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30 Great Deals From Amazon’s Early Black Friday Sale

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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.

WIRED’s Early Black Friday Coverage

Updated November 20: We’ve added Amazon devices, adjusted pricing, and removed expired deals.

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Amazon Device Deals

Echo Dot 4th Gen

Photograph: Amazon

Amazon’s fourth-generation Echo Dot (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is a great little speaker you can place anywhere in the home. With its spherical design, it outputs better sound quality than its predecessors in all directions. It’s currently our favorite speaker from Amazon’s lineup.  

Amazon’s basic Kindle (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is at its lowest price yet. For an extra $20, you can upgrade to the model without ads. It’s a no-frills e-reader with a 6-inch E Ink touchscreen and a built-in front light for reading in the dark. While it has just 8 gigabytes of storage and lacks waterproofing (unlike the Kindle Paperwhite), it’s still our top pick for most people.

This is the same as the Kindle above, except it comes with a two-year warranty, a free year of Amazon Kids+ (where parents can add books to their child’s library, set reading goals, and more), as well as a protective case. For a more durable option, there’s also the waterproof Kindle Paperwhite Kids which is on sale for $115 ($45 off).

The Fire HD 10 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is the fastest tablet of the Fire family and, at 10 inches, it has the largest display. It’s not the speediest machine, but it’s perfectly fine for catching up on Netflix in bed or some light reading. It comes with 32 gigabytes of storage, but you can upgrade to 64 gigabytes for $115 ($75 off). It’s the Best Fire Tablet and our favorite budget tablet too. 

The Fire HD 8 Kids is one of our favorite tablets for kids. In addition to all the standard features of a Fire tablet, the kid’s edition comes with a two-year warranty (for any drops and dings), a protective case, and a free year of Amazon Kids+ for access to Audible books, games, and more. If your kid breaks the tablet within that two years (understandable), Amazon will replace it. 

TV and Home Theater Deals

LG C1 OLED

Photograph: LG

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).

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.

Eyeing a high-end soundbar? The Sennheiser Ambeo is at its lowest price yet. It offers rich, intricate sound and holds the title of “Best Luxury Option” in our roundup of the Best Soundbars. WIRED associate editor Parker Hall says it’s the “crème de la crème of compact home theater audio.” 

A $2,000 soundbar is probably the last thing most people need, but Roku’s affordable Streambar is a good option for anyone still relying on their TV’s built-in speakers. It doesn’t take much room on the TV stand and is best for smaller rooms, but it’s a capable soundbar that delivers stereo sound. With Roku built-in, you can use it to stream all your favorite content.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K

Photograph: Amazon 

Those really into Amazon’s Prime Video ecosystem will find it hard to resist the Fire TV Stick. 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.

The Roku Streaming Stick Plus is our favorite streaming device, but this 4K version is still a good option. You can use it to stream all the major services like Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, and more, and the remote comes equipped with a microphone—allowing you to control what’s on your TV using your voice. Check our guide on How to Pick the Right Roku for Your TV before making any decisions.

Phone and Camera Deals

Moto G Power

Photograph: Motorola

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. We have our issues with Motorola phones, such as its poor software update strategy, but if that doesn’t deter you, this is a good deal on a decent phone.

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. 

We dropped this rugged phone three times onto pavement and the glass screen didn’t get a single scratch. That’s not to say it won’t crack at all, but the XR20 successfully calls back to the bricklike durability of older Nokia phones. It has pretty good performance thanks to 8 gigs of RAM, a spot to attach a wrist strap, wireless charging, and a battery that lasts a full day. And it will get three OS upgrades and four years of security updates. Best of all, it has a headphone jack

GoPro’s Hero 10 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the company’s latest action cam and the most powerful we’ve tested. It packs a faster processor, better noise reduction, higher image resolution, and more. It’s not worth upgrading if you have the Hero 9, but it’s certainly worth it if you’ve been holding on to an older GoPro. 

