Redmi Note 8 Pro will get a new special edition soon, Xiaomi announced on Saturday. The company revealed on Twitter that a new edition of the smartphone is ‘about to join’ the Redmi Note 8 Pro family.
Xbox Series S seems to have been confirmed through a set of images posted on Twitter. Microsoft is expected to launch a second more affordable console under the Series S.
DC FanDome has announced its list of guests. That includes Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman 1984), Zack Snyder (Justice League: Snyder Cut), Margot Robbie (The Suicide Squad), Robert Pattinson (The Batman), Dwayne Johnson (Black Adam), Ezra Miller (The Flash), Zachary Levi (Shazam! 2), and James Wan (Aquaman 2).
Xbox Series S seems to have been confirmed through a set of images posted on Twitter. Microsoft is expected to launch a second more affordable console under the Series S.
Chinese smartphone maker Oppo had recently unveiled its first-ever smartwatch – Oppo Watch in India recently and this watch will start retailing from today. This new Wear OS-powered watch will be available on popular online marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart apart from offline stores in two different variants based on the display size.
Oppo Watch price in India and launch offers
The Oppo Watch is available in 41mm and 44mm sized variants and the retail price of the 41mm smartwatch from Oppo is set at Rs. 14,990 while the 46mm variant will set you back Rs. 19,990. It will be available in three colour options - Black, Pink Gold, and Silver Mist.
Users who purchase the watch with the new Reno 4 will be entitled to a discount of Rs. 1500 on the 41mm Oppo Watch. For the 46 mm the discount on a bundled purchase is Rs. 2,000. The discount is applicable for both online and offline purchases. Also, since the discount is only available till August 10, do hurry up in case you are still undecided to buy the Oppo Watch.
Additionally, Oppo is offering an additional one-year extended warranty for all the watches purchased and activated between August 10 and 12. That’s not all, Oppo is also offering a 10% instant bank discount for purchasing the watch from Amazon or Flipkart. A no-cost EMI of up to 12 months along with an additional discount of INR 500 on prepaid Transactions is also available in case you’re looking to buy it on EMI.
The Oppo Watch comes equipped with Snapdragon 3100 chipset and runs on Oppo’s custom watch UI running on top of Android Wear OS out of the box. It is the first watch that features a curved AMOLED display and is available in two different size variants – 41 mm and 46 mm.
It is powered by a 430 mAh battery and comes with support for Watch VOOC Flash Charging technology that can charge the watch fully in 75 minutes. Other key features include fitness tracking, heart rate monitoring, sleep quality, 50-meter water resistance, along with reminders for inactivity and breathing.
Xiaomi launched the world’s first 108MP camera smartphone in the shape of the Mi CC9 Pro aka the Mi Note 10. Shortly thereafter, the company revealed a Lite version of the same handset with a 64MP main camera called the Mi Note 10 Lite. The Mi Note 10 Lite has also made its way to Europe since then. However, it now seems that the Mi Note 10 Lite could also be heading to India with a new Mi 10i badge.
The mention of the new name was found in a code where the Mi 10i had the model number “tocoin”. Now, the codename of the Mi Note 10 Lite is “toco”. The addition of “in” suffix is what fans the flames of an India launch. Now, none of this confirms the actual launch but what we know for certain is that there is a renamed model named Mi 10i. What’s even more peculiar is that the Mi Note 10 series never made it to India. Hence, for Xiaomi to go ahead and suddenly launch the Mi 10i would be strange. But then again, this wouldn’t be the first time that Xiaomi surprised us. This would also partly explain the rebranding. The said code strings were found by the_tech_guy on the MIUI camera app version 4.1.
Hypothetically speaking, if it does launch, the pricing aspect will be interesting. The European Mi Note 10 Lite (64GB) starts at €349 (~INR 30,845) which puts it right in the vicinity of the OnePlus Nord. However, Indian prices from Xiaomi are pretty aggressive, so there could be more surprises. Regardless, it wouldn’t be a walk in the park for the new model considering the formidable popularity of the OnePlus mid-ranger.
Just for sake of recapping, the Mi Note 10 Lite features a 6.47-inch curved AMOLED display with FHD+ resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It features a Snapdragon 730 CPU and a quad-camera setup of a 64MP primary sensor, an 8MP 120° ultra-wide-angle camera, a 5MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro sensor.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G India release date has been tipped by Amazon. Both the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G were unveiled at the Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event last week - as the successor to the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+.
And there is the ever threatening presence of Amazon India, which just recently managed to successfully conduct its annual Prime Deal sales event.
Also, the Walmart-owned Flipkart can never be discounted in the race. It recently unveiled Flipkart Quick and rolled out its own plan for 'dark stores'.
Zomato, Dunzo, Grofers, BigBasket are all part of this maddening contest as e-commerce sees huge demand at a time when mobility of the public is still curtailed due to the pandemic-induced lockdown.
Stepping into this big battle zone is Swiggy, the food app turned on-demand supplier of all goods. As the going gets tough, Swiggy is set launch a chain of virtual convenience stores to deliver grocery and household items within 45 minutes.
Christened InstaMart, it plans to offer about 2,500 items from its partner ‘dark stores’, which as is the norm, do not have walk-in locations.
