It’s nearly time for all those Black Friday deals to start tumbling down the discount pipe. But if you can’t wait, don’t worry. Neither can Amazon. We’re already seeing a number of price drops on big-ticket electronics like TVs, headphones, and storage drives. It couldn’t come at a better time, since shipping delays mean the sooner you can start buying gifts for friends and family, the better.
For more discounts on gadgets we love, check out our Early Target Holiday Sale and Early Black Friday Best Buy Deals roundups.
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TV and Monitor Deals
TCL 6-Series.
Photograph: TCLThe TCL 6-Series is our top overall TV pick (9/10, WIRED Recommends). It combines quantum dots, which means exceptionally bright colors, with local dimming, which leads to deeper blacks in the areas of a scene that matter most. It comes with a built-in Roku interface, so that’s one less smart gadget you have to buy. The 55-inch dropped to $699 recently but is now $799; that’s still a solid deal if you don’t need a 65-inch screen. We’ve rounded up more TV deals here.
Many Sony TVs have impressed us lately, from the excellent budget X80J to the beautiful (but expensive) A90J. This model, the X90J, seems like a great compromise between the two, though we haven’t tested it. There’s a full-array LED panel, which typically means a brighter, higher-quality picture without the staggering price tag of OLEDs.
LG’s C1 OLED TV (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is our favorite pick for gamers. OLED screens in general are the best, since each pixel can light up independently, meaning higher contrast and more true-to-life black levels. You might need to pick up some other streaming device, because LG’s WebOS isn’t great as smart TV software goes, but once you plug in your game console it hardly matters. The 65-inch model is also at its lowest price ever at $1,797 ($300 off).
When it comes to gaming monitors, there are a few key boxes you want to tick if you can: high resolution, high frame rate, and support for whatever vertical sync your graphics card can do. We’ve tested and like this display from Samsung, which hits all the features you want: a 1440-pixel resolution, a whopping 240-Hz refresh rate, and support for both Nvidia’s G-Sync and AMD’s FreeSync. Its list price is way too high, so this makes it a bit more stomachable.
Home Theater Deals
Roku Ultra.
Photograph: RokuRoku streaming sticks are our favorite streaming devices, but if you watch a lot of live TV, the Roku Ultra might be the best one for you. It comes with extra memory and processing power over its stick-based counterparts, which makes it better at resource-intensive tasks like watching live sports. It even comes with an Ethernet port for a more stable internet connection.
If you’re really into Amazon’s Prime Video ecosystem, then a Fire TV Stick is probably a hard thing to resist. You can search for movies and shows with Alexa, and browse Prime Video for titles to watch or rent. Just know that the interface is obviously skewed toward Amazon content.
This is our favorite projector for anyone looking to build out a home theater in a basement or living room. The picture quality is excellent for the price, and it’s really easy to set up. Better yet, the low input lag means you can hook it up to a gaming console and enjoy fast response times for smooth gaming.
Phone and Headphone Deals
Jabra Elite 85t.
Photograph: JabraThis is the lowest price we’ve ever tracked on the Jabra Elite 85t (9/10, WIRED Recommends), which are some of our favorite earbuds for working out. Sure, they don’t have earfins, but they stay secure really well even when you’re on the trail. Better yet, they’re very durable and water-resistant (with a 2-year warranty against water damage). You also get a wireless charging case, great sound and mic quality, physical buttons, and active noise canceling—a relief when you’re at the gym.
Hate the climbing prices of smartphones? Well, you don’t need to go out and buy a $1,000 device anymore. This really affordable handset from Motorola will do most average tasks perfectly fine, and it can even handle some light gaming. The camera system is the weak point, but the battery lasts a full three days on a single charge.
Why pay extra for the Ace? It has a similarly long battery life (two full days instead of three), but you get NFC, so you can make contactless payments at retail stores with Google Pay. You also get access to sub-6 5G connectivity and pretty decent performance.
These are arguably the prettiest earbuds around. They’re compact, don’t stick out too much, and they stay put. They sound really great (as they should, considering they’re still expensive on sale), have great battery life, and there’s a ton of sound customization options in Bang & Olufsen’s companion app.
Laptop, Webcam, and Storage Deals
Samsung T7.
Photograph: SamsungNeed fast storage? It’s hard to top Samsung’s T7 SSD at this price. It’s our pick for the best external storage drive when it comes to speed. I’ve used this drive to record pro 6K footage on high-powered cinema cameras, which is one of the most demanding tasks you can throw at a storage drive.
There are a few things you can do to coax more speed out of your computer, one of which is to upgrade your storage drive to a solid state drive. This 500-gigabyte internal drive is affordable and will be a significant boost to anyone still using traditional hard drives. It’s not a huge amount of space, but it’s more than enough to store your biggest apps and a few games.
It’s important to back up your files on a regular basis, and Western Digital’s Desktop Hard Drive is one of our favorite ways to do it. With 18 terabytes of storage, this drive is positively massive and should be able to hold you over for years to come.
This is an incredible price for a really great Chromebook two-in-one (8/10, WIRED Recommends). It’s best for anyone that lives out of Google’s Chrome browser, though you can also access Android apps as well. As the price suggests, it’s not the most powerful machine, but it’s good enough for light work or schoolwork. The keyboard is included, and it’s detachable, so you can take it from the desk to bed to catch up on Squid Game.
This webcam from Razer is a pretty solid 1080p camera, but you’ll need to fine-tune a few settings in Razer’s Synapse software to get the most out of it. It’s much too expensive at its MSRP, so this deal makes it a better value. You can read more about it in our Best Webcams guide.
Smart Home and Kitchen Deals
TP-Link Deco X20.
Photograph: TP-LinkIt’s not a huge discount, but this is the lowest price ever on an already affordable mesh Wi-Fi system. No, really. This is our favorite mesh system if you’re on a budget. It can blanket large homes with Wi-Fi without costing a fortune. Hook up the main router to your modem, then place the other two nodes around your house to create a mesh system for reliable coverage everywhere. Downsides? It’s not the speediest system.
The most common models of Instant Pot are usually more than enough for most people, but when the Instant Pot Max is discounted this much, it’s a worthwhile upgrade. It can reach higher pressures than cheaper models, it’s a better slow cooker, and it can even sous vide.
We weren’t totally enthralled with the Echo Show 5 when we first tried it a couple years ago, but context is everything. At its original price of $90, it was a tough sell, but now that it’s down to a scant $40, it’s not a bad deal at all. This smart display is a great way to set alarms, check your security camera, or place a video call to your family. Amazon updated it with a newer model this year that’s dipped to $55 at times. If you’re in no rush, you will likely see the 2021 model drop to that price again on Black Friday.
We’re still in the process of testing the Roomba J7, but so far it has proven reliable. It can identify objects like cords to dodge them, and it maps your rooms to eventually create a more efficient cleaning route. Read our Best Robot Vacuums guide for more recommendations.
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