Earbuds and Smartwatch Deals

Jabra Elite 85t

Photograph: Jabra

This 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 two-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.

These are arguably the prettiest earbuds around. They’re compact, don’t stick out too much, and stay put. They sound really great (as they should, considering they’re still expensive on sale) and have great battery life, plus there’s a ton of sound customization options in Bang & Olufsen’s companion app. 

The Garmin Venu Sq (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is ideal for those looking for an entry-level smartwatch. It comes with an always-on LCD touchscreen, sleep tracking, blood oxygen monitoring, and energy level tracking—in addition to tracking standard health and fitness metrics like calories, activity, and step count. 

Garmin Instinct Solar

Photograph: Garmin

It’s not the most attractive smartwatch, but Garmin’s Instinct Solar (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is a great rugged tracker—especially if you’re into intense activities like hiking. It lasts days on a single charge, and, as the name suggests, it recharges from the power of the sun. 

The Frames Tempo Sunglasses from Bose are our favorite mode of listening to music while biking. They offer decent audio quality with speakers that are loud and clear. The benefit is you won’t have to plug anything into your earholes and potentially miss the honk of the car behind you.

Laptop, Webcam, and Storage Deals

Lenovo Chromebook Flex

Photograph: Lenovo

It’s hard to top Samsung’s T7 SSD at this price if you need fast storage. 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. The 2-TB model dipped to $250 last week, but the deal has expired so we’ve linked to the 1-TB model, which is at its lowest price ever.

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.

While we prefer the Chromebook Flex 5i—which is our favorite budget Chromebook—the Flex 5 is still a good alternative, especially for this price. The two-in-one laptop packs a 10th-generation Intel Core i3 chip and 4 gigabytes of RAM, making it great for simple web-browsing tasks. It also comes with a variety of ports including two USB Type-C ports, one USB-A port, and a 3.5-mm headphone jack.

Google Pixelbook Go

Photograph: Google

The Pixelbook Go is two years old but will continue getting software support from Google for five more years. It’s a well-rounded Chromebook from the company that manages Chrome OS. If you’re completely OK with working in Google Chrome (with some access to Android apps), then this laptop will satisfy with its reliable battery, crisp and colorful screen, and lightweight design.

Acer’s Swift 5 is our favorite lightweight laptop, coming in at 2.31 pounds. This model comes with an 11th-generation Intel Core i7 chipset, 16 gigabytes of RAM, and 1 terabyte of storage—which provided great performance and long battery life in our testing. It also comes with plenty of ports including two USB-A ports, an HDMI out, a USB-C (with support for Thunderbolt 4), and a headphone jack.

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.

Home Deals

Ecovacs Deebot T8 AIVI

Photograph: Ecovacs

To see the discount at checkout, clip the coupon on the page. Ecovacs’ Deebot Ozmo T8 AIVI is on our roundup of the Best Robot Vacuums for its laundry list of features and power. Not only does it double as a vacuum and a mop, it also has a built-in microphone, a Wi-Fi camera for navigation, and the ability to identify obstacles and set virtual boundaries. 

We haven’t tested this specific Nest Thermostat, but we’ve liked past versions. Using the Google Home app, you can create energy-efficient schedules and control the temperature right from your phone. When you leave the house, it also automatically turns the temperature down—allowing you to conserve energy and save some money on your electricity bill.

The Philips One isn’t a super powerful toothbrush (you’ll need to use a bit more effort than you would with a bigger brush head) but it still gets the job done—it’s also one of our favorite electric toothbrushes. With a lightweight and slim build, it also feels close to using a standard toothbrush. This model is rechargeable via USB Type-C, so you don’t have to worry about replacing any batteries.

WIRED’s Early Black Friday Coverage

Early Black Friday Sales Pages

Want to browse the sales yourself? Here are a few places offering early Black Friday deals. Be sure to check out our many buying guides and gift guides for additional ideas.


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