The Best Aesthetic Tech Gifts for Your Friend Who’s Always on Their Phone

So the iPod is about to turn 22, which makes me feel like a real Buzzfeed Millennial Old, and also made me realize that the initial iPod was kind of… perfect? It was a clunker, for sure. But I think it was kind of rad in all of its chunky, ambitious glory.

When did things get so boring? Back when computers really started really popping off in the 1980s and ‘90s, Steve Jobs hosted a kitsch Macintosh Software dating game with Bill Gates, Deee-Lite’s Lady Miss Kier put on her Pucci tights and predicted an eco-tech-fairytale ethos for incoming computer design, and by the 2000s, Apple was churning out candy-colored Macbooks and flower power desktops for the people:

TIL: In 2001, Apple released a “Flower Power” edition of the iMac G3. (Photos from https://t.co/id2kG5GOFw and ebay user mapleridgeauction) pic.twitter.com/xpUd8kw6SI

— Aleksejs Popovs (@aleksejspopovs) December 2, 2018

It’s 2023, baby, and the time has come to imbue all of our tech with personality, beyond just rose-gold iPhones. The good news is that well-designed, art object tech is out there, and it makes the perfect gift for your friend who is always scrolling but isn’t really a nerd.

So let’s roll up our sleeves and find some aesthetic tech accessories that speak to whatever your giftee’s design preference is. Perhaps you’re looking for a tech gift for your minimalist friend, or a boomer who refuses to use a cell phone as an alarm clock (ILY). Maybe you’re more craftsmanship-bent, or looking for the kind of wooden cell phone charger that could also display a 100-year-old bottle of Scotch. Whatever their electronic aesthetic is, here’s a smorgasbord of our favorite tech gifts for you to shower them with.

They hate carrying bags

Why stash your phone in storage if it can double as a designer purse? You may not be able to score your giftee a trip to the Versace mansion, but you can snag ‘em this phone case.

They’re an aspiring SoundCloud DJ

Making it big as a musician in 2023 is next to impossible, but it doesn’t hurt to encourage your roommate that they can at least look like a music pro with a high-quality, beautifully designed turntable.

You’re friend-zoned

Are you trying to get out of friend-zone territory? Confess your romantic feelings in a more subtle way with a heart phone charm stating your desire for a friendly hug *wink*.

For the introvert

The need to decompress doesn’t only happen in the comfort of your abode. Give the gift of blocking out the world in the best form: Apple’s AirPods Max in tasteful metallic minty green or baby blue.

They’re a complainer

Sick and tired of Kyle whining about his cramping hands from never-ending typing? An adjustable laptop stand should do the trick.

Blast them into space

You know what? Smartphones are liable to be the most expensive quotidien item you use and use hard. The bar counters. The midnight bathroom scrolls. When you think about all that, giving your $700 beep-boop machine its own music-streaming spaceship sounds like a pretty rad idea, and that’s absolutely how we’re justifying the purchase of this levitating UFO speaker. If we could live there too, we would.

For the watch snob

Who says your third-generation Apple Watch can’t be converted into a Cartier? Use your imagination and flex at the martini bar with this stainless steel gold strap (that looks like it costs way more than $16).

Nothing is out of place

Everyone knows at least someone with a spotless place, but we bet they don’t own a desktop vacuum cleaner. If they spiral from Cheetos dust getting on their keyboard, you are about to do them a huge damn favor.

They’re a minimalist

This catchall dish by elevated tech accessory brand Courant would be beautiful even if it didn’t include a super-handy wireless charging pad.

The people cry out for wood

FINALLY someone brought wood—which elevates everything it touches—into the world of tech accessories. Call me spicy, but I think your charger shouldn’t always have to be some ugly-ass thing in your peripheral vision. Instead, it can be a gorgeous hexagon of walnut.

For the boomer dad

We love you, Ted/Jerry/Ralph. Sometimes, it feels like every step forward (buying a cell phone) takes you a step back (leaving it in the trunk of your car), but it only makes us love you and your lectures about an “impending return to the Gold Standard” all the more. Get your boomer a Very Good Alarm Clock that ushers them into more tech use with ease. The Moon Beam brand was founded in 1952, or as Boomer Dad calls it “The year Britain successfully tested atomic weapons.” Anyways. This upgraded version of their alarm clock is just as classic but has a digital clock and a USB port.

They’re a baby beluga in the deep blue sea

What? You think that being tech-savvy should impede one’s ability to regress back to the banana phone, criss-cross applesauce, primary parachute tent glory days of yore? Screw you, man. Watch me Baby Dow Jones so hard with this banana phone that connects to your cell via Bluetooth.

They have two small Barbie hands

“Sorry Ken, I can’t hear you. But I’m leaving you for Midge” is very much the energy with this one. That, and the gentle stampeding of your little doll acrylic nails over the faux buttons.

McBling queen

If you procure this crystal-studded charger, your breath will smell like Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon mist, and your nails will magically sprout a fresh set of French tips. You also probably already own a bedazzled iPhone case, but you know what you don’t have? A bedazzled charger to go with it, and a light-up rainbow keyboard that can be seen from space.

They know how to split kindling

Shopping for someone who doesn’t know what to do with all their cables and all that [gestures in analog] tech stuff? Are tool belts a love language they understand? Bellroy has created an entire tech kit to get them organized; it’s a straightforward shell made out of recycled materials that will probably remind them more of their shaving kit/grandpa’s toiletry bag than anything techy.

Anti-SAD tech

Here’s where we’re at, sweets [spits out snus]: We’re in between fall sabbaths, the sun is setting only a few hours after we’ve cracked our eyes for overpriced brunch, and our landlords are not yet cranking the heat. Smells like Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), for which the only antidote is a mouse that looks like a hamster/dolphin/strawberry. That, and a therapeutic imitation sunshine lamp.

You’re so vain

You probably think this mirror is about you. You’re right, it is. You look great, thanks to a little help from your trusty rechargeable LED-lit mirror, which would honestly have been a goddess-send during so many shows and movie dates.

Your other car is a shroom

Cottagecore kings and queens, crawl out of your logs and off of your toadstools and store your AirPods in a mushroom. [Rips bog bong.]

Because it’s puffer season

It’s the season to start bundling up, which means all gorpcore lords will be requiring a puffer case for their smartphone that says, “I’d rather be in Aspen, but this Reno buffet will do.” This squishy boy by Urban Sophistication comes in a dozen colors and patterns, but we’re partial to the classic black or orange.

There you have it: the tech gifts of our fanciful dreams. If the future is robotic narc drug dogs and drones, they’d better be bedazzled in Swarovski crystals. If I am going to continue to do everything from organizing my finances to tracking sharks off the coast of New York with my phone, it’s time to start taking its accessories a little more seriously. We hope the scope of widely available tech one day includes a plastic mansion for your phone.

See you in the ether.

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The Rec Room staff independently selected all of the stuff featured in this story. Want more reviews, recommendations, and red-hot deals? Sign up for our newsletter.