Cheap stuff that doesn’t suck, take 2

While we all wait to find out what effect the upcoming — well, maybe upcoming — tariffs will have on prices, many of us are making mental lists of some of the items we might need that, hopefully, won’t demand a bank loan to be affordable. 

Last year, we asked the staff members here at The Verge whether they had any favorite items that cost $50 or less. This year, because things are getting more expensive, we thought about upping the limit to $75, but it turns out that our staff has a good instinct for finding great, low-cost tech gadgets, cooking gear, tool kits, and other items that not only don’t suck, but are actually good to own. With any luck, they’ll remain $50 or less — for now, at any rate.

I have a tendency to hold on to my phones as long as they work reasonably well, and although I must admit I’ve been tempted by the Pixel 9A, I will probably still be using my Pixel 6 for a bit longer. The only issue that I’m starting to hit is battery life — after over three years of use, it’s not unexpected that I will sometimes hit the 20 percent mark toward the end of the day. So I recently realized that I’m going to have to start carrying around a portable charger.

At first, I was going to go with the 20,000mAh Anker Zolo Power Bank, which had gotten a good number of recommendations. But it weighs over 11 ounces and when I dropped it into my bag, it felt like I had added a small brick. That’s why I traded it in for the less powerful but much lighter Anker Nano Power Bank, which plugs into my phone’s USB-C slot like a small add-on peripheral. The Nano weighs only 3.5 ounces and supplies 5,000mAh of battery power — enough to keep me going to the end of the day. And it comes in several pale colors (I chose Ice Lake Blue), which means I can see it more easily in the dark reaches of my bag. — Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editor

I spent the better part of a decade trying to find the perfect slim minimalist wallet for carrying a handful of credit cards, debit cards, and IDs, along with a small stash of cash. The winner, which I’ve been carrying every day for close to eight years now, is Magpul’s DAKA Essential Wallet. It’s made from a reinforced polymer fabric with welded seams that make it impressively durable. It’s also got an anti-slip texture that I find adds extra grip so I can easily extract it from even a tight pocket. I ended up buying three so I had backups when it eventually wore out, but am still using the original with minimal wear and tear. — Andrew Liszewski, senior reporter

My body composition has become about 70 percent egg in the blissful month since I bought this cooker. I never want to buy new countertop kitchen appliances, because almost every time I do, they end up dusty in the back of the cabinet, but I’m amazed by how useful this simple Hamilton Beach Egg Cooker is. I can prepare hard- or soft-boiled eggs to perfect consistency in minutes (with no cleanup!), and having it on hand has dramatically cut back on my bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich habit. So it’s good for my cholesterol and my bank account. — Kristen Radtke, creative director

My ToAuto soldering station spent a few years gathering dust, but I finally pulled it out of the closet when I started experimenting with game console repairs. It may not be a Hakko or a Weller, but for $55, it gets the job done. The station is perfect for a beginner like me, as it heats up to 842 degrees Fahrenheit, comes with numerous interchangeable soldering tips, has steel wool for cleaning, and features a handy rack to hold a spool of solder. So far, it’s helped me do things like solder an HDMI port onto a PS4 and install new batteries on old Game Boy games. I expect it’s going to come in handy for many future repairs, too. — Emma Roth, news writer

The Sound Pocket certainly isn’t the best-sounding Bluetooth speaker I’ve ever owned, but it’s currently the one I reach for first. The reason for that is pretty simple: it’s just so small. This is truly a pocket-size speaker, compact enough to carry in my jeans or tuck into the smallest pouch of my backpack, with a silicon loop on one end for strapping it to the outside in a pinch. It hardly delivers booming bass, but it sounds better than my phone, and is small and light enough that I can always justify packing it. It’s just about the only thing I’m guaranteed to bring no matter where I travel. — Dominic Preston, news editor

I used to buy AA batteries in bulk to keep on hand for when my Xbox controller would die in the middle of a game. (And because I have two kids.) I’d resisted my friends’ suggestions to buy rechargeable batteries, thinking back to the old ones my parents used to have, with a big, bulky charging box that took forever. But then one night I came across these $30 paleblue USB-C rechargeable batteries. They’re great. Just plug them into a USB-C source using the included wire whenever you need to juice them up. They last long enough so that I’m not constantly swapping them out. And I can charge all four at once. I have the four-pack but there’s also an eight-pack and a 12-pack, which might be even more handy. — Todd Haselton, deputy editor

This is a sturdy stainless steel water bottle that keeps water cold as I sip it throughout my workday. What more could you ask for? I take it on trips, too, and while it’s got a few dents from some drops onto concrete, I don’t really care. If anything, the dents add some character and make it mine.
— Jay Peters, news editor

My partner and I were coming back from dinner with a friend the other night, and as the bus roared away, he suddenly realized his wallet was no longer in his back pocket. We called the MTA the next day, and through some miracle, the wallet had been found, and we were able to drive over to the local bus depot and pick it up. But it occurred to me that if he had a tracker in his wallet, we might not have been as worried as to where it was. The next day, I ordered a Tile Slim for that wallet.

I’ve actually been using Tile trackers for my own keys and wallet for a couple of years now (although they’ve thankfully only been needed to locate items misplaced in our home). So as nice as the folks at the MTA were — and they were really nice — hopefully, my partner’s new Tile Slim will ensure it’s our last visit there. — Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editor

Two years ago, Verge managing editor Alex Cranz recommended this little precision screwdriver, spudger, and tweezer set in our under-$50 gift guide. I absolutely did not need one; my iFixit Mako 64-bit kit was and is still going strong. But at $25, I thought, “Why not give it a shot?” I was blown away. It really is a phenomenal selection of above-average tools for an excellent price. 

I love the short, front-heavy precision driver you get. It’s often the first thing I reach for when opening gadgets, because there’s no need to deal with an unnecessarily long screwdriver shaft between your torque-generating hand and your fastener. It feels more natural squeezing its knurled grip with my fingertips instead of my palm, while the extra diameter gives me a little more leverage than the iFixit Mako does, which comes in handy swapping parts in my PC. 

The three-inch long reach bits are great for deeply socketed screws in Nerf blasters or Dyson vacuums, too. For me, it just needs a pair of game-cartridge-opening Gamebits to make it a complete set, plus maybe a SIM card opener and a magnetic screw retrieval tool. — Sean Hollister, senior editor

I can’t help but laugh every time I hear “Royal Kludge,” but this is truly the best folding Bluetooth keyboard I’ve used yet — because it’s the only multi-device keyboard I’ve tried that doesn’t fall off my lap! It’s also a mechanical keyboard with swappable keycaps, but that’s just the cherry on top. For me, the important bits are that it’s easy to type on, I can swap between multiple Bluetooth devices instead of re-pairing, I can plug it in with USB-C whenever Bluetooth won’t work, and it spans both my legs while folding vertically rather than horizontally, so it doesn’t just fall into the gap between my legs like so of many rivals do. 

There really aren’t a lot of multi-device wired/wireless hybrid keyboards out there with USB-C ports. This one’s chunkier than the competition, but at $55 it’s a great deal. — Sean Hollister, senior editor