A proverbial tidal wave of deals crashed down this morning, heralding the beginning of Black Friday week. As I searched for deals to include in this roundup, I kept finding one after the other that was better. If you think these are good, consider acting fast, as it’s impossible to tell if they’ll stick around all week or if they’re just a flash in the pan. The very best discount that kicked off recently is a big $60 discount on the Apple Watch SE (40mm, GPS) at Best Buy and Amazon. Regularly selling for $279, it’s just $219 — the lowest price yet. If you want the larger 44mm-sized model, it’s $249 instead of $309. You can shop all of the sizes and colorways right here at Best Buy.
We heartily recommend the SE over the Apple Watch Series 3, despite the fact that the Series 3 is seeing tremendous discounts at Walmart (it will be just $109 starting tonight). The Apple Watch SE is considerably faster and more capable, with additional features and more storage to make updating its software far less of a hassle. Read our review.
If you need a relatively speedy USB-C SSD to move files between your phone, tablet, computer, or even a gaming console like the PS5, Samsung’s T7 1TB SSD has hit its lowest price at Amazon and Best Buy. This is the latest model of Samsung’s pocket-friendly portable SSD, and it’s just $110 instead of $170. We’ve seen it reach a low of $140 before, but this is yet another unprecedented Black Friday deal.
When the T7 launched in mid-2020, its 500GB version sold for the same $110 price that the model with twice its internal storage capacity is selling for today. It includes a Type-A adapter in case you’re a little lacking in compatible devices.
You can snag a digital copy of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition for Xbox (compatible with Xbox One, Series S, or Series X) for just $28 at Amazon. The deal has wiggled well below its original $60 price a few times before, but it hasn’t gone below about $35. This collection contains the Mass Effect trilogy and several DLC items, all looking fresh to death in 4K (that is, if your console outputs to 4K).
If you’re looking for more gaming deals, check out our post yesterday that includes all of Nintendo’s excellent Black Friday deals, including where to get its Mario Kart 8 Deluxe console bundle, as well as many first-party Nintendo games that are selling for just $27. Also, the gift card promo for the Oculus Quest 2 is happening, and several retailers will toss in a $50 gift card with the purchase of a headset at regular price.
If you’re a high-rolling PC gamer, Samsung’s 49-inch Odyssey G9 curved gaming monitor is selling for $1,000. Believe it or not, that is this model’s lowest price yet, dropping $400 off its usual price. This ultrawide monitor has a QLED panel with a 5120 x 1440 resolution, a 240Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, and support for G-Sync and FreeSync Premium Pro adaptive sync. My colleague Sean Hollister reviewed this model, and he was impressed with its vivid colors and 1,000 nits of brightness.
A few more early Black Friday deals to whet your whistle
- Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 3 is $850 at Amazon and includes a free set of Galaxy Buds 2 wireless earbuds with purchase.
- Get a three-month pass to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (for both PC and Xbox access) at Target for $25. It usually costs $45.
- For PlayStation gamers, you can get a one-year membership to PS Plus for just $40 ($20 off) at Amazon. This service enables multiplayer gaming and complementary titles each month to add to your PSN account.
- Walmart’s including a hard zip-up case for free alongside the Oculus Quest 2 headset for $299.99. Altogether, this bundle usually costs $349. According to Walmart’s product page, it says that Walmart Plus members will “save big on this item today at 12PM PT / 3PM ET.”
- The powerful yet thin Asus ROG G15 gaming laptop with a QHD display, AMD’s Ryzen 9 processor, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and Nvidia’s RTX 3070 costs $1,550 at Best Buy, down from its regular $1,849. This is our favorite gaming laptop of 2021.