Black Friday is here – the turkey has been digested, and the big sales are now ready for all to scour through. I’ve been doing this for over a decade, and these are the best deals I’ve seen so far.
Black Friday has been here for a while from Amazon – it began the discounts a week ago, but we’re scouring through to see what else has been added to the mix. There’s a chance prices could fall further – for instance, the Echo Pop is still ‘only’ down to $21.99, but it fell to $17.99 in 2024 – however, now is still the best time to get buying if you want to save the most money in the year across most deals.
Just remember the main points when it comes to bagging a Black Friday deal:
- Always set your budget first, and look for the items you already intended to buy
- Don’t be swayed by bigger / faster / sharper upgrades when the base model will do just fine
- While Black Friday is often the best time to get a lot of these sales, they will drop in price throughout the year, so you’ll still have chances to make some savings if now isn’t the time.
Now that’s been said, let’s have a look at what’s been catching our eye this year.
The best early Black Friday deals we’ve seen
Apple 2025 MacBook Air 13-inch (M4)
If you’re looking for a powerhouse MacBook, the Air range has become something to consider, thanks to the awesome grunt of the M4 chip inside. It’s not the fastest any more – that’s now the M5 – but the previous-gen chip is still lightning quick and offers all day battery life too.
Sony WH-1000XM6
Called ‘the best headphones for pretty much anyone’ in our review, these are the cans to get if you want to spend a little more on some over-ear magic. They’ve got excellent sound quality, are top for calls and feel premium in the hand – a personal audio treat if you want the gift of great-sounding tunes.
Sony WH-1000XM4
Sure, these are the previous iteration of Sony’s excellent cans, but they’re so worth the buy if you’re not fussed about the newest thing. Our review gave them five stars and the Editor’s Choice, loving the sound quality, feel in the hand and the great battery life – plus they’re $150 cheaper than the newest models.
Sponsored: Roborock F25 GT
If you’re someone that’s never tried a vacuum / mop combo, it can be a daunting thought. They can leak, leave streaks and make you feel like you should just get two devices. But the F25 not only promises great performance, but bends into tight spaces with ease too.
PLUS: get an extra 5% off with code RRF25GTF25GT
Whoop One 5.0
Our reviewers loved this band, enjoying long battery life and a comprehensive, data packed app. Sure, you need to keep up a subscription, but the One model is the cheapest out there, delivering almost unrivalled insights into your health and wellbeing. Thoroughly recommended.
WD 20TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive
While this hard drive can work on a Mac, if you’ve got a Windows machine you’re getting yourself an instantly-incredible amount of storage for less cash than usual – with quick plug and play specs and USB 3.2 compatibility, you’ll be able to save your photos, videos and more swiftly with one click.
Amazon Basics 100-Pack AA batteries
Why are we recommending batteries? Because we’re a tech site, and grabbing this mega pack while they’re down in price is an easy win if you’re constantly running out – although if you want to be more eco-friendly, you can get 24 rechargeable ones for the same price.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 40mm
We proclaimed ‘don’t you dare ignore it’ when we reviewed this watch from Samsung – with the bright display, high durability and excellent connectivity with Galaxy phones, this is a great buy for Samsung phone owners itching for a smartwatch, but not wanting to part with much cash.
Sponsored: Nomad eSIM
For those into frequent flying or just like the idea of being digitally flexible, an eSIM can be a great choice. With prices starting as low as $1.10 per GB, and compatible in over 200 destinations, Nomad’s eSIM (if your phone supports it) can be a very thrifty choice.
Sponsored: Soundpeats Clip1
For glasses wearers, runners or just anyone that wants to hear their surroundings, the Clip 1 headphones are a novel way to listen, hooking securely around the bottom of the ear and giving Dolby Audio-quality sound through the dedicated app for 30% off this Black Friday.
Amazon Kindle 16 GB (newest model)
We don’t need to explain what a Kindle is, but we can tell you this one has a six-week battery life, brighter illumination that before, better contrast on the 6-inch display and a faster page-turning experience. It’s also now in ‘matcha green’ – so if you were looking for a reason to upgrade, now’s the time.
Amazon Echo Pop
You probably know what the Pop does – it brings Alexa cheaply to the parts of your home where you don’t mind it getting bashed (maybe in the kitchen or a kid’s bedroom). It’s sonically basic but does a good job of helping you control a smart home with your voice, especially for this price.
Sponsored: Tineco Pure One Station 5
This cordless vacuum cleaner comes with one of the best parts of trying to suck up dust with modern devices: a laser to spot the dirt. It has multiple cyclones (meaning it can pull in air faster) and is self-cleaning when charging. Oh, and there’s even a HEPA filter in there to help with allergies.
Sponsored: GIGABYTE AERO X16
The GIGABYTE AERO X16 pairs an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 with AMD’s Ryzen AI 7 350 processor, plus a 16-inch 165Hz WQXGA display, 32GB of DDR5 memory, and a 1TB SSD. It’s a strong early Black Friday pick for anyone who needs a powerful laptop for creative work or gaming during the deal window.
Amazon Echo Dot
When you want a bit more power to your listening experience, the Echo Dot is the right blend of cost (under $32) and powerful sound (we found it to be far better then its predecessor in our testing). For easy smart home prowess this is a good choice – kit out your whole house for just over $150 with these.
Ring Battery Doorbell
Plug it in or keep it on the battery, charge it quickly with USB-C, this is a versatile doorbell that’s now cheaper than you could have bought it for most of the year. While likely ripe for an update, the older age of this model means the price is coming down nicely – $50 is the cheapest we’ve seen this model.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select
We’ve chosen the Select model of the Fire TV Stick as it’s a way of getting 4K streaming from Amazon for under $20. While you get more HDR formats if you spend a little more, if you just want high-end resolution and audio (Dolby Atmos with HDMI passthrough, don’t you know) this is a great choice.
Sponsored: Boldr Kelvin Smart Heater
Get up to 30% off a heater that uses infrared radiation to keep your room warm, emitting rays that directly heat objects in their path rather than the whole room. It’s designed to be lower-cost than other environmentally-friendlier ways of warming your home, and require less maintenance too.
Blink Mini 2
“The Blink Mini 2 works incredibly well for a $40 camera.” That’s the verdict of our glowing review, and now it’s on sale for more than half that price. You’ll need an optional power adaptor for outdoor use, but it does come with an inbuilt spotlight – very good value for the low cost of Full HD streaming.
Oura Ring 4
The Oura Ring series has taken off in terms of popularity lately – the latest version can now be had for under $250. It comes with advanced fitness metrics, great health tracking and deeper sleep insights that you’ll get from a smartwatch. The slight bulk takes a minute to get used to, but it’s certainly worth it.
Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer glasses
‘Lightweight’, ‘stylish’, ‘great speaker quality’, ‘lots of AI features’ – just some of the highlights from our review. We’re now in a world where smart glasses are a real choice – we rated these at 4.5 stars out of 5 at $300 as the best smart glasses for most people – so $60 off makes them a real steal.
Wait, Black Friday is here already?
Well, no – you know that. There’s not been a sniff of turkey yet. But these days the Black Friday deals come earlier and earlier as retailers try to stretch out the savings and reduce the clamor for deals all on one day.
In the days when getting a Black Friday bargain was as simple as getting to the store door at midnight and being ready to sprint, the sales could all be compacted into one day with greater ease – when things were bought, they were taken home.
But now Black Friday is a mostly online event, it can cause a lot of issues with shipping if all the sales come at once, so by starting earlier and making the sales longer, it makes it much easier to deliver purchases on time and doesn’t cause as much strain on logistics.
