{"id":40294,"date":"2023-12-11T01:37:33","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T01:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/the-best-aussie-gaming-and-tech-gifts-to-give-this-holiday-2023\/"},"modified":"2023-12-11T01:37:33","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T01:37:33","slug":"the-best-aussie-gaming-and-tech-gifts-to-give-this-holiday-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/the-best-aussie-gaming-and-tech-gifts-to-give-this-holiday-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Aussie Gaming and Tech Gifts to Give This Holiday 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The holiday season has begun in earnest, and the clock is ticking on your gift-giving obligations. While I’m sure the list for what you<\/em> want rolls out the door and down the street, coming up with ideas for others is tough. That’s where I come in, with my personal picks and a rock-solid who’s-who of the hardware, peripherals, and games that every gamer worth their thumbs wants.<\/p>\n

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Aside from the inescapable minefields that are always going to be individual genre tastes and preferred controller colours, you really can’t go wrong with what’s presented below. Worst-case scenario: gravitate to those gift card options and slap them into an amusing pop-up<\/a> and\/or scratch ‘n’ sniff bit of foldable cardboard. People who don’t appreciate those probably don’t deserve presents in the first place.<\/p>\n

My Top Picks<\/h2>\n

Before we get into the usual fare, here’s some stuff that’s burning Rudolph nose bright<\/em> on my radar. <\/p>\n

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This was the year where I saw an explosion in not only Steam Deck (grey) import sales but also the official launches of some third-party competitors to Valve’s venerable handheld. What they all have in common: base models with humble storage that can be cost-effectively supersized with your choice of a 2230-S2 M.2 form factor SSD.\n<\/p>\n

That being said, my choice is Seagate’s FireCuda 520N<\/strong> SSD as the perfect storage upgrade for the aforementioned PC handhelds, plus it’ll work like a charm in a Microsoft Surface, your laptop, and a ton of other compact devices. Better yet, it offers an impressive read\/write speed of up to 5,000 MB\/s for the 2TB capacity and up to 4,800 MB\/s for the 1TB model.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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If you have an artistic bend or the simple desire to have an incredibly well-built, ultra-portable second screen for on-the-go work, welcome to the Espresso range<\/strong> of products. I’ve tested one of these bad boys on an overseas trip and was mightily impressed with its low weight, crazy-thin footprint, durability, and willingness to connect with whatever screen I had available out in the field. (Impressively, it’ll power up and play nice with 1000s of devices using nothing but a single USB-C cable.)\n<\/p>\n

If you refuse to take the massive productivity hit that comes with downgrading to a single screen for your complex day-to-day tasks, this screen truly is a brilliant solution. Better yet, it can be augmented further with either a cleverly designed magnetic base stand or a dual-purpose screen protector\/stand. Lastly, there’s the extra option to get your sketch or ‘Shop on with the touchscreen variant and a specialised espressoPen stylus. For a talentless hack like me, that means next-level adult colouring book fun! I love this thing and now refuse to work remotely without it.<\/p>\n

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Every holiday season (if we’re lucky), there’s a new console SKU that is the<\/em> hot item to buy\u2014the rough hardware equivalent of a Turbo Man. This year, it’s the PS5 Slim,<\/strong> a revision that practically everybody saw coming, though it still wowed us with its svelte sexiness and some clever surprises.<\/p>\n

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of this itty-bitty and dispel some misconceptions. This is not PlayStation’s answer to the Xbox Series S\u2014these innards are just as beefy as your OG PS5. If anything, the blueprint has been improved with an additional USB-C port on the front (which makes charging and VR-ing easier), plus there’s the hybrid nature of this beast. If money or stock levels prevent your purchasing a disc version, simply get the cheaper digital variant and upgrade it with a disc drive at a more opportune time. Brilliant!<\/p>\n

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