Science

Black Friday 2018: Best Amazon Smart TVs and Speakers You Can Pick Up Early

Get ahead of the shopping frenzy.

by Danny Paez

Each year, the retailer arms race to lure in more and more of your holiday spending pushes the Thanksgiving weekend sales earlier and earlier into the calendar year. In 2018, you might soon be able to get a jump start on Black Friday a full week before the post-turkey shopping binge kicks off in earnest.

That’s because (who else?) Amazon is having a Black Friday pre-game ahead of its massive November 23 discounts. As has been the case in the past, the best deals tend to affect its own hardware products, like the Echo speakers, Fire TV, and Kindles. But if a pair of smart speakers or a new TV are on your list, then you’re in luck, as prices should be relatively in line with what we saw on Prime Day but without the requirement of being an Amazon Prime member.

Amazon also helpfully says that non-Prime members will receive free shipping with no order minimum for the rest of the holiday season (though, sadly, two-day shipping will remain a perk that’s exclusive to subscribers).

Still if you have a long list of gifts buy, now’s your chance to get started before the Black Friday frenzy actually sets in.

Amazon Black Friday: November 16 Will See Tablets For Days

Amazon is putting its line of Fire HD tablets front and center on November 16. Most of these deals apply to the kid-friendly versions of these devices.

Amazon's Fire HD 10 Tablet

Consider picking one of these up if you have a Prime Video subscription and want to watch movies or shows when you’re on a family vacation or business trip.

Amazon Black Friday: November 18 Is All About TVs

Want to level up your home entertainment system? Amazon will offer a few Fire TV options to turn your standard living room tube into a full-fledged smart TV with a few simple componenets.

Amazon's Fire TV Cube that supports 4K video.

Flickr / ekosunaryo

Sales on these items begin November 18 and are best suited for those who have yet to pick up a smart TV and love binging series or movies. These devices are compatible with Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and many more video streaming services.

Amazon Black Friday: November 22 Thanksgiving Tech Specials

Thanksgiving is when the floodgates truly open. Amazon will begin slashing prices on its popular smart speaker devices right before the biggest Black Friday discounts kick in.

The third-generation Echo Dot comes with upgraded audio capabilities.

Amazon

The company announced new Echo assistants during a hardware launch earlier this year. November 22 will be the day to cop the freshest of these products for the low.