Retailers love make-believe shopping holidays, and the latest is the Amazon Big Spring Sale. Running now through March 25, Amazon is promising the usual: oodles of deals on everything your heart could ever want, with some exclusive deals for Amazon Prime members. We at WIRED are expert deal sleuths, and we’re hunting through the chaos to find deals on WIRED-tested gadgets that we like—you won’t find any fake discounts here. We’ve rounded up the best deals below, and we’ll continue to update this story with more.
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Amazon Device Deals
Photograph: Best Buy
Our favorite Amazon Fire Tablet drops to this price pretty regularly, but it’s rare to see it dip down any lower. It has a faster processor than previous versions did, plus a larger display that has been upgraded to 1080p. You can also upgrade the storage capacity with a microSD card. Note that you’ll need to spend $110 to get the version without lockscreen advertisements, but that’s still a $45 savings. Our Best Amazon Fire Tablets guide has additional recommendations.
This is the best kids’ tablet. It comes with a rugged case, plus a two-year worry-free guarantee. If your kiddo runs the tablet over on their baby four-wheeler or spills an entire gallon of juice on the device, you’ll be covered. It also includes a free year of Amazon Kids+, which provides access to age-appropriate games, books, shows, and more, all with parental controls. Other versions of Amazon’s Kid Edition Fire Tablets are also on sale; You can read more about their differences in our Kids Tablets buying guide.
The Echo Dot with Clock makes a really good alarm clock. We say as much in our Amazon Speakers buying guide. Aside from the built-in clock display, this speaker is pretty close to other Echo Dot models. It’s the right size to play your favorite playlists when falling asleep or getting ready, but it’s not going to give you room-filling sound—which is why it’s perfect for a nightstand. It has been cheaper during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, but $10 off is still alright if you don’t want to wait. If you don’t care about the built-in clock, you can get the fifth-gen Echo Dot for $35 ($15 off).
Photograph: Best Buy
This is the best streaming device for folks embedded in Amazon’s ecosystem. It obviously favors Amazon’s own content, whether that’s Prime Video or Freevee. You can still stream from the usual services, like Netflix or Hulu, but the software really wants viewers to consume Amazon content. If you don’t mind, this is a fine streaming device, with Alexa built in and a fun “Ambient Experience” mode that can display art and photos on your TV when you’re not watching something.
Smartphone, Tablet, and Laptop Deals
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
We’ve seen this deal many times, but it’s still the best price we’ve seen for our favorite Android phone. The Pixel 7A (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has just about every feature you could ever want in a phone, and the value offered for the price is incredible. We have some complaints about the battery life, and you should note that it doesn’t have a headphone jack or a microSD card slot. But for the money, it’s difficult to find a better device that checks off nearly all of the boxes.
This is the best deal we’ve seen so far for the Google Pixel 8 (7/10, WIRED Review). The Pixel 8 is the latest flagship from Google, and it maintains the excellent camera system Pixels are known for. The Pixel 8 Pro is also on sale at $749 ($250 off), and it has some additional perks, such as the 5X optical zoom camera. You can read more about these phones in our Pixel Buying Guide.
The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of our favorite budget phones. It goes on sale relatively frequently, but if you’re in the market, this is a safe buy. It has a bright display with a 120-Hz screen refresh rate, solid performance, decent battery life, and upgradeable storage. The cameras are OK too.
Photograph: Anker
This is a must-have accessory, and we say as much in our Best iPad Accessories guide. This 30-watt adapter is good for phones and tablets, but if you need more juice, there’s a 65-watt option that’s also on sale for $28 ($25 off).
This didn’t make our list of the Best Portable Chargers, but we generally like Anker’s gear. It has enough juice to charge your phone a few times over, and the slim design makes it easy to stash in a bag.
Headphone and Speaker Deals
This is an excellent deal for one of the best noise-canceling headphones you can buy. We’ve seen the price drop down a bit more, to $300, but this is still a great discount. The Sony WH-1000XM5 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) have fantastic sound quality. They look great, they’re comfortable to wear, and Sony improved the microphones in these, so they’re OK for phone calls too.
These have fallen to $25 less during Cyber Monday promotions, but $100 off is still a nice price. The Sony WH-1000XM4 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) aren’t the latest (see above), but they’re still some of our favorite noise-canceling headphones. They do a top-tier job of quieting the world around you, and they offer remarkable battery life and comfort. The mics aren’t as nice on these.
This price is an absolute steal for a great pair of cheap noise-canceling headphones. They don’t have the most modern design, but their sound quality is fantastic, the battery life is great, and they’re durable. If you’re on a strict budget, these cans are great.
These are already our favorite noise-canceling headphones under $100. Snagging them for $56 is an excellent score, especially since we’ve never seen them fall lower in price. They’re a little fragile, but they’ve got a 40-hour run time and decent hybrid noise canceling.
This deal has been around all month, but it’s still worth considering. The Samsung Galaxy Buds2 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) are some of the best headphones for Samsung users. They’re comfortable and have active noise canceling, plus workout-ready water resistance, cute color options, and five hours of battery life per charge.
This is a price match of what we saw during Cyber Monday last year. The Google Pixel Buds Pro (9/10, WIRED Recommends) are excellent earbuds for Android users looking for a simple user experience. And with features like noise canceling, transparency mode, seven hours of battery life, and a wireless charging case, you’ll get the most bang for your buck. These buds are also super comfortable to wear and come in fun colors.
These are our favorite workout headphones. They’ve got robust IP68 water resistance, a great, comfortable fit, and they have good onboard button controls. Perhaps most important, they stay secure when you’re working out.
In our Workout Headphones buying guide, the Jabra Elite 4 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) are listed as a solid alternative to the Jabra Elite 8. This less expensive pair is still great. They don’t have as much water resistance, and they aren’t the most modern—they don’t support wireless charging and they lack an auto-pause function. But if you just want a good pair of headphones that’ll stay comfortable and sound great while you’re working out, these are a safe bet.
Smart Home and Gaming Deals
The Roku Express is a bare-bones streaming device that doesn’t support 4K content—but it’s a fine option if you’re streaming standard HD quality. It does have the same operating system as other Roku devices, but otherwise, the gadget is pretty basic. But it’s fine if “basic” is all you need.
The runner-up in our Best Video Doorbells guide, this Arlo video doorbell fluctuates between $80 and $50 frequently. This deal still comes within $5 of the best price we’ve tracked. It has a wide 180-degree viewing angle, and it’ll alert you to activity on your porch with few false positives. It also records detailed video. Just keep in mind that the best features are locked behind an $8-per-month subscription.
The discount will be applied at checkout. I know that $9 off a Nintendo Switch is like, the saddest deal ever, but these rarely go on sale, especially from first-party merchants. So I’m including it here, because the Nintendo Switch OLED (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the best model in the lineup so far, and because if you’re shopping for one, you might as well save whatever money you can (especially now that Mario Day deals have expired). The Nintendo Switch Lite (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is also $10 off at checkout, if you don’t mind being locked to handheld gaming mode.
The Canon EOS-R series is our top mirrorless camera recommendation for Canon fans. The EOS-R5 is the beefiest of the bunch, and often it’s extremely expensive. We haven’t seen it go for cheaper before. It has a 45-megapixel full-frame sensor and can shoot 8K video at 30 frames per second.
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