Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The majority of Black Friday deals will launch the day after Thanksgiving (November 26th) in the US as usual, but the pandemic has shaken things up in yet another way. The best deals will be happening online, with fewer in-person sales for the sake of safety. Better yet, some of those great deals are already available, so you can get started on your holiday gift (or personal) shopping. With this post, we’re rounding up the best early Black Friday deals from retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Adorama, B&H Photo, Newegg, and anywhere else we find deals you should know about.

Headphones

I love seeing this $72 off deal on Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones (pictured above). It’s happening again at Amazon and Adorama, matching the lowest price we’ve seen yet. This model of headphones released for $350 in August, improving on the excellent audio quality, sound-dampening noise cancellation, and long battery life of the XM3 from 2018. This newer model doesn’t bring revolutionary changes in either category, but adding multipoint Bluetooth connectivity and auto-pausing sensors makes the XM4 worth seeking out.

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Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Plus wireless earbuds are down to just $110 at Amazon and Best Buy. This is the best price we’ve seen for this model, which usually costs $150 outside of any discounts. Compared to the standard Galaxy Buds, this upgraded model that launched alongside the Galaxy S20 series of phones has improved sound quality, microphones, and battery life.

Laptops / tablets

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

Acer’s Chromebook Spin 713 is the best Chromebook you can currently buy, and it’s $80 off its normal price. Normally $629, it’s now $549. That might not seem like much, but it’s a good value if you want a high-end Chromebook experience, with a 3:2 aspect ratio display, a decent processor, and 128GB of SSD storage.

Misc. deals

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

The Apple Watch SE was already the most affordable Watch that Apple made at $279, but it’s even cheaper at Amazon, Walmart, and Target. You can score the 40mm GPS version for $230 or the larger 44mm Watch for $260 at Amazon or Walmart. Each size looks similar to the more expensive Series 6 but lacks the always-on display and a few other features. The Apple Watch SE aligns more with the Series 5 in terms of specs, but at $230, it’s a fantastic value. Here’s an in-depth post on how the SE differs from other recent Apple Watch models.

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The Apple Watch Series 6 is also cheaper than usual at Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Normally $400 for the 40mm GPS model, it’s down to $350 for the first time for Black Friday. Previously, just a $20 drop was noteworthy.

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Image: Fujifilm

If you are looking to get into photography or know someone that is interested in a digital camera as a holiday gift, Amazon has heavily discounted Fujifilm’s X-A7 mirrorless digital camera with a XC15-45mm F3.5-5.6 OIS PZ Lens. Normally, this camera and lens costs $700, but you can get it today for $450.

Image: Peak Design

Peak Design has kicked off its “Super Massive Black Friday sale” with sizeable discounts on bags and tripods. It might be tough to imagine when you might next need a durable backpack that can fit a lot of gadgets within, but the company’s “Everyday” lineup of bags is 20 percent off. Its bigger “Travel” bags are also discounted.

If you’re into photography, Peak Design’s Travel Tripod and a few accessories that are compatible with it are cheaper than usual.

Gaming

If you’re having trouble narrowing down what games you want, why not get several? Target is hosting a “get three for the price of two” deal on video game purchases — even for newer titles like Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, to name a few. The list goes on, though one thing that isn’t eligible are first-party Sony games for the PS5, like the Demon’s Souls remake, but you can pickup Godfall, which is available on Sony’s next-gen console (and on PC.) Even Cyberpunk 2077, a game coming out next month is eligible for this promotion.

Watch Dogs: Legion, the latest installment in Ubisoft’s hack-anything, open-world game, is down to $50 at Amazon, that’s $10 off, while it’s not the lowest we have seen this game go down, this title recently came out and this is still a good discount. What makes this deal even better is that each version will net you an upgrade to the Xbox Series X / S or PS5 copies for free. Even if you don’t have much interest in the game, it’s an affordable way to check out what impressive ray-tracing graphics look like on the new console hardware.

PC upgrades

If you want 2TB of fast storage for your PC, Samsung’s 2TB 970 Evo Plus NVMe SSD is $250 at Newegg and Amazon, beating the lowest price by about $40. Over the summer, the price was steady at $350. A PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSD like this will fit in only certain kinds of motherboards (so check before you buy). Alternatively, it can also make for a very fast USB-C drive if you get an M.2 enclosure for it. Either route you take, you’ll get a lot of speedy storage.

Stay tuned for more deals.

https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/21569412/black-friday-best-early-deals-sales-tech-gadgets