Flashing Mini 2
You can’t afford to hire a house sitter to watch over your home during your vacation? An inexpensive security camera like the Blink Mini 2 can be a great alternative. The 1080p wired camera offers essentials like motion alerts and two-way audio, plus improved low-light performance and a wider field of view than the original model. This makes it easy to check in, no matter what time zone you’ve escaped to.
Price: $39.99
Anker Soundcore Sleep A20
Anker designed its Soundcore Sleep A20 to help you get better rest – and that’s just what they’ll do. If you need a sleep aid, Anker’s latest passive earbuds offer a flatter profile for more comfortable ergonomics and several sound-isolating features, which can help mask a noisy household or even your own snoring. They also offer an impressive 14 hours of white noise playback, or 10 hours of audio listening.
Price: $149.99
Withings ScanWatch Light
The Withings ScanWatch Light is a refreshing smartwatch if you hate charging your watch every day. Its appearance is more sophisticated and reminiscent of classic analog watches, except that it also offers heart rate monitoring, sleep analysis and basic activity tracking. The small monochrome window doesn’t reveal much information, of course, but that’s the price you pay for a battery that lasts weeks at a time.
Price: $249.95+
iPad Pro (2024)
The beauty of an iPad is that it allows you to be productive anytime, anywhere. Apple’s latest iPad Pro features significant upgrades, including a beautiful OLED display and a new M4 chipset, which allows the high-end tablet to run at blazing speeds. It also works with the new Magic Keyboard and the feature-rich Pencil Pro, making it a great tool for artists of all levels.
Price: $944+
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
(PlayStation5)
Personally, I have a hard time going back to the original Final Fantasy VII. It hasn’t aged gracefully, visually speaking, but the 2020 remake was a wonderful reintroduction to the beginning of its heartbreaking story. Its sequel, Renaissance, is the middle child of a planned trilogy. Its narrative still revolves around capitalist tyranny and a band of wholesome misfits determined to stop it, but now you can enjoy it with better visuals and new gameplay elements.
Price: $54.99+
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
Powered by Meta AI, these glasses are a blend of style, innovation and connectivity. Effortlessly capture life’s moments with an improved 12MP camera and five-mic system, while Meta AI enhances your experience by identifying landmarks, providing recipe inspiration, and creating intelligent image captions based on what you see. With hands-free voice calling, seamlessly switch between your phone’s camera and your glasses’ camera to share real-time moments with friends and family. With high-quality photos and videos captured hands-free, perfect every shot with built-in editing features and broadcast your view live directly to social media.
Price: $299+
Amazon Echo Hub
The Amazon Echo Hub is the best all-in-one solution for controlling your smart home without hiring professionals. The ad-free touchscreen panel makes it easy to access all your toggles, switches, and shortcuts, especially since it also serves as a smart home hub that works with Zigbee, Matter, and Thread devices. This might seem like overkill if you’re not an Alexa fan, but if you are, it’s a great device for planning your summer renovations.
Price: $179.99
Anker MagGo Power Bank (6.6K)
Road warriors will appreciate a fast Qi2 charger that doesn’t require wires to rejuvenate their devices. The Anker MagGo Power Bank (6.6K) magnetically sticks to the back of MagSafe-compatible iPhones, especially the iPhone 12, 13, 14, and 15 models, allowing you to charge them at up to 15W. 600 mAh even lets you adjust the viewing angle, meaning you can use it as an ad hoc smart display thanks to iOS 17’s new StandBy mode.
Price: $69.99
Dune: War for Arrakis
That of Denis Villeneuve Dune did well enough at the box office to spark more than just a second film adaptation of the 1965 novel. We’ve gotten some good video games before, but one of the more recent tabletop games is also worth a look. War for Arrakis pits two sides (and up to four players) against each other as they vie for control of the planet’s invaluable resources, chief among them the spices that fuel interplanetary travel.
Price: $114.95+
Fujifilm X100VI
The Fujifilm X100VI can make documenting your summer adventures an absolute delight. The brand is best known for its dreamy image quality and film simulation engine that makes it easy to capture those Kodak feels of yesteryear. The travel-friendly camera is pricey for something with a fixed 23mm focal length – expandable thanks to a built-in 2x teleconverter – but the 40.2-megapixel sensor hidden behind the lens can produce stunning results.
