You know what time of the year it is? Yep, time for our time-honoured list of must-have gadgets to buy this festive season, gadgets that have earned their spot at the front of the line, vying for your attention (and wallets). Go ahead, loosen those purse strings and succumb to your gadgety desires!

Smartphones: Flagship phones from the iOS and Android stables quite literally sell themselves, so it’s no surprise the Samsung Galaxy SIII, the HTC One X and the iPhone 4S make the cut as the must-have picks for the season. But for its unbeatable price-features combo, the HTC One S earns my pick for the smartphone to pick up this season, and it’s due a Jelly Bean upgrade before the month runs out! Savvy buyers would also realize that with upgrades just around the corner, prices of the One X and the iPhones are set to dip, and you can snap up a great deal on one of these during the festive period!

Laptops: Blame the marketing mavens in Intel for this category being overrun by ultrabooks in this year’s picks. Yet, two ultrabooks have risen above the clutter to earn my recommendation — the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the HP Envy Spectre XT (look out for my review for both in the weeks to come). Both represent the best of the category — premium design, ultra-thin and blazing fast! But be aware that the cloud of the Windows 8 launch looms large over the PC/ notebook segment, so the months to come are certain to see lots of exciting launches. It might be prudent to wait and watch as the action unfolds. But if you’ve a tearing need to buy yourself a new laptop these are the ones to go for.

Cameras: I came away mighty impressed by the Sony RX100 in my recent review, and the more I think about it, this is the camera for which I’d put some serious money down. Exceptional low-light performance and DSLR-level images in a compact form factor seal the deal for me, but if you have a hankering for interchangeable lens, you can’t go wrong with Nikon D3200 or the Canon 600D — both offer room for the photographer in you to grow, without breaking the bank.

Tablets: It’s still iPad territory ‘round these parts, and with the rumours of an iPad mini growing louder, it remains the tablet to plonk your hard-earned money down for. That said, some genuinely credible competition from the Android stables has come this year, from the most surprising of quarters — budget Android tablets. Google’s foray into the tablet market with the brilliantly priced Nexus 7 makes this my go-to Android tablet to pick up — albeit from ebay unless you’re willing to wait for the official November launch. The Micromax Funbook Pro and the BSNL-branded Penta T-Pad are great budget alternatives as well.

Gaming hardware: With major gaming consoles yet to see a long-overdue refresh, what’s a gamer to pick in terms of hardware? My vote goes to the Alienware X51 — a powerhouse of a gaming PC squeezed into a stylish console-sized case that feels more at home in your living room hooked up to your TV than hidden away in a study. Granted, it’s far pricier than an Xbox or a PS3, but the dizzying array of specs give it a huge performance advantage that will let you crank up the settings on your PC games to mind-boggling levels. And with PC games available for about a third of their console siblings, it can even out if you’re a heavy gamer!

Game of the year: It’s been a great year in terms of games, and it’s likely to get even better with some of the titles that are set to launch in the year-end. But for now, Sleeping Dogs, with its excellent storyline and top-notch realism and gameplay earns the top spot in games to play this season.

Accessories: There are so many excellent accessories for your gadgets, but few that do the job as elegantly as the Olloclip, a small iPhone add-on that adds fish-eye, macro, or wide-angle capabilities to the iPhone camera. Take it for a spin, and you’ll realise what a difference it makes to your shots!