The Verge’s 2024 summer gift guide: portable Bluetooth speakers, cameras, and more

Blink Mini 2

Can’t afford a house sitter to keep an eye on your abode while you’re on vacay? An inexpensive security cam like the Blink Mini 2 can be a great alternative. The wired 1080p camera offers basic essentials like motion alerts and two-way audio, along with improved low-light performance and a wider field of view than the original model. That makes it easy to check in, no matter which 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 precisely what they’ll do. If you need a sleeping aid, Anker’s latest passive earbuds offer a flatter profile for comfier ergonomics and several sound isolation features, which can help mask a noisy household or even your own snoring. They offer an impressive 14 hours of white noise playback, too, or a solid 10 hours of audio listening.
Price: $149.99

Withings ScanWatch Light

The Withings ScanWatch Light is a refreshing smartwatch if you hate charging your timepiece every day. It has a fancier appearance reminiscent of classic analog watches, except it also features heart rate monitoring, sleep analysis, and basic activity tracking. The tiny monochromatic window doesn’t divulge much info, sure, 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 has meaningful upgrades to help, including a gorgeous OLED display and a new M4 chipset, which allows the high-end tablet to perform at blazing-fast speeds. It also works with the new Magic Keyboard and feature-rich Pencil Pro, rendering it a great tool for artists of all skill levels.
Price: $944+

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
(PlayStation 5)

Personally, I find it hard to go 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 tear-jerking story. Its sequel, Rebirth, is the middle child in a planned trilogy. Its narrative still revolves around capitalist tyranny and a band of wholesome misfits hellbent on stopping it, only 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 upgraded 12MP camera and five-mic system, while Meta AI enhances your experience by identifying landmarks, providing recipe inspiration, and creating clever image captions based on what you see. With hands-free voice calling, seamlessly toggle 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 each shot with built-in edit features and livestream your perspective 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 turning to the 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. It might be overkill if you’re not an Alexa devotee, but if you are, it’s a great device to plan your summer renovations around.
Price: $179.99

Anker MagGo Power Bank (6.6K)

Road warriors will appreciate a speedy Qi2 charger that doesn’t require wires to rejuvenate their devices. The Anker MagGo Power Bank (6.6K) magnetically adheres to the back of MagSafe-ready iPhones — specifically iPhone 12, 13, 14, and 15 models — allowing you to charge them at up to 15W. The 6,600mAh battery pack even lets you adjust the viewing angle, meaning you can use it as an ad hoc smart display thanks to the new StandBy mode in iOS 17.
Price: $69.99

Dune: War for Arrakis

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune did well enough at the box office to spur more than just a second film adaptation of the 1965 novel. We’ve already gotten some good video games out of the deal, but one of the most recent tabletop games also deserves a look. War for Arrakis pits two sides (and up to four players) against one another as they vie for control of the planet’s invaluable resources — chief among them being 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 a film simulation engine that makes it easy to capture those old-timey Kodak feels. The travel-friendly camera is pricey for something with a fixed 23mm focal length — which is extendable 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-ounce)

You can stand out from the Stanley stans with Owala’s FreeSip Water Bottle. The vacuum-insulated vessel keeps drinks cold for up to 24 hours and features a pair of dedicated spouts: one for sipping and one for a big swig. The 32-ounce version strikes a great balance between capacity and portability thanks to a collapsible carrying handle. It’s also available in dozens of colors, just in case you want a bottle that looks as cool as your beverages are likely to be.
Price: $32.94+

Kobo Clara Colour

The Kobo Clara Colour proves E Ink displays don’t have to be boring. Kobo’s latest ebook reader uses a six-inch Kaleido 3 display, which provides muted, pastel-like hues that work great for creating color-coded highlights or viewing your favorite cover art in all its glory. Plus, like Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite, it comes with enough storage space to stow thousands of books and IPX8 waterproofing, giving you the freedom to enjoy poolside reading without having to worry about the occasional splash.
Price: $149.99

13-inch MacBook Air (2024)

Whether you need something to run your summer side hustle or just a reliable laptop for bingeing Bridgerton on the go, we can’t think of a better one than the latest 13-inch MacBook Air. It’s light and petite enough that you’ll hardly remember you’re carrying it in your bag, yet Apple’s speedy M3 chip offers incredible performance if you’re not concerned with gaming, video editing, or other intensive creative work.
Price: $999+

Sonos Ace headphones

The Sonos Ace are great, particularly for a first-gen product. The excellent-sounding pair of Bluetooth headphones sport physical controls and swappable magnetic ear cups reminiscent of the AirPods Max, along with support for both ANC and a useful transparency mode. Best of all, they can receive audio from the Sonos Arc and, soon, other Sonos soundbars, making them a great option if you’re a fan of privately listening to your TV.
Price: $449

Bose SoundLink Max

If you’re kicking it poolside this summer, Bose’s elegant 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, along with punchy, powerful sound that can overcome crashing waves and screaming children. 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 many 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 snuff. It’s essentially a crisp eight-inch LCD strapped to a standard DualSense controller, which allows you to 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 big flippy screen, a sharp one-inch-type sensor with great low-light performance, and a built-in mechanical gimbal that can keep your footage smooth while tracking your every move. The mini steadicam can be operated one-handed, too, making it easy to capture vivid 4K footage no matter what situation you find yourself in.
Price: $519

Google Pixel 8A

Google is going all in on AI this summer — and the Pixel 8A is one of the least expensive ways to enjoy express access to the latest Android drops. The midrange phone may not be the most powerful model in Google’s Pixel lineup, but the well-rounded device touts all the essentials, not to mention a number of perks that are an anomaly at this price point (including seven years of OS upgrades).
Price: $499

Bambu Lab P1P 3D Printer

If you find 3D printing to be a complete headache, you clearly haven’t spent much time with Bambu’s ultra-reliable Lab P1P. The speedy, full-size CoreXY printer is easy to maintain and arrives mostly prebuilt, making it an outstanding option for beginners who can’t tell you the difference between ABS and PLA plastic. It’s still a hobbyist machine at heart, but at least it keeps the tinkering to a minimum.
Price: $599

Samsung Music Frame

If you’re spending more time indoors in an attempt to skirt the heat, you might as well liven up your home with Samsung’s Music Frame. The dual-purpose piece of decor, which takes inspiration from the company’s line of art-inspired Frame TVs, allows you to insert your own photos and swap in a variety of bezels. It functions as a good-sounding smart speaker, too, one that offers support for Alexa and Dolby Atmos music.
Price: $397.99+

The Verge Tee

A good T-shirt is never a bad idea if someone you know needs a fresh fit for summer festivals. We may be a bit biased here, but we can’t think of anything better than The Verge Tee. The classic midweight crew is made of 100 percent cotton and features our new(ish) logo as the main stencil. It’s particularly nice if your name starts with the letter “V”, though it’s certainly not a prerequisite for looking fly.
Price: $29.99