Apple is working on a new version of the popular Beats Solo on-ear headphones, and it looks like we are getting closer to a potential launch date. FCC documents for the Beats Solo 4 headphones were found today, and that typically happens in the weeks ahead of a debut.
Signs of the Beats Solo 4 were first spotted in late February, with images found in the iOS 17.4 beta. The headphones look similar to the Solo 3 headphones, but with some minor design tweaks that bring them in line with the Beats Studio Pro that came out last year.
We are expecting the Beats Solo 4 to come in three colors, including black, pink, and blue. While we don’t know the full feature set, we found code that suggests they will support Spatial Audio.
The headphones are likely to adopt some of the changes that were brought to the Beats Studio Pro, including improved sound quality and a USB-C port instead of a micro-USB port. Gesture support will be included, with a press on the “b” button to play/pause and answer calls, a double press to skip songs, and a long press to activate Siri.
The Beats Solo 3 headphones first came out in 2016, and while there have been new color releases, the line is long overdue for an update. There is no word as of yet when the Solo 4 will come out, but FCC filings usually show up around a month in advance.
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Apple has yet to release the first beta of iOS 17.5 for the iPhone, but two changes are already expected with the upcoming software update. iOS 17.5 will likely allow iPhone users in the EU to download apps directly from the websites of eligible developers, and the update might include some changes to how Apple ID recovery contacts work. More details about these potential changes follow. W…
Apple today added a handful of devices to its public-facing vintage and obsolete products list, including some older iPhone and iPad models. Apple now considers the iPhone 6 Plus to be “obsolete” worldwide, meaning that Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers no longer offer repairs or other hardware service for the device. Apple says it considers a product “obsolete” once seven…
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The best open ear headphones, also known as the best air conduction headphones, are designed to deliver quality sound while keeping you aware of your surroundings. They work by not placing any tech within your ear canal. This means open ear headphones are a solid choice for outdoor runners or anyone else who wants to hear what’s going on in their immediate environment. They’re also a good idea for people who don’t like the feeling of buds or silicone tips in their ear canals.
Open ear headphones aren’t new. But only recently have they become a major focus for a number of audio tech and fitness tech brands, so although the category is emerging, there isn’t a great deal of choice just yet. A few of the earbuds in our guide perform well, but aren’t perfect – they certainly won’t give the best earbuds a run for their money in terms of sound. There are also teething issues with design; open ear buds aren’t anchored in place with an in-ear bud, which means new design choices are being made with earhooks, headphones and even clamps.
Although there may not be many open ear headphones to choose from, we’ve selected several of our top picks below. We’ve had chance to test many of these headphones ourselves, but if you can’t find a link to a full review it’ll be coming soon. So if you’re looking for an alternative to the best running headphones or best bone conduction headphones, then read on to find out which open ear headphones are right for you.
Shokz is known for creating some of the best bone conduction headphones, but the OpenFit buds prove it’s just as adept at air conduction tech. In our review, we said that these earbuds are capable of “delivering quality audio almost as good as in-ear buds” but with plenty of awareness of your surroundings.
Unlike similar designs, the earhooks are soft and flexible, providing a stable fit. This fit wasn’t perfect – especially when I was wearing glasses – but they stayed put throughout most workouts. The Shokz OpenFit are not the cheapest option in this guide, but if you’re looking for a dependable pair of air conduction earbuds that fit well and deliver solid sound, you can’t go wrong here.
Bose is one of the best audio tech brands in the world, so it’s no surprise that its first pair of open ear buds, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, are seriously impressive. We haven’t had chance to put these buds to the test properly yet. But in our review, we found they tick all of the boxes – but obviously come with a premium Bose price tag to match.
Unlike other buds in this list, the Bose Ultra Open buds hook onto the side of your ear’s helix. The battery cylinder then tucks behind your ear. During our testing, we thought they felt a little wobbly but never fell off – they might just need a bit of getting used to, which we’ll find out in our full review that’s coming soon.
As you’d expect from a pair of Bose buds – even those with an open ear design – the Ultra Open sound great. These truly seem like the best air conduction headphones to beat, but they’re significantly more expensive than rivals so will only appeal to those who can pay premium.
One of the older pairs of buds in our list, the OpenRock Pro from OneOdio have an earhook style, similar to the Shokz OpenFit at the top of the guide and the 1More S50 below. During our testing, we found this design to be comfortable. We even said they’re among the best-fitting workout buds we’ve tested, which is really saying something.
We commented that audio quality isn’t the best here, but will do for most people. They’re our top pick for battery life, which is among the best of the bunch at 19 hours from the buds themselves and 46 hours with the case too. This makes them a great choice if you’re considering open ear buds for more than just working out. These will see you through from commuting, a day at the office and a workout.
The 1More Fit S50 deliver good quality sound, we were impressed with the clarity of voices, bass and volume that they delivered during our testing. We’ve also got a design built for workouts here, thanks to an IPX7 sweat-resistant rating.
However, we felt let down by the fit. Although the earhook design delivered when we tried the Shokz OpenFit – as well as in early tests of the Emeet AirFlow below – we couldn’t achieve a stable and consistent fit with the 1More Fit S50. There’s a chance they’ll fare better for those with biggers ears that don’t wear glasses, however.
They’re cheaper than most rivals on this list, which is why they’re our budget pick. But only consider them if you’re already a fan of an earhook-like design.
Read our full 1More Fit S50 review
Best open ear headphones for calls
(Image credit: Future/TechRadar/Becca Caddy)
5. Emeet AirFlow
Best for calls
Specifications
Battery: 8 hours (earbuds), 40 hours (total)
Water-resistant rating: IPX5
Weight: 8.5g per earbud, 58g case
Reasons to buy
+
Stable fit
+
Clear calls and voices
+
More features than rivals
Reasons to avoid
–
Audio not fantastic
–
Earhooks won’t suit everyone
–
Look a bit boring
We’re currently testing the Emeet AirFlow and will be publishing a full review over the next few weeks. So far, we’ve been really impressed with the design. Earhooks are rarely perfect, but these feel firm and stable. We’ll update you once we’ve taken them running and to the gym.
Audio performance doesn’t shine as much as the buds at the top of this list, but we’re already enjoying these buds for clear voices, both during calls and when listening to podcasts. These might be our favorite option if you want open ear headphone that aren’t just made for the gym, but will suit walking, commuting and using regularly at the office, too.
Best open ear headphones for stability
(Image credit: Oladance)
6. Oladance OWS Sports
Best for sports and stability
Specifications
Battery: 15 hours
Water-resistant rating: IPX8
Weight: 26g
Reasons to buy
+
Stable fit
+
Built for sports
+
Neckband-style
Reasons to avoid
–
Neckband won’t suit everyone
We haven’t tested the Oladance OWS Sports headphones ourselves yet, but we’ll have a review to share within the next few weeks. Until then, we have high hopes that the Oladance OWS Sports will be our top choice for more intense workouts, running and overall stability. This is thanks to the neckband/headband-style design, which makes them look similar to the best bone conduction headphones.
These sports headphones also boast a high water-resistant rating, 5 hours of battery life, muti-point pairing and a slick, nice-looking design. We’ll let you know if these buds are as good as they sound when we test them.
How to choose the best open ear headphones for you
Air conduction tech and open ear headphones have been around for several years, but only recently have audio tech companies both big and small pumped significant time and energy into releasing open-ear devices.
This means there isn’t a huge amount of choice about which air conduction headphones and open ear buds to buy. It’s not like the best wireless earbuds or best noise cancelling headphones in which most audio brands have at least one pair and there’s a massive range to suit all budgets and preferences.
Having said that, our guide above proves there is some choice depending on what you’re looking for – and your options will only grow as more brands enter this space.
The first thing to consider is whether open ear buds are for you. As you can tell from many of our reviews above, there’s a trade-off here in terms of sound quality and fit for an open ear design, which means you need to care about hearing what’s going on around you.
As always, one of the other major factors to consider is your budget. We don’t have a huge range of choice at present, but there are some cheaper options. Having said that, the cheaper options on this list are the ones we had most fit issues with, like the 1More S50.
You’ll see that, at least at the time of writing, air conduction tech comes in several different form factors. There are devices that stay in place with earhooks that fit around the back of your ear, like the Shokz OpenFit. Then there are those that fit around the outer ear in a different way, take a look at the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, which “clamp” on the side of your ear. Finally, there are devices that look similar to the best bone conduction headphones and they have a band around your neck connecting them and keeping them in place.
These designs aren’t all that common, which means we don’t expect you to immediately know which will suit you. But consider whether you’ve got on well with earhook designs in the past – these can cause problems for those with smaller ears or anyone who wears glasses. And if you’ve tried a pair of bone conduction headphones before, you’ll know whether you like the headband.
Otherwise, it is worth pointing out that you’re taking a gamble on whether the fit of the different buds are right for you. This means if you don’t have money to spare and only want a reliable fit, it might be worth trying some of the best workout headphones or best running headphones. Bone conduction headphones don’t have the same method of conducting sound, pumping it through your temples with transducers rather than blasting sound through the air around your ears, but you may want to give those a go instead.
How we test the best air conduction headphones
We’ve had chance to test several of the best air conduction headphones in this guide. We’ve made it clear which we haven’t had chance to review yet, but rest assured that all of the ones mentioned here will be tested over the next month.
This means we know what to expect from the best air conduction headphones when it comes to key features, design and fit, battery life, audio performance and more.
During our testing, we focused a lot on fit. Open ear headphones face a unique challenge in that they need to stay put on your ear and yet don’t have a snug over-ear design or in-ear bud to keep them in place. Brands have compensated for this with ear hooks, headbands or other methods, but they don’t always suit everyone.
With this in mind, we paid close attention to their fit in a range of scenarios, including working, commuting, walking and working out. We made sure to put all of the headphones above through their paces with several different gym workouts, outdoor runs and exercises given that many are created to appeal to amateur athletes and outdoor runners.
You’re never going to get the kind of immersive sound you’d expect from the best noise cancelling headphones with these devices, but that’s not the point. We were keen to assess the buds for audio quality, checking whether there’s decent sound and clarity on offer, even if it’s not immersive. We also weighed this audio performance up against the amount of ambient noise you can hear and whether each pair of buds made us feel more aware of our surroundings, as they’re designed to do.
Finally, we’re not at the point where one pair of open ear headphones tick all of the boxes like you’ll find in other TechRadar headphone buying guides. But we also considered the whole package and whether some of these buds deserved higher ratings based on handy design choices, like water resistance, longevity, like battery life.
Sony will soon release a new pair of mid-range wireless headphones capable of delivering bassy audio on the same level as high-end models. At least, that’s what this latest leak from industry insider Roland Quandt would lead us to believe. He recently spilled the beans on what may be the Sony WH-ULT900N headphones, which Quandt claims are the successors to the WH-XB910N.
This information comes from German tech news site WinFuture, but we’re going to be using a translation provided by NotebookCheck. According to the report, the pair will sport a feature called “Ultra Power Sound,” giving the pair a frequency range stretching from 5 Hz up to 20 kHz.
Having a bottom as low as 5 Hz is particularly notable because it’s a range close to what you see on high-end headphones such as Sony’s WH-1000XM4. NotebookCheck points out this would allow the WH-ULT900N to output “more bassy sound than many of its competitors.”
(Image credit: Roland Quandt/WinFuture)
Images within the leak also give us our first look at what the headphones may look like. At a glance, they resemble the high-end WH-1000XM4 although with a few design tweaks. The USB-C ports on the outside of the cups are no longer there, having been replaced by what appears to be a speaker grill. And the company logo is in a different position.
(Image credit: Roland Quandt/WinFuture)
Specs
Quandt’s leak goes on to list some of the WH-ULT900N’s specifications. Inside the cups will be 40mm drivers, and its battery will last up to “50 hours of music playback”. That number drops down to 30 hours with ANC (active noise canceling) enabled. It’ll use the company’s own LDAC (Lossless Digital Audio Codec) connectivity standard to ensure high resolution audio across wireless connections.
With Bluetooth 5.2, the WH-ULT900N supports Bluetooth Multipoint. This will let future owners hop between simultaneously connected audio sources.
No word on when the Sony WH-ULT900N will launch, but when they do, the pair should cost around $215/£170 and come in three different colors: Black, White, and Forest Grey.
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Amazon’s Big Spring Sale continues today and if you’re interested in saving on tech, you’ve come to the right place. This sale event may not be a boon for discounts on laptops, tablets, wearables and the like, but Amazon does have some solid tech deals available now. While most of these prices are not the same as those we saw during the Black Friday time period, some get pretty close (as a general rule of thumb, a good price in March isn’t necessarily the same thing as a good price in November). Here are the Amazon Big Spring Sales on tech we love that you can get right now.
Apple
A single AirTag is on sale for $24, which is $5 off and close to its record low price. These are the best Bluetooth trackers for those with iOS devices since they use the vast Find My network to keep track of your belongings. You can force them to ring to help you find your stuff if you’re within close range, and newer iPhones can even display directions on their screens to guide you to your lost stuff. Just make sure to pick up a holder if you intend on attaching the AirTag to your keys.
Our favorite pair of budget wireless earbuds has dropped to a new record-low price of $50. The Anker Soundcore Space A40 impressed us with their solid sound quality, comfortable fit and impressive active noise cancellation for the price. We think they’re a great value at their normal $80 price, so this sale makes them even more attractive. In addition, they have good battery life and support for multi-device connectivity and wireless charging. They may not have the best call quality, and they don’t support automatically wear detection, but otherwise you’re getting a nearly-full package for a great price.
