When I think of Black Friday, I think of my mother, with two TVs in her Target cart after waiting in line outside for hours. My aunt had to talk her out of buying both TVs—she had just been so excited to get her hands on them. Shopping for a great deal on expensive technology devices is a big appeal of all the sales around Thanksgiving, whether it be Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or the pre-holiday early sales. It’s an opportunity to get a great Christmas gift for a loved one, and maybe a chance to snag a device you’ve wanted but haven’t been able to afford until now. From TVs and laptops to smartphones and smart home gear, here are all the best Black Friday tech deals we’ve found so far.
WIRED’s Top Deals
WIRED tests products year-round and handpicked these deals based on the actual discounts, not just the discounts retailers claim to offer. Products that are sold out or no longer discounted as of publishing will be crossed out. We’ll update this guide through November. Be sure to check out our best early Black Friday Deals.
TV Deals
The LG C3 is one of our favorite TVs for gamers. It’s been this price since October, so not a super uncommon deal, but it’s still a nice chunk off a pricey TV. Our tester said the picture is vivid, with high contrast, and loaded with detail but never overblown. Response times are fast at 9.2 milliseconds, and it supports all current gaming console features across its four HDMI ports.
Our favorite TV for most people is a great TV for the money already. The TCL Q6 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) has quantum dot technology, support for every major high dynamic range (HDR) format, and a game mode. We don’t love that it comes with Google TV instead of Roku, though. It’s a better deal price than we’ve seen over the past six months, but only by about 20 bucks. Still, it’s hard to beat.
We’re big Roku fans around here, so it’s no surprise we think the best starter TV is made by Roku. While you won’t get the highest refresh rate, you’ll still get great color, solid blacks, and even smart home support.
The Beam (Gen 2) packs a ton of upgrades from its predecessor, including a slight redesign (Sonos swapped the fabric cover on the front with a polycarbonate grille), enhanced sound with support for Dolby Atmos (with compatible TVs and streaming apps), a faster processor, and an HDMI eARC port for higher-definition audio. It packs support for Alexa, Google Assistant, and AirPlay 2 as well. For surround sound, you can also pair it with a Sonos Sub (an expensive subwoofer) and two other Sonos speakers. The company is having a sale on all its products right now—read our Best Sonos Black Friday Deals roundup for more.
If you watch mainly Amazon Prime content, the Fire TV Stick is the streaming device you need—this one was just released at the end of September. You can stream from any service, but it’s heavily geared toward the company’s own content. This 4K Max is faster, with 16 gigabytes of storage versus 8, but if you want to spend less and still stay in the Amazon ecosystem, the also new 4K Stick is on sale for $25 ($25 off).
If you have a Google Assistant household, you may want to stick with Google’s own streaming stick. The Chromecast With Google TV includes a remote and has a slick interface that’s easy to navigate, but you can still cast from your phone like the good old days. There’s built-in Google Assistant too.
Laptop Deals
Photograph: Lenovo
This little 2-in-1 laptop has been one of our best budget picks in our Best Laptops Guide forever. It’s not kitted out for video editing or gaming, but it’s plenty fast enough for office and web-based work.
The Pro 9 is the best 2-in-1 Surface in our Best Microsoft Surface guide. It bridges the gap between laptop and tablet pretty well, with a new 5G option over the Surface Pro 8, thanks to Qualcomm’s SQ3 processor.
Photograph: Acer
This is the best cheap 15-inch laptop we’ve tested. It’s got an Intel Core i5 (or AMD 5000 series chip), integrated graphics, 8 GB of RAM, and a 15.6-inch IPS display (1,920 x 1,080 pixels). It’s not a particularly sharp display, and the speakers don’t get as loud as we’d like, but it’s powerful enough for most everyday tasks.
