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    Discounted Chromecasts, $150 off 2018 iPad Pros, and more are this week’s best deals

    Discounted Chromecasts, $150 off 2018 iPad Pros, and more are this week’s best deals

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    A little bit of everything

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    The Polk Command soundbar
    The Polk Command soundbar
    Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

    CES offers a glimpse of what’s to come in technology, but the futuristic showcase in Las Vegas also has the positive side effect of knocking down prices on a few products that are currently available. And with the Super Bowl on the horizon, expect to see more deals in the realm of home entertainment soon. We’ve looked closely to find a few that are worth checking out.

    Home theater

    Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

    The Polk Command soundbar with wireless subwoofer (Alexa built in) is $249 on Amazon starting on January 13th (usually $299). In our review, Dieter Bohn was left more impressed by the Alexa integration than the sound performance, though it will work just fine for most, and it costs less than the Sonos Beam (a better soundbar, though it doesn’t come with a subwoofer).

    Google’s Smart Kit, the Walmart-exclusive bundle containing both the third-gen Chromecast and a Google Home Mini, is $49 at Walmart (usually $79, this is $5 more than the lowest price we saw around Black Friday). You can shout commands to Google Assistant to start programming on the Chromecast via Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, and more, so if that’s something you’ve been wanting to do, this is the cheapest way to do it.

    Google’s Chromecast Audio is being discontinued, so your opportunity to pick one up is nearing its end. If you’re interested in a device that easily loops practically any speaker into your Google Home family, you might want to head to your local retailer to check stock. Practically every online store has sold out, though you might be able to find one as cheap as $15 (usually $35) at Best Buy, Target, or Staples.

    Gaming

    The Division

    This month, Humble Monthly subscribers get immediate access to Yakuza 0 and Tom Clancy’s The Division on PC. For $12 each month, Humble puts together a new batch of games for your enjoyment, and there are three really cool things about being a member: the games are yours to keep (and they’re DRM free), you’ll get 10 percent off of games in the Humble Store, and a slice of the proceeds support a different charity each month. Check out this link to see previous gaming bounties.

    AOC’s (the company, not the congresswoman) G2590FX gaming monitor is $189.99 at Newegg (normally $219.99). This monitor is one of the few FreeSync-ready models that will gain G-Sync abilities later in the year, enabling active sync for Nvidia GTX 10-series and RTX 20-series GPUs.

    Miscellaneous

    Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

    Best Buy is knocking $150 off of a few iPad Pro (2018) models, though it now limits the savings to the 512GB (and above) model of each size. With the discount, you’ll be able to get the 512GB 11-inch iPad Pro for just a bit more than the 256GB version usually costs. This year’s iPad Pro came out just a few months ago, and despite the bendy tendencies of the 12.9-inch model (which, according to Apple, is totally normal), any discount is welcome on these powerful tablets.

    Samsung’s affordable Notebook Flash is set to be released next week for $349, but if you preorder the laptop ahead of time, you’ll get a 128GB microSD card tossed in. This Windows 10 laptop runs the full OS and boasts a fingerprint sensor. But with only 64GB of storage built-in, the extra capacity granted by this preorder perk will come in handy. This offer is good until Monday, January 14th.

    Status Audio will release its BT One headphones on February 15th, but if you scoop them up in advance, you’ll save $20 and get a free set of IEM-2X earbuds with purchase. The BT One wireless headphones feature Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C charging, and come with a hard case.