In today’s article I’m exploring a few smart gifts that husbands and boyfriends might want to give to their partners this Christmas. By smart I mean in the sense of Smart Tech Products, but also smart as in gifts that your partner will (hopefully) love to use. If you’re a guy with experience buying gifts for your significant other, you’ll certainly appreciate that this can be tricky territory that I’m venturing into here. Even so, I thought it would be fun to give it a try and see what suggestions I could come up with to help my fellow husbands and boyfriends out. Let’s get started!

 

Smart Gifts for Husbands and Boyfriends… to Give

Smart Watch

My first smart gift suggestion is something that’s both fashionable and useful. It’s a smart watch, and I expect that it’s a pretty safe bet as a gift for most. For this gift idea, I won’t suggest any specific smart watch model (though the one shown at right is the very attractive Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 44mm Smartwatch with Heart Rate Monitor. Instead, I’ll suggest Smart Watches as an entire category of gifts wherein you’re sure to find something to suit every taste and style. What’s more, the features you’re getting with the typical smart watch are truly impressive. Your recipient will enjoy anything and everything from health related information (like heart rate monitoring) to wrist based notifications, depending on the smart watch model you choose.

 

Smart Speakers & Displays

Another great smart gift that virtually anyone will love comes from the category of Smart Speakers & Displays. Once again I won’t suggest a specific model—because there are just so many great ones to choose from. But whichever one you pick, your recipient is sure to enjoy its great variety of useful and impressive features.

Smart speakers and displays give you voice based control over all of your other smart home devices (via either Amazon Alexa or the Google Assistant), they allow you to stream music from your favourite streaming services (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.), and they provide an infinite quantity of information from the Internet (including the latest news, weather, traffic reports, sports scores, and the answer to virtually any question you can ask).

When you consider just smart displays, you get additional features like the ability to display and enjoy all of your favourite photos (just as you would with a digital photo frame), the ability to watch YouTube and other videos—including the music videos that go with your favourite songs, and the ability to take in information visually (such as surfing your favourite website or getting step-by-step recipe instructions).

Possibly the best feature of the digital smart display, though, is that your recipient can use it to make crystal clear video phone calls to far away family and friends. They’ll be able to see and hear the people they’re talking to just as though they were in the very same room.

Smart displays take the smart voice assistant concept to a whole new level above mere smart speakers, and they’re sure to make an ideal gift option for your spouse or partner this Christmas.

 

Smart Lights

If brightening your partner’s holiday is the goal of your gift giving, you can’t go wrong in giving them Smart Lights. Smart lights can be used to control your energy expenditure, set the perfect atmosphere for any situation, or enhance your home’s decor. They also provide a variety of convenient control options that will make your significant other’s life infinitely easier (i.e., app control, voice control, IFTTT, etc.).

One of the best smart light setups you can give is the Philips Hue A19 Smart Bulb Starter Kit, which comes with 4 individual lightbulbs and the Philips Hue Bridge (the hub that controls it all). With this kit your partner will be able to control the 4 lights via their smart phone and the Philips Hue App (or even voice based control if they have a virtual assistant) to achieve a near infinite colour palette of light and set whatever mood they wish (for instance, a nice romantic dinner or a fun movie in).

Philips Hue lights are easy to install, easy to use, and easy to set to whatever colour you wish (over 16 million of them, in fact). Of all the smart lighting setups one can get, Philips Hue is quite possibly the best. They’ve got both indoor and outdoor lights (including the Calla Smart Outdoor Pathway Lights to light the way for evening visitors), and just about any type of fixture you can imagine. Of course, Philips Hue lights aren’t your only option, but they’re certainly a great one!

 

Smart Home Theatre

If you really want to go all out this Christmas, you can always opt to create an amazing smart home theatre system with one of the latest (and biggest) Smart TVs, as well as other TV & Home Theatre accessories (such as Blu-ray & DVD Players or smart lighting that can match the mood or atmosphere of whatever it is you’re watching).

Not only are today’s smart TVs massive (with ultra high definition screens measuring up to 55, 65, 75, and even 85 inches), but they’re also voice control compatible, meaning you can use smart voice assistants like Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple HomeKit to ask by name for your favourite TV shows.

Other features of these incredible smart TVs include your favourite apps—pre-loaded (i.e., Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify), multiple inputs for connecting devices like media players and gaming consoles (HDMI inputs, USB ports, etc.), and the latest sound and image technologies (such as 4K High Dynamic Range for the absolute best in colour, contrast, and image detail).

If you want to give your significant other an amazing home theatre system this year, Best Buy has everything you need to set your living room up better than your local theatre. Just be sure to read the product pages carefully as not every TV, Blu-ray player, etc. will have all of the same features.

 

With Christmas fast approaching, now is the time to make a wise decision about what to get for the special person in your life. If there’s something “smart” on your list, you’ll easily find it now at Best Buy!

Leonard Bond
Leo enjoys writing about everything from secret agents to tech toys and gadgets to professional hockey. Find his reviews and other product related commentary right here on the Best Buy Blog and his latest hockey rants at www.hockeycontroversial.com.