6 Gadgets Under $100 That Do Way More Than They Should

Something shifted within the sub-$100 gadget area this yr, and it’s not the same old incremental creep of barely higher variations of final yr’s price range picks. The merchandise touchdown on this worth vary now have options that sat firmly within the $200-plus tier barely two years in the past: full good TV platforms inside pocket projectors, hot-swappable mechanical keyboards for lower than a good lunch, cross-platform trackers that don’t drive you to select a telephone ecosystem before you purchase.

CES 2026 sped issues up, although the present alone doesn’t clarify the compression. A stunning variety of introduced merchandise shipped quick and priced low, breaking the “available later this year” sample that follows most January showcases. You can really feel it whenever you unbox a $30 safety digital camera that shoots shade footage after darkish, or plug in a $37 keyboard that sounds prefer it ought to price twice as a lot. Component prices dropped, manufacturing scaled, and the financial savings really reached the sticker worth as a substitute of padding margins.

We pulled six picks from the present crop. Every one prices beneath $100, and most sit properly beneath $50.

Chipolo One Point

Chipolo’s One Point hit ZDNET’s most-purchased devices record for January 2026, and the story isn’t the tracker itself. It’s what the tracker doesn’t drive you to decide on. One Point works with Apple’s Find My community and Google’s Find My Device, which suggests a family break up between iPhones and Android telephones can run one set of trackers with out compromise. The disc clips onto keys, baggage, or baggage tags with a easy loop. Battery life runs a few yr on a replaceable CR2032 that prices roughly $3 to swap. You aren’t charging one other machine or downloading a proprietary app. You clip it on and overlook it exists till you want it.

At about half the worth of an AirTag and with broader telephone help, the worth case builds itself the second you begin shopping for multiples. One for the keys, one tucked inside a suitcase, one clipped to a child’s jacket zipper. At $29 every, that impulse math holds even whenever you’re grabbing three or 4 without delay. Tracking accuracy received’t match an AirTag inside Apple’s dense community on a packed metropolis block, however the hole narrows quick in city areas the place each networks overlap. For somebody who misplaces issues usually sufficient to care however not usually sufficient to spend money on a premium monitoring ecosystem, One Point fills a price-to-utility candy spot that didn’t exist twelve months in the past.

Price:: $29
Where to Buy: Amazon

Nitecore TINI 3

The Nitecore TINI 3 confirmed up in HiConsumption’s roundup of the most effective EDC devices beneath $50, and it’s earned that placement by sheer output relative to measurement. This factor is barely bigger than a automotive key fob. The aluminum housing has a matte end that feels deliberate within the hand, with sufficient heft to sign high quality with out including noticeable drag to a keychain. Around $35, it sits within the “nice gift you’d also buy for yourself” vary.

Multiple brightness ranges cowl extra floor than most keychain lights. The lowest setting finds a keyhole or reads a menu in a dim restaurant. Crank it to full output, and also you’re lighting up a parking storage. Beam unfold runs wider than you’d count on, masking your full strolling path as a substitute of spotlighting one level on the bottom. A center mode handles canine walks and campsite journeys with out blinding anybody coming towards you. If you’ve been relying in your telephone flashlight, the leap in high quality hits straight away. Color temperature leans impartial as a substitute of blue-white, so nighttime use feels simpler on the eyes. USB-C charging means one cable for the whole lot.

It’s the form of buy that quietly converts folks. Most people who carry a keychain mild began with an inexpensive one and upgraded as soon as they realized how usually they reached for it. The TINI 3 is the model that ends the search.

The carrying clip holds agency with out including bulk, and the button mechanism has sufficient resistance to stop unintended pocket activation. That element issues greater than it sounds, as a result of nothing drains a keychain mild sooner than discovering it’s been working inside your denims for 4 hours. Between the clip design, the activation really feel, and reminiscence mode that remembers your final brightness setting on power-up, the small decisions add as much as a software that feels thought-about slightly than assembled from a elements record. You discover the thought within the particulars earlier than you learn the spec sheet, and that form of craftsmanship is a robust sign for something you propose to hold every day.

Price:: $39.95
Where to Buy: Amazon

Anker Nano Power Bank

Anker’s Nano Power Bank reveals up on each price range EDC record for a cause that has extra to do with type issue than uncooked capability. At roughly $26, it’s sufficiently small and light-weight sufficient that you just’ll really toss it in a bag or clip it on earlier than heading out. The finest energy financial institution ever made doesn’t assist if it’s sitting in a drawer since you determined it was too cumbersome to hassle packing.

A built-in connector removes the cable drawback fully. That one design alternative separates the Nano from dozens of opponents. No wire to recollect. Pull it out, plug in, preserve shifting. The matte plastic housing received’t accumulate fingerprints, and a small LED reveals remaining cost with no button press. Capacity sits at one full cost by design. This isn’t for multi-day hikes. It’s for airport layovers at 5% or afternoons when GPS has been draining your battery since lunch. At $26, it counts as impulse and earns that impulse again inside per week.

