Gadgetory

graduation day hope is in the air brilliant young minds are being cast out into the world confident that with the right job and enough time they could be out from under their student loans in as little as forty years so to distract them from the inevitable despair of real life why not buy them some cool tech I'm Donald Bell and in this top 5 i'm counting down some of the best gift picks for grads selected by cnet's team of editors i'll start off with the low tech option at number 5 the hamilton beach set and forget slow cooker not the flashiest gift but infinitely more practical than anything else on this list if you're eating on a budget or working with a bare minimum of cooking skills this thing is a miracle worker you literally dump stuff in the pot turn it on and walk away you can pick this thing up for 60 bucks comes with a lid that clamps down so you can take it in the car and a temperature probe so you can safely cook a full chicken or if things get really bad maybe a pigeon or a squirrel slow cooks squirrel at number 4 get them a ps4 400 bucks put some on the cutting edge of gaming plus you get a great media player with support for blu-ray movies and streaming services like Netflix and Hulu I mean now that their brain is brimming over with big ideas it's time to take them down a few brain cells so they can fit in with the rest of us at number three a new TV really what good is a game console if you're playing on some tiny lame dorm room TV for a can't fail upgrade grab something from the samsung UN 863 50 series there are eight sizes to choose from but that twelve hundred dollar 55 inch model is right in the sweet spot for more of a statement you can try this philips creamy oh it's an eighteen hundred dollar ultra short throw projector that can project up to 100 inch screen size but if all of that sounds way too expensive dropping 100 bucks on a Roku 3 will still keep you in their good graces or how about a smaller screen at number 2 tablet iPad air if you got money to burn or a kindle fire HDX 8.9 if you still want to keep them a little humble now that they're out of school they won't want to look at a laptop for a while a tablet keeps things interesting and fun gives them enough flexibility to get real work done in a crunch all right and finally my vote for the top gift for grads at number one a smartphone HTC One m8 is the hottest phone out there right now it's on every major carrier it's stylish enough for any 20-something and powerful enough to blast out resumes on a daily basis by this and they'll genuinely think you're cool for at least a minute so there you go five tech gifts that any grad will be thankful for but that's just the tip of the iceberg for more ideas head over to grad cnet.com and for more top five from me top five dot cnet com Donald Bell thanks for watching