Hey all,
I’ve had some interest in bringing back an old favourite from Twitter, where I shouted out some of my favourite gadgets and gizmos that I’ve bought over the past little while, or regularly carry with me, particularly the ones on sale this weekend. I’ll update this as things come to mind, but here are a few items that come to mind.
Do note that these will, by and large, be Amazon links, and they will be threaded through my Associate’s account, affording me a small cut of any purchases made. If you would like to skip this part and search them manually, that’s totally fine by me. I promise that I’m not here to upsell or worry much about whether I get any revenue out of this post, but just recommend what I like – I’m just trying to scrape a little off of Mr. Bezos while I’m linking to them anyway.
When possible, I’ll try to bring up historical prices. I use Keepa to track these on anything I buy from Amazon, so I don’t get bamboozled by false sales.
I’m mostly coming up with this list by looking at my order history in the past year and change. I’ll probably come back to this again as I notice something else lying around that happens to also be on sale, or by request.
If you have any requests for recommendations in certain categories, hit me up over on BlueSky and I’ll respond to you directly and add it to the list.
Without further ado…
8Bitdo Retro Mechanical Keyboard – I have the N (US NES) colour of this keyboard, with the keys switched for a set I bought off AliExpress. The switches are a little on the clicky side but I like the board a lot, having had it for about a year now. Normally about $140 Canadian, the colour options range from about $99 to $115 right now. As far as I can tell this is the lowest it’s been priced since release.
Logitech MX Master 3S – My go-to mouse, usually. I wish this was on a better sale, largely because due to a prank gone wrong, mine met a watery demise a few weeks ago and I’d like to grab another. At the moment, they’re $132 instead of $139, and as much as that sounds steep for a mouse, it’s the best mouse ever made. Simply put. The only reason I haven’t caved yet is because I have an original Master still as a backup, and I’ve been hoping for a slightly better sale to come up, but I might end up biting anyway.
8Bitdo M30 Bluetooth Gamepad – Sega Genesis & Mega Drive Style – Sticking with 8bitdo (I’m a pretty regular customer of theirs), a friend got me the white model of this controller for Secret Santa last year and I love it dearly. I just bought the black one to match this week, because $24 (40% off) is an all-time low.
imuto USB C Charger 65W/45W, GaN PD PPS – GaN-style chargers are getting cheaper, smaller and more reliable nowadays. This one isn’t a huge drop from int’s regular price, but I’ve picked it up as a smaller option for my laptop, which takes a 65W charger. Check off the 10% off Coupon to save about three bucks.
POWEROWL AA Rechargeable Batteries, 2800 mAh (16 Pack) – These are periodically on sale, with now included. I’ve been finding them to be pretty good, as I use them for my Xbox controllers (the rechargeable battery packs designed specifically for the system are much lower capacity than AAs). It’s not at an urgent-buy price, but 18% off is 18% off.
WD_BLACK 1TB SN770 NVMe Internal Gaming SSD – If you need an SSD for a laptop, I’ve had no issues since putting this into my current machine (Lenovo Thinkpad T14 Gen 2). I bought it at $103 and was pretty okay with that, but it’s at $95 right now.
ESR for iPhone 15 Pro Screen Protector Set, 3 Tempered-Glass Screen Protectors – Your phone model may vary, but either way, I can vouch big time for ESR after this summer. I had my iPhone fall out of a phone mount on an electric scooter this summer, going 35km/h and landing on concrete, and the protector took a slight chip, but otherwise, it kept the actual screen together. Money well spent. They’re on for over half price for my model (15 Pro), but I’d check for yours if you want a cheap but solid protector. I wasn’t big on the individual camera lens protectors, switching to this single-piece model (also on sale) last week.
EF ECOFLOW Portable Power Station River 2, 256Wh LiFeP04 Battery – We wanted something at home in between a giant battery and a generator, and this model goes on every couple months for $90 (30%) off. This is one of those times.
KALIYADI Polarized Sunglasses – I am one of those people who won’t suck it up and pay the full tag for Raybans. These have done the trick for me this year, at about $30 for a three-pack. This isn’t the lowest I’ve seen them, but it’s the lowest they’ve been since the summer. The polarization is legit and the build quality, particularly on the matte pairs, was surprisingly good.
INIU Power Bank, Smallest 22.5W 10000mAh Portable Charger – This is my go-to portable battery, and INIU is my go-to brand for portable batteries, having two bigger models as well. $28 is the lowest price since August. It has a USB A port and two C ports and they all make for a zippy yet small charge.
KDD Switch Controller Charging Dock – This isn’t anything super fancy, it’s basically a dock for your Switch Dock. For me it was about keeping my Joycons and a couple carts organized. At $17, it’s the lowest its been all year.
soundcore P40i by Anker – These are my go-to True Wireless earbuds. There are almost definitely better, from soundcore and elsewhere, but when I bought them the cost-benefit seemed there at $90. Now, they regularly go on for $60, as they are right now. They fit decently well, the audio is good, the noise cancelling seems decent.
As far as headphones go, I also use the Soundcore Space Q45 for over-ear ($70/35% off, a 2024 low), Beats Flex for around the neck ($70, on sale but you can sometimes get them for $50), Ulix Riders for USB-C wired earbuds (~50% off and their lowest in over a year), and the Logitech G533 as my gaming headset on PC (not on sale, but a solid value nonetheless).
For anyone who has a Steam Deck, the custom back plate and the case that I use are both on pretty steep deals. Some might go for the full shell swap on the deck, but that’s beyond my technical self-trust.