Your mother has had to put up with you all year. Shouldn’t her patience be rewarded with something cool she can actually use? Try these on.
iPad Mini
The best small iPad yet is here, and it has a gorgeous Retina display of its very own now!
It’s last year’s iPad mini with a way better screen which will change your life upon seeing it, and iOS is simple enough that it will suit first-time users and seasoned smartphone pros.
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Nexus 7 2013
Of course, if your mum is more partial to Android but still wants something compact and excellent, there’s the new, award-winning Nexus 7.
The 2013 Nexus 7 is the follow-up to the wildly successful small Nexus tablet from last year.
This new Nexus 7, still built by Asus, is packing a quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of internal storage all compactly living underneath a 7-inch 1920×1200 screen at 323 ppi protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. For the first time too, the Nexus 7 is packing a rear-facing camera which clocks in at 5-megapixels. That compliments the existing 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera meant for video calls and Google+ Hangouts.
The new Nexus 7 is available not from the Google Play Store just yet, but through retailers like JB Hi-Fi, Dick Smith and Harvey Norman, plus a handful of smaller retailers. The 16GB Wi-Fi version costs $299, while the 32GB Wi-Fi model is $339. No sign yet of a SIM-equipped version; for now, you’ll have to stick to a 2012 model if you want that.
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Kindle Paperwhite
The Kindle is arguably the best e-reader in the world, and the Paperwhite is the clearest, lightest and fastest e-paper reader from Amazon on the market right now.
It’s basically an iterative update of Amazon’s top e-reader featuring an improved screen, a faster processor, and some new software.
Right now, the 3G+Wi-Fi model has been reduced to clear at Dick Smith, so get in on it before you miss out!
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Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom
We’ve all asked ourselves how we can take better photos on our phone, and the answer is usually find something with a better camera. The Galaxy S4 Zoom is that phone: packing a giant 16-megapixel camera on the back.
In terms of guts, specs are similar to the S4 Mini: a dual-core 1.5GHz Exynos processor, 1.5GB of RAM and eight gigs of internal storage. There’s also, as you’d hope for a cameraphone like this, a microSD slot for adding more space. There’s a 4.3-inch screen which packs 960×540 pixels, it’s juiced by a 2330mAh removable battery, and everything runs on Android 4.2.2 . Elsewhere, there’s a 1.9MP front-facing camera LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC.
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Nexus 5
Carrying this thing around in your pocket is like wielding Thor’s mighty hammer, Mjolnir. Whomsoever holds this phone, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor: with a lightning-fast quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, a god-like 2GB of RAM and a beautiful 1080×1920 (1080p) panel with 445ppi, all suited in a svelte, rubberised armour. It’s out of this world.
The Nexus 5 also packs in an 8-megapixel camera with Optical Image Stabilisation, 16GB or 32GB of internal storage (no microSD card slot here), an Adreno 330 graphics processor, wireless charging, Android 4.4 “Kit Kat”, Gorilla Glass 3 and a 2300mAh battery.
All that power goes for a shockingly cheap $399 for the 16GB version, and $449 for the 32GB version.
It’s the perfect Android phone, and Readers’ Choice for the Phone Of The Year.
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Toshiba Encore
The Toshiba Encore 8-inch tablet is powered by the new Intel Bay Trail chipset in the form of a 1.3GHz quad-core Atom chip, alongside 2GB of RAM for all your Windows 8.1 processing needs.
The tablet comes in both 32GB and 64GB varieties, and it’s also packing other cool hardware features like 802.11ac Wi-Fi, micro-HDMI out with the ability to drive a 1080p external monitor, a mini-USB out for driving accessories like storage, networking or external VGA displays, a microSD card slot to expand the memory a further 32GB and a battery that will last you 10 hours.
It’s small, sexy and best of all, it runs Windows 8.1! This is the tablet you get Mum when she wants something she can get stuff done on that isn’t a big ugly laptop.
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12-Month Music Service Subscription
If you can’t find a music subscription service that takes both your fancy and the fancy of your giftee mother, then there’s something wrong with you. Hop to it!
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