If you've been waiting for the best possible deal on an Xbox Series S console, today is the day. For Cyber Monday, Amazon is offering a $60 discount (20 percent) plus a $40 coupon that can be applied to future purchases. That effectively gives you a $100 discount (33 percent) off the regular $300 price for today only — a great deal on a very good console.
When the Series S came out, we called it the "next-gen starter pack" and gave it a solid 85 score. Even though it doesn't support gameplay in 4K, it plays incredibly smoothly and has a svelte look that will fit into any decor. Thanks to the FPS boost technology added to the Series S and X, older games, including many made for Xbox One, will look and perform better with faster frame rates.
Unlike the Series X, the Series S only plays digital titles, with no slot to insert physical game media. It's a great option if you have an Xbox Game Pass membership, though, which costs $10 per month for the Console tier, and $15 per month for the Ultimate tier. Either level unlocks a library with hundreds of game to download and play, while also granting discounts to many titles you might want to buy outright.
Another caveat is that the Series S has less SSD storage, with 512GB on-board compared to the 1TB for the Series X. If you like to keep plenty of titles on hand, you'll either need to shuffle them between the main disk and USB-C storage, or purchase Seagate's $200 expansion card. All told, though, it's a great option for casual console gamers, particularly considering all the backward-compatible Game Pass games — just keep in mind that the sale ends today.
Fifteen years after the release of the iPhone, it’s easy to overlook the role early innovators like Palm played in popularizing the smartphone. By the time HP unceremoniously shut down the company in 2011, Palm had struggled for a few years to carve out a niche for itself among Apple and Google. But ask anyone who had a chance to use a Palm PDA in the late ‘90s or early 2000s and they’ll tell you how fondly they remember the hardware and software that made the company’s vision possible. Now, it’s easier than ever to see what made Palm OS so special back in its day.
This week, archivist Jason Scott uploaded a database of Palm OS apps to the Internet Archive. In all, there are about 560 programs to check out, including old favorites like DopeWars and SpaceTrader. Even if you don’t have any nostalgia for Palm, it’s well worth spending a few minutes with the collection to see how much – or, in some cases, little – things have changed since Palm OS was a dominant player in the market.
Hey, so, don't tell anyone, but I'm announcing PalmPilot emulation at Internet Archive for the holidays, probably next week. All the currently-working items need descriptions, so it's not quite ready. Don't tell anybody, OK? https://t.co/ye9z4iTPsxpic.twitter.com/0SNRVJw0Kp
For instance, there’s an entire section devoted to shareware and it’s interesting to see just how much some developers thought it was appropriate to pay for their software. Want to use the full version of StockCalc? Just send $15 by post to DDT Investments in Plaistow, New Hampshire.
In an interview with The Verge, Scott said it took about six months to get the CloudpilotEmu emulator to work with the Internet Archive. There’s still some work to be done. Specifically, some of the more obscure apps are missing descriptions and metadata. Scott also hopes to write instructions for each program. Still, short of buying an old Palm device off of eBay, this is the best way to experience a bygone computing era. That's because CloudpilotEmu allows you to navigate through Palm OS. You can even launch the database from your phone and there's full support for Palm's Graffiti handwriting recognition system. If you want to help Scott with the project, contact him on Twitter or Discord.
The Roomba s9+ has been around for a couple of years and it's probably overkill for most people. At $999, it's certainly not cheap, but it did earn a spot in our list of best robot vacuums. Right now, you can pick up the high-end machine for $220 less than usual by shopping through Wellbots and using the code ENG220 at checkout. A final price of $779 is the best we've seen on this smart home gadget, and while it's still an expensive device, it's a much easier to recommend when its on sale like this.
You probably don't need all of the bells and whistles that the s9+ provides, but they are some of the things that make it one of the best robot vacuums available today. It's the most attractive in iRobot's lineup, with a sleek design that can get into room corners more easily than other models, and a tall, slim clean base. It has 40x the suction power of a standard Roomba, making it a great option for households with pets and kids. It's "careful driver" feature uses a 3D sensor to detect objects so it can move around them to clean, and like all Roombas, it will automatically return to its charging base when it's low on power.