The HP Envy x360 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is our favorite from HP’s Envy x360 line (and one of our favorite 2-in-1 laptops) for several reasons. It’s got enough power for most tasks and projects, plenty of ports, and a bright touchscreen with great color accuracy. It’s also nice and quiet in regards to the fans, but the click pad is quite loud.
Smartphone and Mobile Accessory Deals
The Google Pixel 7A (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is our favorite Pixel phone and the best Android phone for most people. It has great value at full price, so this discount makes it extra enticing. It’s snappy, powerful, water-resistant, and capable of charging wirelessly. The camera is great too.
These are the first major discounts we’re seeing on Google’s latest Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro smartphones (7/10, WIRED Recommends). They have some of the best cameras you’ll find in Android land, have secure Face Unlock support, and pack some pretty crazy smart software features. Read our Best Pixel Phones guide for more.
This is Samsung’s newest smartphone, and it’s a step under the flagship Galaxy S23. It’s honestly got everything you need to be happy—the triple camera system is solid, the performance is snappy, battery life is decent, the screen has a 120-Hz refresh rate and gets bright, and there’s wireless charging. At this price it’s a steal.
This remains one of the only smartphones in the US with a 10X optical zoom camera, and it comes in handy more often than you’d think (well, at least for shutterbugs or parents trying to catch a pic of their kid at the soccer match). It’s also one of the most powerful Android phones around and has a stylus embedded in its body (9/10, WIRED Recommends).
Want a small phone? Or do you want a headphone jack? You don’t have to choose! Just get the Zenfone 10 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). It’s powerful, has good battery life, supports wireless charging, and it’s very compact. Just know that it doesn’t work on Verizon’s network.
This midrange phone (8/10, WIRED Recommends) delivers solid performance, a 120-Hz screen refresh rate, and a decent camera system. It works on all major US carriers, and the battery easily lasts more than a full day. You do get a microSD card slot to expand the 128 GB of storage. Sadly, there’s no wireless charging support.
If you want a different Android smartphone, then the Nothing Phone (2) should be speaking to you. There are Glyph lights on the back that light up when you get notifications. You can also set them up to double as a countdown timer, or the ETA of your Uber ride. Read our review for more (7/10, WIRED Recommends).
Samsung made the cover screen on the Flip5 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) larger in this iteration, allowing you to gain more functionality from the phone when it’s closed. If you want a compact phone and have been longing for that feeling of flipping a phone open to answer a call (or flipping it shut to end one), then the Flip5 is one to look at.
Want a book-like folding phone? Samsung has been making them the longest, and its hardware is refined and more durable than the rest. The front display is a little too narrow for our tastes (7/10, WIRED Recommends), but there’s plenty of multitasking you can take advantage of here.
This is our favorite book-like folding phone (8/10, WIRED Recommends). The front screen is nice and wide, so you can use it comfortably with all your favorite apps. Open it up and you get a much larger 7.6-inch screen for multitasking. Google’s software smarts are here, along with its excellent cameras, making this one of the best folding phones right now.
If your budget is tight, then you’ll be plenty satisfied with this phone. Performance is decent, the screen is nice, there’s two-day battery life, and you’ll get three years of security updates. Only one OS update, though.
If you want a Motorola phone, this is the best one you can get right now. It’s got a 6.7-inch OLED display that curves around the sides but doesn’t get disrupted by the touch of your fingers while you hold it. It’s bright enough to see on sunny days, and it has dual stereo speakers, NFC for contactless payments, dual SIM support, water resistance, and 512 GB of storage.
If you like the look of Lenovo’s ThinkPad, the ThinkPhone (7/10, WIRED Recommends) has a similar style. It’s technically an enterprise phone, but you can purchase it unlocked from Motorola or Lenovo, and it’s one of our favorite Motorola phones. It’s similar to the Edge+ but doesn’t have a curved display, and the OLED screen is a touch smaller (6.6 inches). The battery lasts about two days, and it has 256 GB of storage.
