5.9 C
London
Wednesday, November 27, 2024

24 Best Memorial Day Tech Deals 2023: Headphones, TVs, and More

It’s nearing the hottest time of year, so why not trick out your home theater and stay indoors? Or, if you plan on venturing out, you can pick up some earbuds to keep tunes blasting on the go. Whatever your needs, there are plenty of sales going on this weekend and we’ve rounded up some of the best on all our favorite electronics.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-Year Subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you’d like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more.

Home Theater Deals

TCL 6 Series

Photograph: TCL

Even after the latest 2022 update, TCL’s 6-Series (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is still our favorite TV overall. This quantum-dot, mini-LED TV provides even better contrast and deeper blacks than previous versions of this already great-looking set. It has a Roku interface built in and the included stand is excellent.

For a more mid-range option, this Vizio set (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of our top picks. While it’s not one of the brightest sets we’ve tested, its local dimming and quantum dot display gives it excellent contrast in darker rooms.

LG is the only company that makes large OLED panels at scale, so it’s no surprise that LG’s own TV is one of our top picks. The C2 has some of the lowest input lag, making it great for gaming, and the OLED screen gives it insane contrasts that should appeal to film nerds.

If your living room gets a lot of natural light, some TVs can have a hard time competing to be seen. In those cases, this Samsung TV (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of our favorites. It’s not only one of the brightest TVs we’ve tested, but it also has some of the best viewing angles, making it ideal for a wide range of situations.

We’re still not sure you really need an 8K TV just yet, but if you really want to be on the cutting edge, this Samsung set (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is our top choice and it’s finally reaching a reasonable price. It has absolutely stunning picture quality and processing, and even comes with a solar-powered remote control.

Vizio M-Series 5.1.2

Photograph: Vizio

The Vizio M-Series 5.1.2 soundbar (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is our top choice under $500. It supports Dolby Atmos sound and blasts audio upwards to help create a more vibrant soundstage. It also comes with two rear speakers to give you immersive sound with minimal setup.

Roku makes one of our favorite smart TV systems, but if your TV doesn’t come with one included, then this is one of the best. It’s inexpensive–especially on sale–supports Dolby Vision HDR, and comes with a voice-controlled remote.

Camera Deals

Nikon Z6 II

Photograph: Nikon

If you’re invested in the Nikon ecosystem, the Z6 II is an excellent upgrade. Its 24-megapixel full-frame sensor delivers top-notch dynamic range and the camera can record 10-bit 4:2:2 log footage over HDMI.

The GoPro Hero11 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of our favorite action cameras, but it’s great even as a regular camera. It has an easy mode to get footage with minimal fiddling, and you can pull some amazing hi-res still images from video.

The Insta360 One RS (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is our top choice for a do-it-all action camera. It’s great as an action camera, great as a 360 camera, and it even supports interchangeable lenses, with three distinct modules you can mix and match. 

If you’re looking for the best bang for your buck, the GoPro Hero 10 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is our top action camera pick. It has a fast processor that’s capable of recording up to 5.3K video, high frame rate video, and video tone mapping to get even better detail.

Battery Deals

Anker 568

Photograph: Anker

For keeping your phone charged, this portable battery from Anker is our top choice. Its 10,000-mAh capacity is more than enough to charge your phone multiple times, or even top off your laptop or tablet.

GoalZero makes some of our favorite power banks for charging heavy-duty devices like laptops. This one is a beast, capable of delivering 187 watt-hours of power. It has four USB ports (two USB-A, two USB-C), a regular power outlet, and even a car-style power outlet.

This portable battery from BioLite is our favorite for outdoor use. It’s made of durable material, while still being lightweight enough to carry around in your pocket. BioLite also makes solar panels that can be used to charge their batteries, and while we’re still testing these, so far they’ve been a pretty handy way to top off your power bank when away from home.

This monstrously huge portable battery from Zendure is our pick for air travel for one very simple reason: It’s the absolute biggest capacity you’re legally allowed to take on a plane. If you need to charge your phone, laptop, tablet, and Switch while you’re flying across the globe, you can bring several smaller batteries, or just get this one.

The whole clear-plastic gadget trend really needs to make a comeback. Shargeek obviously agrees, since the company sells this 25,600-mAh battery that has a stylish design that lets you see all the inner parts, plus a color display that gives detailed info about voltage, current, and power flowing out of each part.

For really serious power needs, this Jackery Explorer power station is our go-to. It’s meant to be paired with some solar panels, can store a huge amount of power, and can output enough power to run major appliances off the grid.

Headphone & Earbud Deals

HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless

Photograph: HyperX

The Cloud Alpha Wireless headset from HyperX is one of the rare gadgets to earn a perfect 10/10, WIRED Recommends score. Using some combination of quantum physics and dark magic, this pair gets an unreal 300 hours of battery life, compared to the 30-ish most other headsets get. They’re also super comfortable, have great audio quality, and boast a solid microphone for team chat. This isn’t the cheapest we’ve seen them, but they’ve been more expensive lately and this is still a solid deal.

This headset is our top pick for Xbox gamers. The Arctis 9X connect directly to the Xbox the same way you pair controllers, so you don’t need a dongle. They’re comfortable, have excellent audio quality, and last about 20 hours on a single charge.

The JBL Quantum One may have a distinctly Gamer Aestheticâ„¢, but they’re also our top pick if you’re into 3D audio. Not only is the spatial audio delivery excellent, but JBL has even added some nifty features like turning the volume down if you turn your head away from your game.

The Jabra Elite 7 Active are our top pick for workout earbuds. Jabra scanned thousands of ears to come up with a design that stays snug no matter what type of ears you have, and the work paid off. Not only do they stay put on outdoor excursions, but they sound great and even get eight full hours of battery life.

Apple AirPods Pro

Photograph: Apple

If you’re an iPhone user, it’s hard to find better earbuds than the AirPods Pro (9/10, WIRED Recommends). They pair easily with Apple products, fit comfortably in most ears, and the charging case has its own built-in speaker so you never have to stop listening.

The Sony LinkBuds (8/10, WIRED Recommends) are unique in that they have holes in the middle of their drivers, so you can still hear sounds from the outside world while you’re listening. That helps make them our top pick for earbuds when you’re traveling around town.

If you happen to be really big into the Alexa ecosystem, then the Echo Buds (8/10, WIRED Recommends) are our top pick for you. They have great audio quality, a wireless charging case and, naturally, can respond to voice commands just like other Echo products.

Latest news
Related news