In our testing, we found the s9+ to be an incredibly capable cleaner, and while on the loud side, it's no more noisy than other robo-vacs in this price range. When emptying its bin into its clean base, it was actually not as loud as the Roomba j7, so it's less likely to scare your pets while doing so. The clean base does use proprietary bags from iRobot, though, so just keep in mind that you'll have to consistently buy those in order to make full use of the s9+. Thankfully, each bag can hold up to 60 days worth of debris.
The Roomba s9+ also connects to iRobot's mobile app, from which you can control the machine, set cleaning schedules and more. It's one of the easier robo-vac companion apps we'ved used, so even if you're gifting the s9+ to a loved on who is a novice, they should have no trouble getting the thing set up and using it regularly. If you're willing to splurge this holiday season, the s9+ is one of the best robo-vacs you can get for your money.
Our current favorite Chromebook, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i is down to an all time low of $270 right now on Amazon. We've seen it dip down to $300 before, but this is an exceptional low and a great time to pick up a lightweight but speedy Chromebook. When we tested it out for our Chromebook guide, we particularly liked the extra bright and sharp touchscreen paired with the responsive performance. In fact, we said the Flex 5i offers a "level of quality and performance that’s pretty rare to find at this price point." That goes double on Black Friday.
This configuration runs on Intel's Core i3 chip and stocks 8GB of RAM along with 128GB of storage. While that's not a ton of storage, it's more than enough for the way Chromebooks work best, which is as a browser-focused laptop working in harmony with all of Google's apps. It's got a 13.3-inch touchscreen and a good amount of ports, including USB-C and USB-A ports, a microSD card slot and a security lock. Though we found the keys a bit on the smaller side, we still think it's the best Chromebook for most people.
The Flex 5i discount is part of a larger Chromebook sale Amazon is running for Black Friday, which includes laptops from Acer, HP and ASUS in addition to more Lenovo devices. The Acer Chromebook Spin 314 is $90 off, bringing it down to $290. It's the lightweight cousin to the Acer pick from our guide, sharing the same convertible features that allows you to fold it backwards for a tablet-like experience.
Google has revealed some minor, albeit handy, updates for Workspace. Soon, when you join a Google Meet call or start presenting on one from a Docs, Sheets or Slides file, you'll have an easier way to share that file with other attendees through the meeting's chat panel. You can grant everyone on the call access to the file or limit it to select attendees. You'll all be able to collaborate on the document, spreadsheet or presentation while you're on the call.
Elsewhere, Google says it will take your recent Gmail search activity into account to improve search results when you use the email service on the web. The company says this will make your Gmail search results more relevant and contextual. Lastly for now, there's a requested feature on the way to Sheets that will enable users to resize the pivot table editor side panel. This should come in useful when the names of some pivot table columns or fields are too long and you'd like to see all of the text.
Google says these updates will be available to all Workspace and G Suite users within the next 15 business days. The company recently announced a welcome upgrade to the Workspace individual plan by increasing the amount of storage from 15GB to 1TB at no extra cost to users.
Black Friday is usually a good time to pick up some new gaming gear at lower-than-usual price, and generally speaking, that's the case again this year. This year we're seeing strong discounts on a number of the year's highest-profile games, special offers for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series S and a wide range of discounts on gaming accessories we like. To help you figure out what's worth your time, we've picked through the avalanche of offers at Amazon, Walmart, GameStop and other retailers and rounded up a few of the highlights below. Here are the best Black Friday gaming deals we could find.
Nintendo Switch + Mario Kart 8 Deluxe + Switch Online
Engadget
Nintendo's chief Black Friday deal bundles the standard Switch console with a digital copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and a three-month subscription to the company's Switch Online service at no extra cost. Nintendo has offered this exact same promotion for the past few years, and given that the newer Switch OLED is a pretty firm upgrade over the base model, it's hard to call this a great deal. Still, if you're gifting someone their first Switch and you don't think they'll need the Switch OLED's bigger and more vibrant display, there's some value here. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still a great time and normally retails around $50, while three months of Switch Online typically cost another $8.
The Xbox Series S is down to $250 with a $50 store gift card at Target, which is effectively a $100 discount. At Woot, the diminutive console is available for $220 outright, while Amazon has it for $240 and several other retailers have it for $250. Normally, the Series S retails for $300. Either way, this is a good value for PlayStation or Switch users who want a cheaper way into the Xbox ecosystem. We gave the Series S a review score of 85 at launch: It isn't powerful enough for 4K gaming, lacks a disc drive and only has 512GB of built-in storage, but it can still play all the same games as the pricier Xbox Series X.
