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The Smartest Gadgets a Man Can Buy in 2024
From a ring that turns your hand into a phone to a self-cleaning water bottle, these gadgets make perfect gifts – yes, even for yourself
To paraphrase Ferris Bueller, tech moves pretty fast – and if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss the chance to own a drone with a 12 megapixel camera which starts hovering when it recognises your face. So keep up with our pick of the best gadgets and tech out right now, whether you're after something simple to make your every day more frictionless or something a bit special. To be specific, the 'something a bit special' is a tennis kitbag that also fires tennis balls at you.
Leica Sofort 2 Hybrid instant camera
The trusty Leica has been a favourite brand of photographers for absolutely yonks, and their entry into the world of instant-print digital cameras is as reliable and well made as you'd expect. The Leica Summar 1:2/2,4mm lens is solid, and there's a pleasing simplicity to the design too. Point, shoot, print.
£350, Selfridges
Joy Resolve portable bean grinder
Picture the scene: you and the crew are out on an adventure. You're out in the wilds, British Columbia maybe, or the foothills of the Peruvian mountains, or an Airbnb just too far from Aberystwyth to dash out to a cafe. The crew need sustenance. They need caffeine, and Kenco simply will not do. "Fear not, crew," you tell them, unsheathing the aluminium cylinder. "Behold, the almighty bean." Then and there you grind up some fresh coffee. Add some water, add some time, and you've saved the day once again. Chapeau.
£80, Selfridges
techBAR lumbar massager
Ooh. Hrrnngghh. Yep. Oooooh yep yep yep that's the spot. Aauuuuhhhhhhnnn. If you're sat at your desk/kitchen table all day, you've probably been getting a bit of gip from your lower back. All that hunching over spreadsheets has got you tied up in knots. But there's good news. Through vibrations, heat, electrical impulses and traction this lumbar massager should straighten you out.
£219.95, Selfridges
Apple Watch Ultra 2
The latest iteration of the Watch is takes the rugged, outdoorsy MO of the last Ultra and takes a genuine leap forward. The dual-core S9 SiP processor has 60 percent more transistors than the last generation, putting a rocket up the functionality. The display is, at its brightest, the most eye-popping Watch that Apple has put together, though it'll also auto-dim to near invisible in dark conditions. On the outside you've got a GPS antenna, dual speakers for Siri, an action button, an 86-decibel siren just in case, three microphones, depth guage, digital crown and extra action button. Basically: it does it all.
£799, John Lewis
Samsung S24 Ultra
No, it's not cheap. But by god, do you get what you pay for with the new S24 Ultra. You get Galaxy AI. You get a built-in pen. You get a stonking 200 megapixel camera. You get super-fast gaming thanks to a hefty processor. You get a titanium case. And you get a very handsome, sharp-edged look to boot.
From £1,249, samsung.com
Amazon Echo Hub
The vast array of bits Jeff Bezos wants to put in your house is, frankly, mind-boggling and eye-popping. This one is the missing link though. All your other Amazon bits and pieces feed into the Alexa-enabled Echo Hub and can be controlled from it, whether you need to programme the lights to go on and off, check the security cameras, unlock some doors, turn up the heating, turn down the tunes or pretty much anything else. Finally, it's made a smarthome as simple as you hoped it'd be.
£169.99, amazon.co.uk
Garmin Forerunner 165
The latest in Garmin's wrist-borne running coaches will do you daily personalised workouts and adaptive race plans on its amoled touchscreen, and you'll not have the excuse of sacking it off should you run out of battery halfway round: it'll go for 11 hours in smartwatch mode, and 19 if it's in GPS mode. Only thing it won't do for you is lace your trainers up.
£249, argos.co.uk
Bose Ultra Open earbuds
The big thing in ultra high-end earbuds over the last couple of years has been open earbuds which let you hear a bit more of the world around you than the noise-cancelling plugs which cut you off from it. Slip these on over your lower lobe, and the idea is you might not walk into traffic or ignore your mate saying hello while also ensuring you don't need to turn off the tunes. You get the oomph of the sound you want, with none of the sound bleed that will make the rest of the bus hate you. Tidy.
£299.99, bose.co.uk
Google Pixel 8
The latest iteration of the Pixel comes with all sorts of handy innovations, especially if your mates are forever letting you down in photos: pictures with the best Pixel camera yet can be fiddled about with using AI features like Best Take, which allow you to swap blinking faces for ones from other snaps, and a magic eraser snipping unsightly intruders from your images.
O2, from £29.25 a month
Samsung Freestyle projector
The freestyling aspect to this second-gen version of the easy to use and endearingly dinky 17cm-tall LED projector kicks in when you point it at your chosen screen. Whether you're throwing your movies and TV onto a proper pull-down, a wall or an outside wall, the Freestyle will adjust the shape of the image automatically so it all lines up nice and straight no matter where it's projecting from. Very nice indeed.
Selfridges, £699
Transparent turntable
What you see is what you get, and you can see an awful lot of it: the tempered glass plates are extremely lovely. But there's also more here than meets the eye. There's a pre-amp, which despite sounding not very sexy means this turntable can sit pretty on its own rather than on top of a grumpy looking box with knobs on it, and the Ortofon OM5E cartridge it comes with is a reliable entry-level bit of kit. You can wire it up or play your tunes via Bluetooth.