The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max is back down to its record low of $40 for the Big Spring Sale. It’s a discount we’ve seen a few times before, but nevertheless, it matches the item’s all-time-low price. This is the most powerful streaming dongle Amazon has, with support for 4K content, Dolby Vision with HDR, Wi-Fi 6E and the “Fire TV Ambient Experience,” which puts art and photos on your TV screen when you’re not actively watching anything. Also discounted for the Big Spring Sale is the Fire TV Stick Lite, which you can pick up for only $20.
One of our favorite pairs of budget wireless earbuds, Amazon’s latest Echo Buds are on sale for only $35 ahead of the Spring Sale. These buds have an open design, which means they purposely let sound in so you can stay more aware of your surroundings. They support adjustable EQ and, unlike many other earbuds at this price, auto-pausing and multi-device pairing. And, as to be expected, they have Alexa built in so you can call upon the voice assistant when you need to while wearing them.
Amazon’s Big Spring Sale has brought the most recent Echo Dot down to $35, which is $12 more than the lowest price we’ve tracked but still $15 off the smart speaker’s usual going rate. It also matches the best price we’ve seen for the device in 2024. The Echo Dot is the “under $50” pick in our guide to the best smart speakers. It can still do just about all of the expected Alexa features, and it sounds decently balanced for something this compact. It can also serve as a node to extend an Eero mesh Wi-Fi system, if you own one of those. So long as you’re comfortable having a voice-activated speaker in your home in the first place, this is a good way to see if you’d find an Alexa device useful.
If you can pay a little bit extra, the full-size Amazon Echo is also on sale for $65. Again, that’s not an all-time low, but it’s $35 off Amazon’s list price. This model offers all the same functionality as the Echo Dot but sounds louder and fuller across the board, so it’s better for streaming music.
Apple’s AirPods Pro are once again available for $189, which is a near record low for the latest iteration with a USB-C charging case. Apple normally sells the noise-canceling earphones for $249, though we often see them go closer to $200 at third-party retailers. Either way, they remain our favorite wireless earbuds for iOS users, as they provide an array of perks when paired with an iPhone, from faster pairing to hands-free Siri. Useful ANC, a superb ambient sound mode and a pleasingly warm sound profile help beyond that. Their battery life and mic quality are just OK these days, but this pair should serve you well if you’re all-in on Apple. We gave the second-gen AirPods Pro a review score of 88 back in 2022.
The second-gen Apple Pencil is down to $79, which is one the best prices we’ve seen. It’s important to note that it’s rumored that we’ll see new Apple Pencils when new iPads come out sometime within the next month — but if you already have an iPad and have been looking to snag this accessory on discount, now’s your chance. This is the Pencil that works with most of the latest iPad models and it magnetically snaps to the sides of the tablets for safe keeping. It’s one of our favorite iPad accessories thanks to that, and its generally stellar, little-to-no latency performance.
As part of a larger portable speaker sale, Anker’s Soundcore Motion 300 has dropped to $64, which is a record low. It earned a spot on our favorites list thanks to its solid sound quality featuring crisp highs and generally punchy, bright audio. Its IPX7 design weighs only 1.7 pounds and the built-in loop makes it easy to attach to a bag to take with you on the go. It also works with Anker’s Soundcore app, which lets you customize EQ, button brightness and more.
Best Spring Sale deals on headphones, earbuds and speakers
Photo by Billy Steele / Engadget
Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones are back on sale for $328. This isn’t an all-time low, and it’s a deal we’ve seen numerous times over the past few months, but it’s still $70 off the noise-canceling cans’ list price. The XM5s are the top pick in our guide to the best wireless headphones thanks to their comfy fit, solid active noise cancellation (ANC), clear mic and handy bonus features. They’re bass-heavy by default, but you can adjust their sound profile with EQ tools in Sony’s companion app.
This XM5’s predecessor, the Sony WH-1000XM4, is also worth a note at $248. Again, that’s not an all-time low, but it’s about $50 below the pair’s average street price in recent months. This older model has many of the same benefits as its successor, plus its earcups can fold up, which makes the design a little easier to pack away. Its call quality is worse, however, and it’s not quite as light on the head. We gave the XM5 a review score of 95 in mid-2022, while the XM4 earned a 94 way back in 2020.
If you’re not tethered to Apple, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are another set of high-end earphones we recommend. Right now they’re down to $249 at Amazon, Bose.com and other storefronts. That’s a $50 discount. We’ve seen this price a few times before, but it still matches the best deal we’ve tracked. Bose says the offer will run until March 31.
We specifically highlight the QuietComfort Ultras in our buying guide for their noise-canceling prowess, as they do a superlative job of muting outside noise and allow you to lower the intensity of the ANC if it ever becomes uncomfortable. They’re another pair with a somewhat bass-heavy sound out of the box, but they don’t sound sloppy, and unlike the AirPods Pro you can customize their EQ through a companion app. That said, they don’t support wireless charging or multi-device pairing, and their six-to-seven-hour battery life isn’t anything special. The earpieces themselves are also fairly large, though we wouldn’t call them uncomfortable. We gave the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds a score of 88 in our review last year.
The Beats Studio Buds + are back on sale for $130 in various colors, which is roughly $20 off the true wireless earbuds’ average street price and $40 off Beats’ list price. The only time we’ve seen them go for less was a brief drop to $120 around Black Friday. This deal is also available at other retailers, including Target, Best Buy and B&H.
We gave the Studio Buds + a review score of 84 last year. As Beats is an Apple subsidiary, this pair provides many of the iOS-friendly perks you’d get from a set of AirPods, such as faster pairing, Find My tracking, hands-free Siri and Control Center integration. Unlike AirPods, they offer similar features on Android as well. A comfy fit, decent ANC and a mostly neutral sound profile also help. However, other AirPods features like audio sharing and automatic device switching (with Apple gear) aren’t supported, nor is wireless charging or wear detection. And the ANC and audio quality are a step down from the AirPods Pro. Still, if you dig the style and want to save some cash, the Studio Buds + are worth considering.
One of our favorite headphones for running is on sale for a near record-low price. Jabra’s Elite 8 Active earbuds have dropped to $160, which is only about $10 more than the best price we’ve seen. They’re rated IP68, which is one of the best protective ratings we’ve seen on workout earbuds. Jabra even put these buds through military-grade testing, so it’s fair to say they can take a beating. They also have great sound quality (that has spatial sound with Dolby Audio), good ANC and HearThrough transparency mode, multipoint connectivity and an easy to use mobile app. Also included in this sale are our budget top pick, the Jabra Elite 4 Active, for only $90.
The Google Pixel Buds Pro are down to $139 from $200. The 30 percent discount doesn’t bring the earbuds to their all-time low, but this is the cheapest we’ve seen the Google Pixel Buds Pro so far this year. These are our choice for the best wireless earbuds for Android.
Engadget’s Billy Steele gave them an 87 in his review thanks to the addition of solid active noise cancellation, punchy bass and reliable touch controls. They also offer IPX4 water resistance so you can take them on a run without worry. The buds get up to 11 hours on a charge and 31 hours in total with the case. And when it’s time to recharge, wireless charging makes a refill a little easier. One catch is the call quality isn’t as great as it could be, but if you’re primarily using them for music and podcasts, you may not notice.
Sonos has kicked off a new round of discounts on its soundbars and portable speakers. The deals include the Sonos Move 2 for $359, which is $70 off its usual going rate and the second-best price we’ve seen outside of a very brief drop to $349 last year. The Sonos Ray soundbar is $56 off and down to an all-time low of $223, while the higher-end Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is available for $399, a $100 discount. The Sonos Sub Mini subwoofer is also down to a low of $343, which is $86 less than usual, while the compact Sonos Roam SL is $32 off at $127. A few speaker bundles are also discounted. These offers are available at several retailers, including Amazon, B&H and Sonos.com. Sonos says they’ll run through March 25.
None of these devices come cheap, but they all deliver relatively clean sound, easy pairing with other Sonos hardware, AirPlay support and an app that (mostly) makes it simple to set up and stream music. The Move 2 is a hefty yet powerful battery-powered speaker for those who are more concerned with sound quality over portability. The Roam SL doesn’t sound as rich, but it’s much more travel-friendly and has a better water-resistance rating. (It lacks built-in mics, though.) The Ray is an entry-level 2.0-channel soundbar meant for smaller rooms and budget buyers. The Beam is a 5.0 model with a more expansive sound, an HDMI eARC port and voice assistant functionality. It also supports Dolby Atmos, though it can’t take advantage of that quite as much as larger models. The Sub Mini, meanwhile, is a handy way to beef up the bass response of an existing Sonos system. You can check out our reviews of the Move 2, Ray, second-gen Beam and Sub Mini for fuller breakdowns of each device.
Our favorite midrange smartphone, the Google Pixel 7a is on sale for $374 right now, which is a record-low price. That almost puts it within our “budget” price range ($350) for Android phones, so while it’s still a splurge pick, it’s arguably the best Android phone you can get in that price range at the moment. It runs on Google’s Tensor G2 chipset, plus it has a lovely 90Hz touchscreen, long battery life and an excellent camera array that takes impressive photos in all kinds of light situations, and good selfies, too. While there are plenty of good budget Android phones available today, you won’t find one that offers a better value than the Pixel 7a when on sale like this.
Both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro have been discounted for the Spring Sale, down to $499 and $749, respectively. Both run on the Google Tensor G3 chip, and they have great battery lives and excellent cameras. We consider both of them to be the best Android phones available right now thanks in part to those features. Google also added a number of actually useful AI features like Best Take and Magic Eraser for photos, and more accurate voice typing and article summaries for the Google Assistant.
Our favorite budget-friendly VR headset is down to a new low for the Amazon spring sale. You can grab the Meta Quest 2 for only $199, which is $50 off its usual price. Walmart has it for the same price, and it includes a $50 Meta Quest store gift card with purchase. There’s no better VR headset for those who don’t have a lot of spend, and the Quest 2 holds its own even among the newest models. It’s completely cordless and comfortable to wear for long sessions, it comes bundled with Meta’s solid motion controllers and there’s a huge library of titles that you can try out with it.
The Elgato Stream Deck Mk.2 in white is back down to $130. This is another deal we’ve seen pop up periodically in recent months, but it’s $20 off the device’s usual street price all the same. The Stream Deck is a macro keypad we recommend in our guide to the best game streaming gear. It has 15 programmable hotkeys that you can set to perform different commands, from launching an app to activating smart lights to triggering on-screen GIFs and sound effects. It’s really meant for content creators and power users first and foremost, but if you think you could benefit from having a bunch of shortcuts within arm’s reach, this is a decent time to pick one up.
Bundles that pair the PlayStation 5 with a digital copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 are still $50 off, bringing the standard model down to $449 and the digital-only version down to $400. These deals aren’t tied to Amazon’s Spring sale, but larger discounts on the PS5 have been uncommon, so this is still a good opportunity if you’ve been looking to take the plunge. The offers are available at several retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy and Sony’s PlayStation Direct store. Sony says they’ll last through March 31. My colleague Nathan Ingraham gave Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 a glowing review last year, calling it a “perfectly balanced game with gorgeous graphics, delightful combat and traversal systems, a compelling storyline and characters, plenty of challenge and a huge map to explore.”
The Google Nest Thermostat is on sale for $100 ahead of Amazon’s Spring sale, which is about $10 more than the best price we’ve seen over the past year but $30 below its typical going rate. We’ve highlighted this entry-level smart thermostat in past gift guides. Compared to the higher-end Nest Learning Thermostat, it has a cheaper plastic frame, doesn’t support remote temperature sensors and can’t learn your heating and cooling tendencies to make automatic adjustments throughout the day. That said, it’s a more affordable way to remotely control your home’s climate, and it still supports features like HVAC monitoring and voice assistant control. It’s also compatible with the Matter standard, unlike the pricier model, so it can work with third-party platforms like Apple Home.
The is the runner up in our and thanks to the Amazon Big Spring Sale it’s now half price, making it just $300. That’s not quite an all-time low — it was $2 cheaper for much of February — but still a significant discount on one of our recommendations.
Engadget’s Valentina Palladino found this one to have powerful suction and an easy-to-use app. She also appreciated the upgraded obstacle detection that particularly avoids pet poop. The bot does take a couple runs before it can create a full map — and it doesn’t clean while it does that, so be prepared to wait a little after unboxing before your floors are truly on auto-pilot.
The Tineco Pure One S15 is the runner up pick in our cordless vacuum guide and right now it’s on sale for $349, but an addition clippable $25 coupon brings the final price down to $324.
This model is slightly less powerful than our top pick from Dyson but it handles dry messes well — including pet hair. It also automatically adjusts suction power depending on the amount of dirt it detects through the sensor. It’s app-connected, though that feature is admittedly not super necessary in a cordless vac. Still, it can help keep you apprised of your filter and battery levels.
As part of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, the Paperwhite Signature is getting a $30 discount — it’s first sale since Black Friday last year. The catch is that this deal is exclusively for Prime members. The Signature Edition is an upgrade over the standard Kindle: It has a larger, 6.8-inch screen, 32GB of storage, auto-adjusting warm front lights and wireless charging capabilities. It also comes standard without lockscreen ads, a great perk since you usually have to pay upwards of $20 to remove those on other Kindle models.
