

Inexpensive doesn’t mean cheap. You can buy everything in the photo above for less than an apple watch.

Everyone loves staying connected and keeping their Gadgets up to date, But you don’t always have to pay a premium price update your old tech. On this post we’ll explore some lesser known brands/devices that will help you start your fall with some fresh gear without busting your wallet. Just look at the tag below the heading to see if it works with Android or iPhone.

Oneplus One

This Phone is marketed as a flagship killer, and as last week Oneplus (the company) just released the Two (successor to the One). Oneplus is a company that I will be supporting for years to come for a couple of reasons: the way the quality of their products work in tandem with their prices. I bought my phone when the price was $350 and I couldn’t imagine owning anything else.

Why does this phone deserve to be in your pocket (or purse)? First off you have the cameras, the rear facing camera has six physical lenses and a Sony Exmor Sensor with f/2.0 aperature (Its pretty impressive. The Photo below is take with the Oneplus One without any editing.

The front facing camera is just as amazing, boasting a 5 megapixel camera that will send your Snapchat followers crisp clean selfies. The one plus is packing quad-core snapdragon 801 processor, which is as powerful as it is efficient, clocking in at 2.5 GHz. Why not have a plethora of DDR3 ram do go with that processing power, the One has 3 gigabytes. This phone is ready for pretty much anything you can throw at it (unless if it’s the dolphin emulator). If you didn’t understand that last couple sentences just know this phone is ludicrously fast. The Screen is a little big for my liking, but Oneplus only outputs two phones and no variations in screen size, the 5.5 inch display is 1080p and had gorilla glass to protect it from the scratches. The screen doesn’t have amazing features and is just as impressive as any other phone on the market. Lastly the battery is probably my favorite thing about this phone, I ran it for days. Literally. Two whole days on battery save, about one and a half on balanced mode, on performance it lasted a full day.

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Snappy processor

Huge battery

Beautiful lens & Camera sensor (Why I picked up the phone)

Gorgeous screen

Pebble Time

iPhone & Android $199

The Pebble Time has a couple of tricks up its sleeve… or your sleeve. Pebble is a company that is known through their success on the popular website Kickstarter. How successful have they been? Very. They own two of the top three most funded products on Kickstarter, with total of $30,605,831 funded between the two of their products (Pebble time & Pebble smartwatch). The Pebble Time is thinner and lighter than the Apple counterpart and has some pretty unique specs.

Rocking an E- ink Display (Yes that’s the same display as your grandmother’s Kindle) that is surprisingly crisp, clear and responsive. The display is unique due to it being very battery efficient and can be lit up ambiently, what makes an ambient lit display so interesting? An ambient lit display works opposite to your phone, it becomes more vibrant and easier to see in sunlight. The Pebble is also 30 meters water-resistant, which means you don’t have to give it much thought as to if you should baby it, or just use it. This mindset is nice for me personally when I am camping, for instance if I’m kayaking the thought doesn’t enter my head to say “Should I take off my watch?

“It goes everywhere I go; whether that’s work, kayaking or sleeping, the Pebble time is the ultimate sidekick.”

Lastly the battery needs mention, the Pebble time Boasts a 7 day battery. I have gotten up to 6 days with HEAVY usage (Sleep tracking, Pedometer and changing the watch face a gazillion times). This means that you need to charge your watch for roughly one hour for one week of usage, that just blows my mind.

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A watch at its core and not trying to be anything else

Works on Android & IOS

Amazing battery life (one week)

Pulls notifications from phone & keeps you ultra connected

NFC Tags

NFC stands for near field communication, and is supported on most android phones (iPhone 6’s NFC is restricted to apple pay, sorry iPhone users you can’t use these!). Now these tags come in all shapes and sizes through amazon, I picked up a bag of ten and they are pretty fantastic. What are NFC tags and what can you do with them? Anything & everything! you can program them through multiple apps on the play store: once programmed you just tap your phone to the sticker and it will execute the task that the sticker is programmed to do. For example I have a sticker on my night stand that is programmed to launch the clock app, I have another in my Landrover that launches the music app. The coolest/nerdiest task that I have assigned to one of my tags is on my laptop, When a devices taps to it, it takes them to this website! The opportunities are endless, if you decide to get some of these I would love to see the projects that you come up with.

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Cheap

Relatively easy to use

Only limited by your imagination

Perfectly practical

Taotronics Wireless Earbuds

iPhone & Android $25.99

The more Technical name for these is the TT-BH05, I think these headphones are the best bang for your buck. First off, these are not the best headphones, the build and sound quality is subpar. For $25 these are great for being untethered to your phone, why do you want to be cordless? It makes listening to music and doing everyday tasks seamless I love not being tangled up in cords. I am excited to use these while skateboarding, but they will also favor the gym well, because you don’t have to worry about getting all tangled up in your headphones while going hard on the treadmill. These headphones pleasantly surprised me in the reach of bluetooth, I can walk literally anywhere in my house and still be connected to my phone which I think is pretty amazing.

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Bluetooth 4.0

10 hour battery

Great connective proximity

Built in Mic and volume controls

Google Cardboard

iPhone & Android $12.10

Google Cardboard turns your phone into a VR powerhouse by using the Google Cardboard app. This is something I am still experimenting with, but have been super impressed with the software that is available to Cardboard. Virtual reality is being pursued by other big companies like Samsung and Facebook (Oculus Rift) but what makes Googles version worth it? it’s laughably cheaper than Samsung ($190 cheaper) Oculus doesn’t really compare because it connects to your computer instead of using your phone to immerse the user. There are many variations of cardboard with different price points that work just as good as the next, Google has even released blueprints on how to make your own from scratch. Personally this is more of a time waster than anything, but is definitely fun to play Super Mario 64 strapped to your head.

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Works with Android & iPhone

Easy to put together

NFC included (In this particular amazon version)

Fantastic price point

Combine all of this tech and your giving Tony stark a run for his money. All this gear works wonderfully with each other, and I hope this gave you some insight on some frugal substitutions to some otherwise expensive tech.

All Photos are subject to copyright and belong to the author.