Tag: Tech

Apple’s AirPods Pro are back down to $180 at Amazon, Target, Walmart and Best Buy. That’s just a dollar more than their all-time low. Apple sells the noise-canceling wireless earbuds for $249, though they’ve frequently sold between $190 and $200 for the past few months on Amazon.

We gave the second-gen AirPods Pro a score of 88 in our review. They continue to offer a number of perks when used with other Apple devices, from faster pairing and hands-free Siri to Find My tracking and an adaptive EQ. We specifically recommend them to iPhone owners in our guide to the best wireless earbuds as a result. The pair’s sound quality and active noise cancellation (ANC) remain above-average as well, though its call quality and battery life are just OK. Note that this deal applies to the latest model with a USB-C charging case; if you have the older Lightning version and just want the new case, you can buy that separately for $99.

The rest of Apple’s AirPods lineup is also on sale at various retailers, with the second-gen AirPods down to $80, the third-gen AirPods available for $140 and the over-ear AirPods Max on sale for $450. That ties the lowest price to date for the third-gen AirPods, coming in $10 to $20 below the pair’s usual going rate. The other two aren’t quite all-time lows but still match the best prices we’ve seen for each over the past several months.

We don’t recommend any of these as heartily as we do the AirPods Pro: The one-size-fits-all designs of the second- and third-gen AirPods won’t fit everyone comfortably, while the AirPods Max are still pricey and bulky next to the top picks in our wireless headphones buying guide. But each could make sense if you really want the usual spate of AirPods conveniences. The Max’s ANC and sound quality are still excellent, for one, while the third-gen AirPods remain one of the better-sounding options for those who prefer open-style earbuds that don’t dig into the ear canal. Just be aware that we may see updated versions of all three headphones later in 2024, according to past reports from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman.

From now until July 14, new and returning subscribers can get a year of Paramount+ with Showtime for $60. That’s half off the usual price of an annual plan. This is the premium tier of Paramount’s streaming service. It’s hard to call it “essential” given the sheer glut of content out there these days, but if you’ve been meaning to catch up on recent buzzy shows like Yellowjackets, The Chi, and Nathan Fielder’s The Curse — or just binge old episodes of Twin Peaks, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Dexter or Beavis and Butt-Head — here’s a good chance to save. (My mother is also a fan of that Halo adaptation, for whatever that’s worth, though she seems to be alone there.) Know that your subscription will be set to auto-renew by default, so you may want to set a reminder to cancel if you take the plunge. 

The top budget pick in our mechanical keyboard buying guide, the Keychron C3 Pro, is down to $27.47 on Amazon. That’s a new low. The tenkeyless keyboard technically has a list price of $50, though it’s more commonly available for $37, so you’re really saving about $10 here. 

Regardless, the C3 Pro delivers a superb typing experience for the price. Presses have a soft, springy feel and a pleasing, clacky tone. Its ABS keycaps aren’t as high-quality as our top picks, it only has a red backlight and the switches on these discounted models aren’t hot-swappable, but it should be a welcome upgrade for those looking to make their first leap away from a laptop-style membrane keyboard. This deal applies to the variants with Keychron’s tactile Brown switches and linear Red switches.

Getting back to the Apple-related headphone deals, the Beats Fit Pro is on sale for $160 at various retailers, including Amazon, Target and Best Buy. While not an all-time low, that equals the best price we’ve seen for most of the past year. The earbuds have been available for this price in a few colorways for much of 2024, but this deal applies to a wider selection of finishes. For reference, Beats normally sells the earbuds for $200.

The Fit Pro is the top workout pick in our wireless earbuds buying guide, as it provides many of the features you’d get with a set of AirPods in a sportier and more secure design. It pairs with and switches between Apple devices quickly, it lets you call on Siri hands-free and it works with Apple’s Find My network if you ever misplace it. Its IPX4 water-resistance rating should be enough for all but the sweatiest gym sessions, and its punchy sound plays well with most popular music. That said, this pair’s ANC is a step behind that of the AirPods Pro, it doesn’t support wireless charging and, like Apple’s other earbuds, it can’t connect to two devices at once. But it should do the job for iPhone owners who need wireless earbuds for the gym first and foremost. We gave the Fit Pro a review score of 87 back in 2021.