A number of Amazon’s Fire tablets are on sale right now, including the new Fire HD 10 for $95. That’s about $15 more than its record-low price, but it’s still a decent deal for this time of year. Updated in 2023, the Fire HD 10 has a 10-inch 1080p touchscreen, an octa-core processor, up to 13 hours of battery life and it charges via a USB-C port. We still think Fire tablets are best as secondary devices rather than daily drivers — that slab you keep next to the couch to check email or shop online on the fly, or by your bedside to read books and comics. And when they’re discounted like this, it’s much easier to justify getting a secondary device like that in the first place. A bunch of kid-friendly Fire tabs are on sale, too, most of which come with a childproof protective case, a two-year warranty and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+.
A variety of Amazon Blink devices are now discounted as part of the site’s Big Spring Sale. A three pack of the new Blink Outdoor 4 is down to $150 instead of $260. That’s a 42 percent discount and the lowest price we’ve seen this year (the set hit an all-time low of $135 for Black Friday).
If you just need one camera, take advantage of the sale on a single Blink Outdoor 4. It’s currently down to $65 from $100 — a 35 percent discount.
The Blink Outdoor 4 came out last August with a lot of upgrades including a larger field of vision, up to143 degrees and better low-light sensitivity and image quality. Blink claims the devices will go for two years before needing their AA batteries replaced.
The Kobo Libra 2 is $20 off right now and down to $170, which is the best price we’ve seen all year. You can get that discount at Amazon or from Kobo direct. The Libra 2 is one of our favorite ereaders thanks to its handy page-turn buttons and ergonomic design. The page will automatically switch orientation when you rotate the ereader, which makes it much easier to hold, and you can lock the orientation when you want it to stay put. The design feels premium, the 7-inch display is comfortable to look at for long periods of time and the convenient Overdrive integration makes it easy to borrow, download and read books from your local library.
The Google Pixel Tablet makes a good smart display and tablet hybrid. Right now the 11-inch slate-plus-dock is back down to $399 at multiple retailers for the 128GB model. In addition to Amazon you can save at Target and the Google Store. This matches the lowest price we’ve seen and works out to $100 below the variation’s usual going rate. If you need more storage, the 256GB version is $150 off and available for $449, also an all-time low.
Engadget’s Cherlynn Low gave the Pixel Tablet a score of 85 in her review last June, and we mention the device in our tablet buying guide, though it’s not one of our top picks. But if you’re looking for a tablet that can also be your smart home command center, this is a good pick for controlling smart home devices, showcasing photos, streaming music with the improved speakers, and even cast video from your phone.
Plugable TBT4-UDZ gets a mention in our guide to the best laptop docking stations and right now it’s 20 percent off and down to $239. It’s a rare discount for the brand and the lowest price we’ve tracked. We were a little disappointed that the dock only has one downstream USB-C port, but it has plenty of USB-A and display connections and worked well with the MacBook and Dell laptops in our test, but didn’t work with a Chromebook.
New subscribers can get 40 percent off a Max subscription when you pay for one year upfront. If you want to go all-in on the highest tier, which gives you ad-free viewing and 4K streaming, it’ll cost you $140 for the year (roughly $12 per month). The most affordable tier will set you back a total of $70 for the year, which works out to about $6 per month. Considering how often streaming prices have increased recently, a sale like this is a great time to invest in a year of access to shows like The Last of Us and movies from outlets like Studio Ghibli and A24.
Our top pick for the best cordless vacuum cleaner, the Dyson V15 Detect, is on sale for $600 right now directly at Dyson. We’ve seen this model drop to $550 in the past, but this remains a great sale on a cordless vacuum that’s typically priced at $750. The “Absolute” models are much the same as the standard models, but you can typically only get Absolute versions at Dyson.com. Also, this model has HEPA filtration, a built-in tool and an exclusive gold color. Otherwise, it’s the same as our top pick, which impressed us with its excellent suction power, lightweight design and good battery life. In general, we found Dyson stick vacuums to provide the strongest suction power of any brand we tried, and the V15 is noticeably stronger than older models like the V8. It comes with a number of attachments as well, including the Fluffy Optic cleaner head that illuminates your floors with a laser of light so you can see exactly where the most debris is as you clean.
As part of the Big Spring Sale, Amazon has a similar version, the V15 Detect Complete, for $690 as a Prime exclusive. The main difference here, aside from the lack of HEPA filtration, is that you get a standing dock with Amazon’s model, which will be handy if you aren’t keen on mounting your new cordless vacuum to a wall.
We’ll move beyond Amazon for our last few deals this week. First, a configuration of Apple’s 14.2-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip, 18GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is down to $1,799 at B&H. That’s close to an all-time low and comes in $200 below Apple’s MSRP. We gave the latest MacBook Pro a review score of 90 last year. It’s more Mac than most people need, especially after the recent refresh of the MacBook Air. But for video editors, 3D designers and other professional types who need more power, a wider port selection and a brighter display, it should still fit the bill.
The 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard is back on sale for $80 at Amazon subsidiary Woot, a $20 discount that matches the lowest price we’ve seen. This is a tenkeyless mechanical keyboard we recommended in our retro gaming gift guide late last year. You’d mainly buy it for the aesthetic, as it looks like a companion piece for an old NES. Beyond that, it’s sturdily built, it works wirelessly and it comes with a pair of giant “Super Buttons” that you can customize to perform different macros. It’s comfortable for typing as well, though its clicky Kailh Box White V2 switches are fairly noisy. It also lacks any kind of backlighting. The stock switches are hot-swappable, however, so you can easily replace them if needed.
The latest Steam Spring Sale is underway, bringing an enormous range of PC game discounts along with it. There are simply too many deals for us to list everything, but some highlights include the acclaimed CRPG Baldur’s Gate 3for $54 (a small but rare discount), the frantic platformer Pizza Towerfor $13.39, the recently released Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for $56, the FPS compilation Halo: The Master Chief Collectionfor $10 and the VR adventure Half-Life: Alyx for $20.39. These big Steam sales are always a good time to grab some older classics for dirt cheap, too: The two Portalpuzzlers are available for $1.48, for instance, while the co-op shooter Left 4 Dead 2is just a buck. Valve says the sale will run until March 21.
Outside of Steam, the Epic Games Store has commenced its Spring Sale as well. The selection there isn’t as large, as usual, but it does include some well-reviewed exclusives like Alan Wake 2for $40 and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crownfor $30. Before you go padding your backlog on either store, though, we’d recommend using a price tracking site like IsThereAnyDeal to ensure you’re getting a genuine discount.
However technologically impressive a foldable smartphone may be, they’re seriously expensive. A $500 discount can help if you’re ready to grab one. The Google Pixel Fold is one of our favorites, and it’s now down to $1,299 at the Goole Store. It beats the largest discount we’ve seen for the unlocked 256GB model, by $100. If you need more storage space, Google has the 512GB model for $1,419, another $500 discount and record low.
The Pixel Fold is the runner-up pick in our guide to the best foldable phones, and Engadget’s Sam Rutherford gave it a score of 85 in his review last June.
The discount is part of a larger sale Google is hosting on its storefront right now, perhaps in response to Amazon’s event.
Hi-res audio can be a cruel mistress. You’d be forgiven for thinking two five-star products joined in union will surely bring high fidelity sound to your ears, but, as anyone who’s connected a set of high-impedance IEMs to a hi-res DAP (even if it’s one of the best portable audio players hooked up to some of the best wired headphones) knows, it’s just not that simple.
Why? Because said player may not have the oomph or power to fire up your earphones’ multiple drivers to their full potential, that’s why. And that means you’ll need a separate headphone amp (often bundled in with some of the best portable DACs), which may affect the sonic characteristics of your chosen player’s onboard digital-analog-converter.
And aside from all of this, headphones are tuned specifically by audio engineers (often to reflect the sonic recipe a brand is known for) and said audio curve may not work as beautifully with your player’s presentation as you might hope.
In hi-fi as in life, compatibility is key. And that’s why I want you to know about this little system. It surprised me, in all the right ways.
First off, I decided to start with a set of very big and rather new headphones, namely the December 2023-issue FiiO FT5, also known as FiiO’s first ever planar magnetic design. Why did they set my internal alarm bells ringing – and why might such a product be a tough match for any pocket player? Each ear cup uses a large and extraordinarily thin (6µm) planar magnetic driver, with 11 neodymium magnets on one side and nine on the other. Sounds tough to drive, no? And because these headphones are priced at $449 / £429 / AU$799, (a level at which PM designs aren’t unheard of, but the more practical dynamic driver alternative still dominates) coupled with the fact that this is FiiO’s first stab at a planar magnetic design, I worried sensitivity would be an issue.
On top of all of that, I plugged their 4.4mm balanced output into Astell & Kern’s most ‘entry-level’ player, the Astell & Kern A&norma SR35. I put the term in quotation marks because using it at all requires you to consider $799 / £799 / AU$1,299 a negligible fee – and I cannot do that. No, not even when A&K’s flagship player (the Astell & Kern A&ultima SP3000 costs $3,699 / £3,799 / AU$5,499, thank you…
Doubt the talents of this A&K x FiiO pairing at your peril
Who wouldn’t love to produce this from a pocket? (Image credit: Future)
So, we know that these cans are big and we know that they use a flat 90mm diaphragm, rather than the traditional cone-shaped one. Because this is sandwiched between a total of 20 magnets to create a diaphragm evenly-suspended between permanent magnetic fields, it should make the sound far more resistant to myriad audio and electronic distortions – so better music – but only if the player can power it properly, to celebrate the resolution of those lossless FLAC files.
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And oh, the Astell & Kern A&norma SR35 can. I hadn’t expected it, and I was wrong to doubt either brand.
A&K’s stone cold serious spec-sheet should have been enough, really, but plenty of brands promise strength and zeal from their players even when they’re tasked with hard-to-drive headphones and sadly, I’ve been disappointed in the past.
But not here. This partnership is one of the best I’ve stumbled upon and it is without doubt my top shout for a portable system costing $1,248 / £1,228 / AU$2,098.
As noted above, the A&norma SR35 isn’t your average ‘entry level’ player. Astell & Kern is a specialist that regularly lists digital audio players costing the better part of four large in its oeuvre, and this particular player certainly exceeds my expectations of a DAP listed alongside the term.
Tempted? Good, the audiophile in you deserves it
Why yes, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds sounds great on it (Image credit: Future)
I’ve listened to FiiO’s novel new over-ears with A&K’s cheapest player for hours (turning into days), and for this money, I cannot suggest a portable solution that could come close to bettering it – and that’s not a statement I make flippantly.
The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights is every bit as vivacious, cutting, textured and punchy as you could hope to enjoy at the level. The Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter is raucous, emotive, foot-tappingly accurate timing-wise and above all, meaningfully immersive. When the beat drops in Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, you know about it and then some.
The SR35’s amplification (the key component in this partnership) comes from a recent A&K in-house design called ‘New Generation AMP’. Digital-to-analogue conversion is handled by not one, not two, but four Cirrus Logic CS43198 DAC chips – and it can even run in ‘dual-DAC’ mode instead, to extend the battery performance. It’s all part of Astell & Kern’s ‘Teraton Alpha’ hardware platform and the choice morsel of intel you need here is that while it’s featured in Astell & Kern players before, it has been reserved for the much more expensive ones until now – namely, the firm’s A&futura and A&ultima lines.
With the A&norma SR35, I now get to combine my oversized FiiO cans with A&K’s 2-step gain mode – yes, I get to select ‘normal’ or ‘high’ gain modes depending on my power needs. You see, the output claim for the SR35 is 6 Vrms from its balanced connections – and that’s huge. If your main issue with DAPs to date has been power (ie. enough to drive your beloved over-ear headphones) the extra fuel injection between the SR35 and the already-much-better A&norma SR25 MKII is significant. The SR35 drives the FiiO FT5 with energy to spare. I never need to go above 60% volume – or, to put it another way, 89 of the SR35’s 0to 150 on its 0.5 dB incremental volume wheel is plenty.
Will the battery life suffer with this little setup? A little, despite the improved efficiency. You should expect to take a slight hit on the 20 hours or so of playback you’ll get using dynamic driver headphones at 50% volume – but then again, using a Bluetooth connection to wireless cans also means taking a hit on stamina, and I know which I prefer.
I appreciate that it’s not an insubstantial amount of money. But I also maintain that these two products in partnership are worth it, because in my honest opinion the sound outperforms the investment considerably.
It’s that time of year again, when Amazon puts on its Big Spring Sale. And this year’s edition gets you between 20% and 51% off a great selection of 22 Soundcore headphones and earbuds. That’s up to about half off Soundcore headphones and earbuds.
It’ll be tough to find better deals on the Anker subsidiary’s excellent audio products, which are packed with value even at regular prices.
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Amazon Big Spring Sale: Get half of Soundcore headphones and earbuds
Soundcore is well-represented in Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, with 22 items deeply discounted. The brand regularly comes across with highly competitive audio products.
Soundcore’s noise cancelling headphones and earbuds compete with the big-time audio brands while offering affordable prices. A good example would be the relatively new Space One ANC headphones at $99.00 $79.00 (20% off). But the deals below are even better.
