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Believe it or not, the holiday season is almost upon us. The shopping season has already kicked off in full force, but if you’re looking for the best deals around, Black Friday is just a couple of weeks away. Whether you’re keeping an eye out for yourself or buying gifts for the loved ones in your life, here’s what you can expect from Black Friday this year.
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Even as we’ve seen retailers push deals earlier and earlier in November, it remains a staple for gift-givers and deal-hunters everywhere. This year, Black Friday falls on November 26th, 2021, though we’ve already seen plenty of stores kick their sales off early. Then there’s Cyber Monday, which always gives shoppers a second chance to pick up some great deals. That takes place on November 29th this year.
The best deals from last year
If you want to know what to expect to find this year, you should take a look back at some of the best deals from 2020. By far, the best deal on a smartphone last year was on Samsung’s Galaxy S20 FE. Despite being only two months old at the time, the phone dropped from $700 down to just $550 — a steal considering its near-flagship specs.
Other standout deals included sales on the Pixel 5 and Pixel 3a series from Google, with prices ranging from $50 to $180 off depending on the device. Samsung also lowered prices on the entire S20 and Note20 lineups, though nothing came close to how affordable the FE variant was at checkout. OnePlus brought out some pretty great deals on the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro — with the former marked down to just $499 — though it didn’t include the newest 8T in the holiday fun.
Outside of phones, we saw Chromebooks from Lenovo and Acer on sale as low as $179, a ton of Echo devices from Amazon all on sale throughout the holiday season, and most Sonos products marked down to help shoppers build out their speaker ecosystem. Google also slashed prices on Nest products like speakers, displays, thermostats, and countless Bluetooth headphones and earbuds made for perfect stocking stuffers.
What to expect this year
We won’t lie to you: this year’s holiday shopping season looks to be a little more challenging to navigate than last year. Thanks to the combination of supply line problems and the ever-constant chip shortage plaguing the industry, finding tech products on store shelves will take a little more patience than usual.
That said, many retailers have gone out of their way to kick off holiday sales early, all to give shoppers a little more time to buy those hard-to-find gifts this year. Here’s what we expect to see — and what we know we’ll see — from all of those usual major players.
At this point, Google is infamous for putting its newest phones on sale ahead of the holiday season, just a month after early adopters paid full price. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case this year, as the company only plans to offer deals on the slightly-less-new Pixel 5a. At $400, it’s a great time to pick up Google’s latest mid-range phone — especially if you’re looking for something a little friendlier to smaller hands.
Aside from smartphones, you’ll find deals on Chromecasts, Nest Cams, smart speakers, and more. The second-gen Nest Hub is also dropping to just $50, a great price if you want to try out Google’s newly-upgraded sleep tracking.
These deals start at the Google Store on Friday, November 19th, though you’ll likely be able to find similar prices at other retailers.
Samsung
We have yet to learn exactly what Samsung will offer for this year’s sales, but if history is any indication, the entire Galaxy S21 lineup will see some solid discounts. Unfortunately, the Galaxy S21 FE has yet to hit the market, so there won’t be a repeat of one of last year’s best sales. You also shouldn’t expect much of a discount on the Galaxy Z Fold3 or Flip3 — those phones are still in high demand, and they only launched a couple of months ago.
As for the company’s non-smartphone gadgets, we’ve already seen great prices on the Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Watch4 in the run-up to Black Friday, and we wouldn’t be too surprised to see those prices continue to drop throughout the holiday season. Samsung makes a ton of other gear, too, including televisions, soundbars, and more. Expect discounts on all of it through the usual retailers starting on November 26th.
OnePlus
OnePlus recently timed some excellent sales on its latest smartphones with the launch of the Pixel 6, and we expect to see those prices appear again throughout the rest of the holiday season. The company is running a one-day “flash sale” on the OnePlus 9, for example, that brings its price back down to $599. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a deal like that, and we expect to see similar prices throughout the rest of the holiday shopping season.
The OnePlus 9 Pro’s flash sale has yet to happen, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see it drop back down to $799 — $270 off its usual price.
Amazon
Amazon will take any occasion to discount its lineup of branded tablets, e-readers, streaming sticks, and more, and Black Friday is no exception. The storefront already has some early deals up for grabs, offering things like the Fire TV Stick 4K for just $25. If you’re waiting for savings on Fire Tablets, Kindles, Echo speakers, and more, though, you’ll need to keep waiting a little bit longer. Most of Amazon’s in-house gadgets have yet to go on sale.
Best Buy
If you’re shopping for gadgets this year, Best Buy might be the place to go. Although the company has yet to start its Black Friday sales in earnest, it is price matching many of its most popular products now through the holiday season for My Best Buy members, so you can start shopping early without having to worry about deals.
Right now, you can start with deals on Assistant-powered smart speakers and $50 off Fitbit’s latest Charge 5 tracker. The company has more sales starting on November 21st, so we’d suggest bookmarking its Black Friday hub to view everything as it’s announced.
Target
Like Best Buy, Target has yet to kick off most of its sales — the retailer hasn’t even announced them yet. However, it’s also price matching nearly anything you can buy between now and December 24th, so you can relax knowing you’ll get a great deal no matter what.
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