Welcome back, TechRadar readers. Did you miss me? I missed all of you so much that I came back a week early. As I write this, I’m digesting Thanksgiving dinner, and doing what it seems the whole world has been doing since November 1: shopping the Black Friday deals.
Every major tech, appliance, and online service brand, along with all the big retailers (I even found a casket company doing Black Friday deals), has been relentlessly churning out the deals for a couple of weeks now. With today being the actual Black Friday, one might assume the offerings are reaching a crescendo – and they are, but there’s no fall-off here, as we'll glide right into Cyber Monday. All of this means that right now we’re in peak bargain-hunting territory.
If I’m being honest, I find it all a little overwhelming, and I’m sure you do, too. To succeed at Black Friday, you should treat it like an Olympic sport; and like any good Olympian, you need a good trainer – and that’s us, the team at TechRadar. We have people whose entire careers are built around finding you the best deals. Before I came to TechRadar just about a year ago, I’d never met people like Mackenzie Frazier, Alex Whitelock and Julia Sagar. They’re our Black Friday savants, and have taught the rest of us how to spot the best deals, and avoid the not-so-great ones.
Succeeding at Black Friday isn’t all that complicated. It’s about perspective. Amazon, and the likes of Best Buy and Walmart in the US, and Currys and John Lewis in the UK, can pitch you on a 50%-off deal on virtually anything, which always sounds amazing. But, guess what – that’s not always the case.
One of my favorite articles of this entire Black Friday cycle is our Hot or Not live blog, which looks at a bunch of deals and essentially grades them hot or cold. I suggest that you give the latter the cold shoulder, and consider opening your wallet to the former.
I’m still not sure if this is going to be a Black Friday buying season for the ages. Money is tight, but I have seen some truly awesome deals, and some underwhelming ones. Big 4K TVs from some of the biggest names like Sony, LG and Samsung can still run you over $1,000 here in the US, even with steep discounts. Is that what people are ready to spend? (You can find all the best TV deals in the US here, and in the UK here.) Or is the threshold for this holiday season under $500 for US shoppers? If so then the Google Pixel 6 for $472 could be a big winner. (It turns out there are a bunch of great Google Pixel deals in both the US and the UK).
Whatever your budget, I think this special Black Friday edition of the Week in Review could help you start and, perhaps, finish all your Christmas shopping long before a certain jolly fellow polishes off his sleigh.
While most of you probably have a shortlist of must-buy gifts, I bet there are just as many who have a list of friends, family, and colleagues… and no idea where to begin.
Okay, maybe I’m just talking about myself here, but if this is you, you should probably start with our kitchen sink of Black Friday Deals posts, aka our main Black Friday US and Black Friday UK deals hubs. They cover every product category and every big retailer, and has more deals than I can count.
But here’s the thing about how TechRadar covers deals. We don’t just write a deals story like this and then forget about it. This is a living, breathing post. Expired deals disappear, and when prices change, we change them here, too. As new deals arrive, as did hundreds, if not thousands, at midnight this morning when the official Black Friday began in earnest, we add those to the post, too. We do much the same with our category round-ups, such as Black Friday gaming laptops and Black Friday smartwatches.
You may want to pay special attention to the Under $25 section (in our main UK Black Friday hub it’s Under £50 – perhaps our UK team thinks their compatriots are feeling more flush). Don’t tell anyone, but that’s where I plan to do the majority of my shopping. Don’t look at me that way. I know many people who could use a 48-pack of Amazon Basics AA batteries.
The Galaxy Z Flip 4 could be one of this Black Friday's breakout stars (Future)
Black Friday Deals can reveal things to you, such as the fact that slightly older products can get a new lease of life thanks to extraordinary price cuts. I think Amazon’s Kindle ereaders are one such product, and I also see this Black Friday and Cyber Monday season as a massive opportunity for the nascent foldable phone market – the deals on the adorable and pocketable Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 in particular are pretty good, and could spark a big jump in adoption.
Similarly, a lot of people will get smartwatches for themselves or as gifts, and many of those will be Apple Watches – but I’m betting that the majority of them will be the less expensive Apple Watch SE or Watch 7. There’s certainly nothing wrong with the excellent Apple Watch 8, but, again, people want cool tech, and to save some money.
If there’s a post that makes you think differently about the wide world of Black Friday deals, it’s Matt Hanson’s take on the dangers of buying an ultra-cheap laptop. Granted, there are some truly amazing laptop deals out there (a $99 chromebook comes to mind), but if you don’t take a careful look at the specs, you could be gifting someone (or getting yourself) a real dud of a PC. Don’t say we didn't warn you…
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If you can fry it, you can fry it in an air fryer (probably) (Shutterstock)
Black Friday could easily be called Black Fryday for all the Air Fryers sold. I’ve long wanted an air fryer, mainly because everyone else seemed to have one, and because TechRadar writers have been turning out articles about making some pretty far-out dishes in them.