Price: $1,599+
Owala FreeSip Water Bottle (32 oz)
You can stand out from the Stanley Stans with the Owala FreeSip Water Bottle. The vacuum-insulated container keeps drinks cold for up to 24 hours and features a pair of dedicated pour spouts: one for sipping and one for a big gulp. The 32-ounce version strikes a great balance between capacity and portability with a foldable carrying handle. It’s also available in dozens of colors, just in case you want a bottle that’s as cool as your drinks are likely to be.
Price: $32.94+
Kobo Clara Color
The Kobo Clara Color proves that E Ink displays don’t have to be boring. Kobo’s latest e-book reader uses a six-inch Kaleido 3 display, which offers soft, pastel hues that work perfectly for creating color-coded highlights or viewing your favorite cover art in all its glory. Plus, like Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite, it has enough storage space to fit thousands of books and IPX8 waterproofing, giving you the freedom to read poolside without having to worry occasional splashes.
Price: $149.99
MacBook Air 13-inch (2024)
Whether you need something to handle your summer activity or just a reliable laptop to binge on The Bridgerton Chronicles on the go, we can’t think of a better one than the latest 13-inch MacBook Air. It’s light and small enough that you barely remember you’re carrying it in your bag, but Apple’s fast M3 chip delivers incredible performance if you’re not concerned with gaming, video editing, or anything else. intensive creative work.
Price: $999+
Sonos Ace Headphones
The Sonos Ace are excellent, especially for a first generation product. The excellent pair of Bluetooth earbuds sports physical controls and replaceable magnetic earbuds reminiscent of the AirPods Max, as well as support for ANC and a useful transparency mode. Better yet, they can receive audio from the Sonos Arc and, soon, other Sonos soundbars, making them a great option if you like to listen to your TV in private.
Price: $449
Bose SoundLink Max
If you’re hitting the poolside this summer, Bose’s stylish SoundLink Max might be one of the best Bluetooth speakers to consider placing near the edge. It has an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, as well as punchy, powerful sound that can overcome crashing waves and children’s screams. It also doubles as a USB-C power bank and supports AptX Adaptive for higher bitrate audio, assuming you’re using an Android device.
Price: $399+
PlayStation Portal
There are plenty of handhelds that can satisfy your thirst for portable gaming, but the PlayStation Portal is arguably the best way to experience PS5 games via Remote Play if your network is up to it. It’s basically a crisp eight-inch LCD screen attached to a standard DualSense controller, which lets you take advantage of motion controls, a built-in mic, and – yes – those nifty adaptive triggers we love so much.
Price: $199+
DJI Osmo Pocket 3
The Osmo Pocket 3 is the perfect vlogging camera if there ever was one. It features a large flip-up screen, a sharp one-inch type sensor with excellent low-light performance, and a built-in mechanical gimbal that can keep your footage smooth while tracking your every move. The mini steadicam can also be operated with one hand, making it easy to capture vibrant 4K footage no matter what situation you find yourself in.
Price: $519
GooglePixel 8A
Google is going all-in on AI this summer – and the Pixel 8A is one of the cheapest ways to enjoy express access to the latest versions of Android. The mid-range phone may not be the most powerful model in Google’s Pixel lineup, but this well-rounded device has all the essentials, not to mention a number of perks that are an anomaly to this price point (including seven years of OS upgrades).
Price: $499
Bambu Lab P1P 3D printer
If you find 3D printing to be a hassle, you clearly haven’t spent much time with Bambu’s ultra-reliable Lab P1P. The fast, full-size CoreXY printer is easy to maintain and comes mostly pre-built, making it an exceptional option for beginners who can’t tell you the difference between ABS and PLA plastic. It’s still an amateur machine at heart, but at least it keeps tinkering to a minimum.
Price: $599
Samsung music frame
If you’re spending more time indoors to try to avoid the heat, you might as well liven up your home with the Samsung Music Frame. This dual-purpose decor piece, which takes inspiration from the company’s art-inspired Frame TV line, lets you insert your own photos and swap out a variety of frames. It also works as a good-sounding smart speaker, supporting Alexa music and Dolby Atmos.
Price: $397.99+
The Verge t-shirt
A good t-shirt is never a bad idea if someone you know needs a new fit for summer festivals. We might be a little biased here, but we can’t think of anything better than The Verge Tee. The classic mid-weight crew is made from 100% cotton and features our new(ish) logo as the main stencil. It’s especially nice if your name starts with the letter “V”, although it’s certainly not a prerequisite for looking sharp.
Price: $29.99