The Apple Watch Series 7 has a larger screen and new green color option. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
It can be a little anxiety-inducing to shop for holiday tech gifts in the middle of December. Black Friday and its deals feel like a long-forgotten tale of folklore, and there is only so much time remaining to make the purchase, get it, wrap it, and place it under the tree. But we’re always finding you the best deals each and every day, and today we have some great ones for you.
Starting off, the Apple Watch Series 7 has hit a new all-time low price this week. Target and Walmart have a selection of Series 7 smartwatches for $50 off, including the base 41mm and 45mm aluminum models with GPS, their cellular-equipped counterparts, and even the stainless steel model. Each one is $50 off, and that brings the base model 41mm Series 7 down to a new low of about $350. The previous lowest price was only a $20 discount, so this is a prime opportunity to get Apple’s latest watch with a larger, edge-to-edge display until the deal ends on December 18th. Read our review.
If you’re on a tighter budget, Target and Walmart also have various Apple Watch SE configurations for $50 off. The base 40mm aluminum version with GPS is now just $229.99 — not its lowest price ever like its Series 7 counterpart, but the SE contains much of the innards from the previous flagship Series 6 at a much friendlier price. Read our review.
Now, for another all-time great deal that Android fans can actually enjoy, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3 has hit a new low price of $1,349.99 at Amazon. Not only is this deal $150 better than its previous lowest cost, but it also comes with a free pair of Galaxy Buds 2. Be sure to check the extra savings or special offer lines on the Amazon listing, and click the dedicated button to add both to your cart.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is Samsung’s latest flagship foldable, with a 6.2-inch outer screen and unfolding 7.6-inch inner display. While the Fold line first came to market with an easily breakable and flawed design, it has now developed into something The Verge’s Dieter Bohn called “nearly normal” — which is high praise when you think about a smartphone with a screen you fold up and put in your pocket.
Today’s deal brings the price down by a whole $450 for any of the color options in its 256GB storage configuration. If you want to be the most unique kid on your block by using a foldable phone, this price is as good as it gets for the phone-unfolds-into-small-tablet form factor. Read our review.
While those prior deals can be a bit polarizing if you only use iPhones or you only use Android, here is one that everyone can enjoy. Woot currently has some exceptional deals on a couple of Meross smart home products, including a three-way smart dimmer switch kit for interior lighting and a garage door opener remote for easy access to your car hole, regardless of your location.
Meross is a solid choice for budget-friendly HomeKit-compatible smart home accessories. While Matter isn’t here to save us from smart home complexity just yet, this garage door opener is compatible with Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings. All you need is your smartphone to let yourself, or someone else while you’re away, into your garage. It’s normally priced at $49.99, but Woot has it for just $35. This discount runs until December 18th, and the units are in new condition with a full one-year manufacturer’s warranty.
From the smart home to the TV streaming front, few set-tops have the loyal fan base of the Nvidia Shield TV line, thanks to its fast performance and flexible compatibility with apps like Plex. The newer Nvidia Shield TV Pro is the higher-end model over its tube-shaped sibling, running Android TV and compatible with all the major streaming apps. It looks a lot like the older model from 2015, but it packs a faster Tegra X1 Plus processor and supports Dolby Vision HDR. All of these improvements come at a bit of a cost, but you can get the Shield TV Pro for $20 off at Amazon, knocking the price down to $179.99. If you don’t mind splurging for a TV streaming device that’s faster and more capable, saving money on the Shield TV Pro is a great option and solid alternative to the Apple TV 4K.
Yesterday saw an especially good daily deal on the MacBook Air with M1 processor at Best Buy, matching its best price to date. It was set to expire when the clock struck midnight, but Best Buy is still offering the excellent laptop for just $799.99 — a discount of $200. I don’t mind that Best Buy made me a liar on this one, because it means you still get to buy the machine we named the best laptop of 2021 for the lowest price possible. Read our review.
Some more deals for your attention
The wired version of the HyperX Cloud II gaming headset is at an all-time low price of $59 ($40 off) at Amazon and Best Buy in the red colorway. Read our review of the wireless version here.
The 15.6-inch Dell G15 is a sleeper hit of a gaming laptop, and you can get it with an Intel Core i5-11400H processor, 8GB of RAM, and RTX 3050 GPU for just $849.99 ($200 off) at Amazon.
Amazon also has the newest 24-inch Apple iMac with M1 processor and upgraded eight-core GPU for $100 off, bringing it down to $1,399. Read our review.
The Facebook Portal with a 10-inch display for video calling is $100 off at Amazon in either black or white, dropping the price to just $79. Additionally, the Facebook Portal Plus with 14-inch display is $299 ($50 off) and the portable Facebook Portal Go is $149 ($50 off). Prefer to use your TV as the display? The Portal TV is just $79 ($70 off). That’s a whole lot of Facebook calling, so you have no excuse not giving mom or dad a call around the holidays. Unless, of course, there are other Facebook-related reasons not to.