If you need a spare gamepad for your Xbox or PC, Microsoft's wireless Xbox Series X/S controller is currently available from $39 at several retailers. While that's not the absolute lowest price we've seen, it's still about $10 below the controller's usual going rate. The sale applies to multiple finishes, though some colors are priced $5 higher. Just note that these pads still rely on AA batteries by default; if you want one rechargeable battery, that'll cost you another $25.
Sony's DualSense controllers for the PlayStation 5, meanwhile, are down to $49 in several finishes. That matches the lowest price we've seen, and depending on what color you choose, comes in either $20 or $25 below the pad's usual price. In general, the DualSense is harder to hook up with a PC than its Xbox counterpart, but its D-pad isn't as clicky, it doesn't rely on AA batteries and its haptic feedback system is much more nuanced.
One of the most acclaimed and popular games of 2022, Elden Ringis a mammoth, haunting and challenging open-world game from the developers behind the Souls series of action-RPGs. It's currently on sale for $35, which is the lowest price we've tracked and $15 below its usual going rate. Like its spiritual predecessors, Elden Ring can sometimes feel punishing, overwhelming and overly cryptic, but its dark-fantasy world is refreshingly honest, letting you discover — or completely miss — its many secrets at your own pace.
If you're need something new to play on your Switch, a handful of well-regarded first-party Nintendo games are discounted deeper than usual. The colorful multiplayer shooter Splatoon 3, for one, is down to a new low of $45, and the tense adventure game Metroid Dreadis available for a new low of $40. The cutesy strategy game Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is still priced at $60, meanwhile, but it includes a $10 store gift card at various retailers.
Most of these deals are only available at third-party retailers like Amazon — and some aren't visible until checkout — but if you're not interested, Nintendo has several other titles discounted at its online eShop.
If you're looking to build out your PS5 library, meanwhile, several exclusives for Sony's console are also down to new lows. There are no discounts on God of War: Ragnarok, sadly, but one of our other favorite sequels of the year, the robot-fighting open-world game Horizon Forbidden West, is down to a new low of $35 (or $29 for PS4).
If you need to top up your PlayStation Plus subscription, Sony has dropped the price of 12-month memberships to that service by 25 percent. The deal applies to all three PS Plus tiers, so the basic "Essential" tier is down to $45, the "Extra" tier is down to $75, and the "Premium" tier is down to $90.
As a refresher, the Essential tier should be enough for most: It gets you broad access to online multiplayer, an allotment of cloud storage for backing up game saves and a handful of free game downloads each month. The Extra tier adds an on-demand library with a few hundred games, while the Premium tier provides cloud game streaming and an additional selection of "classic" PlayStation games on top of that.
The Backbone One is a clever and well-built mobile game controller that we've recommend in previous buying guides. The PlayStation-branded, iPhone version of the device is currently down to a new low of $64, which is $36 off its normal going rate. If you don't like the look of that model, the standard version is also down to $75, though the two are functionally identical.
Either way, the One should make playing gamepad-compatible iOS games — or cloud-streamed console and PC games — feel much more natural a touchscreen. The main complaints are that its face buttons are on the clicky side and that you'll need an adapter to get it to work with certain iPhones.
Meta's Quest 2 headset is a couple years old at this point, but its standalone design, competent performance and relative comfort have kept it the best option for most people looking to give virtual reality a try. For Black Friday, Meta is selling a bundle that pairs the 128GB Quest 2 with two of its better games, the classic horror game Resident Evil 4and the energetic rhythm game Beat Saber, for $350. That's a roughly $50 discount. If you need more storage, a bundle with the 256GB variant is on sale for $429.
Now, we're using the term "discount" with some caveats here, since the Quest 2 used to start at $299 until Meta jacked the price up by another $100 earlier this year. Still, this is the best deal we've seen since that price hike — and if nothing else, it's a much better value than the Meta Quest Pro. We gave the device formerly known as the Oculus Quest 2 a review score of 89 when it launched back in 2020.