Anker has been quietly refining this class for years, and the Nano represents the convergence level the place measurement, worth, and charging pace cease requiring tradeoffs. You’ll discover bigger capacities on the identical worth, however nothing this compact costs this quick whereas becoming invisibly right into a entrance pocket.

Price:: $54.99
Where to Buy: Amazon

TP-Link Tapo C120

TP-Link’s Tapo C120 made PCMag’s finest tech beneath $50 record, and at round $30, it solves an issue that price range safety cameras have traditionally failed at: producing footage you possibly can really use after darkish. Color evening imaginative and prescient separates the C120 from the wave of grainy, green-tinted cameras that flooded on-line retailers over the previous couple of years. Once the solar drops, the picture stays clear sufficient to determine faces and skim license plates in a driveway, which is the baseline most individuals want and infrequently get at this worth. Compare the footage aspect by aspect with cameras within the $80 to $100 vary, and the hole has narrowed sufficient to make the premium more durable to justify.

A microSD slot handles native storage, so that you aren’t paying a month-to-month cloud charge to observe your personal footage. Slide in a card and the digital camera loops recordings at zero ongoing price. Over a yr, the $3 to $10 per thirty days that cloud cameras cost provides as much as greater than the C120 itself. Weather-resistant housing, two-way audio for speaking to supply drivers, and customizable movement zones spherical out the function set. The app lags on older telephones, and the sensor struggles in very low mild with out the IR illuminator. Real tradeoffs exist. But at $35.99, you possibly can seize three cameras for the worth of 1 premium unit, cowl each angle, and nonetheless come out forward. That scalability is a real benefit costly cameras can’t match.

Price:: $35.99
Where to Buy: Amazon

Keychron C3 Pro

Mechanical keyboards normally begin round $120 and climb quick. The Keychron C3 Pro, featured on PCMag’s price range tech roundup, lands at $37 with Gateron switches that really feel balanced and responsive from the primary keystroke. The journey is deeper than membrane, the suggestions is bodily, and the sound sits in that satisfying vary with out annoying a shared workspace. If you’ve tried a mechanical board at a retailer and thought “I get it,” that is the one which brings it house for lower than a restaurant tab.

Hot-swappable sockets push it previous entry-level territory. Pop out the inventory switches, drop in silent reds or field whites, and the board’s character modifications utterly. QMK and VIA firmware allow you to remap each key. The aluminum body feels nearer to boards within the $70 to $80 vary, with zero flex or rattle on a desk. At $49.99, the C3 Pro doesn’t really feel like a stepping stone you’ll outgrow. It seems like a keyboard you may kind on for years, and the hot-swap design means each future improve occurs with out changing the board itself.

Price:: $49.99
Where to Buy: Amazon

iFixit Mako Driver Kit

The iFixit Mako Driver Kit holds a 4.9-star common throughout practically 3,000 evaluations, and at $39.95 you get 64 precision bits masking torx, Phillips, pentalobe, tri-point, and practically each different fastener hiding inside your electronics or sport console. The swivel-top deal with enables you to apply rotational stress with one finger whereas the grip stays agency. A magnetic bit holder retains every tip seated till you pull it free. Cheap units can’t replicate that certainty, the sort the place you already know the bit received’t slip and the screw received’t strip as a result of the software gave out first. Inside the hinged case, each bit sits in a labeled slot organized by kind, which eliminates the dig-through-a-pile ritual that haunts anybody who’s opened a telephone with a price range package.

iFixit constructed its model on right-to-repair advocacy, and the Mako is the bodily model of that philosophy. The bit choice covers Apple’s proprietary pentalobe screws, so iPhones and MacBooks open up with no specialty retailer journey. Every self-repair you deal with as a substitute of paying a technician is a return on that authentic $39.95, and over a yr of routine fixes the financial savings compound quietly, making this one of many highest-return purchases on the whole record.

Price:: $39.95
Where to Buy: Amazon

The math has modified

What connects these seven picks isn’t the quantity on the receipt. It’s the second you begin utilizing one and notice the space between “budget” and “premium” shrank when you weren’t paying consideration.

Hot-swappable mechanical switches for $49. Color evening imaginative and prescient in a $35 digital camera. Line these specs up in opposition to their costs and check out explaining them to somebody shopping shops in 2022. The dialog breaks down earlier than the second product.

Brands haven’t discovered totally different corners to chop. They’ve solved the engineering and provide chain constraints that made these options costly, and this time the financial savings reached the worth tag as a substitute of padding margins. The result’s a tier of merchandise that may have certified as mid-range two years in the past, now sitting comfortably in impulse-buy territory.

If one thing on this record caught your consideration, each decide is on the market now by main retailers. At these costs, grabbing two or three doesn’t set off the form of inside negotiation that follows a $300 impulse buy. The worst-case situation is a $29 tracker you overlook about till the day you really lose your keys. The finest case is a pocket projector that turns each resort room into a personal theater. Either approach, you’re not sweating the receipt.