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Graduation parties have already started ramping up for the summer, and if you’re attending one or more for a family member or close friend, you’ve probably been wondering about what to get the recent grad as a gift. There are loads of great options, but a classic graduation gift standby is always going to be the latest, greatest tech gadget. If the grad in your life happens to be dialed into the Apple ecosystem (or is looking to make the switch), any of these five items would be a fantastic choice. The best part is, they’re nearly all discounted for a limited time.
Key Features
- Includes charging case
- Provides more than 24 hours total listening time (with the charging case) and up to 5 hours on a single charge
- Straightforward setup with automatic in-ear detection
- Ability to share audio between 2 sets of AirPods for joint listening experiences
AirPods are one of the more “magical” products Apple has put out in recent years. They’re dead simple to use, sound great, and are extremely convenient. When using them with another Apple product, after your first initial pairing, you then just pop them in your ears and they automatically connect and you’re good to go. You can even use them as “normal” bluetooth headphones with non-Apple products as well, although they won’t have all of the fancy features like Siri, auto-connect, and more that you get when using them with another Apple gadget. These things are well worth their full price, but at a 25% discount they become impossible to ignore.
Key Features
- Allows users to text, call and even get directions from your wrist while leaving your iPhone in your pocket
- Connectivity options include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and NFC
- Retina display — Always-on
- Includes ECG and heart rate monitor apps
- Great for activity tracking
- Allows you to stream Apple Music, podcasts or audiobooks right from your watch
While Apple Watches can technically be used without another Apple device, you probably shouldn’t try, you’ll get much more out of one of these if you have an iPhone to pair it with. Basically, the Apple Watch takes a lot of the features of your phone and puts them on your wrist. In addition, thanks to many sensors built into the device, it also takes a handful (or a wristful) of helpful health readings and can provide important data about your health. Last but not least, it’s a pretty great, endlessly customizable fashion accessory. This one happens to be part of Amazon’s “renewed” program, which provides refurbished products at a discount. If you’re a bit wary about picking up a renewed product, don’t worry, it’s backed by Amazon’s 90-day Renewed Guarantee, which means that the “like-new refurbished products … have been professionally inspected and tested to work and look like new by Amazon-qualified and performance-managed suppliers” and “you are eligible for a replacement or refund within 90 days of receiving the product if it does not work as expected.”
Key Features
- Runs on Apple’s new M1 chip
- Up to 18 hours of battery lfie
- 13″ retina display
- 512GB SSD Storage
- 8GB Ram
- Facetime HD camera
- TouchID
If you even somewhat follow Apple or tech news, you’ve probably heard all about Apple’s new (and very good) M1 chip. This Macbook Air is one of the first machines to feature the chip, which allows it to do some pretty impressive things like run up to 18 hours on a charge, provide 3.5x faster performance than previous generation laptops while using even less power and run the beautiful 13.3″ retina display. Of course, like all Apple devices, this one can be used in conjunction with nearly every other device in the lineup to unlock even more usability.
Key Features
- 10.2″ retina display
- A13 Bionic chip w/ Neural Engine
- 8MP back camera, 12MP “Ultra Wide” front camera
- 256GB storage
- Stereo speakers
- TouchID
An iPad (or tablet in general) can be one of those things that seems tough to figure out why you’d need one, until you actually have one and then for many it becomes indispensable. A solid tablet can very quickly become your go-to way to consume news, read books (or comics), create art or music, control various smart accessories in your home, browse the web without having to deal with a much heavier and more cumbersome laptop, and countless more things. For most people, once you live that tablet life, you’ll never go back, and the iPad is still the undisputed king of the tablets. This one has a 10.2″ retina display, a 12MP front cam and an 8MP back cam, stereo speakers and 256GB of storage. All of the products on this list would make a great gift for a recent grad, but this might possibly be the best choice.
Key Features
- Unlocked for all mobile carriers
- 128GB storage
- 6.1″ Super Retina XDR display
- FaceID
- “Dolby Vision HDR video recording up to 4K at 60 fps. 2X Optical zoom range”
- A15 bionic chip
- 16-core neural engine
- Up to 19 hours of video playback on a charge
- “Water resistant to a depth of 6 meters for up to 30 minutes”
The iPhone is, of course, the crowned jewel of Apple products. The 13 series is the latest iPhone in the product’s vast history and as you might expect, it’s got all the bells and whistles you could ever want in a phone. The camera is spectacular, the battery life is better than ever, the performance is fantastic, and it’s even more water resistant than any phone should ever have to be. If the grad in your life is all about Apple, but they still don’t have an iPhone, you could be the hero they need and pick up this renewed iPhone 13 up for about $50 cheaper than a brand new one from Apple. You can even potentially take more off of the final price if you have a trade-in to offer. This phone is covered by the same 90-day Amazon Renewed Guarantee as the Apple Watch above, so if you’re looking to save a few bucks, we definitely recommend taking advantage of the offer.