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Jeff Bezos himself cautioned against buying TVs, fridges and cars in the sales: “slow that down, keep that cash, see what happens.” And yet the Amazon machine rolls on. Here are WIRED’s top picks for the best Black Friday deals on tested and recommended tech, including the most worthwhile discounts in the sales at John Lewis, Argos, Currys and the rest. If something’s sold out or back to full price, we’ll cross it out. And keep checking back over the weekend through to Cyber Monday for updates.
Audio Deals
While you can get £30 off the newer second-gen QuietComfort Earbuds, £110 off the original set surely has to be the bigger deal this year. They earned a 9/10 score from WIRED back in 2020 for their “outstanding” noise cancellation and “energetic” sound. While the shape and appearance of the new model may be a little sleeker, the performance per pound on offer here is excellent.
They’ve been out over a year now but upon their release, WIRED gave the Galaxy Buds2 a 9/10, WIRED Recommends review. The high score stemmed from these earbuds setting a new benchmark in the mid-range, with a comfortable fit, decent active noise cancellation, and stylish colours. At a much cheaper price a year on, they’re an easy pick up for owners of Samsung phones—or any Android owners, to be honest.
A long-term Black Friday favourite, the Philips Fidelio X2HR are old headphones that just don’t seem to age. We first tried their predecessor the Fidelio X1 a decade ago, and were impressed. The X2HR look similar but benefit from a raft of tweaks and improvements. Don’t buy these for on-the-go use, though. They are ideal for late-night movie watching, close music listening at home or single-player gaming sessions where the lack of a mic won’t matter. This pair is also sumptuously comfortable.
While there aren’t many great entry-level turntable deals so far this Black Friday, Amazon does have a tasty discount on this mid-tier record player. The SL-100C is also a very recent release, having been announced back in August. It has a quality direct drive motor and solid vibration isolation, but lacks a phono stage — an important consideration if you are starting from scratch. There are a few on sale at the moment, like the Fosi Audio Box X1 at £28 (£8 off).
WIRED called this pair “Apple’s best earbuds ever” almost exactly a year ago. A lot can happen in a year, but many people who may never have considered a Beats pair before should look at the Fit Pro. They have a bass boost, but not bass as pronounced as some old Beats pairs. And these are partly workout headphones, so some extra low-end power is welcome. The Beats Fit also lack the dangly part of Apple’s AirPods Pro, while the silicone wing tips improve stability.
Phones, Tablets, and Accessories Deals
Small phones are dead, long live small phones. Apple may have ditched its miniature iPhone but Asus is still beating this drum with the 5.9-inch display-sporting ZenFone 9. It comes with the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip as well as surprisingly strong battery life.
Anker products can be absolute lifesavers when it comes to keeping your devices from conking out. The PowerCore Slim 10K is here to do just that. You’ll be able to get 1-2 charges out of this for your phone, depending on your smartphone model. It’s pretty compact too.
Like Samsung’s budget phones, the cheap Galaxy Tab A8 does a great job of bringing the company’s class down to a lower price. For well under £200, you get a good-sized 10.5-inch display, a great range of colours to choose from, and a sleek 6.9mm body. This is far from a multi-tasking potential laptop replacement but expect to enjoy your fave TV shows and browse social media on this with ease.
The Pixel 6 Pro was a revamp for Google’s phone series and, while the design received a mixed reception, the result was an impressive cut-price flagship. The Pixel 7 Pro is out now but this is still worth considering, especially at a big discount. Along with the excellent camera chops and smooth performance of the Pixel 6 Pro, you get the excellent A-Series buds bundled in too.
Samsung’s latest range of tablets are the best Android options if you want strong performance and a stylish look. This is the standard Galaxy Tab S8, rather than the slightly larger S8+, or obscenely large S8 Ultra, and its simplicity is no bad thing. It’s easy to hold, the included S Pen is excellent and the display is crisp and colourful.
Xiaomi has made a good name for itself at the value end of the phone market. Its Redmi Note series usually offers a shockingly good display and camera for the price, the Note 11 provides much the same. There’s a 50-megapixel quad camera setup, 90Hz AMOLED display, and 5,000mAh battery life. That’s a set of specs you’d typically find on a device at double—or, even, three—times this price.
Laptops and Gaming Deals
The Series S is a remarkably cheap way to get into the latest generation of consoles. Even two years since its launch, it remains one of the best deals in gaming, alongside Xbox Game Pass. The only downsides are limited storage and a tame performance compared to its Series X stablemate. It’s a great buy, nonetheless, especially with this Black Friday discount.