The entry-level configuration of Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air is down to $1,150 at Amazon with a $49.01 on-page coupon. This notebook goes for $1,299 at Apple.com, though it’s generally sold for $50 to $100 less at Amazon since arriving in March. Either way, this is its best price to date.

The latest MacBook Air is the top pick in our laptop buying guide, and we gave this 15-inch version a score of 90 in our review. It ticks all the requisite design and performance boxes for a mainstream laptop, limited port selection aside. Apart from its more spacious display, the 15-inch model also has a robust speaker system than its 13-inch counterpart.

The key thing to note with this config, though, is that it only includes 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Both are meager, so you shouldn’t count on this model for media editing and more involved workloads. If you can afford to at least double memory and storage, it’s worth doing so — those models are $150 off and down to $1,550 with a coupon as well. But if you’ll stick to more casual tasks, either option gives a decent chance to save.

The Amazon Kindle is available for $80 at Amazon, Target and Best Buy, a $20 discount that represents the best price we’ve seen since last October. The base Kindle is the top budget pick in our guide to the best ereaders. Its 6-inch display is just as crisp as the screen on the pricier Kindle Paperwhite, it gets you access to the same giant ebook library and it’s all comfortable to hold. There are still trade-offs: It’s not waterproof, unlike the Paperwhite, and its front light isn’t as robust. You’ll also have to deal with lock screen ads unless you pay an extra fee. But if you just want a competent ereader for less than $100, this is a solid deal.

The Paperwhite, meanwhile, is also on sale for $115 this week. That’s not an all-time low, but it’s $35 below the device’s usual rate and the lowest price we’ve seen in 2024. That model has a more spacious 6.8-inch display and an adjustable warm light feature on top of the aforementioned waterproofing and improved brightness. We call the Kobo Clara 2E a better choice for around the same price in our buying guide, however.

The Astro A40 TR is our favorite gaming headset, and right now it’s on sale for $100 at Amazon, Logitech and B&H. That’s not the lowest price we’ve ever seen, but it’s still $30 off the pair’s usual street price. The A40 is a wired model that’s been around since 2019, but it continues to deliver a more spacious and enveloping sound profile than most dedicated gaming headsets we’ve tested. As an open-back headphone, it lets in and leaks outside noise fairly easily, so it’s not the best choice if you often play in a noisy room. Its built-in mic isn’t especially high-quality, either, and its design is largely plastic. But it’s comfy, and it sounds much less closed-off and boomy than most headsets specifically marketed for gaming. If you need a mic and audio quality is your chief concern, it’s a nice value.

If you and a friend happen to be in the market for an Android smartwatch, Samsung is running a rare BOGO (buy one, get one free) deal on its Galaxy Watch 6. Just scroll down and select the prompt that says “Get a second Galaxy Watch 6 on us” to see the deal at checkout. The offer applies to the 40mm and 44mm models in both LTE and non-cellular configurations, which cost between $300 and $380. The Galaxy Watch 6 Classic — which is built with stainless steel instead of aluminum and can be controlled with a rotating bezel mechanism — is not included in the deal, however.

The Galaxy Watch 6 is the top pick for Android users in our smartwatch buying guide. It offers a robust list of health-tracking features, and it does well to auto-detect and log your workouts accurately. Its OLED display is sharp and bright, its rounded design is understated but not ugly and its Wear OS software gives access to a fairly wide selection of apps. It’ll still work best with a Samsung phone, but it’s not nearly as closed off to other devices as an Apple Watch. This is only a deal if you need a second watch, though; other retailers currently have the device for as low as $230 on its own. Samsung, for its part, is angling the promo toward Mother’s Day. 