Top 5 Soundcore deals in Amazon’s Big Spring Sale
While the sale offers 22 discounted items, the deals vary. Here are the top 5 biggest discounts:
I gave these stellar earbuds 4.5 out of 5 stars in my Cult of Mac review. They offer powerful noise cancellation and great sound. They’re small, lightweight and comfortable to wear. They were among the first ANC earbuds to hit the 50-hour mark on battery life. The app offers plenty of customization options. So getting half off Soundcore earbuds like these is a steal.
Be careful crossing streets with ANC on. It really works in these Space A40 earbuds. Photo: David Snow/Cult of Mac
Can you go wrong paying just $24 for Soundcore earbuds? No. Life P2 Mini true wireless earbuds’ triple-layer 10mm drivers deliver sound with boosted bass. You also get three equalizer modes (Soundcore Signature for well-balanced sound, Bass Booster and Podcast for voice clarity). The buds weigh just 0.16oz (4.4g), which Soundcore said is 10% lighter than standard earbuds.
You can maintain your focus with Life Q30’s hybrid active noise cancellation. Dual noise-detecting microphones pick up and filter out up to 95% of low-frequency ambient sound, Soundcore said. And you can hear music’s details through Life Q30’s 40mm drivers. The highly-flexible silk diaphragms reproduce thumping bass and crisp treble that extends up to 40kHz. The battery buys you 40 hours of playtime.
As I did with the Space A40 earbuds, I gave the Q45 over-ear headphones 4.5 stars out of 5 in my review. They’re simply excellent headphones that I still wear frequently. Even at $150, they offer good value, so $100 is an outstanding price. For that money, you get comfortable, lightweight cans with stellar noise cancellation and epic battery life. And when it comes to the main thing — good sound quality — Q45 cans don’t disappoint. They’re certified hi-res and they sound like it.
So this isn’t half off Soundcore earbuds, but a quarter off isn’t bad. Liberty 4 NC noise cancelling earbuds have a high sensitivity in-ear sound sensor, an oversized driver and a noise-isolation chamber that cancels up to 98.5% of noise. The buds’ adaptive ANC 2.0 makes real-time calculations and adjusts to your ear canals and external environment for maximum quiet. And 11mm custom-tuned drivers deliver consistently crisp and detailed sound. Customize your sound with the adjustable EQ and its 22 presets.
Spring is officially here and if you’ve been itching to get back outside for a run, or you want to start a new workout regimen, the Amazon Big Spring Sale might have just what you need to upgrade the music portion of your routine. A number of Jabra earbuds have been discounted for the sale, including a couple of our top picks for the best headphones for running. Key among them is the Jabra Elite 8 Active, which is on sale for $160 — only $10 more than its record-low price. The same sale price can be found direct at Jabra as well.
Jabra
Pick up one of our favorite headphones for running while they are down to a near record-low price.
These nearly bested the Beats Fit Pro for the top spot in our guide. Not only are the Elite 8 Active buds comfortable and secure when doing any kind of workout, but they’re also IP68-rated for dust and water resistance. Jabra also put these earbuds through military-grade testing to protect them from extreme humidity, high temperature, rain and altitude, so it’s fair to say these buds can take a beating (probably way more than what you’d put them through even during your sweatiest runs).
The Elite 8 Active have solid sound quality and ANC out of the box, but you can customize EQ settings using its companion mobile app. If you prefer bassy sounds to get you in the zone before a workout session, you can change the sound profile to accommodate that. They also support spatial sound with Dolby Audio, which is a great perk to have and it will make the Elite 8 Active an even better option for those who want just one pair of buds to use all day, every day, not only during workouts. Jabra’s HearThrough transparency mode is also handy, especially for runners who often train outside, since it lets some sound in so you can stay more aware of your surroundings.
Our biggest gripe with the Elite 8 Active buds is that HearThrough doesn’t sound quite as natural as the transparency mode on our top pick, the Beats Fit Pro. Otherwise, they’re a fantastic option for runners or anyone else who wants a solid pair of wireless earbuds that provide a complete package when it comes to sound quality, ANC and protection against sweat and the elements.
If you’re looking to spend even less, it’s hard to find a better value in Jabra’s lineup than the Elite 4 Active earbuds. Those are on sale for $90 right now — not a record low, but close to it. They’re our budget pick in the same guide thanks to their comfy, IP57-rated design, good sound quality and ANC, solid battery life and support for multipoint connectivity. And even though you don’t get spatial audio on the Elite 4 Active, they do support custom EQ with the Jabra mobile app.
The Amazon Spring Sale continues today, and among all of the clothing, outdoor and home products on sale, there are a few good tech deals to be had. Unlike regular Prime Day, the Big Spring Sale is not exclusive to Prime members, which is great for any and all shoppers with items to check off on their lists. However, it’s also not like Prime Day in that the number of tech deals available is much less than that of Amazon’s summertime deals event. If you’re on the hunt for a new pair of wireless earbuds, a power bank or a cordless vacuum, though, we at Engadget are here to help. We’ve scoured Amazon’s site to find the best tech deals to come out of the Big Spring Sale — check them out below.
Best Spring Sale deals on Apple devices
Photo by Billy Steele / Engadget
Apple’s AirPods Pro are once again available for $180, which is a new record low for the latest iteration with a USB-C charging case. Apple normally sells the noise-canceling earphones for $249, though we often see them go closer to $200 at third-party retailers. Either way, they remain our favorite wireless earbuds for iOS users, as they provide an array of perks when paired with an iPhone, from faster pairing to hands-free Siri. Useful ANC, a superb ambient sound mode and a pleasingly warm sound profile help beyond that. Their battery life and mic quality are just OK these days, but this pair should serve you well if you’re all-in on Apple. We gave the second-gen AirPods Pro a review score of 88 back in 2022.
The second-gen Apple Pencil is down to $79, which is one the best prices we’ve seen. It’s important to note that it’s rumored that we’ll see new Apple Pencils when new iPads come out sometime within the next month — but if you already have an iPad and have been looking to snag this accessory on discount, now’s your chance. This is the Pencil that works with most of the latest iPad models and it magnetically snaps to the sides of the tablets for safe keeping. It’s one of our favorite iPad accessories thanks to that, and its generally stellar, little-to-no latency performance.
Best Spring Sale deals on headphones, earbuds and speakers
Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget
Our favorite pair of budget wireless earbuds has dropped to a new record-low price of $50. The Anker Soundcore Space A40 impressed us with their solid sound quality, comfortable fit and impressive active noise cancellation for the price. We think they’re a great value at their normal $80 price, so this sale makes them even more attractive. In addition, they have good battery life and support for multi-device connectivity and wireless charging. They may not have the best call quality, and they don’t support automatically wear detection, but otherwise you’re getting a nearly-full package for a great price.
Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones are back on sale for $328. This isn’t an all-time low, and it’s a deal we’ve seen numerous times over the past few months, but it’s still $70 off the noise-canceling cans’ list price. The XM5s are the top pick in our guide to the best wireless headphones thanks to their comfy fit, solid active noise cancellation (ANC), clear mic and handy bonus features. They’re bass-heavy by default, but you can adjust their sound profile with EQ tools in Sony’s companion app.
This XM5’s predecessor, the Sony WH-1000XM4, is also worth a note at $248. Again, that’s not an all-time low, but it’s about $50 below the pair’s average street price in recent months. This older model has many of the same benefits as its successor, plus its earcups can fold up, which makes the design a little easier to pack away. Its call quality is worse, however, and it’s not quite as light on the head. We gave the XM5 a review score of 95 in mid-2022, while the XM4 earned a 94 way back in 2020.
One of our favorite pairs of budget wireless earbuds, Amazon’s latest Echo Buds are on sale for only $35 ahead of the Spring Sale. These buds have an open design, which means they purposely let sound in so you can stay more aware of your surroundings. They support adjustable EQ and, unlike many other earbuds at this price, auto-pausing and multi-device pairing. And, as to be expected, they have Alexa built in so you can call upon the voice assistant when you need to while wearing them.
If you’re not tethered to Apple, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are another set of high-end earphones we recommend. Right now they’re down to $249 at Amazon, Bose.com and other storefronts. That’s a $50 discount. We’ve seen this price a few times before, but it still matches the best deal we’ve tracked. Bose says the offer will run until March 31.
We specifically highlight the QuietComfort Ultras in our buying guide for their noise-canceling prowess, as they do a superlative job of muting outside noise and allow you to lower the intensity of the ANC if it ever becomes uncomfortable. They’re another pair with a somewhat bass-heavy sound out of the box, but they don’t sound sloppy, and unlike the AirPods Pro you can customize their EQ through a companion app. That said, they don’t support wireless charging or multi-device pairing, and their six-to-seven-hour battery life isn’t anything special. The earpieces themselves are also fairly large, though we wouldn’t call them uncomfortable. We gave the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds a score of 88 in our review last year.
The Beats Studio Buds + are back on sale for $130 in various colors, which is roughly $20 off the true wireless earbuds’ average street price and $40 off Beats’ list price. The only time we’ve seen them go for less was a brief drop to $120 around Black Friday. This deal is also available at other retailers, including Target, Best Buy and B&H.
We gave the Studio Buds + a review score of 84 last year. As Beats is an Apple subsidiary, this pair provides many of the iOS-friendly perks you’d get from a set of AirPods, such as faster pairing, Find My tracking, hands-free Siri and Control Center integration. Unlike AirPods, they offer similar features on Android as well. A comfy fit, decent ANC and a mostly neutral sound profile also help. However, other AirPods features like audio sharing and automatic device switching (with Apple gear) aren’t supported, nor is wireless charging or wear detection. And the ANC and audio quality are a step down from the AirPods Pro. Still, if you dig the style and want to save some cash, the Studio Buds + are worth considering.
One of our favorite headphones for running is on sale for a near record-low price. Jabra’s Elite 8 Active earbuds have dropped to $160, which is only about $10 more than the best price we’ve seen. They’re rated IP68, which is one of the best protective ratings we’ve seen on workout earbuds. Jabra even put these buds through military-grade testing, so it’s fair to say they can take a beating. They also have great sound quality (that has spatial sound with Dolby Audio), good ANC and HearThrough transparency mode, multipoint connectivity and an easy to use mobile app. Also included in this sale are our budget top pick, the Jabra Elite 4 Active, for only $90.
The Google Pixel Buds Pro are down to $139 from $200. The 30 percent discount doesn’t bring the earbuds to their all-time low, but this is the cheapest we’ve seen the Google Pixel Buds Pro so far this year. These are our choice for the best wireless earbuds for Android.
Engadget’s Billy Steele gave them an 87 in his review thanks to the addition of solid active noise cancellation, punchy bass and reliable touch controls. They also offer IPX4 water resistance so you can take them on a run without worry. The buds get up to 11 hours on a charge and 31 hours in total with the case. And when it’s time to recharge, wireless charging makes a refill a little easier. One catch is the call quality isn’t as great as it could be, but if you’re primarily using them for music and podcasts, you may not notice.
Sonos has kicked off a new round of discounts on its soundbars and portable speakers. The deals include the Sonos Move 2 for $359, which is $70 off its usual going rate and the second-best price we’ve seen outside of a very brief drop to $349 last year. The Sonos Ray soundbar is $56 off and down to an all-time low of $223, while the higher-end Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is available for $399, a $100 discount. The Sonos Sub Mini subwoofer is also down to a low of $343, which is $86 less than usual, while the compact Sonos Roam SL is $32 off at $127. A few speaker bundles are also discounted. These offers are available at several retailers, including Amazon, B&H and Sonos.com. Sonos says they’ll run through March 25.
None of these devices come cheap, but they all deliver relatively clean sound, easy pairing with other Sonos hardware, AirPlay support and an app that (mostly) makes it simple to set up and stream music. The Move 2 is a hefty yet powerful battery-powered speaker for those who are more concerned with sound quality over portability. The Roam SL doesn’t sound as rich, but it’s much more travel-friendly and has a better water-resistance rating. (It lacks built-in mics, though.) The Ray is an entry-level 2.0-channel soundbar meant for smaller rooms and budget buyers. The Beam is a 5.0 model with a more expansive sound, an HDMI eARC port and voice assistant functionality. It also supports Dolby Atmos, though it can’t take advantage of that quite as much as larger models. The Sub Mini, meanwhile, is a handy way to beef up the bass response of an existing Sonos system. You can check out our reviews of the Move 2, Ray, second-gen Beam and Sub Mini for fuller breakdowns of each device.
As part of a larger portable speaker sale, Anker’s Soundcore Motion 300 has dropped to $64, which is a record low. It earned a spot on our favorites list thanks to its solid sound quality featuring crisp highs and generally punchy, bright audio. Its IPX7 design weighs only 1.7 pounds and the built-in loop makes it easy to attach to a bag to take with you on the go. It also works with Anker’s Soundcore app, which lets you customize EQ, button brightness and more.
Both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro have been discounted for the Spring Sale, down to $499 and $749, respectively. Both run on the Google Tensor G3 chip, and they have great battery lives and excellent cameras. We consider both of them to be the best Android phones available right now thanks in part to those features. Google also added a number of actually useful AI features like Best Take and Magic Eraser for photos, and more accurate voice typing and article summaries for the Google Assistant.
Our favorite midrange smartphone, the Google Pixel 7a is on sale for $374 right now, which is a record-low price. That almost puts it within our “budget” price range ($350) for Android phones, so while it’s still a splurge pick, it’s arguably the best Android phone you can get in that price range at the moment. It runs on Google’s Tensor G2 chipset, plus it has a lovely 90Hz touchscreen, long battery life and an excellent camera array that takes impressive photos in all kinds of light situations, and good selfies, too. While there are plenty of good budget Android phones available today, you won’t find one that offers a better value than the Pixel 7a when on sale like this.