SSENSE £1,435
Meta Quest 3 Virtual Reality Headset
There will come a time, sooner or later, when the once-doomed Google Glass dream will be realised. Virtual reality – the kind that can fully immerse you in a different universe, rather than shoehorn you into a grainy 360° YouTube video and give you a medical-grade belly ache – will fit inside a simple pair of specs. We are not yet there. But Meta’s latest VR helmet, the Quest 3, is a serious upgrade on it’s a predecessor: smaller, curvier, more comfortable, packed with sci-fi tech and genuinely startling in its performance. The controllers are super light and easy to use, although you can just use your hands if you want to go full Minority Report (and why wouldn’t you?). Each eye is armed with 2,064 x 2,208 pixels, which translates to a crisp line of sight after some adjusting, and the field of view is impressive. It goes without saying that some games and apps push the technology to its limits with incredible graphics and engaging features, while others perfectly replicate the experience of living inside a Dreamcast. One thing’s for sure: it’s fun, either way.
johnlewis.com, £479.99
Sound Burger
The perfect 1980s gift for fans of Meat Loaf, Bon Jovi or Patti Smith, the Sound Burger was a bright-red portable plastic record player that came in a clam-shell design and with the advisory sticker, “Do not move while playing!”
Created in 1982 in a doomed attempt to head off the inexorable rise of shiny new CDs, the vinyl player — “Today’s high-tech takeaway. Amazing looks... even more amazing sound!” — was soon consigned to the “Where are they now?” file.
A fixture of hi-fi nerds’ weirdest-products-ever lists since, the Sound Burger has recently enjoyed a minor comeback. A 3D-printing template is available online, while eBay sellers have been flipping units of the £89.95 (including VAT) original for more than £500.
Now, its maker, the Japanese audio brand Audio-Technica, has reissued the Sound Burger. Updates include the addition of Bluetooth, a 21st-century cartridge and stylus and a recharge- able battery.
“With the rising demand for vinyl players, it seemed the perfect time to rerelease it,” Yu Kambe, Audio-Technica’s product manager, tells Esquire. “The older generation can get that nostalgic feeling. For the younger genera- tion, they have something they can take to their friends’ houses and enjoy streaming analogue sound.”
Perhaps Burna Boy, Fred Again or, for the full retro experience, “Livin’ on a Prayer”?
audio-technica.com, £199
Meater + Thermometer
The easiest, quickest, most science-adjacent way of taking your cooking up several notches is to invest in a decent means of telling the exact moment your food’s cooked. The old standbys of judging when your fish/beef/chicken/whatever is done – juices running clear, making your peace with salmonella, just vibes – are finished. This one hooks up to an app on your phone which will tell you what the internal temperature is and what you’re aiming for based on how you want it cooked, and it’ll tell you when it’s time to take it out and how long to rest it.
Amazon, £99
We Are Rewind Bluetooth Cassette Player
Ahhh, the good old days of magnetic tape. It's been through a bit of an indie-led renaissance in the last few years – in 2023 cassette sales hit their highest peak since 2003, thanks in part to Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift getting involved – and the slightly wobbly, hissy charms of the cassette are now the new vinyl. But what to do if you're heading out and want to listen on the go, and streaming just doesn't feel quite fun enough? This very sharply designed player brings things into the 2020s with Bluetooth connectivity, 12 hours of battery life and a reassuringly hardy aluminium case.
£149.99, Selfridges
Pioneer DJ DDJ 200 Controller
No, friend: it isn’t too late to make a tilt for next Glasto’s Silver Hayes bills. If you start practicing now you could be looking at, ooh, fourth on the bill at Block9? Third? Probably third, actually. This one hooks up to your phone, tablet, laptop or desktop and is compatible with several of the big free DJ software packages, and will prove once and for all what you’ve suspected for years: that DJing is actually very, very, very easy.
Argos, £140
COTADAMA lyric speaker canvas
Think of this as the thinking man's karaoke machine. You play your music via AirPlay, Google Cast and Spotify Connect, and via technical wizardry from the boffins at Tom's Lab, the lyrics flash up in time with the music on the front screen. There's a pleasingly industrial feel to it, the sound is on point and it'll finally allow you to make the words to 'Call Me Maybe' the objets d'art they truly are.
mrporter.com, £1,400
Sony Bravia XR XR65X95L
Rest assured, the 'mini' here does not refer to the screen size. Everything here is very much maxi. It's a 65-inch monster, with Dolby Atmos and Acoustic Multio Audio+ for immersive sound. The Cognitive Processor XR gives you colours that pop even in bright rooms and 4K UHD resolution.
John Lewis, £1699
MELITTA CI Touch F630-102
This bean-to-cup machine will do a load of different coffee recipes and has an on-board milk frother, plus it's better than half price for Black Friday as well – there's £555 off. Buy two? Could buy two. Probably don't need two. But definitely could have two. Imagine firing up two at the same time, feeling the thrum, watching bits of your kitchen ceiling crumbling. What a thrill.
currys.co.uk, £494
Ooni electric pizza oven
Yes, it's the dream of most of us to one day move in circles which make pizza nights in the backyard a regular fixture in our lives. The woodsmoke! The bonhomie! But we're here to tell you, the reality usually ends up being more complicated. You'd better make friends with that woodsmoke smell because it's going to be in your clothes until next November, and the bonhomie might curdle when hangry guests are waiting for the oven to warm up. Take the stress out of the equation with an electric oven which razzes up to 450 centigrade in 20 minutes and does your pizzas in 90 seconds flat. No buying charcoal, no casting around for wood pellets, and it's suitable for indoor use too when the inevitable mid-July drizzle sets in.
Selfridges, £800
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