A great tonic for Meta’s recent price hike of the Quest 2 is this Black Friday offer. It’s £50 cheaper than the usual price and you also get Resident Evil 4 VR as well as, one of our favourite VR games, Beat Saber bundled in. From fitness titles, and playful mini games to watching Netflix in virtual reality, there’s plenty to enjoy here.
The Surface Laptop Go 2 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of the very best laptops of the year. This stylish machine brings high-end looks and quality down to a mid-range price. The keyboard is great, the speakers are surprisingly impactful, and there’s a great range of colours to choose from. We opted for the more generous storage option of 256GB here, but if you think you can manage with just 128GB (£549) that’s on sale now too.
This sub-£80 monitor is an easy way to expand your working from home setup. Samsung has made a 22-inch basic panel that sports a 1080p resolution, 60Hz refresh rate, and 5ms response time. It can be wall mounted if you fancy and there’s a 2-year guarantee in case any issues crop up.
This model of Blade 15 comes with an Intel Core i7 processor, 16-GB RAM, 512-GB SSD storage, and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card. So this isn’t the latest and greatest specs list but it’s solid mid-tier performance. The display has a 144Hz refresh rate and 1080p resolution. Razer Blade 15 devices also come with an impressive keyboard and stealthy look.
If you like the idea of a laptop that can comfortably double as a tablet or sit in tent mode for watching movies and the like, the Galaxy Book2 360 is one of the few 2-in-1s that does this well. It’s extremely thin, which prevents it from feeling cumbersome, and the combination of a crisp AMOLED display with an excellent S Pen make it great for drawing.
Got a lot of space and a desire for immense gaming visuals? The Odyssey G9 is a 49-inch curved wonder. The rest of the specs include a 1440p resolution and high 240Hz refresh rate. AMD FreeSync is here too, for dodging screen tearing when you push those higher frames.
A 10/10, WIRED Recommends review for a gaming headset… an unprecedented feat but it did indeed happen. The HyperX earned much of its acclaim for its, frankly, unbelievably up to 300 hours of battery life. The total package is great too, with big sound and a great mic.
TV Deals
This is one of LG’s lower-end OLED TVs. But with this tech even humble models offer fantastic image quality. A 60Hz refresh rate is the pain point to consider, making it less of a perfect fit for the Xbox Series X, PS5 and high-end PC gaming. You still get flawless contrast, HDR support and low input lag, though.
Philips has quietly become one of the top names for folks who want a feature-packed OLED TV for at least slightly less than the bigger named demand. This 65-inch model is a mid-range pick in the Philips line-up, and it offers a 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision support and a wide range of apps through the Android TV interface. And as a Philips TV, it has Ambilight, which casts colour onto the wall behind the set, matching what’s on-screen.
You won’t find masses written about this TV online, but it’s a recent set that is very similar to last year’s C1 OLED TV, upgraded with a new processor. This does mean you don’t get the extra-bright Evo panel used in the LG C2. Everything else important is in-tact, from 120Hz with VRR to HDMI 2.1 support and Dolby Vision.
Sonos updated its Beam soundbar a year ago, giving it a faster processor and support for eARC and Dolby Atmos. It doesn’t have new speaker drivers, but the output of the Beam considering its size is extremely impressive. It’s just 56cm wide, 7cm deep. Less wide than a 32-inch TV, it does not require a massive TV to avoid looking out of place.
You can trust Amazon’s own-brand devices will be on sale each Black Friday and Prime Day period. The best TV deal this time around is probably the Fire TV Stick 4K. It offers 4K streaming, voice search, and support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Some of you may want to consider the £10 upgrade to the Stick 4K Max version, which has Wi-Fi 6 and slightly more power, to allow for the picture-in-picture mode.
Smart Home Deals
Looking to accessories brand Anker for cut-price tech is always a reasonable bet and it’s no different for its security offshoot, Eufy. This video doorbell costs just £100, with today’s discount, and gives you a wireless camera, 2-way audio, and 16-GB of local storage. There’s no monthly subscription required either.
It’s an expensive upgrade but if you live in a big house or your current Wi-Fi system just doesn’t cut it, mesh routers can fix your woes. This Netgear device offers up to 6,000 sq.ft of coverage and support for up to 40 devices connected.
This robot vacuum from Eufy can both suck up dirt and mop it away. It’s used in conjunction with the Eufy app, where you’re able to manage maps of your different rooms created while it gets to work. There’s plenty of settings to choose from, whether you want a timid clean or for the X8 Hybrid to go turbo and really get stuck in.
A simple upgrade to liven up your desk setup, this Nanoleaf lightstrip brings a dash of colour to your home office. Along with app control for choosing between millions of hues, there’s a physical controller for easily switching this on and off plus support for Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant. Sorry Alexa.
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