Five genuinely useful gadget gifts for under £40

Christmas technology does not have to mean expensive headphones or another smart speaker. From a charger designed for the sofa to a sensor that keeps watch over your houseplants, these are five more unusual gadgets that might actually survive beyond Boxing Day.

Buying technology as a Christmas present becomes considerably harder once the obvious choices have been exhausted. The inexpensive end of the market is particularly crowded with gadgets that are amusing for ten minutes and destined for a drawer by January.

There are, however, some more interesting ideas below £40. Some solve small everyday irritations. Others exist almost entirely for entertainment. All five have at least managed to do something more distinctive than simply adding Bluetooth to an object that never needed it.

Willow Kit, £34.99

For the person whose houseplants have an unfortunate habit of dying, Willowoffers technological supervision.

The small sensor sits in the soil and monitors moisture alongside light, humidity and temperature. That information is sent to the accompanying app, which can alert its owner when the plant needs attention and provide advice based on its conditions.

It is a relatively simple application of smart home technology, but a sensible one. Rather than expecting somebody to understand whether a yellowing leaf means too much water, too little light or something else entirely, Willow attempts to turn those conditions into useful information.

At £34.99, it is also one of the rarer smart home products that does not require a particularly extravagant Christmas budget.

Krafted Couch, £39.99

Kraftedhas designed a wireless charger around a problem familiar to anybody who has found themselves stretching a charging cable across the living room.

Couch sits over the arm of a sofa, creating a wireless charging point immediately beside the person using it. Flexible, anti slip silicone is intended to keep the charger in position, while a two metre cable provides enough length to reach the nearest socket.

It supports Qi2 certified wireless charging and is compatible with MagSafe devices. There are more sophisticated charging stations available, but few are designed quite so specifically around spending an evening doing very little on the sofa.

Krafted Connex, £29.99

The second Krafted product tackles the increasingly absurd collection of cables and connectors that accompanies modern technology.

Connexis a pocket sized hub with two inputs and four outputs, bringing several connections into one device. It supports charging, PD charging and data transfer.

Its usefulness will be most apparent to frequent travellers or anybody regularly carrying several devices. At £29.99, it is perhaps the least exciting present here when first unwrapped and potentially the one that gets used most often afterwards.

Marvin’s Magic Glow Art, £21.99

Not every piece of technology needs an app.

Marvin’s Magic Glow Art is a transparent illuminated drawing board supplied with four fluorescent pens. Drawings appear as glowing artwork and can be displayed using 36 different lighting effects before the board is wiped clean and used again.

The transparent surface also allows pictures to be traced rather than drawn entirely freehand. Suitable for children aged five and above, it is one of those presents ostensibly bought for younger members of the family that may find adults experimenting with it once Christmas lunch is over.

ZipString Aracna Glow in the Dark Webshooter, £39.99

Utility is not really the point here.

The ZipString Aracna is a wearable webshooter capable of firing and retracting loops of glow in the dark string at more than 35mph. The moving loop can then be manipulated to create tricks and the illusion of a floating web.

At £39.99, it sits right at the top of our budget and makes no pretence of improving anybody’s productivity, wellbeing or domestic organisation.

That may be precisely why it belongs on a Christmas list.

The best gadgets are not necessarily those with the longest specification sheet. Sometimes they solve a problem you had reluctantly accepted. Sometimes they make looking after a plant easier. And occasionally they simply allow somebody to spend Christmas morning pretending to be a superhero.