Last minute gift shopping? Here are some options for your list

It’s the time of the year when the festive season calls in for a long shopping list. With lots to do at home — decorating, shopping, cooking, preparations and alike, you are bound to run around making purchases in a short time. And then it happens as usual — you either lost out on time to pick something for a close friend or relative, or are simply at a cross road, thinking of what to buy them in the first place. With millions of options for gifting out there, some may look cheap, while others may feel inappropriate or even expensive.

To make your shopping woes a bit better, we have some gifting ideas for you to consider. Why not buy something that adds value to the life of people who add value to yours.

Xiaomi Mi A1: Xiaomi’s latest addition, the Mi A1 features a full-metal body with dual cameras. The Mi A1 supports 2x optical zoom, runs on stock Android and a Snapdragon chipset with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. For Rs 14,999, this could be a great upgrade for your loved one’s existing smartphone.

Honeywell Air Touch I8 & A5: The air purifiers feature a patented HiSiv technology, HEPA filter, and pre-filter, which combines to eliminate large dust particles, PM2.5, bacteria, formaldehyde, harmful gases, and volatile organic compounds. The filtration technology is recommended for Indian homes by Indian Medical Academy for Preventive Healthcare, and these devices are designed to be intuitive and come packed with user friendly features. The latest feature is real time ambient air pollution measurement, which most air purifiers do not offer. Budget — Rs 8,950 and Rs 16,990.

Panasonic StainMaster washing machine: Festivals come with stubborn stains such as curry, rangoli colours and oil stains. What’s best is to get your loved ones a washing machine upgrade.  Available for Rs 21,990, you can help them relax with fun while the machine can take care of the ‘dirty’ chores in the last room. It is programmed to get rid of 23 stains, the most common and persistent stains, including sweat, curry, sauce, oil, lipstick, coffee, oil and wine.

ZOOOK ZB-ROCKER Torpedo Bluetooth Speaker: Boasting IPX5 rating the ROCKER TORPEDO is truly a portability and durability, waterproof audio master with 25W x 2 speakers. The large-sized drivers and a huge bass diaphragm deliver a good punch for enjoyable and loud music. The speakers are rugged, while still looking elegant and pleasing. This gift is definitely our best choice for your family’s teenage member. You can get this ‘beauty and the beast’ for just around Rs 5,999.

Haier microwaves: What’s better than cooking delicious food and all the festive delicacies during the festive season? Why not gift your loved ones the cooking oven to benefit the entire family, help cook mouth-watering dishes and still have time to celebrate. The new range of Haier smart cooking microwaves allows users to cook multiple cuisines from different regions of the country. The Haier HIL2001 CSPH and HIL2810EGCF microwaves are two latest introductions equipped with smart cooking features, with various possibilities to cook almost 123 dishes in the auto cook menu. These include recipes from Punjab, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bengal, and a few more. Additionally, the microwaves come with a deodorizing feature in order to avoid unpleasant post cooking smell inside the microwave. Prices start from Rs 8,790.

Diwali with Netflix: The holiday season calls for spending quality time with family and friends.  So why not gift them, or yourself, a one-stop destination for all entertainment needs? Netflix has measured this demand of the consumers, and is creating a great home entertainment experience on TV. Netflix comes with a monthly subscription of Rs 499, and you can go back and watch your favorite movies and missed out episodes whenever you want, while still making enough time to light those Diwali crackers and be with your loved ones.

Hotstar: Spend Diwali catching up on your favourite award winning shows and movies with Hotstar. Unspoiled and aired minutes after America, users can watch popular shows like This Is Us, The Deuce, The Night Of, Big Little Lies and many more. Hotstar offers a monthly subscription at only Rs 199. So, what are you waiting for? Gift your loved ones an entire entertainment ecosystem!

ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie: ASUS recently launched their Zenfone 4 Selfie series with 3 variants that cater to customers across price range. ZenFone 4 Selfie (Dual Camera Version) features dual front-facing cameras, including a high-resolution, 20MP main selfie camera with an ƒ/2.0 aperture and 8MP 120-degree wide-angle wefie camera. A Softlight LED flash delivers a perfect amount of fill light in low-light conditions, softening skin texture and bringing out true skin tones to make selfies look their best. In addition to its dual selfie cameras, ZenFone 4 Selfie (Dual Camera Version) features a rear 16MP camera with LED flash. Its phase-detection autofocus system works in just few seconds to help ensure that users get the shot they want. Additional camera features include Pro mode that enables exposures of up to 32 seconds, and Full-HD video recording with electronic image-stabilization (EIS) for detailed, shake-free videos. ZenFone 4 Selfie (Dual Camera Version) is available in four colors: Sunlight Gold, Rose Pink, and Deepsea Black, exclusively available on Flipkart for Rs 14,999.

ASUS VivoBook S15: This laptop is powered by up to the latest 8th Generation Core i7 Processor. It comes under the mainstream laptop category, but the premium design disguises it under premium category. It comes with a 15-inch FHD display with wide viewing angle up to 178-degree display with an ultra-narrow 7.8mm slim bezel. It is one of the sleekest notebook with 17.9mm thin chassis and 1.7kg weight with an aluminium lid.  Being sleek & fashion doesn’t mean the notebook to be under powered. The S510 comes loaded with the latest 8th Gen Intel U series, which is 60% powerful than the 7th Gen processors, Two variants are available too — Intel Core i7-8550U & Intel Core i5-8250U along with 16GB DDR4 RAM. Storage options include 1TB that can be expandable up to a 2TB HDD and a speedy M.2 SSD boot drive of up to 128GB which allows the laptop to bot up quickly. Lastly, it features an NVIDIA MX150 graphics processor that makes this laptop perfect for those who are looking for a portability and performance. And not to forget, this one also has a good battery life. A technology called “Super Battery” gives 3x times better battery performance and fast charging that charges from 0 to 60 in just 49 minutes. The laptop is pretty much affordable in comparison with rivals that are priced higher. Prices start at Rs 59,990 and goes up to Rs 79,990 for the top model.

While we listed out some random ideas for your immediate family, you can head out to get some for your friends and colleagues too. There are many more gifting ideas that range from a mere Rs 500 to a whopping Rs 1.5 Lakh. Fitness bands, earphones and smart power banks, are at the lower end of your budget, while flagship smartphones and gaming consoles are also some ideas for the affluent. Happy Diwali! Happy Shopping!