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Top 25 Gadgets Every Geek Should Have

This list contains gadgets that every geek should own.

We’ll be updating this list frequently by adding new gadgets. Also, when a newer model (or a better alternative) becomes available for any of the gadget mentioned below, we’ll be updating this list accordingly.

1. Point and Shoot Digital Camera

There are several options in point and shoot digital camera. You can’t go wrong with any one of the following 3 point and shoot digital cameras.

  • Nikon COOLPIX L820 – 16 MP, 30x powerful wide optical zoom, Full HD 1080p video, good low light performance, very good choice for a point and shoot camera
  • Canon PowerShot SX170 IS – 16 MP, 16x optical zoom with image stabilization, 720P HD video. Good value for the money.
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 – 14.1 MP, 16x wide angle optical zoom with image stabilization. This also has built-in GPS functionality.

2. Digital SLR Camera

  • Nikon D7000 – 16.2 MP, 1080p HD Movie, ISO 100-6400, 39-point AF, 6fps continuous shooting, twin SD cards. If you are an enthusiastic amature photographer, look no further and get this DSLR.
  • Nikon D800 – 36.3 MP high resolution, full 1080p HD video, uncompressed HDMI video output. This is one of the best high-end DSLR for professional photographers
  • Canon EOS 7D – 18 MP, 1080p HD Movie, ISO 100-6400, 19-point AF, 8fps continuous shooting, wireless flash control.
  • Sony Alpha A99 – 24.3 MP, uncompressed full 1080 HDMI output. This is the first dual AF system SLR camera. This is also one of the lightest full frame DSLR camera out there.

3. Digital Camcorder

  • Sony 16GB DCR-SX85 – This has a 3″ LCD touch screen display, image stabilization, 16GB flash drive, lithium ion batteries, 60x optical zoom with 70x extended zoom, plenty of picture controls, grid display, an advanced sensor and Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens.
  • Panasonic HDC-SD600K – This has a 3MOS Sensor with Leica Dicomar Lens (F1.5–2.8), 1080 Full-HD Progressive Recording, 35mm Wide-angle Lens with 12x Optical Zoom, Power optical imagea stabilization.

4. Wireless Router

Cisco-Linksys WRT54GL (Linux Compatible) – This is Linux compatible device that has these three major features built-in: 1) Access Point to connect other Wi-Fi devices 2) 4-Port full-duplex Switch for your internal LAN 3) Router. Type: Wireless G (802.11g). Ethernet Ports: 4 (10/100 Mbps Ports). Security Features: Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) Firewall, WPA, WEP, MAC filtering.

5. Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 – Hope you are still not using the good old wired USB keyboard and mouse. This is just a simple and reliable wireless keyboard and mouse combo.

6. USB Flash Drives (Thumb Drives)

  • SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 32GB USB Flash Drive – This is an extremely compact thumb drive. Use this in situations where you don’t have to pull-out the thumb drive often.
  • SanDisk 64 GB Flash Drive – Having 64GB in my keychain and carrying it around everywhere makes a big difference, as I can carry several small Linux distributions in it, and pretty much dump everything I needed on this USB drive. Whether to buy 64GB, 32GB, or 16GB, or 8GB all comes down to the price.

7. GPS

  • Garmin eTrex 20 Worldwide Handheld GPS Navigator – This is a must have for hiking and outdoor activities. This has high-sensitivity GPS receiver, a 2.2″ color display, worldwide basemap with relief, geocaching. This has lifetime maps for US.
  • Garmin nüvi 260W GPS Navigator – Text to Speech: Yes. Widescreen: Yes. Display: 4.3-inch touchscreen display with 2D/3D mapping perspective. Live Traffic Update: No. Bluetooth: Yes. MP3 Player: Yes

8. Digital Picture Frames

ViewSonic 8-Inch Digital Photo Frame (VFD820-70) – This is a 8″ LED Backlit Digital Photo Frame. This also has a calendar and clock. You can view pictures from SD/MMC/SDHC cards. Auto on/off features with light sensor is very helpful.

9. Bluetooth Headset

  • Samsung HM1700 – This supports music streaming, Single-mic noise reduction and Echo cancellation, Automatic volume adjustment, and voice prompts
  • Motorola H17 Bluetooth Headset – Upto 5 hrs of talk time and 7 days of standby time. You can connect to two phones at the same time. Uses noise-cancellation technology.

10. WebCams

  • Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 – H.264 HW encoding for faster, smoother HD experiences, Carl Zeiss optics with premium 20-step AutoFocus, Full HD 1080p skyp video calling, Full HD 1080p recordings and Fast upload to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, dual mic for stereo audio
  • Creative Live! Cam Chat HD 720P – Smooth HD 720p video capture and playback, Built-in noise-canceling microphone, Share photos and videos online with a single click, still image capture at up to 5.7 MP

11. Android Phones

  • Samsung Galaxy S4 – GT-I9500. This is Factory Unlocked International Version. Frequency – Band^ WCDMA (850/900/1900/2100MHz) + GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz), 13MP, FUll HD 4.99″ screen
  • HTC One – Unlocked 32 GB. Camera: HTC UltraPixel, Processor Speed: 1.7 GHz, OS: Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean), Compatible with GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile as well as with GSM SIM cards (e.g. H20 and select prepaid carriers). Unlocked cell phones will not work with CDMA Carriers like Sprint, Verizon, Boost or Virgin.
  • HTC One X – 16 GB storage, 1 GB RAM; Android OS, v4.0, v.4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), LTE 700 MHz Class, GSM, Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait, Super IPS LCD2 capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, 720 x 1280 pixels, 4.7 inches (~312 ppi pixel density), Primary: 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash / Secondary: 1.3 MP, 720p

