The 43 Best Black Friday Deals at Amazon This Year
We’ve found great deals on a ton of gear we like, from smartphones to soundbars….
LG C1 OLED TV
Photograph: LGUsually, a good TV is a good TV, but if you’re planning on playing a lot of games on your set, then this is the model you’ll want. The LG C1 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has an OLED panel, which means deep blacks and better contrast, plus it supports up to 120 Hz for smooth gameplay. It can even utilize Nvidia’s G-Sync if you’re hooking it up to a gaming PC. This deal has been around for a while, but the price is still good.
Most TVs have some kind of smart operating system, but this model conveniently has both Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can find what you want to watch with your voice no matter which assistant you prefer. You can also ask simple questions like “What’s the weather?” or “How tall is Jeff Goldblum?” This historic low price has been around since early November.
This isn’t a TV, it’s a lighting system—and it’s worth adding to your home theater. Bias lighting behind your TV can help ease the strain of a bright TV in a dark room on your eyes, and the GoVee Flow Pro light bars can match that lighting to what’s on the screen, for an even more immersive experience. The effect is especially groovy if you livestream concerts!
Audio and Gaming Deals
Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar
Photograph: SENNHEISERWhen you’ve got your eye on an expensive soundbar, like our favorite luxury model here, the bigger the discount is, the better. The Sennheiser Ambeo Soundar is down to a price that matches the lowest price we’ve seen for it. It has only been this steeply discounted a couple of other times. In our testing, the audio managed to sound like there were speakers scattered around the room, even though everything is contained in one (massive) bar.
One of the biggest appeals of a soundbar is the simplicity of improving sound quality without setting up multiple gadgets. Yamaha’s YAS-209 doubles down on this allure by packing a great sound system and Amazon Alexa into one bar and one wireless subwoofer. That means it’s a soundbar as well as a smart speaker. No wonder its one of our favorites. The price falls to $300 pretty frequently, but it bounces back to $350 just as often. We’ve yet to see it go lower than this.
The Polk React is one of our favorite soundbars, in large part thanks to its Alexa integration. You can use Amazon’s voice assistant to set timers or play music. You can even upgrade the bar with modular speakers and a subwoofer, available as standalone extras.
Vizio’s soundbars are punching above their weight when it comes to sound quality versus price. This 5.1.4 Dolby Atmos soundbar is no exception. It comes with a dedicated subwoofer and rear surround speakers that provide you with immersive, Dolby-compatible sound with minimal setup work.
Sony’s PlayStation Plus membership is required if you want to play games online, but even if you don’t, it’s a great way to get free games every month. A 12-month subscription tends to drop in price around the holidays every year, so now’s the time to top off for 2022.
Wired mice trade the cord-free convenience of wireless models for more reliability and reduced lag. In most cases input lag is not an issue, but if you play games competitively, it can be a literal life saver. This Razer Viper mouse is ambidextrous, so anyone can use it. It’s considerably cheaper than its wireless cousin, which is also one of our favorite gaming mice. The $40 Black Friday deal price beats other discounts we’ve seen.
SteelSeries usually impresses us on the gaming hardware front, but this mouse topped the chart as our favorite wireless gaming mouse. It has an understated design, a comfortable fit, and a generous wireless range, working flawlessly even up to 10 feet away from its receiver in our usage.
We like the Roccat Kone Pro Air Mouse for its stylish illuminated, semi-transparent buttons, but what really makes it feel great are those satisfying clicks. Right now this gaming mouse is down to its best price ever.
The Razer Basilisk has been placed on our list of best gaming mice in the past, and while it’s been cycled out more recently, it’s still a solid pick. It has a comfortable ergonomic design, 11 programmable buttons, and a highly accurate optical sensor.
This is one of our favorite small gaming keyboards. The Razer Huntsman Mini is a 60-percent keyboard with stylish-yet-subtle RGB LEDs and satisfyingly clicky keys. With its low profile, it takes up minimal space on your desk, so you can save room for moving your mouse, or loading up on other accessories.
This deal is going in and out of stock. We’re keeping it up just in case it comes back.
The Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription is one of our favorite deals in gaming. It comes with a library of hundreds of games, including day-one releases of games from companies like Bethesda and Bungie (which are owned by Microsoft). Normally it goes for about $15 a month, but right now you can get three months for $25, which you can stack up to 36 months.
Few things can make your workstation feel more like a futuristic command deck than the Elgato Stream Deck. This 15-button customizable LCD panel lets you launch apps, run scripts, and integrate directly with your most powerful applications with shortcuts hyper-focused on your specific workflow. It rarely gets discounted this much, either.
You don’t always have to spend tons of money to get better audio for your streams. This inexpensive lavalier mic—the kind that you clip to your shirt collar—is a simple way to get better sound than you might get from a camera or your phone.
If you record videos on the go—basically anywhere except a desk or studio booth—then a good shotgun mic can be crucial. These isolate audio from sources they’re pointed at. The Deity V-Mic D3 Pro is one of our favorites, and reviews editor Julian Chokkattu uses it regularly.
Phone, Headphone, and Camera Deals
OnePlus 8T
Photograph: OnePlusSince Google’s Pixel 6 came out, it’s been hard to beat for value, and that was our main concern when we first reviewed the OnePlus 8T. It has good cameras, a gorgeous screen, and an all-day battery. We just wanted to see it come down a bit in price. At $500, not only is it $100 cheaper than usual, but it also undercuts Google’s flagship.
The OnePlus 9 Pro (8/10, WIRED Recommends) made our honorable mentions list for the Best Android Phones after OnePlus improved the cameras that were often lackluster on previous models. Now it’s down to an all-time low price of $799. You can get a free pair of OnePlus Buds Pro when you order the phone directly through OnePlus.
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