Our Favorite Technology Products Aldi Has Ever Sold

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

EDITOR’S NOTE: Like all posts on Aldi Reviewer, this piece is the opinion of its respective authors. Also like all posts, comments are welcome, although we ask users to be mindful of our Community Guidelines.

Aldi isn’t Best Buy. It isn’t even Walmart. Still, the grocer does sell technology from time to time, all of it in its limited-buy middle aisle. And I have to say that the technology can really surprise me. Leave it to the quirky German grocer to toss out some random bit of tech that I wouldn’t have guessed would be on the store shelves.

I decided to collate some of my favorites here.

A couple of things before I begin.

First off, just for clarity, this list focus on things related to audiovisual and communications technology along with associated accessories. So, no appliances here.

Second, it should be emphasized that this is a favorites list, not a best of list. Honestly, nearly every piece of Aldi tech I’ve reviewed over the last several years has sported some significant design flaw (I know, shocker, right?) and the ones that didn’t were the ones I wasn’t able to review, typically because of budgetary restraints.

So consider this more of a “hey, that’s kind of cool that Aldi tried to sell that” combined with “yeah, it had problems, but it was still kind of fun to own anyway” sort of list. You’ve been warned.

Here goes, then!

Medion 15.6″ Laptop

A long time ago — circa 2016 — Aldi US sold a laptop made by a subsidiary of Chinese electronics giant Lenovo. It sported decent office specs for its time, with an i5 processor, Windows 10, 8 GB of RAM, and, as the name suggests, a 15.6-inch screen. It boasted two hard drives, a 128 GB SSD drive, and a 1 TB standard drive, giving users both a fast boot time and a lot of storage. The whole package ran $500, which was (and still is) a good value for the money. It cost way more than our then-fledgling site could spare back in those days, though, so I sadly never got to review it.

Sadly, Aldi US never sold a laptop after that, although some Aldi stores in other countries still occasionally sell them.

Bauhn Foldable Headphones

In 2017, Aldi sold a pair of foldable headphones under its Bauhn private label. These headphones were nice: they came in a deluxe package, were comfortable, and, most importantly, had a nice range of sound. The 3.5mm cable went out six months after purchase, but the manufacturer gave me a refund for the headphones. Even better, because the cable was detachable, I was able to use some of that refund money to buy a new 3.5 mm cable. I would get a few more years out of them after that before the headphone padding finally went out under regular use.

Medion LED Light Bulb Speaker

This 2018 curiosity combined LED color-changing lighting and Bluetooth speakers to make for a trippy sound experience. Sure, the app was kind of mediocre. Sure, the sound wasn’t exactly high-end. It was better than a radio speaker, but it didn’t exactly raise the roof. But, hey, it was still fun to get shifting lights and sound from the comfort of your desk lamp. We don’t really use it much, but it still works.

Bauhn Visual Quad Charging Station

2019 brought us the Bauhn Visual Quad Charging Station, a simple but effective $20 device that let us charge up to four devices all at once. Did it charge fast? Heavens, no — it made an art form out of slow charging. Did it look cool doing it? You bet your socks it did.

The best part is, we still use it, and we use it every single day. It’s our regular evening ritual to plug in our phones to this thing every night, serenading our dining room with the glow of pulsing red lights with the promise that our phones will all be fully charged in the morning. Because even a slow charger can do the job in 8 hours. Slow and steady.

Medion / Bauhn LED Projector

The 2022 Bauhn projector.

In 2021 and again in 2022, Aldi sold different LED projectors. The 2021 model was sold for $130 under the Medion label, while the 2022 model was sold for $99 under the Bauhn label. Both were HD and offered HDMI, and while we never tested them, the commenters seemed to like them, even if they had to work around small nits like the lack of Bluetooth. Given that Aldi US doesn’t sell TVs like Aldi Australia does, this was about as close to Aldi home viewing as we’ve seen.

Medion Soundbar

In late 2022, Aldi sold a soundbar, which I tested. I admittedly had some problems with this soundbar, most notably in getting it to work with HDMI or optical output. Despite the problems, though, it actually put out pretty good sound. It’s a definite upgrade from TV speakers, and while it doesn’t blow you away like a home theater, it adds resonance and depth to the auditory TV experience. We still use it on one of our TVs and it definitely ups the atmosphere.

Do you have any favorite (or kind of favorite) Aldi tech products? Let us know in the comments.