Weekly deals roundup: Black Friday offers raining down on the Pixel 8 Pro, Z Fold 5, and more!
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Even though today is technically the Friday before Black Friday 2023, many major US retailers and device manufacturers are evidently refusing to wait another minute to kick your holiday shopping frenzy into high gear.
Instead of complaining that most of the best phones, tablets, smartwatches, earbuds, and headphones out there are on sale at new all-time low prices well before Thanksgiving (not to mention Christmas), we've of course decided to put together a comprehensive list of the greatest mobile tech offers available right now across the nation.
Without further adieu, we give you a very special (early) Black Friday edition of our very popular and (hopefully) very useful weekly roundup of the top deals from around the web:
These are today's three best offers
What could possibly qualify as a better pre-holiday deal than the Pixel 8 Pro's first big discount with no strings attached? Well, if you're into trendy foldables, you might find Samsung's nearly flawless Galaxy Z Fold 5 even harder to resist at an incredible 500 bucks less than usual.
And if you have enough money to buy one of the greatest Android phones out there (with your choice of a foldable or traditional slab design), you can probably scrape up some leftover dough for quite possibly the best wireless earbuds currently available for under two Benjamins.
Samsung's very well-reviewed Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are still not as affordable as Google's similarly premium Pixel Buds Pro, for instance, but unsurprisingly, they are cheaper than ever after a massive 30 percent markdown from a $229.99 list price. Take that, AirPods Pro 2!
A deeply discounted phone for every budget
Do you have just one Benjamin to spend on a nice Christmas present for an unpretentious Android user? We've got you covered! Do you want to get one of the best mid-range phones around at the lowest possible price? The Motorola Edge (2023) and Pixel 7a are right there, and believe it or not, Samsung's decidedly higher-end Galaxy S23 FE is not a whole lot costlier after a surprisingly hefty and especially surprisingly early $200 discount.
Then there's the "vanilla" Pixel 8 to consider for hardcore Google fans who still can't afford the massively discounted Pro version, a OnePlus 11 that shines like no other handset in its pricing division as far as charging speeds are concerned, and the Galaxy Z Flip 5 for foldable enthusiasts on relatively tight budgets or users who simply prefer a clamshell over a book-style giant.
Finally, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is the stuff dreams are made of for Android power users who don't want to embrace foldables just yet, while the Pixel Fold... remains very much in the Z Fold 5's shadow even at its lowest price to date (by far). So many great options!
Check out these sweet Black Friday tablet promotions!
What we have here are five, count'em, five of the absolute best tablets around available at discounts that we don't think will be surpassed by any major retailers or device manufacturers anytime soon. Which of the five should you go for?
That clearly depends on your holiday shopping budget (or whatever's left of it after purchasing one of the smartphones listed above), your software platform of choice (be it Android, iPadOS, or Windows), and last but not least, exactly what you plan to use your new tablet for.
The Surface Pro 9, for instance, is the ultimate mobile productivity machine and the absolute best option for business users with a lot of money to spend, while the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is at the complete opposite of the spectrum, aiming to deliver an... acceptable entertainment experience at a crazy low price.
Apple's latest "regular" iPad and the first-of-its-kind OnePlus Pad are the sensible choices in the very middle of said spectrum, with the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra looking like an excellent high-end alternative to the Tab S9 Ultra and iPad Pro (2022) duo that are probably not yet available at their lowest prices of the season. All in all, there's basically something for everyone in this category too.
How about a budget-friendly smartwatch?
No, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 still doesn't fall into the budget smartwatch category at its newly reduced price. But the rugged new model is not discounted very often, so if you can afford it and think that you could use its outdoor skills, now's definitely the time to pull the trigger.
Meanwhile, if you're looking for something that will not break the bank, two of the overall greatest smartwatches money can buy in 2023 are on sale for... less money than ever before. And then you have the OG Pixel Watch, which is arguably not great but at a whopping 50 percent discount with standalone cellular connectivity, it's undeniably good enough.
And here are some awesome earbuds and headphones to wrap things up!
While that Pixel Buds Pro deal is not exactly unprecedented, Amazon is truly outdoing itself with the latest Galaxy Buds FE discount, which has incredibly landed mere weeks after the commercial debut of Samsung's newest entry-level AirPods alternatives.
If you prefer over-ear headphones with a little extra oomph, one of the best high-end Bose options and Apple's latest Beats-branded flagship are both remarkably affordable ahead of the holidays. Now that's a tough choice that you should be absolutely delighted to face at a time you so badly need to keep your spending to a minimum.
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