Our favorite budget-friendly VR headset is down to a new low for the Amazon spring sale. You can grab the Meta Quest 2 for only $199, which is $50 off its usual price. There’s no better VR headset for those who don’t have a lot of spend, and the Quest 2 holds its own even among the newest models. It’s completely cordless and comfortable to wear for long sessions, it comes bundled with Meta’s solid motion controllers and there’s a huge library of titles that you can try out with it.
The Elgato Stream Deck Mk.2 in white is back down to $130. This is another deal we’ve seen pop up periodically in recent months, but it’s $20 off the device’s usual street price all the same. The Stream Deck is a macro keypad we recommend in our guide to the best game streaming gear. It has 15 programmable hotkeys that you can set to perform different commands, from launching an app to activating smart lights to triggering on-screen GIFs and sound effects. It’s really meant for content creators and power users first and foremost, but if you think you could benefit from having a bunch of shortcuts within arm’s reach, this is a decent time to pick one up.
Bundles that pair the PlayStation 5 with a digital copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 are still $50 off, bringing the standard model down to $449 and the digital-only version down to $400. These deals aren’t tied to Amazon’s Spring sale, but larger discounts on the PS5 have been uncommon, so this is still a good opportunity if you’ve been looking to take the plunge. The offers are available at several retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy and Sony’s PlayStation Direct store. Sony says they’ll last through March 31. My colleague Nathan Ingraham gave Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 a glowing review last year, calling it a “perfectly balanced game with gorgeous graphics, delightful combat and traversal systems, a compelling storyline and characters, plenty of challenge and a huge map to explore.”
The Google Nest Thermostat is on sale for $100 ahead of Amazon’s Spring sale, which is about $10 more than the best price we’ve seen over the past year but $30 below its typical going rate. We’ve highlighted this entry-level smart thermostat in past gift guides. Compared to the higher-end Nest Learning Thermostat, it has a cheaper plastic frame, doesn’t support remote temperature sensors and can’t learn your heating and cooling tendencies to make automatic adjustments throughout the day. That said, it’s a more affordable way to remotely control your home’s climate, and it still supports features like HVAC monitoring and voice assistant control. It’s also compatible with the Matter standard, unlike the pricier model, so it can work with third-party platforms like Apple Home.
TP-Link’s Deco XE75 mesh Wi-Fi system with three nodes is on sale for a record low of $310 in this spring sale. It tops our list of the best mesh WiFi routers you can get right now thanks to its simple setup, solid performance and overall great value for the money. There aren’t a lot of frills here, either with the nodes themselves or with TP-Link’s companion mobile app, but that makes for a straightforward experience that complements the system’s excellent performance nicely.
The self-emptying Shark AV2501AE AI Robot Vacuum is 46 percent off for the Big Spring Sale. That makes it $350, which is $300 off the regular price and not too far away from its record low. This model is a variant of one of our top robot vacuum recommendations and comes with a base that holds up to 60 days of dirt and has a HEPA filtration system to capture dust and allergens. It uses 360° LiDAR to map your home, has an app to set schedules and even works with Alexa or the Google Assistant for literally hands free floor cleaning.
The is the runner up in our and thanks to the Amazon Big Spring Sale it’s now half price, making it just $300. That’s not quite an all-time low — it was $2 cheaper for much of February — but still a significant discount on one of our recommendations.
Engadget’s Valentina Palladino found this one to have powerful suction and an easy-to-use app. She also appreciated the upgraded obstacle detection that particularly avoids pet poop. The bot does take a couple runs before it can create a full map — and it doesn’t clean while it does that, so be prepared to wait a little after unboxing before your floors are truly on auto-pilot.
The Tineco Pure One S15 is the runner up pick in our cordless vacuum guide and right now it’s on sale for $349, but an addition clippable $25 coupon brings the final price down to $324.
This model is slightly less powerful than our top pick from Dyson but it handles dry messes well — including pet hair. It also automatically adjusts suction power depending on the amount of dirt it detects through the sensor. It’s app-connected, though that feature is admittedly not super necessary in a cordless vac. Still, it can help keep you apprised of your filter and battery levels.
As part of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, the Paperwhite Signature is getting a $30 discount — it’s first sale since Black Friday last year. The catch is that this deal is exclusively for Prime members. The Signature Edition is an upgrade over the standard Kindle: It has a larger, 6.8-inch screen, 32GB of storage, auto-adjusting warm front lights and wireless charging capabilities. It also comes standard without lockscreen ads, a great perk since you usually have to pay upwards of $20 to remove those on other Kindle models.
A number of Amazon’s Fire tablets are on sale right now, including the new Fire HD 10 for $95. That’s about $15 more than its record-low price, but it’s still a decent deal for this time of year. Updated in 2023, the Fire HD 10 has a 10-inch 1080p touchscreen, an octa-core processor, up to 13 hours of battery life and it charges via a USB-C port. We still think Fire tablets are best as secondary devices rather than daily drivers — that slab you keep next to the couch to check email or shop online on the fly, or by your bedside to read books and comics. And when they’re discounted like this, it’s much easier to justify getting a secondary device like that in the first place. A bunch of kid-friendly Fire tabs are on sale, too, most of which come with a childproof protective case, a two-year warranty and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+.
A variety of Amazon Blink devices are now discounted as part of the site’s Big Spring Sale. A three pack of the new Blink Outdoor 4 is down to $150 instead of $260. That’s a 42 percent discount and the lowest price we’ve seen this year (the set hit an all-time low of $135 for Black Friday).
If you just need one camera, take advantage of the sale on a single Blink Outdoor 4. It’s currently down to $65 from $100 — a 35 percent discount.
The Blink Outdoor 4 came out last August with a lot of upgrades including a larger field of vision, up to143 degrees and better low-light sensitivity and image quality. Blink claims the devices will go for two years before needing their AA batteries replaced.
The Samsung SmartTag 2 is on sale for only $21 for the Big Spring Sale, which is only $1 more than its record-low price. It’s one of our favorite Bluetooth trackers and it’s easily the best one for those with Samsung smartphones. Its finder network is large and its setup with the SmartThings Find app is quick and painless. If your stuff with the tag is left somewhere, you’ll get alerts when Lost Mode is activated. You can also just use the app to locate your items if you misplace them nearby. Out of all the Bluetooth trackers we tested, we liked the design of the SmartTag 2 the best thanks to its oblong shape, big keyring hole and support for colorful cases.
The Google Pixel Tablet makes a good smart display and tablet hybrid. Right now the 11-inch slate-plus-dock is back down to $399 at multiple retailers for the 128GB model. In addition to Amazon you can save at Target and the Google Store. This matches the lowest price we’ve seen and works out to $100 below the variation’s usual going rate. If you need more storage, the 256GB version is $150 off and available for $449, also an all-time low.
Engadget’s Cherlynn Low gave the Pixel Tablet a score of 85 in her review last June, and we mention the device in our tablet buying guide, though it’s not one of our top picks. But if you’re looking for a tablet that can also be your smart home command center, this is a good pick for controlling smart home devices, showcasing photos, streaming music with the improved speakers, and even cast video from your phone.
Plugable TBT4-UDZ gets a mention in our guide to the best laptop docking stations and right now it’s 20 percent off and down to $239. It’s a rare discount for the brand and the lowest price we’ve tracked. We were a little disappointed that the dock only has one downstream USB-C port, but it has plenty of USB-A and display connections and worked well with the MacBook and Dell laptops in our test, but didn’t work with a Chromebook.
New subscribers can get 40 percent off a Max subscription when you pay for one year upfront. If you want to go all-in on the highest tier, which gives you ad-free viewing and 4K streaming, it’ll cost you $140 for the year (roughly $12 per month). The most affordable tier will set you back a total of $70 for the year, which works out to about $6 per month. Considering how often streaming prices have increased recently, a sale like this is a great time to invest in a year of access to shows like The Last of Us and movies from outlets like Studio Ghibli and A24.
Our top pick for the best cordless vacuum cleaner, the Dyson V15 Detect, is on sale for $600 right now directly at Dyson. We’ve seen this model drop to $550 in the past, but this remains a great sale on a cordless vacuum that’s typically priced at $750. The “Absolute” models are much the same as the standard models, but you can typically only get Absolute versions at Dyson.com. Also, this model has HEPA filtration, a built-in tool and an exclusive gold color. Otherwise, it’s the same as our top pick, which impressed us with its excellent suction power, lightweight design and good battery life. In general, we found Dyson stick vacuums to provide the strongest suction power of any brand we tried, and the V15 is noticeably stronger than older models like the V8. It comes with a number of attachments as well, including the Fluffy Optic cleaner head that illuminates your floors with a laser of light so you can see exactly where the most debris is as you clean.
As part of the Big Spring Sale, Amazon has a similar version, the V15 Detect Complete, for $690 as a Prime exclusive. The main difference here, aside from the lack of HEPA filtration, is that you get a standing dock with Amazon’s model, which will be handy if you aren’t keen on mounting your new cordless vacuum to a wall.
We’ll move beyond Amazon for our last few deals this week. First, a configuration of Apple’s 14.2-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip, 18GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is down to $1,799 at B&H. That’s close to an all-time low and comes in $200 below Apple’s MSRP. We gave the latest MacBook Pro a review score of 90 last year. It’s more Mac than most people need, especially after the recent refresh of the MacBook Air. But for video editors, 3D designers and other professional types who need more power, a wider port selection and a brighter display, it should still fit the bill.
The 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard is back on sale for $80 at Amazon subsidiary Woot, a $20 discount that matches the lowest price we’ve seen. This is a tenkeyless mechanical keyboard we recommended in our retro gaming gift guide late last year. You’d mainly buy it for the aesthetic, as it looks like a companion piece for an old NES. Beyond that, it’s sturdily built, it works wirelessly and it comes with a pair of giant “Super Buttons” that you can customize to perform different macros. It’s comfortable for typing as well, though its clicky Kailh Box White V2 switches are fairly noisy. It also lacks any kind of backlighting. The stock switches are hot-swappable, however, so you can easily replace them if needed.
The latest Steam Spring Sale is underway, bringing an enormous range of PC game discounts along with it. There are simply too many deals for us to list everything, but some highlights include the acclaimed CRPG Baldur’s Gate 3for $54 (a small but rare discount), the frantic platformer Pizza Towerfor $13.39, the recently released Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for $56, the FPS compilation Halo: The Master Chief Collectionfor $10 and the VR adventure Half-Life: Alyx for $20.39. These big Steam sales are always a good time to grab some older classics for dirt cheap, too: The two Portalpuzzlers are available for $1.48, for instance, while the co-op shooter Left 4 Dead 2is just a buck. Valve says the sale will run until March 21.
Outside of Steam, the Epic Games Store has commenced its Spring Sale as well. The selection there isn’t as large, as usual, but it does include some well-reviewed exclusives like Alan Wake 2for $40 and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crownfor $30. Before you go padding your backlog on either store, though, we’d recommend using a price tracking site like IsThereAnyDeal to ensure you’re getting a genuine discount.
However technologically impressive a foldable smartphone may be, they’re seriously expensive. A $500 discount can help if you’re ready to grab one. The Google Pixel Fold is one of our favorites, and it’s now down to $1,299 at the Goole Store. It beats the largest discount we’ve seen for the unlocked 256GB model, by $100. If you need more storage space, Google has the 512GB model for $1,419, another $500 discount and record low.
The Pixel Fold is the runner-up pick in our guide to the best foldable phones, and Engadget’s Sam Rutherford gave it a score of 85 in his review last June.
The discount is part of a larger sale Google is hosting on its storefront right now, perhaps in response to Amazon’s event.
The Amazon Spring Sale is here and if you’re interested in tech deals, you’ve come to the right place. However, don’t mistake this for a spring Prime Day — unlike Amazon’s bigger, traditional sale events, this one doesn’t revolve around Prime-exclusive discounts. And that’s a good thing; that means anyone who shops on Amazon can take advantage of the deals. Given the seasonal nature of this event, it’s not a boon for discounts on laptops, tablets, wearables and the like. However, we were able to find a number of decent discounts worth your time and money. While most of these Amazon deal prices are not the same as those we saw around Black Friday last year, some get pretty close (as a general rule of thumb, a good price in March isn’t necessarily the same thing as a good price in November). Here are the best Amazon Big Spring Sale deals on tech we love that you can get right now.
Best Spring Sale deals on Apple devices
Photo by Billy Steele / Engadget
Apple’s AirPods Pro are once again available for $189, which matches the best price we’ve seen for the latest iteration with a USB-C charging case. Apple normally sells the noise-canceling earphones for $249, though we often see them go closer to $200 at third-party retailers. Either way, they remain our favorite wireless earbuds for iOS users, as they provide an array of perks when paired with an iPhone, from faster pairing to hands-free Siri. Useful ANC, a superb ambient sound mode and a pleasingly warm sound profile help beyond that. Their battery life and mic quality are just OK these days, but this pair should serve you well if you’re all-in on Apple. We gave the second-gen AirPods Pro a review score of 88 back in 2022.
