10 Affordable Amazon Gadgets To Make Your Life Easier

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Many gadgets claim to make your life easier, but not all of them do. For every genuinely useful piece of tech, there are many more out there that end up being a total waste of money. Or, at the very least, they just end up doing a thing that something cheaper and simpler could already do. Amazon is a great place to find tech from both ends of that spectrum — some of it you might buy and end up wondering how you ever managed without it, while other bits might end up being returned almost as fast as they were delivered.

While there's no guarantee that any gadget will end up being useful for everyone, a few gadgets out there stick out from the rest as being particularly useful if you're looking to make your life as easy as possible. From clever smart home tech to affordably priced earbuds, these gadgets all offer a lot of capability for a small price. Each can be picked up for a retail price of less than $50 on Amazon, and some can frequently be found on sale for even less.

A portable charger is one of the best ways to make it easier to keep your tech juiced up while you're on the go, and they're not just reserved for smartphones either. The Anker 621 Magnetic Portable Charger retails for $39.99 on Amazon and can wirelessly charge all devices that are MagSafe compatible. That includes recent iPhone models, but also wireless earbuds like the AirPods 4. The Anker 621's 5,000mAh battery capacity is on the smaller side, but it's enough to top up an iPhone 16 as much as 62% according to the brand. That should be enough to keep you going until you can find an outlet.

The charger is designed to be slimmer than its rivals, so it won't feel as noticeable when it's attached to your phone. If you're looking for more charging capacity and don't mind a bulkier block on the back of your phone, then Anker also offers the Zolo Power Bank, which packs 10,000 mAh of capacity and retails for a similarly affordable $49.99.

Plenty of brands offer wireless earbuds under $50, but few offer as impressive a set of features for the price as the CMF Buds. In our review of these earbuds, we found them to shine across a wide variety of genres, with the bonus of having several modes that could be switched between via parent company Nothing's app. The build quality of the earbuds and the case was also impressive given the CMF Buds' $39.00 retail price, and their IP54 rating means that the odd splash of water won't cause any damage.

Wireless earbuds can be a particularly useful addition to your arsenal if you travel frequently, since the case only takes up minimal room compared to most wireless headphones. If you're already a wireless earbud convert, having an affordably priced backup pair to take with you when you don't want to risk losing your daily drivers might also come in handy. Trips to the beach or to the lake are more stressful if you're worried about dropping an expensive earbud, but with a $40 pair, your day won't be ruined if you accidentally get one covered in sand or dirt.

If you're looking to dip a toe into the world of smart home tech but don't want to spend much, an Alexa-enabled device like the Amazon Echo Dot remains a great place to start. The Echo Dot retails for just $49.99, but it's not short on capabilities. The device, which is now in its fifth generation, offers an improved speaker design over previous models, but keeps its familiar rounded shape. It's subtle enough to blend in with most room setups, and can be bought in a choice of three colors: black, white, and blue.

The ability to stream music and podcasts via a simple voice command is arguably a big enough selling point to make the Echo Dot worth its entry price alone. Plus, it can also set timers, create announcements and lists, and trigger smart home routines if you have other Alexa-compatible devices. While tech enthusiasts will likely already have plenty of smart home tech and will have already built an ecosystem around Google, Apple, or Amazon's home assistants, if you're not already knee-deep in smart home products, the Echo Dot remains one of the cheapest ways to get a flavor of them.

There are many common home appliances that can be made more useful with a smart plug. Everything from coffee machines to bedside lamps can be improved with the ability to be remotely switched on and off. Pair the former with a smart plug and you'll be able to wake up to freshly brewed coffee before you even reach the kitchen, and with the latter, you'll be able to turn a lamp on in the night via voice commands instead of rooting around in the dark for a switch.

Many brands offer smart plugs, but one of the best known names in this kind of smart home tech is Philips. The brand's Hue Smart Plug retails on Amazon for $34.95, and can be controlled via a companion smartphone app. It's compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant, and can be used in tandem with the brand's range of motion sensors and lighting to set up more complex smart home routines.

Building on the success of the original, Blink launched its Mini 2 home security camera in early 2024. It can be used both indoors and outdoors, although using it outdoors will mean you'll have to shell out extra for a weather-resistant adapter. On its own, the Blink Mini 2 retails for $39.99. As an outdoor security camera, the Mini 2 is a cost-effective way to set up a basic home monitoring system, but there are some limitations. The first is its 1080p resolution, which won't be able to pick up smaller details. Another is that live viewing is limited without picking up a monthly subscription, which costs $3 per month.

