26 Gifts for 17-Year-Old Boys

Story-driven video games pull in a teen who plays late, and Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones mute the rest of the house.

He picks slower campaigns built on dialogue and soundtrack, so the furnace hum and hallway footsteps need to fade. Their noise canceling holds through the final boss fight and the closing credits.

Phones get collected before a final exam, yet the Fossil FS4552 on his wrist still shows how much time is left.

Its black dial and steel bracelet look as right with a hoodie as with a button-down, so it can stay on all day. A glance at the dial also beats waking up a phone full of notifications just to check the hour.

Most backyard hangouts need a soundtrack, and the Soundcore Boom 2 plays the group's playlist from his phone over Bluetooth, loud enough to carry across the yard.

Built for outdoor use, it can sit out on the patio all evening, and requests for the next song go straight to him.

Chords on a borrowed acoustic only go so far once the solos on his playlists call for an electric.

The Donner DST-200 suits a player past the basics, and its coil split covers both heavy riffs and brighter, cleaner parts. Plan on an amp too, unless he has one.

Philips Norelco's OneBlade 360 hands a senior with patchy chin growth his own way to tidy up before picture day.

He is settling on his own look, and would rather handle the uneven patches himself than ask a parent. The clean jaw he walks out of the bathroom with shows up in his yearbook photo.

UV light built into the LARQ PureVis cleans the bottle without a scrub, handy when it rides along to work shifts and weekend games and might go days between washes.

Insulated stainless steel keeps his water cold through a long afternoon.

At 20 inches, this Mainstreet Classics set is a mini pool table for a dresser top, closer to a fun novelty than a place to practice real shots.

Games go fast at that size, so friends in his room can rotate through one rematch after another. A teen serious about billiards is better off with time at a pool hall.

An older teen who kayaks with friends wants his phone, wallet and keys coming out with him instead of locked in the car.

His free time already revolves around the water, and this gives those essentials one spot of their own. At the launch ramp, he seals it, swings it over his shoulders and climbs into the kayak.

Sony WF-C510 Truly earbuds put a senior's own music in his ears for the whole morning bus ride.

Months from graduating, he tracks down artists his friends have not heard of, and the ride is his to fill. His newest discovery plays straight through before the bus reaches the school lot.

During a dense chemistry lecture, a senior who jots by hand but misplaces loose sheets keeps everything on this Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.

Months from college, he thinks best by sketching ideas out, and his class diagrams stay together rather than scattered. The same device holds the novels assigned for English, right beside his lab work.

If the teen you have in mind inks characters by hand, then finishes them on a laptop, this XP-Pen closes the gap.

His pen strokes land where he looks, on the picture itself, the way pencil meets paper in his sketchbook.

At his desk after dinner, an older teen who fills sketchbooks with characters can carry that style straight into his laptop.

It connects only to a Mac, PC or Android device, so make sure he has one before buying. He can ink a full comic page and color the panels in whatever program he likes.

Sony's BRAVIA smart TV hands an older teen who hosts game nights a screen of his own, away from the family couch.

Nearly grown, he picks what plays in his room, whether a console race or the series his friends keep quoting. His high score stays up while the next friend grabs the controller.

Microsoft 365 comes with this HP laptop, so Word is ready for his essays from day one, and 16GB of memory keeps a stack of research tabs open.

Storage is tight at 64GB, which suits schoolwork more than big games, and the finish is rose gold.

During a skate session at the park, the Insta360 GO 3S catches the tricks an older teen and his crew go for.

He cuts his own videos like the skaters he follows online, so a camera of his own matches that habit. His cleanest kickflip ends up as the finished clip at the top of his profile.

Once the teen on your list owns a Nintendo Switch 2, this racer gives his friends a reason to come over.

His group settles every argument by who finishes ahead, and a race on the couch keeps those rivalries going late.

Should the teen you are buying for climb most evenings, a DJI Osmo Action can record every route he works on.

He coaches himself at that level, and footage of a hard sequence shows him exactly where his grip gave out.

If the senior on your list complains that his TV speakers sound tinny, the Samsung Q990D gives his setup a fuller voice.

He listens closely to film scores and looks up soundtracks after the credits, so thin sound stands out to him. The bar rests under his screen, pushing a stadium crowd's roar out to the beanbag chair.

On an overnight college visit, a senior gets a travel bag of his own rather than his old school backpack.

Months from moving out, he plans his own trips, and a clean, simple carryall matches how he travels now. The campus T-shirt from the tour rides home folded inside it.

When the senior on your list dresses in work boots and flannel, a Carhartt beanie matches the look he chooses himself.

Close to adulthood, he reaches for the workwear labels grown men wear, not the cartoon hats from middle school. It ends up on the hook by his door for the morning drive to class.

Before a college admissions interview, a senior who wants to look put together can fasten a Fossil Grant watch at his cuff.

With graduation close, he dresses for grown-up occasions now, and a classic men's watch rounds out the blazer he picked. Its face sits just below his sleeve as he talks through his plans for a major.

The senior who lays out his own outfit before a school dance has room on his wrist for a Lacoste Metropole bracelet.

He plans his look piece by piece, and a label his friends recognize gives that dressier style a finishing touch. The photos from that night show it resting at his shirt cuff.

Keys, wallet, earbuds and watch all come out of his pockets at night, and this Londo tray on the nightstand keeps them together for the morning.

Its faux leather corners snap up to form the sides and unsnap to lie flat, so it packs easily for trips.

For a giver whose senior pulls late study nights, a Mighty Mug puts his own coffee right beside the textbooks.

Nearly out of high school, he plans his own evenings around essays and exam prep, refilling it between chapters.

Intex's Dura-Beam air mattress fits a senior whose friends end up staying over after late movie nights at his house.

Hosting friends is his call now, so a spare bed he sets up beside his own keeps the last guest off the couch.

Late-night novels keep a senior sprawled in his recliner, and this stand takes the weight of the pages off his hands.

He picks his own thick fantasy series and assigned classics, keeping a highlighter in hand for the chapters he marks.