This is the cheapest folding phone you can buy right now. The standard Razr has a smaller front screen than the Razr+ (also on sale for $700 ($300 off)), so you only see notifications, weather, and a clock in the closed form. But otherwise, it still has an OLED 6.9-inch screen, a 144-Hz screen refresh rate, and speedy performance even with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset. It only has 128 GB of storage, and the camera isn’t anything exciting, but did I mention it’s $500? It folds!
Our pick for the best pad in our Apple 3-in-1 chargers guide, the Nomad Base One Max has a MagSafe pad that officially supports 15 watts to recharge your iPhone at the fastest speeds possible. There’s also an Apple Watch charger that is perfect for Nightstand mode (though it doesn’t charge at the fastest possible rate). There’s a spot behind the watch for your AirPods. It’s heavy and comes with a 2-meter USB-C to USB-C cable, but you need to snag your own 30W charger (also 30 percent off right now).
Nomad has a broader Black Friday sale you can shop here, but if you’re looking for more accessories, the ChargeKey is one of our favorites. Just pop this onto your keychain and now you have a way to get a quick charge if you can’t find a USB-C cable anywhere. Plug it into a power bank and into your phone (or someone else’s phone into yours) to top up.
Smart Home Deals
We’re not sure if smart displays will be around forever, but if you want one, Google makes some of the best. This 2nd-Gen Nest Hub (7/10, WIRED Recommends) doesn’t have a camera, so you have some privacy and peace of mind. It’s compact with a 7-inch screen, which makes it ideal for your bedside table. It has sleep-sensing tech to track your sleep quality.
If you prefer Amazon Alexa over Google Assistant and want to video chat, this is the smart display to get. The 8-inch screen is perfectly sized—big enough to read recipes or maybe even have a movie playing as you cook, but not so big that it’ll take up precious counter real estate.
Bringing bright, vibrant colors to recessed spots around your home, this Matter-supported light strip from Govee is one of our favorites. It has addressable zones, can sync to music, and supports a wide range of fancy lighting effects. Sadly, it can’t be trimmed, and you need the messy Govee app to use the effects.
These modular bars give off wonderfully colorful, bright, and diffused light, and they are easy to fit. This kit includes six bars and a corner piece. The Govee app offers some great animated scenes, and you can even create your own. Sadly, they lack physical controls, and you need a bunch of them to create an interesting pattern. They appear in our Best Smart Lighting guide.
If you just need a cheap way to monitor an entrance area, this wired security camera can stream and record at up to 2K and reliably detect motion. The frame rate is low, and there’s some lag on the two-way audio. You also need to insert a microSD card to record locally, or pony up for a subscription (from $3.50 a month). As the budget pick in our Best Indoor Security Cameras guide, the Tapo C110 is frequently discounted, but we have never seen it this low.
The smartest indoor security camera you can get, Google’s Nest Cam (Wired) blends in easily and accurately detects people, animals, and vehicles. It boasts HDR and a high frame rate to make the most of the 1080p footage. However, you only get three hours of history unless you subscribe to Nest Aware, starting from a pricey $6 per month, though it does also include familiar-face recognition.
Photograph: Google
The Nest Video Doorbell is our favorite video doorbell. Its performance is reliable, with swift alerts and notifications, and there’s HDR support so that your clips aren’t blown out by bright lights. It works without a subscription, but you’ll want to subscribe to Nest Aware to get the most out of it. The battery tends to last a month before it needs recharging.
Even with the subscription ($3/month or $30/year), this video doorbell is one of the cheapest options around, and it made the honorable mentions section in our Best Video Doorbells guide. Video quality is 1080p with a limited field of view, and notifications aren’t the fastest, but this camera performs reliably. If you don’t want a subscription, consider buying it bundled with Sync Module 2 ($47), which is also half-price right now.
