The Pixel 6A comes in three colors: chalk, sage, and charcoal. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Later this week, Google will reveal the full details, including price, specs, and a release date for its Pixel 7 phones and the Pixel Watch. You better believe we’ll have the event covered from every angle. But if you’re looking for a deal on an existing model, Google’s Pixel 6A is $100 off its usual $449 price, beating the lowest price by a fairly wide margin. You can pick up the Pixel 6A in a variety of colors for $349 unlocked at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.
There are a few reasons why the Pixel 6A may be the ideal choice for some people — even compared to the newer Pixel 7 phones once they release. Price, for one, is key. Next, it has a smaller 6.1-inch 1080p OLED that’s easier to hold in the hand or more easily slipped into a pocket than the 6.4-inch Pixel 6 (and even bigger Pixel 6 Pro). Notably, the 6A features the same Tensor processor as the pricier models, though it has slightly less RAM (6GB versus 8GB in the Pixel 6).
As for what didn’t make the cut in the Pixel 6A, you won’t get a fast refresh rate screen. It’s a standard 60Hz display. It also lacks a few flagship niceties, like wireless charging and improved cameras.
Amazon’s fourth-generation Echo smart speaker is down to $59.99, a great price that’s likely a teaser of what’s to come for Amazon devices during the company’s Prime Early Access Sale that’s happening Tuesday, October 11th, through Wednesday, October 12th. Back to the deal, we’ve seen the price sink this low just a few times — most recently during Prime Day and, before then, during Black Friday.
This Echo is more powerful than the smaller, cheaper Echo Dot. My colleague Dan Seifert noted in his review that it provides “loud, room filling sound,” with fantastic bass. Sounds like a good way to spend $60 if you ask me. Oh, and Dan also thinks that two of these paired in a stereo configuration work great, saying that the two speakers create a “wall of sound that you’d expect to come from much larger or more expensive speakers.” Read our review.
Just two weeks following the announcement of Google’s new Chromecast HD, it’s $10 off at the Google Store. Normally $29.99, you can snag one for $19.99, a good price for a 1080p streaming device. In case you were curious, this model has the same design and features as the slightly pricier Chromecast 4K, which itself is $10 off (costing $39.99).
In case you haven’t had a Chromecast in a while (or ever), this new model includes a voice remote, so you don’t need to use your phone as the stand-in dial to queue your entertainment on the big screen. What’s more, it has its own OS called Google TV that lets you find all of the streaming apps you may be after. We’ll have a review of this model coming soon, but most of what Chris Welch wrote about the 4K model should apply to this cheaper version, with performance likely being the exception.
These deals go well with coffee
The compact yet capable Amazon Echo Show 5, a smart display with a five-inch display and a camera for video calls, is still down to $34.99. This is 59 percent off its usual $84.99 price, which is a fantastic deal. It’s a solid bedside alarm clock, and in a pinch, it can deliver some entertainment with its tiny display and speakers. Here’s our review of this model.
Garmin’s Forerunner 245 GPS-enabled smartwatch with a 30mm case is $219.99 in black at Best Buy as part of its deal of the day. This $80 discount will end today. As the name implies, this watch is made for runners. It features activity tracking as well as support for GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo satellite coverage.
If you’re feeling spendy, Gigabyte’s 17.3-inch spec-packed Aero 17 XE5 is $1,200 off at Newegg, costing $1,799.99 for a powerful model. Its display has 4K resolution, Mini LED backlighting, and a 120Hz refresh rate. (It sounds awesome.) Elsewhere, it has Intel’s Core i7-12700H processor, Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti, 16GB of fast DDR5 RAM, and a 2TB SSD. I doubt you’ll find a better gaming laptop deal today.