Twenty-two tech gifts, sorted by what you want to spend

The first week of December. Every gift on this page is posted, and the final week before Christmas is when delivery becomes unreliable regardless of which service is used. Buying in early December costs nothing extra and avoids the most common way a good gift turns into an apology. If you are ordering after about the 18th, assume it may not arrive in time.

A digital product, because there is nothing to post. The Megastore76 Ministry Suite at £147 is delivered as a download, so it can be bought and given on Christmas Eve. Among physical gifts, the smart plugs and earbuds under £25 are the ones most likely to still be in stock late.

Usually yes for electronics, but it depends on the product, and the risk is stock rather than price — a discount on something that then sells out is not a saving. Check the current price on the store page rather than trusting a figure you saw earlier, because prices move. Every price on this page records the date it was checked.

Stick to things that work with any phone and need no setup: earbuds, a smart plug, a Bluetooth speaker, or the Philips Hue starter kit if the budget stretches. Avoid anything that depends on their phone brand — an Apple Watch will not pair with Android, and a Galaxy Watch will not pair with an iPhone. Every item on this page names who it suits.

Because we wanted a list we could stand behind rather than the whole catalogue. Every price here was checked against the store, and every picture was checked for a claim the store cannot support. Four gifts failed the picture check — the KVIDIO headphones and the WiFi Smart Plug 4-Pack, whose images print a price or a rating the store cannot honour, and two whose pictures show a different product from the one on the listing: the robot vacuum, pictured as another brand’s machine, and the Oura Ring 4, pictured as an unbranded ring bearing none of the Oura’s identifying design. They are still on the page and still priced; they simply have no picture. We would rather show you twenty-two with honest images than two hundred where the pictures are not the products.

For the right home. The Compact Robot Vacuum at £149.99 suits a flat or a single floor; it will struggle in a three-storey house, and it is not a replacement for a full-sized vacuum for stairs and deep cleaning. As a gift it works best for someone who has said, out loud, that they hate hoovering.

Buy something that does not interact with it. Earbuds, a smart plug, a lapel microphone, a games controller — all of these work independently of whatever phone or computer the person already has. The gifts to avoid when you do not know are smartwatches, which are tied to a phone brand, and anything that needs a specific hub.