Skip to main content

Buying on a budget? Here’s the best gear and gadgetry you can get for under $20

Twenty bucks might not sound like a whole lot, but you’d be surprised what you can get for such a small sum of money. We live in a world where you can get a cheeseburger for $1, a functioning computer for $5, and thousands of HD movies for $10 — so it stands to reason that you should be able to pick up some pretty sweet gadgets for less than the cost of a cab ride. In this article, we’ve rounded up some of the best tech under $20, so you can ball out without breaking the bank.

If you can stretch your budget a bit further, we’ve also compiled lists for the best tech under $50, and the best tech under $100.

Recommended Videos

Amazon Dash buttons

Amazon Dash
Brad Jones/Digital Trends

To be perfectly honest, these things are completely unnecessary. You don’t need to own them — but they’re also pretty damn convenient. If you’re not familiar with Dash Buttons, here’s the scoop: they’re essentially physical, internet-connected buttons that you can link to your Amazon account and place around your house. When you press the button, a specific item is automatically added to your Amazon shopping cart. You can buy them for practically any product that you consume (and run therefore need to replenish) on a regular basis — so they’re great for thins like toilet paper, laundry detergent, dish soap, dog treats, toothpaste, diapers, deodorant, and even snacks like Goldfish or RedBull. You definitely don’t need these things, but damn if they aren’t nice to have!

Bondic Liquid plastic welder

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Forget super glue. Instead of haphazardly squeezing some adhesive out of a tube, Bondic allows you to join two materials together with liquid plastic that hardens under UV light. You know those little UV glue guns that dentists use to fill minor cavities before they get too serious? It’s basically the exact same adhesive technology, just tweaked a little and redesigned for a different purpose. The Bondic welder is a must-have if you’re prone to breaking sunglasses a lot!

Qi wireless charging pad

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Still plugging your phone in to juice up the battery like a caveman? Get with the times, brother! Snag yourself a Qi wireless charger and you’ll be free from the shackles of cord-carrying life. Put one of these suckers on your bedside table and just plop your phone on it before you go to sleep. When you wake up, you’ll have a fully-juiced phone that you can just grab and slip in your pocket — no unplugging necessary (because, you know, that’s so inconvenient!). Seriously though, wireless charging is one of those little things that just makes life slightly easier, and you don’t realize how awesome it is until you don’t have it anymore.

Cordless Dremel tool

Image used with permission by copyright holder

If there’s one power tool every person should own, it’s a Dremel. It’s basically the Swiss Army Knife of the power tool world. With the right attachments, these machines can do practically anything — cutting, sanding, polishing, carving, and everything in between. This set comes with a small assortment of attachments to get you started, and if that’s not enough, the tool is compatible with a gazillion more attachments that Dremel makes. Be careful though. Power tools are a slippery slope, and Dremel is a gateway drug. If you’re not careful, you could wake up a year from now with a table saw and a laser cutter in your garage, wondering where your life went.

Alexa-compatible smart plug

Ever wish you lived in one of those futuristic smart homes where you could shout “computer, turn on the lights!” and it would magically happen? If so, we’ve got good news for you. While setting up a voice-activated smart home used to be both difficult and expensive, these days you can rig one up cheaply and easily. Case in point? the GoSund Smart Plug. Despite the fact that it’s outrageously cheap, this nifty little IoT plug adapter is compatible with Alexa — meaning you can plug practically anything into it, and after some setup, be able to turn the device on or off just by shouting at your Amazon Dash/Echo/whatever.

Bluetooth stereo adapter

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Do you have an older stereo that isn’t compatible with all this newfangled streaming tech, and are fed up with leaving your phone tethered to an auxiliary port? Not to worry — this little dongle is here to save the day. Just plug it into the aforementioned auxiliary port on your  home or car stereo, and pair it with your smartphone. Once you’re all set up, you’ll be able to sling audio to your speakers from just about any app on your phone.

Sandisk 32GB MicroSDHC Card

Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you can expand your phone’s memory (sorry iOS users!) and want to do so on the cheap, SanDisk is your best choice. With 32GB of storage you can store more than 11,000 compress photos and 480 hours of videos shot with a standard 8 megapixel cell phone. Of course, you can use the SanDisk card for plenty of other things as well (action cams, DSLRs, etc.), but if you plan on shooting RAW photos or high-FPS video, you’ll probably want something with faster write speeds.

Google Cardboard

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Virtual reality is still relatively new, but with more than 10 million units sold, the Google Cardboard is one of the most popular VR headsets around. Don’t let the exterior fool you, either: a lot of engaging entertainment can be found inside that piece of cardboard. You can view live soccer matches, YouTube videos, and even stand next to Paul McCartney while he performs on stage. Best part is, all you need is an Android or iOS phone running the appropriate software and you are all set.

Sony ZX110 Headphones

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Decent headphones usually cost a bundle of cash, but Sony’s ZX110 headphones are a rare exception. Despite the fact that they cost just $11 bucks, these badboys pump out sound that’ll put your stock Apple earbuds to shame. The foam cushions add much needed ear comfort for those long listening sessions, while Sony’s Acoustic Bass Boosting technology gives you more low-end punch than most in-ear headphones can offer. For under $20, you will seldom see a headphone deal better than the Sony ZX Series.

Logitech K360 wireless keyboard

Logitech usually offers elite wireless keyboards, and the K360 is no different. The sleek keyboard is only compatible with certain versions of Windows, but is packed with versatility. It comes with six hot keys for play, pause, play previous, play next, adjust volume, and mute functions — all of which make interacting with media much simpler. You can also customize 12 programmable F-keys to give you quick shortcuts to your favorite websites, applications, and almost anything you want to access on your device.

Drew Prindle
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
BYD’s cheap EVs might remain out of Canada too
BYD Han

With Chinese-made electric vehicles facing stiff tariffs in both Europe and America, a stirring question for EV drivers has started to arise: Can the race to make EVs more affordable continue if the world leader is kept out of the race?

China’s BYD, recognized as a global leader in terms of affordability, had to backtrack on plans to reach the U.S. market after the Biden administration in May imposed 100% tariffs on EVs made in China.

Read more
Tesla posts exaggerate self-driving capacity, safety regulators say
Beta of Tesla's FSD in a car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In these instances, it appears that “the driver may not be aware that he or she is responsible” to make appropriate operational selections, or “fully understand” the nuances of the system, NHTSA said.
Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
The postings, which included reposted YouTube videos, may encourage viewers to see FSD-supervised as a “Robotaxi” instead of a partially automated, driver-assist system that requires “persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno said.
In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.

Read more
Waymo, Nexar present AI-based study to protect ‘vulnerable’ road users
waymo data vulnerable road users ml still  1 ea18c3

Robotaxi operator Waymo says its partnership with Nexar, a machine-learning tech firm dedicated to improving road safety, has yielded the largest dataset of its kind in the U.S., which will help inform the driving of its own automated vehicles.

As part of its latest research with Nexar, Waymo has reconstructed hundreds of crashes involving what it calls ‘vulnerable road users’ (VRUs), such as pedestrians walking through crosswalks, biyclists in city streets, or high-speed motorcycle riders on highways.

Read more