The second-gen Apple Pencil is down to $79, which is one the best prices we’ve seen. It’s important to note that it’s rumored that we’ll see new Apple Pencils when new iPads come out sometime within the next month — but if you already have an iPad and have been looking to snag this accessory on discount, now’s your chance. This is the Pencil that works with most of the latest iPad models and it magnetically snaps to the sides of the tablets for safe keeping. It’s one of our favorite iPad accessories thanks to that, and its generally stellar, little-to-no latency performance.
Best Spring Sale deals on headphones, earbuds and speakers
Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget
Our favorite pair of budget wireless earbuds has dropped to a new record-low price of $50. The Anker Soundcore Space A40 impressed us with their solid sound quality, comfortable fit and impressive active noise cancellation for the price. We think they’re a great value at their normal $80 price, so this sale makes them even more attractive. In addition, they have good battery life and support for multi-device connectivity and wireless charging. They may not have the best call quality, and they don’t support automatically wear detection, but otherwise you’re getting a nearly-full package for a great price.
Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones are back on sale for $328. This isn’t an all-time low, and it’s a deal we’ve seen numerous times over the past few months, but it’s still $70 off the noise-canceling cans’ list price. The XM5s are the top pick in our guide to the best wireless headphones thanks to their comfy fit, solid active noise cancellation (ANC), clear mic and handy bonus features. They’re bass-heavy by default, but you can adjust their sound profile with EQ tools in Sony’s companion app.
This XM5’s predecessor, the Sony WH-1000XM4, is also worth a note at $248. Again, that’s not an all-time low, but it’s about $50 below the pair’s average street price in recent months. This older model has many of the same benefits as its successor, plus its earcups can fold up, which makes the design a little easier to pack away. Its call quality is worse, however, and it’s not quite as light on the head. We gave the XM5 a review score of 95 in mid-2022, while the XM4 earned a 94 way back in 2020.
One of our favorite pairs of budget wireless earbuds, Amazon’s latest Echo Buds are on sale for only $35 ahead of the Spring Sale. These buds have an open design, which means they purposely let sound in so you can stay more aware of your surroundings. They support adjustable EQ and, unlike many other earbuds at this price, auto-pausing and multi-device pairing. And, as to be expected, they have Alexa built in so you can call upon the voice assistant when you need to while wearing them.
If you’re not tethered to Apple, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are another set of high-end earphones we recommend. Right now they’re down to $249 at Amazon, Bose.com and other storefronts. That’s a $50 discount. We’ve seen this price a few times before, but it still matches the best deal we’ve tracked. Bose says the offer will run until March 31.
We specifically highlight the QuietComfort Ultras in our buying guide for their noise-canceling prowess, as they do a superlative job of muting outside noise and allow you to lower the intensity of the ANC if it ever becomes uncomfortable. They’re another pair with a somewhat bass-heavy sound out of the box, but they don’t sound sloppy, and unlike the AirPods Pro you can customize their EQ through a companion app. That said, they don’t support wireless charging or multi-device pairing, and their six-to-seven-hour battery life isn’t anything special. The earpieces themselves are also fairly large, though we wouldn’t call them uncomfortable. We gave the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds a score of 88 in our review last year.
The Beats Studio Buds + are back on sale for $130 in various colors, which is roughly $20 off the true wireless earbuds’ average street price and $40 off Beats’ list price. The only time we’ve seen them go for less was a brief drop to $120 around Black Friday. This deal is also available at other retailers, including Target, Best Buy and B&H.
We gave the Studio Buds + a review score of 84 last year. As Beats is an Apple subsidiary, this pair provides many of the iOS-friendly perks you’d get from a set of AirPods, such as faster pairing, Find My tracking, hands-free Siri and Control Center integration. Unlike AirPods, they offer similar features on Android as well. A comfy fit, decent ANC and a mostly neutral sound profile also help. However, other AirPods features like audio sharing and automatic device switching (with Apple gear) aren’t supported, nor is wireless charging or wear detection. And the ANC and audio quality are a step down from the AirPods Pro. Still, if you dig the style and want to save some cash, the Studio Buds + are worth considering.
One of our favorite headphones for running is on sale for a near record-low price. Jabra’s Elite 8 Active earbuds have dropped to $160, which is only about $10 more than the best price we’ve seen. They’re rated IP68, which is one of the best protective ratings we’ve seen on workout earbuds. Jabra even put these buds through military-grade testing, so it’s fair to say they can take a beating. They also have great sound quality (that has spatial sound with Dolby Audio), good ANC and HearThrough transparency mode, multipoint connectivity and an easy to use mobile app. Also included in this sale are our budget top pick, the Jabra Elite 4 Active, for only $90.
The Google Pixel Buds Pro are down to $139 from $200. The 30 percent discount doesn’t bring the earbuds to their all-time low, but this is the cheapest we’ve seen the Google Pixel Buds Pro so far this year. These are our choice for the best wireless earbuds for Android.
Engadget’s Billy Steele gave them an 87 in his review thanks to the addition of solid active noise cancellation, punchy bass and reliable touch controls. They also offer IPX4 water resistance so you can take them on a run without worry. The buds get up to 11 hours on a charge and 31 hours in total with the case. And when it’s time to recharge, wireless charging makes a refill a little easier. One catch is the call quality isn’t as great as it could be, but if you’re primarily using them for music and podcasts, you may not notice.
Sonos has kicked off a new round of discounts on its soundbars and portable speakers. The deals include the Sonos Move 2 for $359, which is $70 off its usual going rate and the second-best price we’ve seen outside of a very brief drop to $349 last year. The Sonos Ray soundbar is $56 off and down to an all-time low of $223, while the higher-end Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is available for $399, a $100 discount. The Sonos Sub Mini subwoofer is also down to a low of $343, which is $86 less than usual, while the compact Sonos Roam SL is $32 off at $127. A few speaker bundles are also discounted. These offers are available at several retailers, including Amazon, B&H and Sonos.com. Sonos says they’ll run through March 25.
None of these devices come cheap, but they all deliver relatively clean sound, easy pairing with other Sonos hardware, AirPlay support and an app that (mostly) makes it simple to set up and stream music. The Move 2 is a hefty yet powerful battery-powered speaker for those who are more concerned with sound quality over portability. The Roam SL doesn’t sound as rich, but it’s much more travel-friendly and has a better water-resistance rating. (It lacks built-in mics, though.) The Ray is an entry-level 2.0-channel soundbar meant for smaller rooms and budget buyers. The Beam is a 5.0 model with a more expansive sound, an HDMI eARC port and voice assistant functionality. It also supports Dolby Atmos, though it can’t take advantage of that quite as much as larger models. The Sub Mini, meanwhile, is a handy way to beef up the bass response of an existing Sonos system. You can check out our reviews of the Move 2, Ray, second-gen Beam and Sub Mini for fuller breakdowns of each device.
As part of a larger portable speaker sale, Anker’s Soundcore Motion 300 has dropped to $64, which is a record low. It earned a spot on our favorites list thanks to its solid sound quality featuring crisp highs and generally punchy, bright audio. Its IPX7 design weighs only 1.7 pounds and the built-in loop makes it easy to attach to a bag to take with you on the go. It also works with Anker’s Soundcore app, which lets you customize EQ, button brightness and more.
Both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro have been discounted for the Spring Sale, down to $499 and $749, respectively. Both run on the Google Tensor G3 chip, and they have great battery lives and excellent cameras. We consider both of them to be the best Android phones available right now thanks in part to those features. Google also added a number of actually useful AI features like Best Take and Magic Eraser for photos, and more accurate voice typing and article summaries for the Google Assistant.
Our favorite midrange smartphone, the Google Pixel 7a is on sale for $374 right now, which is a record-low price. That almost puts it within our “budget” price range ($350) for Android phones, so while it’s still a splurge pick, it’s arguably the best Android phone you can get in that price range at the moment. It runs on Google’s Tensor G2 chipset, plus it has a lovely 90Hz touchscreen, long battery life and an excellent camera array that takes impressive photos in all kinds of light situations, and good selfies, too. While there are plenty of good budget Android phones available today, you won’t find one that offers a better value than the Pixel 7a when on sale like this.
The Elgato Stream Deck Mk.2 in white is back down to $130. This is another deal we’ve seen pop up periodically in recent months, but it’s $20 off the device’s usual street price all the same. The Stream Deck is a macro keypad we recommend in our guide to the best game streaming gear. It has 15 programmable hotkeys that you can set to perform different commands, from launching an app to activating smart lights to triggering on-screen GIFs and sound effects. It’s really meant for content creators and power users first and foremost, but if you think you could benefit from having a bunch of shortcuts within arm’s reach, this is a decent time to pick one up.
Bundles that pair the PlayStation 5 with a digital copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 are still $50 off, bringing the standard model down to $449 and the digital-only version down to $400. These deals aren’t tied to Amazon’s Spring sale, but larger discounts on the PS5 have been uncommon, so this is still a good opportunity if you’ve been looking to take the plunge. The offers are available at several retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy and Sony’s PlayStation Direct store. Sony says they’ll last through March 31. My colleague Nathan Ingraham gave Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 a glowing review last year, calling it a “perfectly balanced game with gorgeous graphics, delightful combat and traversal systems, a compelling storyline and characters, plenty of challenge and a huge map to explore.”
The Google Nest Thermostat is on sale for $100 ahead of Amazon’s Spring sale, which is about $10 more than the best price we’ve seen over the past year but $30 below its typical going rate. We’ve highlighted this entry-level smart thermostat in past gift guides. Compared to the higher-end Nest Learning Thermostat, it has a cheaper plastic frame, doesn’t support remote temperature sensors and can’t learn your heating and cooling tendencies to make automatic adjustments throughout the day. That said, it’s a more affordable way to remotely control your home’s climate, and it still supports features like HVAC monitoring and voice assistant control. It’s also compatible with the Matter standard, unlike the pricier model, so it can work with third-party platforms like Apple Home.
The top pick in our guide to the best air purifiers is the Levoit Core 400S. Amazon’s sale is knocking the price down to $190 thanks to a clippable $30 coupon. That’s about $15 more than the all-time low, but still a decent deal on a purifier we found to be better than its higher-priced competition. It removes odors, dust, and small particulates like pollen from your indoor air with a three-layer system combining a pre-filter, activated charcoal layer and a HEPA filter. It’s app-connected and includes an optical sensor to monitor particulate matter levels and adjusts the fan speed accordingly.
The self-emptying Shark AV2501AE AI Robot Vacuum is 46 percent off for the Big Spring Sale. That makes it $350, which is $300 off the regular price and not too far away from its record low. This model is a variant of one of our top robot vacuum recommendations and comes with a base that holds up to 60 days of dirt and has a HEPA filtration system to capture dust and allergens. It uses 360° LiDAR to map your home, has an app to set schedules and even works with Alexa or the Google Assistant for literally hands free floor cleaning.
The is the runner up in our and thanks to the Amazon Big Spring Sale it’s now half price, making it just $300. That’s not quite an all-time low — it was $2 cheaper for much of February — but still a significant discount on one of our recommendations.
Engadget’s Valentina Palladino found this one to have powerful suction and an easy-to-use app. She also appreciated the upgraded obstacle detection that particularly avoids pet poop. The bot does take a couple runs before it can create a full map — and it doesn’t clean while it does that, so be prepared to wait a little after unboxing before your floors are truly on auto-pilot.
The Tineco Pure One S15 is the runner up pick in our cordless vacuum guide and right now it’s on sale for $349, but an addition clippable $25 coupon brings the final price down to $324.
This model is slightly less powerful than our top pick from Dyson but it handles dry messes well — including pet hair. It also automatically adjusts suction power depending on the amount of dirt it detects through the sensor. It’s app-connected, though that feature is admittedly not super necessary in a cordless vac. Still, it can help keep you apprised of your filter and battery levels.
As part of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, the Paperwhite Signature is getting a $30 discount — it’s first sale since Black Friday last year. The catch is that this deal is exclusively for Prime members. The Signature Edition is an upgrade over the standard Kindle: It has a larger, 6.8-inch screen, 32GB of storage, auto-adjusting warm front lights and wireless charging capabilities. It also comes standard without lockscreen ads, a great perk since you usually have to pay upwards of $20 to remove those on other Kindle models.
A number of Amazon’s Fire tablets are on sale right now, including the new Fire HD 10 for $95. That’s about $15 more than its record-low price, but it’s still a decent deal for this time of year. Updated in 2023, the Fire HD 10 has a 10-inch 1080p touchscreen, an octa-core processor, up to 13 hours of battery life and it charges via a USB-C port. We still think Fire tablets are best as secondary devices rather than daily drivers — that slab you keep next to the couch to check email or shop online on the fly, or by your bedside to read books and comics. And when they’re discounted like this, it’s much easier to justify getting a secondary device like that in the first place. A bunch of kid-friendly Fire tabs are on sale, too, most of which come with a childproof protective case, a two-year warranty and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+.
A variety of Amazon Blink devices are now discounted as part of the site’s Big Spring Sale. A three pack of the new Blink Outdoor 4 is down to $150 instead of $260. That’s a 42 percent discount and the lowest price we’ve seen this year (the set hit an all-time low of $135 for Black Friday).
If you just need one camera, take advantage of the sale on a single Blink Outdoor 4. It’s currently down to $65 from $100 — a 35 percent discount.
The Blink Outdoor 4 came out last August with a lot of upgrades including a larger field of vision, up to143 degrees and better low-light sensitivity and image quality. Blink claims the devices will go for two years before needing their AA batteries replaced.
