the Galaxy Note 4 also comes in an “Edge” variant, sporting a curved glass strip on its right hand side that acts as a separate display with some nifty utilities attached to it, though at a higher price.
LG G3
Image Source: LG.com
Despite some people claiming large screen phones offer incredible display at the cost of difficulty in actually holding the phone or operating it one-handedly, somehow phablets are still currently ruling a grand portion of the market. The last but not least of this list is the LG G3, acclaimed by many and certainly not disappointing.
While some insist on calling it a smartphone still, the 5.5” display is no joke and will definitely fall into phablet territory. The resolution goes no lower than 1440 x 2560 with a 534 ppi pixel density, making it literal eye candy. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor is nicely complimented by the 3 GB of RAM, giving the LG G3 unfeasible amounts of multitasking power and broad possibilities.
While the camera the LG G3 displays might seem to be running behind in the megapixel race against market rivals, it’s still a pretty powerful tool – 13 megapixel front facing camera with phase detection and laser autofocus, optical image stabilization and a dual-LED flash, managing to make an outstanding impression in bright light too.
It also features the much-wanted front facing camera that can record video at 1080p quality and presents itself with a 2.1 megapixel capacity.
Tablets & Hybrids
Next on our Christmas Gift Guide for tech enthusiasts we would like to take a look at the best tablets and hybrids that have rolled out in 2014. Here they are:
Nexus 9
For some, the 4:3 aspect ratio of the Google Nexus 9 might be a letdown. Others will relish it. Depending on what you’ll be wanting to do with the tablet in question, this one might be the perfect fit for you.
The Google Nexus 9 is an 8.9-inch upgrade to last year’s predecessor – the Nexus 7 – and one of the first devices out there that has been released to bring forth into reality the much hyped Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system.
Slim, sleek and powerful is something taken right out of Nexus 9’s book. Google’s “Material Design” they introduced in the last OS is beautifully complimented by the Tegra K1 dual-core processor and 2 GB of RAM. The battery that was implemented in this tablet is a 6.700 mAh one, capable of keeping your tablet going for approximately 9.5 hours of WI-Fi browsing and video playback.
The only downside to it would be the limited, and unable to upgrade storage space – the tablet only comes in 16 GB and 32 GB versions.
Microsoft Surface Pro 3
Image Source: Forbes
This one is certainly one of the most adored hybrids of the year. Favored over competitors such as the Asus Transformer Book T100, it will on the other hand cost you much more than the latter. But the reason behind the price is the baffling range of specs it can actually reach.
It comes with a 12” display, only slightly smaller than an actual notebook and packs impressive hardware. The lower end versions start at i3 1.5 Ghz processors and 64 GB of storage space. Not impressed? No problem.
The high end version of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 will provide you with an i7 1.7 GHz processor, a 256 GB SSD hard drive and up to 8 GB of RAM. All it would need now to be considered a full laptop would be a keyboard, correct? Well guess what – the package includes a keyboard that you can easily attach through magnetic hinges and a stylus that excels at imitating real pens.
Thus, the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 really manages to make the best of both worlds.
Gaming Consoles
If you are looking for gifts for the tech enthusiast, chances are that he is also passionate about games. Therefore, we have included several Gaming consoles in our Christmas Gift Guide for 2014.
Xbox One
Image Source: Cnet
The Xbox legacy has come a long way from its birth and until now. With the latest addition to the family, the Xbox One sealed the deal last year and managed to make it all the way up to the top of the sales charts in 2014.In comparison to its older brother, the Xbox 360, Xbox One came to address many of the issues the former had.
Despite the larger format, the Xbox One is unusually quiet and in comparison to previous models, it is very self-sufficient when it comes to its cooling process. The design, while it may not be of great importance to some, is sleek and minimalistic. Inside the Xbox wonder there is a 1.7 GHz custom AMD APU which is a 2 in 1 system that combines the CPU and GPU into one unit.
There is also a 5400 RPM 500 GB hard drive packed inside the gaming wonder, large enough to hold not only entire games on its internal HDD, but also giving you a lot of space for your media and much more. The controller has also received an uplift even if the Xbox 360 one was one of the most acclaimed and highly used of all time.
The new version is not a very far off version from the previous, but it does display trigger improvements, now featuring rumble motors. Its D-pad has been changed into a cross and the thumbsticks are now smaller but more accurate.
Playstation 4
Image Source: Cnet
Xbox One’s primary rival may have lost a little ground in favor of the competition lately, but make no mistake into thinking it’s an inferior console. After the great, multi-year success that the previous, PS3 model had – and for good reason – it was only natural that the subsequent releases would have a considerable amount of fight in them.
The PlayStation 4 comes with an impressive new look with a sharp, angled profile displaying a light bar that acts as a console status indicator. Just like the Xbox One, the PS4 also features a new controller – bigger, more comfortable, with improvements brought to the thumbsticks and refined gyroscopic and accelerometer-based motion control.
The DualShoke 4 is easily the best controller Sony has ever made. The PS4 comes with the same 500GB of storage space for your games and media, but with 8GB of GDDR5 memory, a low power x86-64 AMD Jaguar processor and a 1.84 Tflops AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next engine.
We Wish You A Techy Christmas!