The HyperX Cloud Alpha is down to $55 at Amazon, which is about $15 below its usual going rate and one of the best prices we've tracked. This is a sturdy, no-frills gaming headset that's comfortable to wear for hours at a time. A good set of non-gaming headphones will sound better for the price, but what's here is still relatively well-balanced, and the included mic is perfectly fine for everyday party chats.
Logitech G Pro X Superlight, plus more gaming accessories
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget
Logitech's G Pro X Superlight is a high-performing gaming mouse we like for both work and play, and right now it's back down to its all-time low of $110, or about $25 off its usual street price. That's still not cheap, but G Pro X Superlight stands out for being exceptionally light (at about 63 grams), quick to glide, and consistently responsive in faster-paced games. Just note that you only get a couple of customizable shortcut buttons, and that the whole thing only connects over a USB dongle, not Bluetooth.
This is just one of a plethora of low or near-low prices on gaming accessories we like, though. If you want a high-performing gaming mouse for less and don't mind going wired, Razer's Viper 8KHz is a good value at its current deal price of $40, which is an all-time low. We've previously recommendedRazer's Huntsman Mini for those who want a fast gaming keyboard in an ultracompact form factor; it's currently within $5 of its all-time low at $70. Corsair's Scimitar RGB Elite is a great buy for MMO gaming at $50, while Logitech's G29 remains a fine value for those looking to get their first racing wheel at $200. 8BitDo's excellent Pro 2 gamepad for Switch and PC, meanwhile, is currently down to a joint-low of $40, but only in a limited-time Lightning sale.
A configuration of Razer's Blade 14 with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX chip, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and an RTX 3080 GPU is currently down to $2,000 at Amazon. That's about $300 off its typical street price and tied for the best price we've tracked. We gave the Blade 14 a review score of 84 last year, and we've recommended the similar Blade 15 in recent buying guides and gift guides. It can run a bit hot, and you can still get similarly powerful gaming laptops for less, but it still puts enough power to play demanding games at higher settings in a slim and slick-feeling design that weighs less than four pounds.
If you've wanted a robot vacuum but were put off by the sometimes-high prices, now's your chance to dive in. Anker's Eufy brand is holding a Black Friday sale on Amazon that includes major discounts for its robotic cleaners, including lower-priced models. The RoboVac 11S Max is down to just $130, or 48 percent off its usual price. One of the company's best devices, the RoboVac X8, has dropped to $300 instead of its usual $500. Other products are typically at least 30 percent off.
The RoboVac 11S Max is a more powerful version of the base 11S that made it to our list of the best budget robot vacuums. That model is not only capable and intelligent, but slim enough to clean under chairs and tables that might block some competitors. The improved suction might increase noise, but it should also catch more crumbs than its standard counterpart.
The RoboVac X8, meanwhile, is a non-hybrid variant of one of the best robot vacuums we've seen at any price. It won't mop like the X8 Hybrid, but you can still expect strong suction, laser navigation and WiFi. This machine will not only suck up more debris (including pet hair) than some of its rivals, but do so more efficiently. At this price, it's easier to rationalize than mid-tier competitors costing hundreds of dollars more.
That tablet supports a "hover" feature. It can detect when the Pencil is within 12mm of the screen. You'll be able to see a preview of any mark you plan to make on a sketch or design before you apply it. Apple says this feature will allow for greater precision. If you hold the peripheral over an app on your homescreen or dock, the screen will zoom in slightly, as though you're aiming a mouse pointer at the app.
The second-gen Apple Pencil pairs with your iPad automatically, so you won't need to futz around with Bluetooth to connect them. The peripheral can also magnetically attach to the side of certain models, which will charge the Pencil too.
It's definitely worth making sure your iPad is compatible with this device before you snap it up. It works with the sixth-gen iPad mini, iPad Air (5th and 4th-gen), 12.9-inch iPad Pro (3rd, 4th, and 5th generations) and 11-inch iPad Pro (3rd, 2nd, and 1st generations). The second-gen pencil is not compatible with the entry-level iPad, not even the redesigned model that Apple released last month.
