Black Friday (which is now basically all of November) is one of the best times of the year to pick up things for yourself and for other people. But to say money is tight is an understatement this year. If Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days was any indicator, folks are spending more on essentials than anything else during these big sales. That, combined with the rising trend of holding on to big tech purchases for longer means that you may not have gadgets at the top of your to-buy list this year.
Even if that’s the case, I’d recommend not overlooking tech entirely this Black Friday. After all, all of us have essential tech that we use every day, and more often than not, you can avoid paying full price for most of those gadgets (and all of the rest of the best tech of the year) if you're looking to add to your repertoire or you need a replacement. Personally, I'm not eyeing a new smartphone or laptop this holiday shopping season, but there are a few tech purchases I’d like to make if the prices are right. This is the tech I’m hoping to save on this year during Black Friday.
The case for AirTags has been made numerous times over, you probably don’t need me to tell you why to buy them. Suffice to say that I recently thought of other places to put these trackers, just in case anything valuable around my home gets lost or stolen. I’ll be looking for a four-pack on the cheap ($70 or less) so I can stash a few in some unlikely spots.
Do I need these after buying AirPods Pro 2 last year? No, but for the right price, I could be convinced. I’ve tried many wireless earbuds over the years and AirPods Pro have been the ones that have stuck the longest for me. Since I have an iPhone and mostly Apple devices elsewhere in my life, they just work to the point where anything less, any other earbuds that throw even a small wrench into the process of things just working, would be inconvenient. I think a good sale price for the Pro 3 at this point would be $219 — but I'm really hoping to them drop to $199 or less.
We have one regular screwdriver on each floor of our house because, inevitably, we need them for random tasks (and we thrive on convenience and need things within arm's reach whenever possible). My husband mentioned to me recently that we should look to pick up an electric screwdriver just to make those tasks even faster and easier to complete. Add it to the list along with an electric drill and a ladder of things you just need as an adult that you really don’t want to have to buy in a pinch when you’re faced with an immediate crisis.
I bought a Switch 2 over the summer and have yet to have a storage issue, but I’d like to get in front of that by picking up a microSD Express card on sale during Black Friday. As we found out in our testing to find the best microSD Express card for Switch 2, the differences among the ones available right now are minute at best. I’m not married to a brand, but I am looking for one that’s at least 256GB and (hopefully) $50 or less on sale.
We had a small(ish) tree growing rogue at the edge of our property that we had to get rid of. Of course, we only noticed it after we had professionals cut down a couple of larger trees that were of greater concern. My dad came to the rescue with a cute little electric chainsaw that took out the budding branch in just a few minutes. Now I’m on the lookout for this Ego battery-powered model to drop to a good price ($200 or less) before I buy it. We’ve been impressed with the other Ego lawncare tools we have, and all of their batteries are conveniently interchangeable.
It’s impossible to have too many of these. Seriously. I try to keep emergency charging cables in my car, in my bag, in my carry-on luggage, basically anywhere that I could need to charge my phone. Doing so may seem excessive, but if you’ve ever gone on a vacation and realized you forgot your entire charging setup at home only when you arrived at your destination, you may see things differently. These things are already relatively affordable, but I’m hoping to pick up a few extra-long ones for less on Black Friday.
Whether you already have a smart lighting system in your home or you’re looking to build one out, I highly recommend waiting for Black Friday deals to kick in before investing in any smart light bulbs. I’ll be looking for Hue White and Color Ambiance bulbs, since they often go on sale during this time of the year (and they’re fairly pricey otherwise). These really are the best smart light bulbs on the market, and you’ll get a good deal if you snag a three-pack for around $75.
I have a decade-old, non-smart Vizio TV in my home office that’s been with me for four moves, and I think it’s time that she retires. It still runs fairly smoothly with a Chromecast providing all the smarts, but if I could upgrade to a similarly sized 4K smart TV at a good price, I wouldn’t say no. My biggest limiting factor is size: with the limited space I have in my office, I can’t go bigger than a 43-inch TV. I’m eyeing a few at the moment, including ones from Samsung, Roku and Vizio, so we’ll see what kinds of discounts Black Friday brings to these. If I could get this Samsung set for close to $200, I'd be thrilled.
