Big-Ticket Gadget Gifts Totally Worth the Splurge

Compact cases aren't what most gamers think of first, but the Tiki should make them reconsider. The 2023 edition is pricey but as close to perfect as you get with a small chassis. This unit is hyper-engineered for power that rivals the big towers, featuring a special AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor and even an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU, with the benchmarks to back it up. Our test unit also came with 64GB of RAM, a 2TB solid-state drive, and Windows 11 Pro--everything you'll need to start fragging.

Sonos specializes in multi-room audio products, and the The Era 300 is the company's latest and greatest sound system. This audio powerhouse has full Dolby Atmos support without even being geared specifically to home theater use like the similarly expensive $899 Arc and the $499 Beam soundbars. Plus it has Bluetooth connectivity to give you extra options and flexibility for streaming.

An 18-inch screen on a laptop? It's a must for serious, on-the-go PC gaming, and the m18 delivers the best giant-screen laptop we've ever seen, period. You'll pay big bucks for the device, but that comes with performance that has to be seen to be believed, in a unit with a sturdy build and Cherry MX mechanical keyboard. That screen is a full 2,560-by-1,600-pixel display capable of 165Hz refresh. The whole thing is 8.9 pounds, but it's worth lugging around.

This is the ultimate Apple Watch, especially for adventure-focused users. It's approved for high-speed water sports as well as diving (with a Depth app that tells you how low you’ve gone under the surface). It's got more durability, better battery life, more accurate GPS, and a brighter (OLED) display than other models, and compared to the first gen model it's got a brighter display and faster processor. If you are all about the outdoors, this is the Apple Watch for you.

When you hear the name Herman Miller regarding chairs, you know it won't be cheap. That's definitely true of this, the first gaming chair from the company, created in partnership with Logitech. It's based on the Herman Miller Embody office chair, and looks a little more office-y than it does game-y, with lots of black and no splashy colors. But that's not necessarily bad. Plus it comes fully assembled, is very comfortable, and has a stellar 12-year warranty.

Imagine a laptop that can last over a day on a battery charge. That's what the latest MacBook Pro can do. In our tests, the flagship 16-inch laptop of Apple's line lasted a full 27 hours in our battery test. That's exceptional enough, but this macOS device is also unmatched when it comes to laptop power thanks to the M2 Max processor inside. It's practically a perfect product (we gave it five stars), especially for media creation and other high-end options.

The Samsung Ark makes the price on this curved 49-inch 32:9 ratio OLED screen look absolutely reasonable, despite still being somewhat outrageous. But for that price you get a dazzling display with excellent color accuracy, sufficient for professional work. The inclusion of Samsung's gaming and media hub for access to streamng gaming apps like Xbox Game Pass and Nvidia GeForce Now make it a smart monitor; it also includes two very adequate 5-watt speakers.

Samsung's line of OLED TVs come in 55-, 65-, and 75-inch models. All feature incredibly bright OLED screens with great color, low lag, and support for voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa. The 65-inch sweet spot comes in over a thousand dollars less than the 77-inch we tested, but all feature bezel-free looks, four HDMI (one eARC) ports on the control box on the back, the Tizen smart TV interface for streaming content, and of course, full 4K resolution with a 144Hz refresh rate, and support for high dynamic range (HDR) content. They're pricey, but gorgeous.

There are two reasons to get yourself a set of high-end headphones: Either you want the best sound, or you want no sound...at least outside sound. The Bose QuietComfort Ultras offer the best of both worlds, delivering industry-leading active noise cancellation and killer audio with stellar bass sound.

Does anyone need this much power? Because Nvidia's AD102 chip delivers an absolutely absurd amount of processing power for this single-GPU card. It's the first with Nvidia's new Ada Lovelace architecture, and might well be the biggest performance upgrade in the company's history. If you can afford it, and have room inside your PC for it, it'll push your game graphics into the stratosphere.

Phone updates for the last few years have been pretty boring, but foldables are getting better and better.Right now, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 from Samsung is the best you can get. It's lighter and sleeker than Samsung's previous attempts, and when you open it up, you get a big 7.6-inch square-ish screen that's much more a tablet than a phone. Fold it and you've still got a working 6.7-inch phone screen to work with--and it folds completely flat. The included Samsung Dex software lets you plug it into peripherals and run Android like a desktop PC.

It seems that every year, the Pro Max version of the latest iPhone is dubbed “the best iPhone overall." Its true for the 15 models, and for good reason. It's the top of the line in every way, from the camera to the battery to the screen. The 15 Pro Max’s price matches its top of the line features, though: The base model starts at $1,199.99 (with 256GB of storage), and the phone can go for as much as $1,599 if you opt for the model with a terabyte of storage. That being said, you probably won't regret having all that storage space once you start accumulating a library of gorgeous 48-megapixel images snapped with the phone's powerful new camera. It's pricey, but also worth every penny.

Like all Leicas, the M11 Monochrom is a bit of a throwback, emphasizing optics and manual focus over digital extras. Still, even in its stripped-down state, this camera costs almost nine grand for the body alone–but you won't find a better pro camera for shooting in black and white.

About the only knock agains the Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 4K is that it doesn't support 3D. Otherwise, it's a 5-star marvel, delivering 3,840 by 2,160 pixels from a 2,700-lumen laser light source that should last the entire life of the projector. It even supports different levels of HDR. With all it delivers, even at this price, it's a visual value.

It was only a matter of time before Peloton pedaled from bikes over to rowing machines. It did so with aplomb, introducing what we consider the smartest and most luxurious rowing machine available today. Naturally, it offers effective classes and trainers to interact with on its 23.8-inch touch screen, and it requires an expensive $44 a month membership to get the most out of it–otherwise it just rows. But the membership is also worth it.

Did you expect to see a dating service on the most splurge-worthy expensive gifts you can buy this season? Tinder added a new dimension to swiping right this year. In addition to the usual $19 per month fee that can keep the hookups happening, there's now the Tinder Select tier for a ridiculous $500 per month. With that, members can text anyone without limits and your profile goes out to the entire membership. To get it, Tinder has to vet you and grant approval. It's a VIP status symbol for sure—and that probably can't hurt your chances of finding love.

Complete with wireless rear speakers and a thunderous 12-inch subwoofer, the JBL Bar 1300X provides a fully immersive home theater sound experience, with it's 11.1.4-channel setup. There are plenty of ports for connecting (eARC, 3 HDMIs that turn the soundbar into a switch for other devices, optical audio, USB, and Ethernet) and it supports multiple casting methods like AirPlay and Google Cast. But what truly matters is that all-encompassing audio.