Smartwatches and fitness trackers have become some of the best phone accessories available now. Not only can they prevent you from whipping out your smartphone every second to check alerts, but they can help you get healthier by promoting habits like regular exercise, standing up throughout the day and more. If you're shopping for yourself on Black Friday, you probably have a good idea of which wearable you want — but the decision can be harder if you're looking to gift one of these gadgets. We've collected the best deals on our favorite smartwatches, fitness trackers and other wearables here so you don't have to go searching for them.
Apple Watch Series 8
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
The Apple Watch Series 8 is $50 off and down to $349 for Black Friday, which is a record low. While not a huge departure from last year's Series 7, it does build upon that wearable's solid foundation. You'll find all of the Series 7's features on the Series 8, along with a new skin temperature sensor and crash detection. Essentally, Apple didn't fix what wasn't broken and we consider the Series 8 to be the best smartwatch you can get right now.
The second-generation Apple Watch SE is on sale for $229, which is an all-time-low price. Apple upgrade a lot in this smartwatch — it has a new SiP and a larger screen, both of which help the new SE look and feel more modern. Apple still left some features to the Series 8, include an always-on display, ECG reader, skin temperature sensor and a few others, but if you can live without those upgrades, the Apple Watch SE gives you a ton of value at its relatively affordable price.
The Apple Watch Ultra is $60 off and down to $739 for Black Friday, which remains high, but still represents a good deal on this high-end smartwatch. This wearable was designed for the most adventurous among us, with a titanium case, a larger digital crown, physical buttons, 100m of water resistance and more. We gave it a score of 85 for its big, bright display, durable build and even longer battery life when compared to other Apple Watches.
Fitbit's Charge 5 is $50 off and down to only $100 for Black Friday. It's the most capable fitness tracker the company makes, complete with built-in GPS, a full-color touchscreen, on-device EDA sensors for stress tracking and more. We gave it a score of 82 when it came out last year in part for all of those reasons, along with its Fitbit Pay functionality and its multi-day battery life.
The new Fitbit Inspire 3 is down to $70 for Black Friday, which is $30 off its usual price. We named this the best budget fitness tracker you can get right now, and that's only more true when you can pick it up while on sale. The Inspire 3 is more slim than the Charge 5, and while it doesn't have built-in GPS, you can use its connected GPS feature to map runs and bike rides if you have your phone with you. We also like its automatic workout tracking and long battery life.
Fitbit's Sense 2 smartwatch is $100 off and down to $200 right now. This is the latest model of the company's flagship smartwatch, and it supports all-day stress monitoring with cEDA sensors, blood oxygen measurements and an ECG app. That's on top of all the standard features you'd expect in a smartwatch at this price range: daily movement and sleep tracking, built-in GPS, Fitbit Pay, onboard Alexa capabilities and more. If you're looking for something even more affordable, the Fitbit Versa 4 has dropped to $150 for Black Friday.
Google's new Pixel Watch is $50 off and down to $299 for Black Friday. This is one of the most anticipated wearables of the year, being Google's first Pixel-branded smartwatch and a marriage between the Android giant and Fitbit (which is now owns). We gave the Pixel Watch a score of 74 — while we liked it, we didn't love it. It has a super attractive design and excellent health and fitness tracking features, but it's brought down by bad battery life. Google promises 24 hours of wear, but we typically only got through 12 hours before getting low-power warnings.
Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 has dropped to $229 for Black Friday, which is a record-low price. While it's a modest update to the Galaxy Watch 4, we believe the Watch 5 is the best wearable for Android users. We gave it a score of 85 for its durable yet attractive design, comprehensive health tracking features and its slightly improved battery life.
A number of Garmin wearables are on sale for Black Friday, key among them being the Vivoactive 4s for $175 — that's nearly half off its usual price and a record low. We like this model's clean design and its extensive health tracking features, which include blood oxygen monitoring, built-in GPS, more than 20 pre-loaded workout profiles and more. The Vivoactive 4s also support smartphone alerts, Garmin Pay, space for onboard music and a battery life of up to seven days.
Withings' ScanWatch has dropped to $240 for Black Friday, which is $60 off its normal price. It has a hybrid design, meaning its face is analog but it includes two subdials that show you information like steps, heart rate and more. It also has an ECG measurement tool, blood oxygen monitoring, water resistance up to 50m and a whopping 30-day battery life. If you like the look of the ScanWatch but want something a bit more budget-friendly, Withings' Steel HR is also on sale for $135 right now.