That said, virtually all affordably priced home cameras will require some kind of ongoing subscription, and Blink's is on the cheaper side. Plus, the camera can double up as a way of monitoring pets when you're not around, whether they're outdoors or indoors. In both settings, the camera offers motion detection, and can send you an alert to your phone when it detects that there's someone in view. That's a lot of talent for a small price, even if the need for a subscription will no doubt be enough to put some people off.

Having a screen or TV with a limited number of HDMI ports can leave you having to plug and unplug devices manually to swap between them, unless you get a HDMI switch. Being able to immediately swap between different consoles and streaming devices is already more convenient than the old-school unplugging method, but the Ugreen Five-Port HDMI Switch With Remote goes one step further. You can still switch between each port using buttons on the device, but you also have the option of changing devices without even needing to get up from the couch thanks to the included remote.

It supports inputs of up to 4K at 60Hz, or 1080p at 240Hz, and is compatible with both old and new gaming devices that feature an HDMI output. If you're a particularly hardcore Xbox fan, for example, you can connect a Series X, One, and 360 all at once, and switch between them depending on which era of games you feel like playing. A small LED light near each of the buttons on the device can light up to show you which input is selected. The HDMI switch retails for $39.99, but can frequently be found on sale for less.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick HD is a cost-effective way to turn any screen into a smart streaming device, and it's just as useful on the go as it is at home. It works with most popular video streaming services including Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Tubi and many more, as well as music streaming services like Spotify and Amazon Music. It also features integrated Alexa, and can run smart home routines if it's connected to your smart home ecosystem.

At $34.99, the Fire TV Stick HD is cheap enough that it's still worth the price even if you're only planning on using it to use your favorite streaming services when you're away in hotels or on vacation. It can be plugged into any screen with an HDMI port, or if you have a crowded setup with too many devices to plug in at once, it can be connected to something like the Ugreen switch listed above.

The whole idea of smart home tech is to make the little things easier, but having to enunciate commands to an assistant device in the other room or pick up your phone and navigate a smart home app can feel anything but easy. You could try to solve the problem by adding more smart speakers across your house or set up a new voice-activated routine — or you could simply press a button. The Philips Hue Wireless Smart Button can be programmed to trigger any smart home routine at the press of a button, provided you have a Hue Bridge home hub.

Each button retails for $29.99, so you can potentially stock up on several and distribute them around the house. In one room, you could set up the button to close the curtains, turn the lights on to a dim setting, and turn on the TV, while in another room, it could simply change the color of the lighting. The button can be fixed to a wall like a traditional light switch, but it can also be placed on metallic surfaces such as a fridge door thanks to the included magnet.

An electric screwdriver is one of those tools you might not think about too often, until you need one and realize you don't have one. Whether it's assembling furniture or doing DIY, the Skil Twist 2.0 Rechargeable 4V Screwdriver is a useful addition to almost any tool box. Its head can pivot up to 45 degrees and locks in place to reach awkward spots. Operating it is simple, since there are only forward and reverse modes, with a separate button to adjust the angle of the head.

We previously included the Twist 2.0 in our list of the best electric screwdrivers on the market, partly because of its affordable price and partly because of its versatility. Our reviewer also found the window within the tool that displays the driver to be a fun distraction. Miniature windows aside, the Twist 2.0's main selling point is simply that it's affordable enough that you won't think about it much after picking it up, but useful enough that you might end up needing it more than you originally thought.

Even if you're the careful sort who's usually aware of where you've left your things, inevitably you're going to misplace your keys or wallet at some point. The traditional method to find them again is to say something to the effect of, "I know I left them around here," then spend half an hour searching and eventually find them in a completely different place to where you thought they were. To make your life easy and skip straight to the bit where you find them, it's worth considering the Tile by Life360. The brand's starter pack includes a tag for your keys and a tag for your wallet, and it retails for $49.98.

The Tile functions a lot like an AirTag, in that you can use the brand's app to locate each tag when you lose it. Like an AirTag, it can emit a ringing sound to help you narrow down your search, but unlike an AirTag, it's compatible with both Android and iOS devices. The ring functionality also works the opposite way around, and can be used to trigger a ringing sound on a misplaced phone, even if that phone is on silent mode. Plus, it can be used to trigger an SOS function and send an alert to your selected family or friends if necessary. The battery in each tag can last up to three years before running out of charge, but unfortunately, once it's flat, it can't be recharged.