My wife wanted one, too, and I thought we were on the same page about waiting for some awesome Black Friday deals. But no, she saw an early deal and ended up spending around $40. I guess that’s fine, but I noticed a Bello Pro model for $24.99 at Best Buy – just sayin’.
Here’s the thing that I didn’t tell you about successful Black Friday shopping: it’s also about communicating. I know, you can’t communicate with a person you’re buying a gift for, but if you and a partner have been caught up in the air fryer craze, peruse these deals together.
Since you ask, so far we’ve made french fries and wings in our fryer. They came out good, but it’s not magical. I’m close to asking what all the fuss is about. Also, please don’t tell my wife.
POLL QUESTION:
Will you be getting an air fryer in the Black Friday sales?
Consoles like the PS5 are always hot-ticket items for Black Friday (Mr.Mikla / Shutterstock)
I’ve been wondering if the obsession with getting a Sony PlayStation 5 is as strong this Black Friday as it has been in previous years – I know that in the past, some people at TechRadar have made it their sole business to inform people about the latest drops of fresh console stock at the major retailers.
Among our best Black Friday gaming deals, I haven’t seen any amazing PS5 deals, and I think all the heat has shifted to the Nintendo Switch, especially the OLED edition. Even there, though, the deals are scant. It just seems like gaming companies know these are still the hot tickets, and they don’t have to win customers over with big discounts. Which kind of makes us the losers, no?
Paramount Plus, home to Yellowstone, has a half-price deal for new subscribers in the US and UK (Paramount)
When it comes to Black Friday sales, nothing is off limits. There are deals on TVs, laptops, and mattresses, deals on food and drink, and even price cuts on lots of the big streaming services, particularly in the US.
I think paying less for HBO Max, Hulu, Paramount Plus or Peacock is awesome – until I realize that I’m probably already paying full price, and that as an existing customer can’t get these deals.
Even so, I do recommend trying at least one or, maybe, all of these streaming services for a little while. Otherwise, how will you ever know if you could be a Yellowstone fan, or secret Star Trek (choose a series) admirer?
The World Cup is underway in Qatar (Getty Images / Europa Press Sports)
Away from Black Friday (well not quite), and when my kids were young, they both played soccer. I’d say it’s a rite of passage in the US: every kid between the ages of three and six plays soccer for a little while.
But by the time they reach grade school, middle school, and high school, no one plays. There are virtually no school soccer teams or district leagues. That’s how soccer has mostly remained the forgotten sport in the US.
Something, though, is afoot and Americans are catching soc… er… football fever.
Calling the game where you kick a ball around the same thing that we call a game where you throw a ball around has been an oddly massive hurdle, but we’re getting over it. So much so that I’m now kind of a fan myself.
I credit, in part, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds who, with his friend and fellow actor Rob McElhenney, bought the tiny Wrexham football team in Wales, and made a documentary about the experience. I love that show, and I’m now obsessed with the Red Dragon, as the team is known to its fans.
And now the rest of the US seems to be obsessed with the World Cup. That’s right – one of the biggest football tournaments in the world kicked off right in the middle of Black Friday.
Can we shop and scream “GOOOOAAAALLLL!” At the same time? I think so.
Orion has been capturing some of the closest-up images of the moon taken in years (NASA)
You know who doesn’t care much about Black Friday or the World Cup? NASA's Orion spacecraft. Okay, it’s an unmanned spacecraft, and not a person desperately searching for a gift, or a good pub where it can watch Spain versus Canada.
But Orion does have a computer brain, which it uses, with lots of help from NASA, to make incredibly close passes by the moon. Our moon, that gray orb up in the sky that now feels a little closer thanks to Orion’s efforts.
Our colleagues at Space.com, who don’t talk much about Black Friday or the World Cup either, have been publishing some of the mind-blowing Moon and Earth images that Orion has been capturing on its journey.
Take one look at them and I bet you’ll quickly forget about shopping and multi-millionaires kicking a ball around.
The Sign Off
I know that was a lot – a lot of Black Friday, a lot of football, and a lot of me. If it was all too much, I blame the turkey and stuffing; if it was just right, that’s what good cooking will do for you. Please do let me know, via email or on Twitter, what you thought of this slightly different edition of the newsletter, and either I or Matt Hanson will be back next week.
Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
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