Going from zero to a fully outfitted smart home is a huge undertaking — and it can get expensive fast. While we don't recommend grabbing every possible smart home device in one go, Black Friday makes smartening up areas of your home a lot easier on your wallet.
Every year, the number of smart devices grows so we waded through the best deals on many of the products we've tried and recommend. Some of our favorite robot vacuums are seeing steep discounts, as is our favorite air fryer and an Echo smart display we found particularly useful. Covering just about every potential room in the home, here are the best robot vacuum and smart home Black Friday deals we could find.
iRobot Roomba 694
Valentina Palladino / Engadget
The iRobot Roomba 694 is currently our favorite budget robot vacuum and is down to $180 for Black Friday. That's 33 percent off for a $95 savings that's close to an all-time low. We liked the way the 694 dependably cleaned both carpet and tile, and appreciated the excellent user interface on the app. Setup is straightforward, even for a robo vac newbie. It doesn't come with extra brushes and the spot-clean function is only available as a button on the unit itself, but we still think it's the best budget vac for most people.
The Shark Ion RV765 is the runner up in our guide to budget robo vacs and right now it's down to $150, which is a super low price for any smart vacuum, especially one with a two-hour battery life. We particularly liked the adjustable wheels that automatically reacted to the "terrain" of carpet, rug, or hard floor, and the intuitive app for setting schedules and otherwise controlling the robot.
If you want a robot vacuum that empties itself, be prepared to pay more, unless you can grab a deal like this one. Normally $600, the Shark AV2511 AE AI robot vacuum is half price right now, bringing it down to $300. As a brand, Shark keeps reaching top spots in our robot vacuum guides thanks to their intuitive app and reliability of the robots themselves. This base here will hold nearly two months of dirt and the advanced navigation technology uses LIDAR to map your home and lasers to detect and avoid obstacles. You can even set no-go zones from within the app, as opposed to using boundary tape or other methods.
The iRobot Roomba j7 is also on sale, with a 42 percent discount, bringing it down to $250. It's the runner up in our latest guide to the best robot vacuums thanks to its strong cleaning power and accurate home mapping. We liked how easy the app is to use and program and the bot was great at avoiding obstacles, including any robot vac's archnemesis, pet poop.
With a more than 50 percent discount, Eufy's RoboVac X8 Hybrid is down to $320 off its usual $650 sticker. We gave the X8 a shout out in our robo vac guide for its great customization features, including a "tap and go" option that lets you direct the vac to a particular spot for extra on-demand cleaning. Surprisingly, many vacs lack that feature within their app. As a hybrid vac, the X8 can wet-wipe your floors as well as vacuum them, and comes with a fillable tank and swappable cleaning pads to enable the mopping function. If you don't need your vac to mop, the vacuum-only Eufy RoboVac X8 is on sale for 40 percent off, making it just $300 instead of $500 right now.
The Meater Plus is the recommended thermometer in our grilling gear guide. For Black Friday, it's down to $80 from its usual $100 price tag. While a wired version is certainly cheaper, we thought the price bump was worth not having to avoid the cables as you work with larger pieces of meat. It's got a 165-foot Bluetooth range and the single probe has two sensors, with one end reading the internal temp of your meat and the exposed end monitoring the ambient temp of your cooking environment. Of course, as a smart home tool, the companion app controls, monitors and offers helpful guides.
The Instant Pot Duo makes an excellent gift for just about anyone, but it's also a great way to add some extra capacity to your kitchen for holiday cooking. Right now, it's down to $79 for Black Friday, a 21 percent discount and a great buy, considering all it can do. It features seven functions in one unit, and can act as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, sauté pan, yogurt maker and warmer. Customizable programs take the guesswork out of cooking common items, helping you out just like a smart appliance should.
If you somehow don't already have one or are looking to give one of this year's best gifts, here's a great deal on the Instant Vortex Plus air fryer. Usually $170, it's down to just $100 for Black Friday. We named it our favorite overall pick when we tested out many of the air fryers on the market today. We loved the ample size, intuitive controls and how easy it was to clean. Plus, there's virtually no waiting for pre-heating.