The Samsung SmartTag 2 is on sale for only $21 for the Big Spring Sale, which is only $1 more than its record-low price. It’s one of our favorite Bluetooth trackers and it’s easily the best one for those with Samsung smartphones. Its finder network is large and its setup with the SmartThings Find app is quick and painless. If your stuff with the tag is left somewhere, you’ll get alerts when Lost Mode is activated. You can also just use the app to locate your items if you misplace them nearby. Out of all the Bluetooth trackers we tested, we liked the design of the SmartTag 2 the best thanks to its oblong shape, big keyring hole and support for colorful cases.
The Google Pixel Tablet makes a good smart display and tablet hybrid. Right now the 11-inch slate-plus-dock is back down to $399 at multiple retailers for the 128GB model. In addition to Amazon you can save at Target and the Google Store. This matches the lowest price we’ve seen and works out to $100 below the variation’s usual going rate. If you need more storage, the 256GB version is $150 off and available for $449, also an all-time low.
Engadget’s Cherlynn Low gave the Pixel Tablet a score of 85 in her review last June, and we mention the device in our tablet buying guide, though it’s not one of our top picks. But if you’re looking for a tablet that can also be your smart home command center, this is a good pick for controlling smart home devices, showcasing photos, streaming music with the improved speakers, and even cast video from your phone.
Plugable TBT4-UDZ gets a mention in our guide to the best laptop docking stations and right now it’s 20 percent off and down to $239. It’s a rare discount for the brand and the lowest price we’ve tracked. We were a little disappointed that the dock only has one downstream USB-C port, but it has plenty of USB-A and display connections and worked well with the MacBook and Dell laptops in our test, but didn’t work with a Chromebook.
New subscribers can get 40 percent off a Max subscription when you pay for one year upfront. If you want to go all-in on the highest tier, which gives you ad-free viewing and 4K streaming, it’ll cost you $140 for the year (roughly $12 per month). The most affordable tier will set you back a total of $70 for the year, which works out to about $6 per month. Considering how often streaming prices have increased recently, a sale like this is a great time to invest in a year of access to shows like The Last of Us and movies from outlets like Studio Ghibli and A24.
Our top pick for the best cordless vacuum cleaner, the Dyson V15 Detect, is on sale for $600 right now directly at Dyson. We’ve seen this model drop to $550 in the past, but this remains a great sale on a cordless vacuum that’s typically priced at $750. The “Absolute” models are much the same as the standard models, but you can typically only get Absolute versions at Dyson.com. Also, this model has HEPA filtration, a built-in tool and an exclusive gold color. Otherwise, it’s the same as our top pick, which impressed us with its excellent suction power, lightweight design and good battery life. In general, we found Dyson stick vacuums to provide the strongest suction power of any brand we tried, and the V15 is noticeably stronger than older models like the V8. It comes with a number of attachments as well, including the Fluffy Optic cleaner head that illuminates your floors with a laser of light so you can see exactly where the most debris is as you clean.
As part of the Big Spring Sale, Amazon has a similar version, the V15 Detect Complete, for $690 as a Prime exclusive. The main difference here, aside from the lack of HEPA filtration, is that you get a standing dock with Amazon’s model, which will be handy if you aren’t keen on mounting your new cordless vacuum to a wall.
We’ll move beyond Amazon for our last few deals this week. First, a configuration of Apple’s 14.2-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip, 18GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is down to $1,799 at B&H. That’s close to an all-time low and comes in $200 below Apple’s MSRP. We gave the latest MacBook Pro a review score of 90 last year. It’s more Mac than most people need, especially after the recent refresh of the MacBook Air. But for video editors, 3D designers and other professional types who need more power, a wider port selection and a brighter display, it should still fit the bill.
The 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard is back on sale for $80 at Amazon subsidiary Woot, a $20 discount that matches the lowest price we’ve seen. This is a tenkeyless mechanical keyboard we recommended in our retro gaming gift guide late last year. You’d mainly buy it for the aesthetic, as it looks like a companion piece for an old NES. Beyond that, it’s sturdily built, it works wirelessly and it comes with a pair of giant “Super Buttons” that you can customize to perform different macros. It’s comfortable for typing as well, though its clicky Kailh Box White V2 switches are fairly noisy. It also lacks any kind of backlighting. The stock switches are hot-swappable, however, so you can easily replace them if needed.
The latest Steam Spring Sale is underway, bringing an enormous range of PC game discounts along with it. There are simply too many deals for us to list everything, but some highlights include the acclaimed CRPG Baldur’s Gate 3for $54 (a small but rare discount), the frantic platformer Pizza Towerfor $13.39, the recently released Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for $56, the FPS compilation Halo: The Master Chief Collectionfor $10 and the VR adventure Half-Life: Alyx for $20.39. These big Steam sales are always a good time to grab some older classics for dirt cheap, too: The two Portalpuzzlers are available for $1.48, for instance, while the co-op shooter Left 4 Dead 2is just a buck. Valve says the sale will run until March 21.
Outside of Steam, the Epic Games Store has commenced its Spring Sale as well. The selection there isn’t as large, as usual, but it does include some well-reviewed exclusives like Alan Wake 2for $40 and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crownfor $30. Before you go padding your backlog on either store, though, we’d recommend using a price tracking site like IsThereAnyDeal to ensure you’re getting a genuine discount.
However technologically impressive a foldable smartphone may be, they’re seriously expensive. A $500 discount can help if you’re ready to grab one. The Google Pixel Fold is one of our favorites, and it’s now down to $1,299 at the Goole Store. It beats the largest discount we’ve seen for the unlocked 256GB model, by $100. If you need more storage space, Google has the 512GB model for $1,419, another $500 discount and record low.
The Pixel Fold is the runner-up pick in our guide to the best foldable phones, and Engadget’s Sam Rutherford gave it a score of 85 in his review last June.
The discount is part of a larger sale Google is hosting on its storefront right now, perhaps in response to Amazon’s event.
Amazon’s Big Spring Sale has begun and if you’re interested in tech deals, you’ve come to the right place. This sale event may not be a boon for discounts on laptops, tablets, wearables and the like, but Amazon did roll out some solid early deals on tech we’ve recommended, and most of those sales are still available today. While most of these prices do not match those we saw around Black Friday last year, some do get pretty close — and, as a general rule of thumb, a good price in March isn’t necessarily the same thing as a good price in November. Here are the best Amazon Spring Sale deals on tech that you can shop right now. The sale officially runs through March 25, and we’ll continue to update this post with the latest offerings.
Best Spring Sale deals on Apple devices
Photo by Billy Steele / Engadget
Apple’s AirPods Pro are once again available for $189, which matches the best price we’ve seen for the latest iteration with a USB-C charging case. Apple normally sells the noise-canceling earphones for $249, though we often see them go closer to $200 at third-party retailers. Either way, they remain our favorite wireless earbuds for iOS users, as they provide an array of perks when paired with an iPhone, from faster pairing to hands-free Siri. Useful ANC, a superb ambient sound mode and a pleasingly warm sound profile help beyond that. Their battery life and mic quality are just OK these days, but this pair should serve you well if you’re all-in on Apple. We gave the second-gen AirPods Pro a review score of 88 back in 2022.
The second-gen Apple Pencil is down to $79, which is one the best prices we’ve seen. It’s important to note that it’s rumored that we’ll see new Apple Pencils when new iPads come out sometime within the next month — but if you already have an iPad and have been looking to snag this accessory on discount, now’s your chance. This is the Pencil that works with most of the latest iPad models and it magnetically snaps to the sides of the tablets for safe keeping. It’s one of our favorite iPad accessories thanks to that, and its generally stellar, little-to-no latency performance.
Best Spring Sale deals on headphones, earbuds and speakers
Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget
Our favorite pair of budget wireless earbuds has dropped to a new record-low price of $50. The Anker Soundcore Space A40 impressed us with their solid sound quality, comfortable fit and impressive active noise cancellation for the price. We think they’re a great value at their normal $80 price, so this sale makes them even more attractive. In addition, they have good battery life and support for multi-device connectivity and wireless charging. They may not have the best call quality, and they don’t support automatically wear detection, but otherwise you’re getting a nearly-full package for a great price.
Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones are back on sale for $328. This isn’t an all-time low, and it’s a deal we’ve seen numerous times over the past few months, but it’s still $70 off the noise-canceling cans’ list price. The XM5s are the top pick in our guide to the best wireless headphones thanks to their comfy fit, solid active noise cancellation (ANC), clear mic and handy bonus features. They’re bass-heavy by default, but you can adjust their sound profile with EQ tools in Sony’s companion app.
This XM5’s predecessor, the Sony WH-1000XM4, is also worth a note at $248. Again, that’s not an all-time low, but it’s about $50 below the pair’s average street price in recent months. This older model has many of the same benefits as its successor, plus its earcups can fold up, which makes the design a little easier to pack away. Its call quality is worse, however, and it’s not quite as light on the head. We gave the XM5 a review score of 95 in mid-2022, while the XM4 earned a 94 way back in 2020.
If you’re not tethered to Apple, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are another set of high-end earphones we recommend. Right now they’re down to $249 at Amazon, Bose.com and other storefronts. That’s a $50 discount. We’ve seen this price a few times before, but it still matches the best deal we’ve tracked. Bose says the offer will run until March 31.
We specifically highlight the QuietComfort Ultras in our buying guide for their noise-canceling prowess, as they do a superlative job of muting outside noise and allow you to lower the intensity of the ANC if it ever becomes uncomfortable. They’re another pair with a somewhat bass-heavy sound out of the box, but they don’t sound sloppy, and unlike the AirPods Pro you can customize their EQ through a companion app. That said, they don’t support wireless charging or multi-device pairing, and their six-to-seven-hour battery life isn’t anything special. The earpieces themselves are also fairly large, though we wouldn’t call them uncomfortable. We gave the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds a score of 88 in our review last year.
One of our favorite pairs of budget wireless earbuds, Amazon’s latest Echo Buds are on sale for only $35 ahead of the Spring Sale. These buds have an open design, which means they purposely let sound in so you can stay more aware of your surroundings. They support adjustable EQ and, unlike many other earbuds at this price, auto-pausing and multi-device pairing. And, as to be expected, they have Alexa built in so you can call upon the voice assistant when you need to while wearing them.
One of our favorite headphones for running is on sale for a near record-low price. Jabra’s Elite 8 Active earbuds have dropped to $160, which is only about $10 more than the best price we’ve seen. They’re rated IP68, which is one of the best protective ratings we’ve seen on workout earbuds. Jabra even put these buds through military-grade testing, so it’s fair to say they can take a beating. They also have great sound quality (that has spatial sound with Dolby Audio), good ANC and HearThrough transparency mode, multipoint connectivity and an easy to use mobile app. Also included in this sale are our budget top pick, the Jabra Elite 4 Active, for only $90.
The Beats Studio Buds + are back on sale for $130 in various colors, which is roughly $20 off the true wireless earbuds’ average street price and $40 off Beats’ list price. The only time we’ve seen them go for less was a brief drop to $120 around Black Friday. This deal is also available at other retailers, including Target, Best Buy and B&H.
We gave the Studio Buds + a review score of 84 last year. As Beats is an Apple subsidiary, this pair provides many of the iOS-friendly perks you’d get from a set of AirPods, such as faster pairing, Find My tracking, hands-free Siri and Control Center integration. Unlike AirPods, they offer similar features on Android as well. A comfy fit, decent ANC and a mostly neutral sound profile also help. However, other AirPods features like audio sharing and automatic device switching (with Apple gear) aren’t supported, nor is wireless charging or wear detection. And the ANC and audio quality are a step down from the AirPods Pro. Still, if you dig the style and want to save some cash, the Studio Buds + are worth considering.
The Google Pixel Buds Pro are down to $139 from $200. The 30 percent discount doesn’t bring the earbuds to their all-time low, but this is the cheapest we’ve seen the Google Pixel Buds Pro so far this year. These are our choice for the best wireless earbuds for Android.
Engadget’s Billy Steele gave them an 87 in his review thanks to the addition of solid active noise cancellation, punchy bass and reliable touch controls. They also offer IPX4 water resistance so you can take them on a run without worry. The buds get up to 11 hours on a charge and 31 hours in total with the case. And when it’s time to recharge, wireless charging makes a refill a little easier. One catch is the call quality isn’t as great as it could be, but if you’re primarily using them for music and podcasts, you may not notice.
Sonos has kicked off a new round of discounts on its soundbars and portable speakers. The deals include the Sonos Move 2 for $359, which is $70 off its usual going rate and the second-best price we’ve seen outside of a very brief drop to $349 last year. The Sonos Ray soundbar is $56 off and down to an all-time low of $223, while the higher-end Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is available for $399, a $100 discount. The Sonos Sub Mini subwoofer is also down to a low of $343, which is $86 less than usual, while the compact Sonos Roam SL is $32 off at $127. A few speaker bundles are also discounted. These offers are available at several retailers, including Amazon, B&H and Sonos.com. Sonos says they’ll run through March 25.
