Best early Black Friday deals: My picks as a tech editor

2025-04-28 04:31:55admin

Every year ahead of Black Friday, my editors say: Stan, you've been doing this a long time. You can surely find the best Black Friday tech deals out there. To this, I say: But I already have all the gadgets in the world. I don't need anything. Go away! A brawl breaks out.

OK, not really. It's my job to write about tech, sometimes including Black Friday stuff. But I do have a hill I'm prepared to die on: I'm only ever going to write about deals that I, personally, think are reallygood. This year, the angle is this: Are there any deals out there that are so enticing that would make me splurge, even though I'm already drowning in gadgets?

As it turns out, there are! Not a ton, mind you. The criteria was as follows: The price has to be lower than I've ever seen, and the gadget on offer has to be something that's really worth spending money. I'm looking at you, battery powered cuckoo clock. Yes, that's an affiliate link. Yes, someone's gonna buy that. Yes, it's not even discounted. I don't care.

Back to business: Here are the best three early Black Friday deals I found:

The workhorse you need: Apple 2022 M2 MacBook Air, 13-inch

Looks like the new one, and it's not far behind in terms of performance, either. Credit: Apple

If you already have a MacBook with an M-series chip, you probably don't need this. But if you're looking to buy a MacBook on the cheap, with nearly all the bells and whistles of the brand new models, this is the one to get.

You see, the cool thing about Apple's M-series chips is that they're so good, you don't need to get a device with the latest one. I have a MacBook Pro with an M1 chip inside and it's still perfectly capable of handling all my daily tasks. This means that the M2 chip, which is what you get with this 2022 MacBook Air, will be plenty fast for most users.

Another important note about this particular MacBook Air model is that it's the redesigned one. You're basically getting the latest design and a very capable chip at an incredible discount. What kind of discount? Well, the price is down to $750, a $150 discount off the standard $900 list price. That's for the version with 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD.

If you squint, the wallpaper says "Air." Credit: Mashable composite/Apple

Alternatively, you can get the new, 2024 MacBook Air at a pretty sweet discount: The 13-inch version costs $849 (a $250 discount), while the 15-inch model costs $1,234 (again, down $250 from the standard asking price). We've got the details on that deal over here.

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In my mind, however, the $750 price is pretty unbeatable for a MacBook Air that will surely serve you well for many years to come.

The high-end phone you crave: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

The end boss of Samsung phones. Credit: Samsung

Every year, a new Samsung Galaxy Ultra phone comes out, and I cry. I cry tears of sadness because it's the best one, but it's also just so damn pricy. To refresh your memory, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra started at $1,299 when it launched.

Now, however, is your chance to get that exact phone for less. A lot less. Right now, Amazon lists this phone at $949.99, a full 27% off the original price.

It's been out for more than half a year, yes. But it's still the most powerful smartphone in Samsung's lineup, with a monster 200-megapixel main camera, a 6.8-inch, 120Hz, edge-to-edge display, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. Oh, and it also supports Samsung's S Pen. The phone is only available in titanium violet at this price, but the color is subdued enough to fit most tastes.

The stupendously big TV: Hisense 75-inch Class QD6 Series QLED 4K TV

It has a long name, but you only need to remember the following: It's a 75 inches 4K TV for $449.99. Credit: HiSense

Hey, I know what you're thinking. You don't really needa 75-inch, 4K TV. But this is where it is my job and solemn duty to tell you that's wrong. You need a 75-inch TV. All the stuff you've been hearing about TVs being too big for your living room? Nonsense. A TV should be as large as manageable and permitted by architectural boundaries. Period.

Now that we've got that settled, our TV recommendation for this early Black Friday deal is this 75-inch HiSense QLED. It costs just $449.99, which is $250 less than usual. Had someone told you a decade ago you'd be able to buy a 75-inch TV for under $500, you'd probably say "I know, prices of gadgets go down all the time." OK, smarty pants. You still need to get this TV, though. It's time.

We've got some of the specs highlights for this model here. The most important bit, in my humble opinion, is that HiSense TVs have slowly but surely gotten better over the years, and are now very close to being just as good to those from the biggest brands.