The Cheapskate Hall of Fame: The best inexpensive products of all time

Lexy Savvides / CNET

I’ve been in love with the Amazfit Bip for years now, and the new Model S is even better. For just $ 70 (sometimes $ 60, if you catch a sale), you get a smartwatch with an always-on transflective display, which is more readable in direct sunlight than even a high-end Apple Watch. Plus, it can run for weeks on a charge even if you use features like GPS and heart rate monitoring.

No, you can’t reply to texts or invoke Alexa, but there are some compromises to be expected at this price. Read CNET’s Amazfit Bip S review to find out more.

Sarah Tew / CNET

Just think a little. When iPads first debuted in 2010, the starting price was $ 500. The Amazon Fire 7 costs literally a tenth more, but it can do even more than Apple’s original tablet. Sure, the iPad has matured a lot since then, but it still starts at $ 329.

The Fire 7 may have a low-resolution display and an old-fashioned micro-USB power port, but it’s $ 50. (Quite often it’s on sale for $ 40, and sometimes even less than that.) With it, you can stream videos, read books, play games, check your email, listen to music – everything. .

Yes, the smartest buy is the Fire HD 8, which offers a host of upgrades for not much more money. But the Hall of Fame is nodding at the Fire 7, just for destroying expectations for what a $ 50 tablet can do.

Bitwarden

I have already given instructions to my family to put this on my gravestone: “You need a password manager!” Maybe I should include an asterisk: “… but you don’t have to pay one.” Bitwarden is an open source (read: free) password manager that is fast, versatile, easy to use, and secure.

For me, this replaced a non-free, over-bloated app that was causing more and more problems on my PC. Bitwarden has been sailing smoothly for almost a year; I’m glad I made the switch.

There is a Premium option available (only $ 10 per year) and a six-user family plan ($ 40), but I guess most users won’t need that either. Bitwarden works on all of your devices and offers the essential ability to automatically sync with each other. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

David Carnoy / CNET

I have lost count of the number of AirPods alternatives that have passed through my desk. But the EarFun Air stood out for one simple reason: good sound, lots of features, a low price. OK, there are several reasons, but they combine to make this the current choice of Hall of Fame headphones. (Note to EarFun: many very good competitors shoot you.)

The sound-isolating Air headphones don’t offer ANC, but they come in a USB-C box that can also be charged wirelessly. And they have one of my favorite features: in-ear detection. Take out a bud, the music stops. Put it back, the music resumes.

EarFun lists them at $ 60, but they’re almost always on sale. As of this writing, for example, there is a coupon on the page that takes 20% off, which brings the price down to $ 45. And I have sometimes seen offers that drop them below $ 40. This is a huge bang for your buck.

Hulu

Assuming you aren’t interested in live TV, Hulu is the best value streaming, period. Your $ 6 gets you access to a massive library of current and past TV series, award-winning original content, and, OK, a selection of mediocre movies.

Yes, Apple TV and Disney Plus are competitive at $ 5 and $ 7, respectively, but they don’t offer anywhere near the breadth of Hulu’s content, much of which is service-exclusive. Here you’ll find Comfort Viewings (Seinfeld, Happy Endings), Cutting-edge Creations (Devs, Mrs. America), and FX Superstars (Fargo, Legion, What We Do in the Shadows). I think the Hulu Palm Springs original was perhaps the funniest movie I’ve seen in 2020.

The bad news: The $ 6 plan includes ads. You can get rid of it, but it will cost you double. At least you have a choice, unlike when you watch cable.

New Wave Toys

With rare exceptions, all power banks are the same: flat, black bricks. Boring! This one looks exactly like the Sony Walkman cassette player of my youth, and even has working (although not working) buttons and sliders on the side.

The hotline’s 16,000mAh battery can charge up to three devices simultaneously: one via USB 3.0 Type A port supporting QuickCharge, one via USB-C port, and one via Qi wireless charging. There’s even a tiny LED flashlight and a bank of tiny lights that indicate how much power is left.

It is therefore not a simple device of novelty, something which manages itself. It’s a terrific mobile charger, and yet it comes at a fairly ordinary price – just $ 40.

Wyze

I still get disbelieving looks when I talk about the Wyze Cam, which does everything a smart security camera should but only costs $ 20 (plus shipping). It’s a hall of fame in its own right, but I nod the $ 30 Wyze Cam Pan ($ 38 ships to Amazon), which can rotate 360 ​​degrees on its base and has a vertical range of 93. degrees. to start.

The Pan would be a steal at twice the price, given that it streams razor-sharp HD video (day or night) to your phone, provides two-way audio, alerts you when it detects sound, and / or motion and stores the video locally or in the cloud – at no additional cost.

Wyze makes a number of surprisingly affordable smart home products that are Hall of Fame contenders as well. For now, however, the Cam Pan is a slam-dunk addition. Read CNET’s Wyze Cam Pan review to find out more.