GADGETS are one of the biggest expenditures that routinely give your bank balance a bruising.
With inflation and tough global markets squeezing businesses, prices seem to only increase year-on-year – but there are some little-known ways to trim thousands off your spending without compromise.
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Whether it’s premium TV, a mobile phone, your laptop – or even a Ring doorbell and AirPods – there are many cheaper alternatives people miss time and again.
Here are the ultimate tech swaps to save you money.
#1 Switch to streamed live TV
For those who love all the extra channels you get with premium TV, there are streamed live options available that cost less.
Sky and Virgin both offer these, which do away with cable and satellite, relying on a broadband connection instead.
This also means no installation fee for an engineer, as you can do it all yourself in minutes.
And better still, some are available on rolling contracts, so you’re not locked into lengthy payment plans.
Sky Stream is the cheapest option, starting from £18 for Sky TV Essential, which includes channels like Sky Atlantic, as well as Netflix and Discovery+.
You don’t need to be a Sky Broadband customer to use it either.
Virgin Media’s equivalent, Virgin Flex, is available to those with Virgin broadband and starts at £5 per month for the basic channels.
For premium channels like Sky, you’ll need to add them into the bundle, and they can cost £13.50.
#2 Switch your Ring doorbell
Ring doorbell is the most popular digital home security video product around.
But those pesky subscription fees to store videos have increased a number of times in the past.
Plenty of rivals allow you to keep videos another way that won’t cost you anything each month, by storing them locally.
Ironically, one of the biggest is owned by the same company behind Ring, Amazon.
The firm’s lesser-known Blink video doorbell brand sells a Sync Module to save all those videos on a storage card.
Blink doorbells current start from £28.99 on Amazon.
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#3 Scrap your computer
Still like the experience of using a keyboard and mouse as you would on a computer?
If the answer is yes, you could do away with buying a new one in future and rely on smartphones that magically turn into a computer-like experience when plugged into a display.
Samsung’s Galaxy S and recent Galaxy Z devices allow you to do this.
Use a USB-C to HDMI cable or an adapter for an existing HDMI cable to connect the phone to a display, such as this one found on Amazon.
Then the phone will automatically turn into a computer-like experience with all the same apps from your phone.
You’ll need a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard as well.
This has the potential to save you several hundred pounds by doing away with a computer entirely.
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#4 Switch from AirPods
Decent headphones don’t come cheap, and AirPods are among the most popular around.
The most recent version, AirPods 4, starts at around £129.99.
But there are loads of really good brands you can shave some money off.
The favourite we’ve tested ourselves is the Nothing Ear (a) wireless earbuds which offer phenomenal quality, ease and comfort with a striking AirPods-like design, all for £89.
Another we’ve tried and loved but don’t look like AirPods is the SOUNDCORE Sport X20 by Anker, which costs £64.99.
If it’s just the AirPod look you’re after, you can go as low as £3.88 for dupes on Shein, but we haven’t independently tried and tested these, so we can’t recommend them for sound quality.
The point is, there is a whole world of great choices beyond AirPods for much cheaper worth exploring with a bit of research.
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#5 Ditch your console and get free games
Big name consoles like the PS5 and Xbox are expensive kit, not to mention the cost of games.
But there’s a good alternative for gamers in the form of Amazon Luna.
This is like a “Netflix for games” that streams titles to you over the internet – meaning you don’t need a physical Xbox or PlayStation.
All you need is a joypad that can connect to your Fire TV, Fire Stick, or Samsung or LG telly. Amazon sells a Luna controller for £60 but an old Xbox or PlayStation joypad will work just the same.
Then just go to download the Luna app on your telly or streaming stick. It’s free to install.
Now normally you’d pay £8.99 a month to unlock the full library of Luna games which include huge games like EA’s FC26 and titles from the hit Assasin’s Creed series.
But if you have Amazon Prime, you can enjoy a selection of titles even without a Luna membership.
That includes smash-hit shooter Fortnite, a cartoonish rival to the likes of Call of Duty that is a big hit with teens. In the UK, it’s rated for kids aged 12 and older.
TRY XBOX CLOUD GAMING TOO!
There’s a savvy option for dodging console cost, writes The Sun’s tech editor Sean Keach…
Buying a console is expensive. It might cost you north of £400 or £500 (or even £700 for the new PS5 Pro).
A cheaper option is to try cloud gaming.
Instead of owning a physical console, you simply sign up to an app and “stream” the games from an online library. It’s a bit like Netflix.
This was previously impossible. We used to need consoles to render the gaming visuals. But internet speeds are now so fast that they can be beamed straight to your TV, phone or laptop.
One option is Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is included as part of the £14.99-a-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
It’ll get you hundreds of top games that you’d normally need an Xbox for. All you need is decent internet, a game controller, and a screen. The app is available on loads of TVs, Fire Sticks, and via web browsers.
Of course, you can also stick with Amazon Luna, which is much the same. This has a slightly smaller selection of games, but only costs £8.99 a month for Luna+.
The big perk here is that if you already have Amazon Prime, there’s a small selection of games you can play for free. That includes smash-hit shooter Fortnite.
Picture Credit: Xbox