The 48-inch version of LG’s C3 OLED TV is down to $847.44 at eBay with the checkout code SPRING15OFF. That’s not its lowest-ever price, but it’s roughly $150 off the TV’s typical going rate over the last few months. This discount comes via Electronic Express, which LG lists as an authorized dealer on its website. eBay says the coupon will expire on May 12.

The C3 is a midrange OLED model from 2023, so it’s currently being phased out in order to make room for recently-launched C4. However, the 48-inch version of that newer set is going for $1,497 as of this writing and doesn’t look to be a night-and-day upgrade in practice. For most, the older model should be a better value when it’s discounted to this extent.

The C3 itself isn’t as bright or color-rich as a good QD-OLED panel from Samsung or Sony, so it’s not class-leading in any one regard. Still, if you’ve never owned an OLED set, its high contrast, deep black tones, wide viewing angles and smooth motion should delight. It has four HDMI 2.1 ports that can output up to 120Hz, which is the fastest refresh rate the PS5 or Xbox Series X will allow, and it supports Dolby Vision HDR, unlike rival sets from Samsung. Just be aware that 48 inches is on the smaller side for a modern TV, so this model may work best in a smaller room or on a desktop.

Amazon’s Echo Show 8 is down to $100 at Amazon, Target and Best Buy. We’ve seen this discount multiple times since the 8-inch smart display was released last September; it’s not an all-time low, but it’s $50 off Amazon’s MSRP, and it equals the best price we’ve seen in a couple of months.

The Echo Show 8 itself is generally the best blend of price, size and functionality in Amazon’s smart display lineup. It has a more spacious screen, faster processor and better camera than the Echo Show 5, but it’s far more affordable than the Echo Show 10. It can work with other smart home devices through Matter, Zigbee and Thread, plus it has a dedicated camera cover and mic mute button. (Though no smart device like this is especially privacy-conscious.) Google’s Nest Hub is a better choice if you heavily use Google services like Gmail and Google Calendar — or if you don’t just want another camera in your home — but if you prefer Alexa and want a display for video calls, recipes and the like, this is your best bet.

If you don’t need a display at all, meanwhile, the most recent Echo Dot is also on sale for $28. Again, we’ve seen better deals in the past, but this is a larger discount than usual, taking $15 or so off the smart speaker’s average street price over the last few months. We call the Echo Dot the best option for less than $50 in our guide to the best smart speakers.

Up until May 13, Adobe is offering a year of its individual Creative Cloud All Apps subscription for $36 per month, or $396 if you pay for the full 12 months upfront. Normally, Adobe says an annual plan would set you back $60 per month or $660 upfront, so this is a 40 percent discount. The offer is only available for first-time subscribers, though. As a refresher, this plan gives access to more than 20 Adobe apps, including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, After Effects and Lightroom. It also includes 100GB of cloud storage, among other perks. It’s far from a must for the vast majority of people, but this a relatively rare discount if you work in the visual arts professionally and have been eyeing a subscription. Just note that the plan will auto-renew at its standard rate after the discounted year.

Google took the wraps off its new Pixel 8a phone this week, and to sweeten pre-orders it’s bundling the handset with a $100 gift card at Amazon, Best Buy and its own online store. This deal applies to the base model, which costs $499 and has 128GB of storage, or a new 256GB variant, which costs $559. At Best Buy, the offers also include a month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (for some reason). The phone starts shipping on May 14.

We’ll have to fully review the Pixel 8a before we can truly say if it’s worth buying, but at first blush it appears to be a fairly straightforward upgrade over last year’s Pixel 7a, which we recommend in our guide to the best smartphones. You can read my colleague Sam Rutherford’s hands-on preview for a rundown of what to expect, but the highlights include a newer Tensor G3 chip, a faster 120Hz display and a promised seven years of software updates, the same as Google’s flagship phones. Again, we’d advise most people to wait for our full review before pulling the trigger, but if you’re already sold and you know you’ll use the Amazon, Best Buy or Google Store cash anyway, this isn’t the worst pre-order deal we’ve seen.