These clever panels are a fun way to add ambient lighting to any room, and they top our Smart Lighting Panels guide. Each hexagon is an individual light, and you can connect them in whatever pattern you want. The app lets you control the color scheme, set it to react to music, or set schedules. Just make sure to use a level to put them on the wall straight!
These modular smart lighting bars can be installed on your wall and arranged into any design (just make sure you prep and plan properly). The Nanoleaf Lines (8/10, WIRED Recommends) are great for subtle ambient light, but they can also sync to music or even mirror your screen to add immersion to gaming. This is the lowest price we have tracked.
If you’re battling Wi-Fi dead zones in your house, a mesh router can help. Eero’s Pro 6E (7/10, WIRED Recommends) makes setup as simple and hands-off as possible, each unit should cover 2,000 square feet, and you can mix and match with other Eeros. The brand’s subscription is pricey at $10 a month, but it includes nice extras like parental controls and network security. Anyway, you don’t have to subscribe. You can also pick up a 2-pack for $180 ($120 off) or a 3-pack for $400 ($150 off).
Speaker Deals
Photograph: Sonos
This isn’t the latest version of the Sonos Move (the company released a second-gen model back in September), but we recommend it regardless. It’s also almost half the cost of the Move 2. The first-gen Move packs Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, 11 hours of battery life, built-in microphones with support for Google Assistant or Alexa, and Automatic Trueplay (which equalizes audio depending on the environment). It’s dipped this low a few times before, but it’s still a good deal. Sonos has a few more speakers and soundbars on sale, which you can read about in our roundup of the best Sonos Black Friday deals.
We recommend the Sonos Sub (Gen 3) for anyone who wants to upgrade their bass. The third-gen model packs better processing power and more memory. It’s also meant to be paired with Sonos’ non-portable options—like soundbars, speakers, and amplifiers (it won’t pair with the Move, Roam, Port, or Connect). It’s expensive, but top-notch. This is also the lowest price we’ve tracked.
Headphone Deals
Photograph: Jabra
Jabra has been the top pick in our Best Wireless Workout Buds guide for several years now for their great sound, light weight, and basically perfect fit. They also stay pretty much the same year to year, and older models like the Elite 7 Active ($100, $100 off) will also be on sale for steep discounts.
These are our favorite headphones (9/10, WIRED Recommends). For the money, they have some of the best noise-canceling tech you’ll find in a pair of cans, while also delivering excellent music fidelity in a sleek, modern package. This is the lowest price we’ve ever seen them at.
The Google Pixel Buds Pro (9/10, WIRED Recommends) are truly excellent earbuds. They’re featured in our list of the Best Wirefree Earbuds as the top pick for Android phone users. This deal matches the lowest price we’ve tracked. With punchy bass, a comfortable fit, and solid battery life, it’s hard to find a better pair of headphones for the money.
Outdoor Tech Gear Deals
Photograph: FluidFreeRide
The Fluidfreeride Mosquito escooter (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is lightweight and easy to carry but still packs a top speed of 24 miles per hour, a loud horn, drum breaks, plus front and rear lights. It has a quick folding system too, and you can even fold the handlebars.
This entry-level scooter won’t get you very far, but it’s perfectly adequate for grocery trips or late-night trips to the convenience store. It has a top speed of 15 miles per hour, the brakes are reliable, and it’s fairly lightweight.
This scooter delivers fantastic range for the money and is currently our top pick in our Best Escooters guide. Our tester regularly got more than 15 miles out of it on a single charge, and he’s a 6’4″ guy. You can probably ride it for even longer if you’re shorter.
Want an upgrade? You can step things up to this bad boy. The Phantom V3 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is a great commuter scooter if you need to traverse long distances. Our tester went from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, all the way across the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey on a single trip, and still had some juice left over.
This is the lowest price we’ve seen on Biolite’s FirePit+. We liked the original version; this newer model can be used as a heating source, a phone charger, and a snazzy portable grill. The whole thing folds down and packs up for easy storage in the included bag.
