Holiday Gift Guide 2016: Best in productivity gadgets and electronics

By Joseph Szadkowski - The Washington Times - Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Here’s a look at a few of the best and brightest gadget and electronics gift ideas for the productive member of the family.

ZenBook Flip UX360CA

What is it? A highly portable, convertible laptop
Price: $799.99
Gift group: Multitasking humans looking to work efficiently and play in the digital space

Santa’s scoop: Computer crafter ASUS delivers an affordable device for users in need of a transforming laptop/tablet, and enamored with Microsoft’s latest operating system, along with its magical, personal assistant Cortana.

This 13.3-inch, touch-screen-enhanced, fanless laptop weighs less than 3 pounds and is .5-inches thick (that’s correct, super thin) while sporting a brushed aluminum finish.

It features a 1920 x 1080 pixels high-definition display, webcam, 1.6-watt stereo speakers (with ASUS Sonicmaster technology), microphone, and high-capacity lithium-polymer battery with roughly 10 hours of run time per charge.

The computer acts just like a standard laptop with full keyboard and touchpad, or when flipped over, becomes a tablet with onscreen keyboard using its 360-degree hinge. A hinge, by the way, that has been tested with over 20,000 cycles before shipped to the consumer.

Onboard ports are a single USB Type-C connection, two USB 3.0 Types-A ports, a micro HDMI port, headphone jack and an SD card slot. Connectivity offers 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Under-the-hood features include 512 gigabytes of storage in a speedy solid-state drive, 8 gigabytes of RAM, an Intel Core M3 processor and Intel Integrated Graphics 515.

Owners might be disappointed by the lack of a lighted keyboard, surprisingly a feature in its less expensive $699 model, and the muffled speakers in tablet mode. Also, the laptop’s keyboard feels like it could be vulnerable to outside elements when in the flipped tablet position.

Still, the ZenBook Flip’s, sleek, compact design and processing power make it a formidable choice for video playback, document building and web browsing.

My Book

What is it? A high-capacity, external hard drive
Price: $249 for 8 terabytes
Gift group: Desktop computer user looking for a stable backup for precious digital memories and documents

Santa’s scoop: Western Digital Corp. has spent nearly 50 years focused on delivering the most stable and expansive of hard disk drives for digital data.

Its latest upgrades to the My Book series offers a compact jet-black enclosure 2 inches deep and the height and width of a Blu-ray package.

The drive comes with auto WD Backup software and equipped with password protection (using 256-bit AES hardware encryption) using WD Security software for PCs and compatible with Apple’s Time Machine backup software for Macs.

It also comes in 3 ($129), 4 ($129) and 6 ($199) terabyte capacities and, for perspective, which translates into about roughly storing 2 million photos (average size 500K) for every terabyte used.

The package includes an AC wall adapter and cord for the units USB 3.0 port.

For those looking to give an even more compact and portable solution for road warriors to backup valuable data, consider the My Passport selection of external hard drives.

Available in 1 to 4 terabyte capacities (starting at $64.99), they are about the size of a wallet and offer the same auto backup and password protection for PCs with color options including blue, red, orange and yellow and a special jet-black edition formatted for Macs (starting at $79.99).

Raspberry Mic

What is it? A mobile, plug-and-play, USB and iOS-friendly microphone
Price: $199.99
Gift group: Serious, on-the-go humans looking to spread their verbal and musical talents to the digitally connected masses

Santa’s scoop: Blue delivers a compact, retro-looking, silver-and-raspberry-colored version of a microphone one might have found on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” desk.

The device is nearly 6 inches tall when screwed into its collapsible, shock-absorbing stand. The mic delivers 24-bit, studio-quality audio captured through a combination of a condenser-style diaphragm and its Internal Acoustic Diffuser design.

That design implementation literally baffles and minimizes extraneous sound in a room to keep the mic capturing audio from its focused voice or instrument.

Onboard extras include a mute button and adjustable gain as well as a headphone jack with volume control that offers real-time, monitoring during a recording.

The Raspberry works with an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC, and is compatible with most major recording apps such as GarageBand, Spire Recorder, MoviePro and Band Lab.

It comes to life through a USB or lightening connector (5-foot-long cords for each included) and can be easily compact to fit into its soft suede carrying pouch.

Perfect for on location podcasting, acoustic guitar session or voice-over work on a YouTube family broadcast, Raspberry is a gift that will keep on recording.

• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.