None of these devices come cheap, but they all deliver relatively clean sound, easy pairing with other Sonos hardware, AirPlay support and an app that (mostly) makes it simple to set up and stream music. The Move 2 is a hefty yet powerful battery-powered speaker for those who are more concerned with sound quality over portability. The Roam SL doesn’t sound as rich, but it’s much more travel-friendly and has a better water-resistance rating. (It lacks built-in mics, though.) The Ray is an entry-level 2.0-channel soundbar meant for smaller rooms and budget buyers. The Beam is a 5.0 model with a more expansive sound, an HDMI eARC port and voice assistant functionality. It also supports Dolby Atmos, though it can’t take advantage of that quite as much as larger models. The Sub Mini, meanwhile, is a handy way to beef up the bass response of an existing Sonos system. You can check out our reviews of the Move 2, Ray, second-gen Beam and Sub Mini for fuller breakdowns of each device.
As part of a larger portable speaker sale, Anker’s Soundcore Motion 300 has dropped to $64, which is a record low. It earned a spot on our favorites list thanks to its solid sound quality featuring crisp highs and generally punchy, bright audio. Its IPX7 design weighs only 1.7 pounds and the built-in loop makes it easy to attach to a bag to take with you on the go. It also works with Anker’s Soundcore app, which lets you customize EQ, button brightness and more.
Our favorite midrange smartphone, the Google Pixel 7a is on sale for $374 right now, which is a record-low price. That almost puts it within our “budget” price range ($350) for Android phones, so while it’s still a splurge pick, it’s arguably the best Android phone you can get in that price range at the moment. It runs on Google’s Tensor G2 chipset, plus it has a lovely 90Hz touchscreen, long battery life and an excellent camera array that takes impressive photos in all kinds of light situations, and good selfies, too. While there are plenty of good budget Android phones available today, you won’t find one that offers a better value than the Pixel 7a when on sale like this.
Both the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro have been discounted for the Spring Sale, down to $499 and $749, respectively. Both run on the Google Tensor G3 chip, and they have great battery lives and excellent cameras. We consider both of them to be the best Android phones available right now thanks in part to those features. Google also added a number of actually useful AI features like Best Take and Magic Eraser for photos, and more accurate voice typing and article summaries for the Google Assistant.
The Elgato Stream Deck Mk.2 in white is back down to $130. This is another deal we’ve seen pop up periodically in recent months, but it’s $20 off the device’s usual street price all the same. The Stream Deck is a macro keypad we recommend in our guide to the best game streaming gear. It has 15 programmable hotkeys that you can set to perform different commands, from launching an app to activating smart lights to triggering on-screen GIFs and sound effects. It’s really meant for content creators and power users first and foremost, but if you think you could benefit from having a bunch of shortcuts within arm’s reach, this is a decent time to pick one up.
Bundles that pair the PlayStation 5 with a digital copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 are still $50 off, bringing the standard model down to $449 and the digital-only version down to $400. These deals aren’t tied to Amazon’s Spring sale, but larger discounts on the PS5 have been uncommon, so this is still a good opportunity if you’ve been looking to take the plunge. The offers are available at several retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy and Sony’s PlayStation Direct store. Sony says they’ll last through March 31. My colleague Nathan Ingraham gave Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 a glowing review last year, calling it a “perfectly balanced game with gorgeous graphics, delightful combat and traversal systems, a compelling storyline and characters, plenty of challenge and a huge map to explore.”
“Mario Day” has come and gone, but Nintendo is still running a handful of deals on Switch consoles and games. At Amazon, you can grab the OLED Nintendo Switch for $10 less than usual thanks to an on-page coupon. If you have any interest in the cutesy social sim Animal Crossing: New Horizons, note that Target is bundling the Switch Lite with that game.
It’s also worth noting that Nintendo is widely expected to launch a new console in the coming months. Even if the latest reports suggest that won’t arrive until 2025, it’s hard to call this a great time to invest in the console. But if you don’t care about hopping on the bandwagon late and just want to catch up with the Switch’s library, getting any sort of deal on a Switch is better than normal. Just remember that the Switch Lite can’t be docked to a TV.
The Google Nest Thermostat is on sale for $100 ahead of Amazon’s Spring sale, which is about $10 more than the best price we’ve seen over the past year but $30 below its typical going rate. We’ve highlighted this entry-level smart thermostat in past gift guides. Compared to the higher-end Nest Learning Thermostat, it has a cheaper plastic frame, doesn’t support remote temperature sensors and can’t learn your heating and cooling tendencies to make automatic adjustments throughout the day. That said, it’s a more affordable way to remotely control your home’s climate, and it still supports features like HVAC monitoring and voice assistant control. It’s also compatible with the Matter standard, unlike the pricier model, so it can work with third-party platforms like Apple Home.
The Tineco Pure One S15 is the runner up pick in our cordless vacuum guide and right now it’s on sale for $349, but an addition clippable $25 coupon brings the final price down to $324.
This model is slightly less powerful than our top pick from Dyson but it handles dry messes well — including pet hair. It also automatically adjusts suction power depending on the amount of dirt it detects through the sensor. It’s app-connected, though that feature is admittedly not super necessary in a cordless vac. Still, it can help keep you apprised of your filter and battery levels.
The top pick in our guide to the best air purifiers is the Levoit Core 400S. Amazon’s sale is knocking the price down to $190 thanks to a clippable $30 coupon. That’s about $15 more than the all-time low, but still a decent deal on a purifier we found to be better than its higher-priced competition. It removes odors, dust, and small particulates like pollen from your indoor air with a three-layer system combining a pre-filter, activated charcoal layer and a HEPA filter. It’s app-connected and includes an optical sensor to monitor particulate matter levels and adjusts the fan speed accordingly.
The self-emptying Shark AV2501AE AI Robot Vacuum is 46 percent off for the Big Spring Sale. That makes it $350, which is $300 off the regular price and not too far away from its record low. This model is a variant of one of our top robot vacuum recommendations and comes with a base that holds up to 60 days of dirt and has a HEPA filtration system to capture dust and allergens. It uses 360° LiDAR to map your home, has an app to set schedules and even works with Alexa or the Google Assistant for literally hands free floor cleaning.
The is the runner up in our and thanks to the Amazon Big Spring Sale it’s now half price, making it just $300. That’s not quite an all-time low — it was $2 cheaper for much of February — but still a significant discount on one of our recommendations.
Engadget’s Valentina Palladino found this one to have powerful suction and an easy-to-use app. She also appreciated the upgraded obstacle detection that particularly avoids pet poop. The bot does take a couple runs before it can create a full map — and it doesn’t clean while it does that, so be prepared to wait a little after unboxing before your floors are truly on auto-pilot.
A number of Amazon’s Fire tablets are on sale right now, including the new Fire HD 10 for $95. That’s about $15 more than its record-low price, but it’s still a decent deal for this time of year. Updated in 2023, the Fire HD 10 has a 10-inch 1080p touchscreen, an octa-core processor, up to 13 hours of battery life and it charges via a USB-C port. We still think Fire tablets are best as secondary devices rather than daily drivers — that slab you keep next to the couch to check email or shop online on the fly, or by your bedside to read books and comics. And when they’re discounted like this, it’s much easier to justify getting a secondary device like that in the first place. A bunch of kid-friendly Fire tabs are on sale, too, most of which come with a childproof protective case, a two-year warranty and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+.
A variety of Amazon Blink devices are now discounted as part of the site’s Big Spring Sale. A three pack of the new Blink Outdoor 4 is down to $150 instead of $260. That’s a 42 percent discount and the lowest price we’ve seen this year (the set hit an all-time low of $135 for Black Friday).
If you just need one camera, take advantage of the sale on a single Blink Outdoor 4. It’s currently down to $65 from $100 — a 35 percent discount.
The Blink Outdoor 4 came out last August with a lot of upgrades including a larger field of vision, up to143 degrees and better low-light sensitivity and image quality. Blink claims the devices will go for two years before needing their AA batteries replaced.
The Samsung SmartTag 2 is on sale for only $21 for the Big Spring Sale, which is only $1 more than its record-low price. It’s one of our favorite Bluetooth trackers and it’s easily the best one for those with Samsung smartphones. Its finder network is large and its setup with the SmartThings Find app is quick and painless. If your stuff with the tag is left somewhere, you’ll get alerts when Lost Mode is activated. You can also just use the app to locate your items if you misplace them nearby. Out of all the Bluetooth trackers we tested, we liked the design of the SmartTag 2 the best thanks to its oblong shape, big keyring hole and support for colorful cases.
The Google Pixel Tablet makes a good smart display and tablet hybrid. Right now the 11-inch slate-plus-dock is back down to $399 at multiple retailers for the 28GB model. In addition to Amazon you can save at Target and the Google Store. This matches the lowest price we’ve seen and works out to $100 below the variation’s usual going rate. If you need more storage, the 256GB version is $150 off and available for $449, also an all-time low.
Engadget’s Cherlynn Low gave the Pixel Tablet a score of 85 in her review last June, and we mention the device in our tablet buying guide, though it’s not one of our top picks. But if you’re looking for a tablet that can also be your smart home command center, this is a good pick for controlling smart home devices, showcasing photos, streaming music with the improved speakers, and even cast video from your phone.
Plugable TBT4-UDZ gets a mention in our guide to the best laptop docking stations and right now it’s 20 percent off and down to $239. It’s a rare discount for the brand and the lowest price we’ve tracked. We were a little disappointed that the dock only has one downstream USB-C port, but it has plenty of USB-A and display connections and worked well with the MacBook and Dell laptops in our test, but didn’t work with a Chromebook.
New subscribers can get 40 percent off a Max subscription when you pay for one year upfront. If you want to go all-in on the highest tier, which gives you ad-free viewing and 4K streaming, it’ll cost you $140 for the year (roughly $12 per month). The most affordable tier will set you back a total of $70 for the year, which works out to about $6 per month. Considering how often streaming prices have increased recently, a sale like this is a great time to invest in a year of access to shows like The Last of Us and movies from outlets like Studio Ghibli and A24.
Our top pick for the best cordless vacuum cleaner, the Dyson V15 Detect, is on sale for $600 right now directly at Dyson. We’ve seen this model drop to $550 in the past, but this remains a great sale on a cordless vacuum that’s typically priced at $750. The “Absolute” models are much the same as the standard models, but you can typically only get Absolute versions at Dyson.com. Also, this model has HEPA filtration, a built-in tool and an exclusive gold color. Otherwise, it’s the same as our top pick, which impressed us with its excellent suction power, lightweight design and good battery life. In general, we found Dyson stick vacuums to provide the strongest suction power of any brand we tried, and the V15 is noticeably stronger than older models like the V8. It comes with a number of attachments as well, including the Fluffy Optic cleaner head that illuminates your floors with a laser of light so you can see exactly where the most debris is as you clean.
As part of the Big Spring Sale, Amazon has a similar version, the V15 Detect Complete, for $690 as a Prime exclusive. The main difference here, aside from the lack of HEPA filtration, is that you get a standing dock with Amazon’s model, which will be handy if you aren’t keen on mounting your new cordless vacuum to a wall.
We’ll move beyond Amazon for our last few deals this week. First, a configuration of Apple’s 14.2-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip, 18GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is down to $1,799 at B&H. That’s close to an all-time low and comes in $200 below Apple’s MSRP. We gave the latest MacBook Pro a review score of 90 last year. It’s more Mac than most people need, especially after the recent refresh of the MacBook Air. But for video editors, 3D designers and other professional types who need more power, a wider port selection and a brighter display, it should still fit the bill.
The 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard is back on sale for $80 at Amazon subsidiary Woot, a $20 discount that matches the lowest price we’ve seen. This is a tenkeyless mechanical keyboard we recommended in our retro gaming gift guide late last year. You’d mainly buy it for the aesthetic, as it looks like a companion piece for an old NES. Beyond that, it’s sturdily built, it works wirelessly and it comes with a pair of giant “Super Buttons” that you can customize to perform different macros. It’s comfortable for typing as well, though its clicky Kailh Box White V2 switches are fairly noisy. It also lacks any kind of backlighting. The stock switches are hot-swappable, however, so you can easily replace them if needed.
The latest Steam Spring Sale is underway, bringing an enormous range of PC game discounts along with it. There are simply too many deals for us to list everything, but some highlights include the acclaimed CRPG Baldur’s Gate 3for $54 (a small but rare discount), the frantic platformer Pizza Towerfor $13.39, the recently released Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for $56, the FPS compilation Halo: The Master Chief Collectionfor $10 and the VR adventure Half-Life: Alyx for $20.39. These big Steam sales are always a good time to grab some older classics for dirt cheap, too: The two Portalpuzzlers are available for $1.48, for instance, while the co-op shooter Left 4 Dead 2is just a buck. Valve says the sale will run until March 21.
Outside of Steam, the Epic Games Store has commenced its Spring Sale as well. The selection there isn’t as large, as usual, but it does include some well-reviewed exclusives like Alan Wake 2for $40 and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crownfor $30. Before you go padding your backlog on either store, though, we’d recommend using a price tracking site like IsThereAnyDeal to ensure you’re getting a genuine discount.
However technologically impressive a foldable smartphone may be, they’re seriously expensive. A $500 discount can help if you’re ready to grab one. The Google Pixel Fold is one of our favorites, and it’s now down to $1,299 at the Goole Store. It beats the largest discount we’ve seen for the unlocked 256GB model, by $100. If you need more storage space, Google has the 512GB model for $1,419, another $500 discount and record low.
The Pixel Fold is the runner-up pick in our guide to the best foldable phones, and Engadget’s Sam Rutherford gave it a score of 85 in his review last June.
The discount is part of a larger sale Google is hosting on its storefront right now, perhaps in response to Amazon’s event.