12. eBook Readers

  • All-New Kindle Paperwhite – No screen glare in bright sunlight, Read with one hand—over 30% lighter than iPad mini, long lasting battery, Next-gen built-in light—read without eyestrain
  • All-New Kindle Fire 7″ Tablet – This comes in both 8GB and 32GB. Stunning HD display (216 ppi / 1280×800), Fast 1.5GHz dual-core processor
  • Kindle DX – Read in bright sunlight with no glare, Holds up to 3,500 books. Free 3G wireless. 9.7″ E Ink Display

13. Tablet PC

  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1-Inch – Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS, 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Z2560 Processor, 16 GB Flash Memory, 1 GB RAM Memory, MicroSD expansion upto 64GB, 50GB free dropbox. Camera: 3MP rear-facing, 1.3MP front-facing
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7-Inch – Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 8 GB Flash Memory, 1 GB RAM Memory, MicroSD expansion upto 64GB, 50GB of free Dropbox storage, Camera: 3MP rear-facing, 1.3MP front-facing
  • Google Nexus 7 Tablet 7-Inch – 16GB, Sharp 7″ tablet screen (323 ppi), 9 hrs of active use battery, Quad-core speed and performance, 2GB RAM, Powered by Android 4.3
  • Google Nexus 10-Inch – Dual-core A15 processor, 2GB of system memory and 32GB on-board storage memory, Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) OS, 10.55″ touchscreen, 2560 x 1600 resolution, Built-in 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth, Back 5MP webcam and front 1.9MP webcam
  • Dragon Touch 9-Inch – 9″ multi-touch 800×480 pixel, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean System, A13, Cortex A8 at 1.2GHz, 8GB Internal Memory, microSD expansion up to 32GB, Front facing plus rear camera.

14. Desktop Switch

D-Link DGS-1008G – If you are using multiple systems at home, you need a small desktop switch. This is a 8-Port switch, 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 1 Gbps dedicated bandwidth per port, IEEE 802.1P QoS.

15. External Portable Hard Drives

16. Solid State Drives

  • Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series – 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive, Data security with AES 256-bit full-disk encryption, Sequential Read Speed 540 MB / Sequential Write Speed 520 MB / Random Read Speed 97K / Random Write Speed 66K
  • Kingston Digital – 120GB. Fast, Reliable, Multiple capacities are available, 2.5-inch drive available in 7.0mm with adapter to fit in 9.5mm system

17. LED, Plasma TVs

  • Samsung EH5300 – This is a 40″ Smart LED HDTV, with 1080p 60Hz, built-in wi-fi, with 3 HDMI/2 USB/Ethernet ports
  • Samsung F6300 – This is a 55″ Slim Smart LED HDTV, with 1080p 120Hz, built-in wi-fi, DTS Premium Sound 5.1
  • Sony KDL-60R520A – This is a 60″ Internet LED HDTV, with 1080p 120Hz, built-in wi-fi, receiver-less DirectTV

18. Just for Fun

Some geek toys just for fun.

19. Digital Projectors

AAXA P4 P4X Portable Pocket Pico Projector – You can put this ultra projector in the pocket. 15,000 hours lamp life. This has a media player and speaker. This is iPhone compatible. You can watch videos, pictures, play music from a apple iPhone, Sony playstation. With this you can carry a 50? movie screen in your pocket when you are travelling. 95 Lumens, Pocket Size, Li-Ion Battery, HDMI, Media Player, 15,000 Hour LED, DLP Projector.

20. Pedometer

  • Omron Hj-113 Pocket Pedometer – Dual-axis pocket pedometer. This measures steps, aerobic steps, distance, calories and fat grams burned, 7-day memory, clock. Very easy to carry it around.
  • UP by Jawbone Wristband – This is a fancy device that can do several things. Track steps, distance, calories burned, time spent active versus idle. Log what you eat & drink & track nutritional info using iPhone app. It also tracks your sleep: total hours, light versus deep, length of time to fall asleep. Charge using USB and connect to computer to transfer data.

21. Video Game Console

  • Xbox One Console – Day One Edition – Probably the best game console. You can use either Kinect or controller to play games. Huge selection of games that will not disappoint you. Play either online or offline.
  • PlayStation 4: Launch Edition – Comes with dualshock 4 wireless controller. This has 8GB of memory, and a built-in hard drive.

22. Wireless Printers

  • Epson Expression Home XP-410 – This is a Small-in-One All-in-One Wireless Inkjet Printer, with 2.5″ LCD & touch panel, Built-in memory card slots for PC-free photo printing
  • Canon MG5320 Photo All-in-One Printer – Wireless photo printer. Scanner. 9600dpi resolution. Prints photos in 20 seconds from iPhone, iPad, Android wirelessly. 5-color ink system. 3.0? LCD screen. Print directly from memory card.
  • Canon MX882 All-in-One Printer – Wireless printer. Copy, scan, fax and print. double-sided printing.

23. NAS

If you are using a single disk external hard-drive, it is just a matter of time before you lose your data. Hard disks will fail, there is no exception to this rule. So, switch from a single drive external hard disk to a RAID device for home backup.

24. Watch

Casio PAG240-1CR Pathfinder Triple Sensor Sport Watch – This watch will make a geek very happy. It has Altimeter, Barometer, Digital Compass, Thermometer, displays Sunrise/Sunset time, Solar power and battery power, 5 alarms, stopwatch, countdown timer, worldtime, etc.

25. Wireless Headphones

Sennheiser RS120 Wireless RF Headphones – Very reliable wireless RF headphone which receives signal through walls, doors upto 328ft range, rechargeable battery (comes with charging cradle), three selectable channels, volume/on-off-switch/tuning-control located in the headphone itself.