Gift guides are usually full of gadgets nobody needs. Outside Online's 2026 tech roundup takes the opposite tack: twelve pieces of outdoor gear chosen because they solve real problems — flat batteries, damp firewood, noisy hotel corridors, warm drinks on a road trip. Here's what made the cut and why each one matters if you spend time outdoors or on the road.
The fire-starting pick is Snow Peak's Folding Torch, a 10.1-ounce brass-and-wood-handled burner that threads onto an isobutane canister and throws a concentrated flame hot enough to light charcoal and stubborn firewood in seconds. It folds flat for packing and looks good doing it — arguably cheating, but a lifesaver on a cold, wet evening.
Power is a running theme. The Nitecore NB10000 Gen 2 packs 10,000mAh (roughly two smartphone charges) into a carbon-fibre shell under six ounces. NESTOUT's Starter Pack goes further, pairing a 5,000mAh IP67-rated power bank with a modular lantern and mini tripod; the light runs from 10 to 300 lumens and lasts up to 24 hours on its lowest setting. For anyone running lights and laptops at camp, Goal Zero's Yeti 700 power station delivers 600 watts — enough for a 100-watt device over about six hours — and recharges from a wall socket in two hours, then doubles as home backup during outages.
Training kit gets a look in too. Wahoo's rechargeable TRACKR heart rate monitor banishes coin batteries with 100-plus hours of active use and simultaneous connections to three Bluetooth devices. Suunto's Vertical 2 is the overkill option: 65 hours of multiband GPS, 32GB of offline maps on a bright 1.5-inch AMOLED screen, and a surprisingly capable LED flashlight. Black Diamond's Distance 1500 headlamp, built for ultrarunners, pushes 1,500 lumens to a maximum beam distance of 117 metres, with a low-profile cradle that keeps it from bouncing.
A few picks lean purely practical. Nocs's Field Issue 8×42 binoculars cram full-size multicoated optics and BaK4 prisms into a 1.3-pound nitrogen-filled, IPX7 waterproof body, with a 394-foot field of view at 1,000 yards for tracking moving animals. The DB2 Bluetooth speaker lives inside a genuine Pelican case — IP67 waterproof when sealed, around 94 decibels loud, roughly 40 hours of battery, and a dry-storage compartment inside.
For sleep-deprived travellers, Ozlo's Sleepbuds 2 are 1.6-gram earbuds shaped to be worn in bed (side sleepers included), with 14 hours of battery and noise-masking sounds that cover traffic, snoring, and slamming hotel doors. HoverAir's X1 drone solves the filming problem with automated subject tracking, letting solo athletes capture footage without abandoning the activity. Body-data obsessives get the Hume Pod smart scale, currently half price at $183 with code LAST50, which tracks 45 metrics via full-body 8-frequency sensors and claims 98% accuracy against a DEXA scan. And Dometic's 75-litre CFX5 electric cooler ends the era of floating cheese: two independently controlled zones, vacuum insulation, a compressor pulling down to minus 7°F, and space for 113 cans.
Who's this for? Anyone shopping for a gear-obsessed friend — or building their own kit before a camping trip, thru-hike, or long drive. Nearly every item here earns its place through battery life, weight, or sheer usefulness rather than novelty.
Story first reported by Outside Online.
