You'll find plenty of cool gadgets on store shelves this holiday season from wearables to aerial drones. Here are our picks for best tech gifts to help you stay connected, capture the moment and take to the sky:
Kiplinger's Picks
Best Fitness Band. The Fitbit Charge HR ($150) packs a lot of features into a wristband. It tracks steps traveled, flights of stairs climbed, heart rate and sleep habits, and the small display shows your personal stats, identifies incoming calls to your cell phone and doubles as a watch.
Best Smart Watch. Limited battery life is an issue with the Apple Watch. But if you're an iPhone user, the Sport (starting at $349) brings Apple Pay, iMessage and, of course, Siri to your wrist. Among competitors, our favorite is the LG Watch Urbane ($350). It's compatible with Android and Apple phones, can run up to two days between charges, and receives calls, texts and e-mails. You can stay connected even when you’re away from your phone because the watch uses Wi-Fi to connect to your phone remotely.
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Best Instant Camera. The iconic 20th-century camera is making a comeback, updated for the 21st century. The Polaroid Z2300 Instant Digital Camera ($180) captures 10-megapixel photos, has a 3-inch LCD display, supports up to 32GB of storage and spits out 2-by-3-inch prints in under a minute.
Best Aerial Drone. For the photography enthusiast looking to expand his horizons, consider the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 Quadcopter Elite ($300), which has a high-definition camera for aerial photos and video. The DJI Phantom 3 Advanced (about $1,000 online) captures professional-quality video and photos.
DealNews.com's Best Tech Values
Louis Ramirez, senior features writer for DealNews.com, forecasts the best deals you'll find during the holiday shopping season:
TVs: Look for bargains on 60-inch TVs. Brands such as Insignia and RCA should sell for about $550 (regularly $600 or more). Among 4K TVs, prices on the 55-inch Vizio P Series and newer M Series models (regularly starting at $900) could fall to about $650.
Laptops: The 11-inch MacBook Air could drop to about $730 (regularly $899) through retailers such as Best Buy. If you prefer Windows, watch for prices of about $300 on the Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Series models (regularly $400 or more).
Tablets: Prices on the 16GB, Wi-Fi-only iPad Air 2 could go as low as $350 (regularly $499). But the 7-inch, 8GB Amazon Fire tablet sells for an unbeatable $50—and if you buy five tablets, the sixth is free.
Smart Phones: The newest Moto G (Android) is just $180 for the 8GB version. If you buy it unlocked from Motorola, you can use the phone with any of several carriers.
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