Black Friday Top Picks: tablets, laptops and smartwatches in the US

Black Friday is almost over, but it’s not too late – you still have time to snag some great deals. Note that we have smartphone deals in a separate post, here we’ll focus on the best tablets, laptops, smartwatches, and other offers for the US market.

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pills

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra uses the same chip, but it’s paired with a larger 14.6″ 120Hz OLED display and an 11,600mAh battery. Also note that we’ve linked Wi-Fi versions below — add $150 to the price if you want 5G connectivity on your tablet. Finally, the 1TB variant of the Tab S11 Ultra is the only option for more than 12GB of RAM (it gets is) 16GB).

There are rarely discounts on the larger Ultras, but the smaller (well, 11″) Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 often gets price cuts. It’s an IP68 rated tablet with full DeX support. It comes bundled with a stylus and you can get an optional keyboard depending on what you want to do with it. It’s powered by the Dimensity 9400+ chipset and the storage is expandable via microSD.

There’s no Plus model this generation, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ is still a viable option with its Dimensity 9300+ chipset. It has a larger 12.4” display but is otherwise just as big.

The OnePlus Pad 3 is an interesting alternative – it uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite instead of the MediaTek chip and has a larger 13.2″ 144Hz display. Note that it’s an IPS LCD and not OLED. And it’s basically the same price as the Tab S10 FE model below, not the same as the premium Tab S slates above.

Speaking of, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE and Tab S10 FE+ use IPS LCDs – 10.9” and 13.1” (both 90Hz) respectively. The Exynos 1580 is a mid-range chip, however, not at the level of the Snapdragon 8 or Dimensity 9000 silicon.

The Galaxy Tab S10 Lite is Samsung’s new affordable tablet. It has a 10.9” LCD (90Hz, stylus included) and is powered by the older Exynos 1380.

We don’t have anywhere else to put it, so here it goes – the price of the Meta Quest 3S has been dropped to $250 and that includes a free game. It’s not as capable as the Quest 3 (it’s a mix of Quest 2 and 3 hardware), but it’s an inexpensive entry into the world of VR. The Samsung Galaxy XR is available but not on sale, so it costs $1,800 – it’s a completely different segment. Steam’s own XR headset is still “coming soon”.

smart watches

The Google Pixel Watch 4 is one of the first smartwatches with satellite connectivity, but note that this option is only available on LTE models. Still, if you want a backup option to call for help in case of an emergency somewhere in the woods, it’s an interesting option. The only other smartwatch with satellite connectivity we can think of is from Garmin — the Fenix ​​8 Pro starts at $1,200.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra currently only has LTE connectivity. It’s more outdoorsy than the Pixel with a 100m/10ATM water resistance rating and a larger 590mAh battery (vs. 455mAh).

The Ultra has that strong look – the Galaxy Watch8 Classic is more stylish. It does have a rotating bezel, however, the 1.34” display inside is on the small side for a 46mm watch.

The vanilla Galaxy Watch8 is Samsung’s thinnest yet at 8.6mm. It is available in 40mm and 44mm variants with 1.34” and 1.47” displays respectively (see what we mean about the classic display?). The Watch8 model is rated for 50m/5ATM water resistance and has ECG and blood pressure sensors.

You can save some cash and buy a used Galaxy Watch7. It is 9.7mm thicker while it has a slightly smaller battery (10mAh). However, it uses the same Exynos W1000 chipset, and also has similar screen sizes. And it’s a circle, not circular!

smart rings

You can combine – or even replace, to some extent – ​​a smartwatch with a smart ring. The Samsung Galaxy Ring works with the Samsung Health app and does not require a subscription. However, the functionality of the Ora Ring 4 is quite limited without a subscription.

laptop

Apple released new MacBook Air laptops with the M4 chip earlier this year. It has since introduced the M5 (currently available only on MacBook Pros), but the Airs were never a performance-oriented model. The good news is that there is now a 16GB base RAM capacity, so all you need to worry about is storage.

Alternatively, you can go for the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360. It has a 16″ OLED touchscreen, 2,880 x 1,800px 120Hz panel that can be rotated into tablet mode. It is a Windows laptop, using multiple Intel Core Ultra processors with an NPU that powers Microsoft CoPilot AI.

The Microsoft Surface Pro is a tablet-style device that can optionally be paired with a keyboard if you plan to type more than just using the stylus. It comes in two variants – an LCD with a Snapdragon X Plus (10-core CPU) and an OLED with a Snapdragon X Elite (12-core CPU).

Another Windows AI laptop is the Acer Aspire 16 – it’s powered by a Snapdragon X instead of an x86 chip. Qualcomm-based laptops start out on the high-end, but this is a fairly affordable model with a 16” 1,920 x 1,200px 120Hz LCD touchscreen.

amazon fire tablet

Here are Amazon’s already affordable Android tablets and bargain bin prices. These have good quality screens and come in a range of sizes to suit your needs – these are best for watching videos, scrolling the web and maybe some light work or gaming. They’re not particularly powerful, but the price reflects that. Just remember that there is no access to the Google Play Store out of the box (which can be easily fixed).

Additionally, some of these tablets also have kids versions. They disable ads and are built for younger users – by this we mean they come with a sturdy case and last up to 2 years relieved Warranty. They also come with a 1-year subscription to Amazon Kids+ – an all-you-can-eat service with free, curated content for kids (including Marvel TV shows).

You can install the Parent Dashboard app on your phone and set deadlines and educational goals. You can enable or disable certain apps like YouTube and Spotify. A quick note about the Pro models: these come with a different set of permission defaults. For example, a Pro tablet can access the entire Internet (with content filters), while regular models can only open selected sites. Of course, all of this is subject to change through the parental controls app.

Amazon Kindle e-readers

While you can read books on an LCD tablet, your eyes will thank you for going with an e-reader instead. Amazon has a wide variety, ranging from small and inexpensive to larger, more premium models.

The Amazon Kindle ColorSoft features an e-ink display that is capable of displaying color. This is great for viewing graphic novels or more complex documents. It can also be used in black and white mode (which increases the PPI of the screen).

The Amazon Kindle Scribe is large enough to read PDFs comfortably and also includes a stylus. These books are more for work and creativity than reading (although you can do that too). Note that there is a Colorsoft version coming soon, but it did not launch in time for Black Friday.

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