Gifts for nerds – useful gadgets for Christmas

A few weeks until Christmas. If you are looking for a useful gift for your nerdy partner, friend or relative, you have come to the right place. Here we want to give you ideas for gifts that the recipients will hopefully enjoy for a long time after the first Christmas joy.

Shortly before the festival, you can get into a “gift shortage” – then you tend to put entertaining or even “gag gifts” under the tree. So that you can make someone happy that lasts longer, we’ve collected some gift ideas that nerds like us would love.

Nerd gifts under 40 euros

Monkey Island, Harry Potter & Co as a bath towel

A towel is known to be about the most useful thing the interstellar hitchhiker can own! Whether you use it to warm yourself on the frigid moons of Jaglan Beta, use it as a mini-raft, or need it as a melee weapon…

And if the legendary Douglas Adams reference is also printed with a nerdy motif, the next “Towel Day” can come!

Smart home extension: lightbulbs, sockets and switches

If the recipient already has a smart system installed in the house, you really can’t go wrong with an extension. There is always a use for light bulbs, sockets, motion detectors or dimmer switches – the donor just has to know for sure which system is being used. In addition to the ZigBee communication protocol (Philips Hue, LEDVANCE Smart+, IKEA Trådfri), which is widespread among private users, there are also Z-Wave, EnOcean and other WLAN solutions.

Making the TV/monitor/beamer “smarter”.

With the HDMI streaming sticks you can turn the old flat screen TV, monitor or beamer into a smart TV. The most famous Android sticks include Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV sticks.

With these mini-computers, which are reminiscent of USB sticks, music, films and the entire Internet can be transferred to the television very easily, energy-saving and without fan noise. For example, you have access to streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Spotify or Amazon Music Unlimited as well as the media libraries of the various German TV stations, YouTube and much more.

Nerd gifts up to 70 euros

Everything under control

A new controller is a good gift for any game fan. It doesn’t matter if the old one already looks very worn out, the gifted person doesn’t yet have a second controller for local multiplayer or you just found the controller in their favorite colour. Thanks to Bluetooth support, the modern controllers from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony can also be used on a PC or smartphone without any problems.

Retro is hip: Super Nintendo, Mega Drive or even C64?

2D is not going out of style, quite the opposite: the indie scene has kept up the pixel look and Nintendo, SEGA and others have had great success with mini versions of their old consoles. Any nerd should be happy if you bring back their childhood console or home computer.

The prices of the mini consoles are usually between 60 and 80 euros. For the original hardware you have to go to the used market, which is why the prices can vary greatly depending on the condition, accessories and games included. Apart from a few exotic ones, you usually get one of the old Sega or Nintendo consoles or a Commodore home computer with cables and 1-2 games for 70 euros. In the run-up to Christmas, however, prices can reach unimagined heights, which is why it is better to start your search early than late.

Nerd gifts for around 100 euros

Music everywhere: Bluetooth speakers

Bluetooth speakers bring music into every room and also outdoors. You can connect them to your smartphone or tablet either wirelessly or directly via a jack plug, so you can enjoy the music anywhere.

You can now get decent speakers for around 100 euros. However, you should not go too far below this price limit, otherwise you will lose a lot of audio quality or battery performance. In this price range, for example, the JBL Flip 5, Ultimate Ears Blast (view at Amazon), JBL Charge 3 and Bose Soundlink Flex are available. If you are willing to spend a little more, you can also take a look at our Bluetooth speaker comparison.

Headset for smartphone, PC & game console

A headset can also be a slightly self-serving gift. Good sound quality is the be-all and end-all for understanding each other, especially if you talk to the person a lot on the phone or use voice chat. While the smartphone and the PC can get along with any Bluetooth headset, you have to consider whether the person also wants to use the headset on a game console – PlayStation and Xbox only accept compatible devices.

The gift for the variable purse

LEGO & other clamping blocks

With licenses for popular films and series from the 80s and 90s as well as other new themes, LEGO and other clamping block manufacturers have increasingly conquered the adult target group in recent years. From small 10 euro sets to gigantic structures that cost several 100 euros, you can get something for every budget here.

Whether you’re looking for a main gift or need a little something extra, the range goes from star Wars (view on Amazon) Harry Potter (view on Amazon) Ghostbusters (look at Amazon) and various superheroes (view at Amazon) to sports cars, rockets and architectural replicas to bouquets of flowers. And the nice thing about LEGO or compatible clamping blocks: Even if you don’t want to display the finished work as decoration, you can use the blocks for other buildings or just pass them on to the next generation.

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