Winter break is almost upon us and that means that special time of the year for arbitrary presents is also here. For some people, the love and attention that their family and friends give them is more than enough of a present. For people like you though, emotions won’t cut it at all. A shiny new computer with all of the latest hardware and games is more like it.

The dollar value after each product is the lowest cost. Some versions of the products are only marginally higher while some of them can go up to twice as high.

Like with anything you buy (especially expensive electronics), always make sure to do proper research.

Computer
Do college students really need a desktop? As someone who plays games other than Angry Birds, a desktop is a great idea, but for most students a laptop is all they require.

MacBook Pro ($1199.99) — The MacBook Pro laptop is probably the best laptop on the market right now. It’s very expensive and isn’t the perfect laptop for everybody, but if you can afford it and don’t hate Apple, it’s difficult to go wrong.

Chromebook ($199.99) — Chromebooks haven’t really found a sizable market until this new device. It’s a laptop that is built around the idea of being connected to the internet. It doesn’t have many of the functionality of a traditional laptop but with Google Drive, a student can be productive and do everything else on the Internet.

Windows 8 Laptop ($499.99) — It’s difficult to predict where the future of Windows lies. The release of Windows 8 has been divisive, to say the least. It’s hard to recommend any single computer because of the seemingly limitless different options and variations on them.

Phone

Yes, these devices can also text and call.

Samsung Galaxy S3 ($199.99) — The S3 has a MicroSD slot, replaceable battery, beautiful and huge screen and speedy insides. There isn’t very many flaws in this device.

iPhone 5 ($199.99) — The newest iPhone is more of the same except with some flaws like the new Maps and a longer screen. It’s newer and faster hardware.

Tablet

iPad ($499.99) — It’s hard to keep track of what the newest iPad’s official moniker is because of Apple’s completely bizarre naming scheme, but whatever it may be called, the newest iPad is probably the best tablet you can buy right now.

Nexus 7 ($199.99) — The Android tablet market isn’t nearly on par as the iOS yet in terms of tablet-optimized apps but the Nexus 7 does everything a tablet would want. For about half the price, it features a better screen and better internal hardware than the iPad Mini.

Kindle Paperwhite ($119.99) – It doesn’t technically count as a tablet. Unless you count the endless wonder and entertainment one can get from reading, this device really does one thing: display text. It does that exceptionally well though.

Video Games

Buying a video game system, either new, current or old, at this time is going to be a bad decision. The video game industry is slowly transitioning to a new generation. The new console from Sony and Microsoft haven’t officially been announced yet, but it’ll come out soon since Nintendo, their competitor, has released their new console, Wii U.

If you’re interested in anything Nintendo or need something that’ll be fun for the family to play, you should get the Wii U.