Top Ten Tech for Black Friday
As the cost of living crisis continues to bite we're keener than ever to find some tech bargains in the run up to Christmas.
Black Friday is officially this Friday 25th November, but many retailers have read the room and are already offering some very chunky discounts. Computing has compiled a top ten of some substantially discounted tech which should help to keep the recipient entertained, productive, fit, clean and caffeinated.
Of course, whether or not you choose to gift any of these is entirely up to you.
Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless headphones
Headphones for a hugely popular gift choice, for music lovers, gamers, people who do a lot of long- haul flying and pretty much anybody who lives in a multi occupancy dwelling and wants to be able to concentrate on work or a movie. Sony's award winning H-1000X series remain the top choice of serious headphone wearers for the combination of their incredibly effective noise cancellation, sound quality and lightweight, comfortable design.
John Lewis is offering a reduction of 21% from from £349 to £299.
Samsung Jet Bot+ VR30T85513W Robot Vacuum
Brave is the man who buys his partner a vacuum cleaner for Christmas, but robot vacuums are part of the family in houses up and down the land. For the uninitiated, robot vacuums will work as you sleep, leave your floor clean as a whistle and send themselves back to a charging station when they've had enough, allowing you to wake to hotel standards of floor cleanliness.
This Samsung Jet Bot+ is the voice activated Rolls Royce of robot vacuums and is currently spectacularly discounted to £369.99 from £899.99 - 59% saving on Amazon. Be quick.
Samsung Galaxy Tablet S8 Ultra
If an Android tablet is on anyone's wish list this Christmas, this is an excellent place to start. The Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra 14.6" is designed very much with entertainment and creativity, rather than work, foremost in mind.
The 5.5mm thick tablet has an 1848 x 2960 resolution which delivers rich colours and pin sharp contrast. The speakers are superb so the tablet is perfect for audio visual entertainment. It also ships with a natural feeling S Pen, Clip Studio Paint, and no less than three cameras so perfect for those with a social media profile to maintain.
John Lewis is offering a discount of £200 to take this to £799 and also offer further discounts when trading in older devices.
Garmin Fenix 6X Pro
The Garmin Fenix 6X Pro is ideal for the Ironman in your life, should you happen to have one. In addition to all the usual Garmin functionality - heart rate tracker, GPS, VO2 max calculations, stress monitors etc. this particular device features preloaded TOPO maps, ski maps for over 2,000 worldwide ski resorts, multiple global navigation satellite systems (GLONASS and Galileo in addition to GPS) support and built-in sensors for 3-axis compass, gyroscope and a barometric altimeter.
It's discounted from £649.99 to £339.99 at Amazon.
Garmin manufacture a huge range of watches and are, arguably, the best when it comes to providing really detailed fitness metrics via accompanying apps. However, their watches aren't designed with female users in mind because they're often just too big and bulky for women to wear comfortably, especially on long runs, bike rides and any other activity that requires bending at the wrist.
It isn't just Garmin. Pretty much all smart watch manufacturers seem to consider it sufficient to market a similar sized watch to women that is simply the default male standard in white or with rose gold trimmings. That's discriminatory in itself, but none of these models are sufficiently discounted to qualify for inclusion in this list so women are essentially paying more for kit that wasn't designed for them.
LG OLED42C24LA (2022) OLED HDR 4K Ultra HD Smart TV, 42 inch TV
If you're in the market for a new TV, John Lewis currently have the LG OLED Evo 42" 2022 model reduced by £200 to £899. In addition to outstanding picture quality and Dolby Atmos for Immersive sound, the TV ships with Freesat and all the usual platforms pre-loaded.
It's a device really designed with gamers in mind but also makes for splendid sports and movie watching experiences.
It's also apparently more sustainable that some of its competitors. LG use a higher proportion of recycled materials in their composite plastics and packing is reduced to the bare minimum for safe transport.
Tefal Actifry Genius+ Air Fryer
When it comes to cooking, air fryers are certainly having a moment. Their initial appeal was that they provided super crispy fried morsels using next to no oil, so were a vast improvement of traditional deep frying from a health perspective.
Newer generations such as this one are smaller, quicker and programmable. They're also a much more economical alternative to switching the oven on, no small matter at a time where energy conservation is vital if we're to avoid both blackouts and ruinous bills in early 2023. There is an accompanying app (of course there is) with hundreds of recipes included should your usual repertoire be feeling a bit jaded. This model is reduced from £219.99 to £158 here
Amazon Echo Dot
Alexa isn't quite proving to be the huge money spinner that Amazon had hoped for a decade ago. It would seem that users of Echo Dots are happy to use their devices to get a weather forecast or find a playlist but have been more reticent when it comes to directly spending money over the devices.
Still, their loss could be your gain because Amazon are currently offering some cracking deals on Alexas. The all new, 5th gen globe shaped Echo Dot is currently retailing at Amazon, naturally at £26.99 - a saving of 51%.
If you can cope with a third-generation model, you can pick one up for £16.99 which represents a 58% saving.
HP 14s-dq2507na 14" Intel® Core™ i3 Laptop
Currently discounted by 45% at retail survivor Currys, this 14" screen laptop is perfect for hybrid workers and students. The combination of a nine hour battery life and weight of 1.46kg makes it perfect for working whilst out and about.
The processor is a Dual Core Intell® Core™ i3-1115G4, providing speeds of 1.7 GHz / 4.1 GHz and a 6 MB cache. Storage is 128GB SSD and 4 GB DDR4 (3200 MHz) of RAM.
Screeen resolution is a perfectly reasonable 1920 x 1080p and the laptop comes bundled with a year of Microsoft Office 365. It doesn't have a touchscreen but at this sort of price that doesn't seem unreasonable.
The laptop ships with Windows 10S as standard but can be upgraded to Windows 11.
GHD Hair Styling Tools
GHD are such a respected, revered brand within the hair styling tools market (it stands for Good Hair Day in case you were wondering,) that they rarely offer discounts. The consensus among celebrities, stylists and beauty influencers is that they're worth the money, which is more than you can say for their far more expensive competitor Dyson. The GHD classic flat iron straighteners have won countless awards.
The GHD Website currently has Black Friday discounts of up to 22% across a variety of hair dryers, straighteners and curling rods as well as accessories.
Tassimo by Bosch Style TA1103GB Coffee Machine
We saved the biggest discount until last.
Hybrid workers spend a good deal of their working days at home and it doesn't do to be insufficiently caffeinated. It is therefore a perfect time to invest in one of these delightful coffee machines which serve up coffee perfection, courtesy of Intellibrew technology, and all without taking up too much of your kitchen worktop.
The Tassimo is currently available here for £29, which is a 73% reduction on the usual £109 RRP.
It's worth pointing out that if you're regularly dropping several pounds at a time in one of our many high street coffee chains, this machine will pay for itself within a fortnight.
This completes our 2022 roundup. Ready, steady, click!