The Echo Show 8 earned a score of 87 when we reviewed it upon its debut and Amazon is knocking 46 percent off the standard $130 list price to make it just $70. We liked the beautiful touchscreen display and impressive sound quality for the size. It's extra useful when it acts as a sort of command center for your connected smart home devices, with Alexa's helpful AI guiding the way. Amazon's new home screen has a better feel to it too, giving you a lot of info at a glance. The Echo Show 8 can even act as a smart cam to let you check in at home when you're away.
If you'd rather rely on the Google Assistant for your smart display needs, the latest generation of the Google Nest Hub is half price, bringing it down to $50. The seven-inch screen is one inch smaller than the Echo Show 8, and the Google Hub doesn't have an on-board camera, which some might prefer. As a smart display, it'll happily act as a hub to control compatible smart home devices using just your voice.
We called Google's Nest Audio smart speaker "a steal at $100" when we reviewed it, giving it a score of 87. And now it's half that price for Black Friday. For just $50, you get a smart speaker powered by the AI of the Google Assistant, plus a speaker that delivers surprisingly good sound quality for its size and price point. We did note that the Nest Audio sounds even better as a pair, and now might be a good time to grab two.
Adding a few smart cameras to your smart home setup lets you keep tabs on things when you're gone (or even in another room) and can alert you when there's unexpected movement. Blink Mini cameras are usually $35 each, but right now Amazon is selling two for less than the price of one. On the same product page, you'll notice a one-camera configuration option, that's $30, so this really is a case where it's a better deal to get two. The Minis are motion-activated devices (as, in they aren't always on)and have built-in speakers and a mic so you can hear and talk to people (or pets) remotely using your phone.
Again, if you prefer talking to Google's Assistant over Amazon's Alexa, the Google Nest Cam battery is your best bet for indoor and outdoor monitoring. While they usually go for $180, Black Friday takes $60 off that price to make them $120 each. Unlike the wired and indoor-only Blink Minis above, these run on batteries and are rated to handle the weather outside, but they're quite a bit more expensive. They send high def 1080p video to your phone or smart display when they're triggered and are smart enough to tell the difference between pets, cars and people.
To keep tabs on package deliveries and other interesting goings on at your front door, a video doorbell works great. Again, if you're invested in Google's ecosystem, you'll want Google's Nest Doorbell. The Google Nest Doorbell battery runs on a rechargeable battery and is $120 for Black Friday, after a 33 percent discount. The Google Nest Doorbell wired version uses your existing doorbell wire and is on sale for $169 against its usual $180 list price.
For an Amazon doorbell, you have two brand options, Blink and Ring. Right now the Ring Video Doorbell is 40 percent off, making it just $60. It records 1080p video after being triggered and sends alerts and feeds to your phone or other display (like a Fire TV or Echo Show). You don't have to decide when you buy whether you want to wire it in or run it on the included battery, this unit is capable of both.
A smart plug means you'll never have to come home to a dark room again. The Amazon Smart Plug is just $13 right now, instead of its usual $25. You can speak commands to Alexa to control whatever you plug in, like lamps, fans and holiday lights. Or you can also set up routines and schedules from within the Alexa app. It can even be used to start your coffee maker in the morning (as long as it has a mechanical switch), just remember to add your beans and water the night before.
Smart bulbs not only offer control using your phone, a voice assistant, or a smart display, many also come in a near-limitless number of colors. The Philips Hue smart bulb supply 16 million color options so so you can dial in whatever ambiance you're in the mood for. These are usually $135 for the three-pack, but are down to $90 for the set right now. They're compatible with both Alexa and the Google Assistant, and are rated to last over 20 years.
Smart thermostats can help you save energy by making sure you're not overly heating or cooling an empty house. The Amazon Smart Thermostat is $18 off for Black Friday, bringing the price down to $42. You can use the Alexa app to control the thermostat, sets schedules and more, but keep in mind the thermostat itself doesn't have a mic, so it can't take voice commands directly.
To handle all of this smart home connectivity, you might be in the market for an upgraded WiFi router. The Eero Pro 6E supports WiFi 6E, which lets compatible devices access the newly opened up 6 GHz wireless band. it's $120 off its usual $300 sticker price, which makes this a good time to upgrade to the latest and fastest WiFi iteration. One Eero router covers up to 2,000 square feet and can support more than 100 connected devices.