According to a report in Economic Times, "Swiggy's pilot will begin from Gurugram and will run in Bengaluru subsequently."
With its core business, food delivery, massively hit due to the pandemic, Swiggy has had to struggle for relevance and survival. It quickly pivoted to all-delivery company like Dunzo, and even as the demand for home delivery of groceries and vegetables zoomed, Swiggy spread itself there too.
Swiggy has in place ‘Swiggy Stores’, which are typical local kirana stores with which its has a tie-up and based on their inventory, Swiggy serves the respective neighbourhoods.
This set up will continue, even as Swiggy launches InstaMart as it hopes to deliver even more quickly and have a tighter control over the inventory. Swiggy already has 10 dark stores of 1,800-2,500 sq ft set up in Bengaluru.
Swiggy is getting into hyperlocal delivery for two reasons. “The biggest monetization perspective is that this model offers a direct 15-17% gross margin on products plus the opportunity to monetize brands, compared to marketplace commissions which are close to 4-5%,” the Economic Times report said.
It is a model that most other competitors are also following.
Government’s plan to regulate "non-personal" data has jolted US tech giants Amazon, Facebook and Google, and a group representing them is preparing to push back against the proposals, according to sources and a letter seen by Reuters.
T95 C1 webcam PC -$84.99 at Banggood(£66.14/AU$120.71)
This webcam-PC cross definitely falls into the category of weird and wonderful devices. It sits atop top a monitor or television, as any webcam would, but it's also packing an 8-core system-on-chip, 2GB RAM and 16GB storage.View Deal
We have fond memories of the Cenovo King Kong Mini - a very small Windows computer we reviewed in 2016 that came with an integrated webcam. Suffice to say, it was not a stellar commercial success, which is a shame given the rise of remote working.
Fast forward to 2020 and the T95 C1 has taken another crack at merging computer functions into a webcam. This time, however, the end result looks more like, well, a webcam.
The device hangs from the top frame of a monitor or television and doesn’t actually cost much more than a decent webcam, despite the extra functionality.
Its innards are surprisingly good as well; an 8-core Rockchip RK3368 system-on-chip is paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB onboard storage. The latter can also be increased via a microSD card slot and there are also two available USB ports (albeit v2.0).
The device runs on Android 9.0 and connects to the internet via either a 10/100 Ethernet cable or 802.11ac Wi-Fi. There’s no audio connector nor gigabit Ethernet, and the USB ports really should be 3.0 versions, but at least the HDMI port is a v2.0 model.
The webcam description mentions an 8-megapixel sensor which, if true, would make it the biggest sensor we’ve come across on a desktop-bound webcam. It is also highly likely this sensor was originally destined to be used as a selfie camera for an entry level smartphone.
If this product comes from mainland China, it may take up to a month to reach either the UK or US (and potentially more). You may be levied a tax either directly or through the courier.
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The beleaguered Chinese video-sharing app, which is under immense pressure from the US government to get its act together, was reportedly talking it out with Microsoft.
First they said Microsoft would want to take over TikTok operations in North America, New Zealand and Australia. After that the regions of India and Europe were also bundled in.
Amidst all this brouhaha, comes the news that social media platform Twitter is interested in taking charge of TikTok in the US.
The Wall Street Journal, quoting unidentified sources, has reported that Twitter has held preliminary talks with TikTok about the possibility of acquiring the US operations of TikTok, which is under fire from US lawmakers over national security concerns surrounding data collection.
The Wall Street Journal's report is corroborated by the news agency Reuters, which, for its part, has two other people familiar with the development confirming Twitter's interest in TikTok.
Time is of essence for TikTok as US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order that appears to ban Americans from doing business through TikTok. The President issued an executive order, which will come into effect in 45 days.
The surprising thing about Twitter throwing its hat in the TikTok ring is the fact that, as a company, its own market capitalization is just about at a par with the valuation of the assets of TikTok it wants to take over. Analysts say that both hover around the $30 billion mark.
In other words, Twitter will have to really stretch itself out if it is to succeed in its bid for TikTok's US operations. But it is being said that one of the investors in Twitter, the big ticket tech investor, Silver Lake, is particularly interested in TikTok. It is reported to be the driving force behind this surprising gambit from the essentially conservative Twitter which is not known for such bold takeover bids. Twitter's own shareholders may want it to focus on its core business.
In any case, analysts say Twitter's move is broadly on paper alone, while Microsoft continues to be the leader in taking over TikTok.
Sources in the know have been quoted as saying that Microsoft is keen to stitch together a deal by mid-September. But one thing that may work to Twitter's advantage is that it is not operational in China, and hence may face less scrutiny than Microsoft at Beijing.
Both TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have neither denied nor confirmed the Twitter's interest in it.
It feels as if Black Friday 2020 is going to be different as the date, November 27, gets closer – online deals are going to dominate more than they have in past years.
First, Walmart, Best Buy and Target are all giving their staff Thanksgiving off this year, with the stores not opening amid the backdrop of the global pandemic. Best Buy confirmed it will be spreading out the deals this year, rather than just forcing them into a single weekend period, and it's expected other retailers will follow suit.
So what does that mean for AirPods deals and the best laptop sales of the period? Well, firstly, it's likely there will be a lot more online traffic - with retailers possibly offering more click and collect options for those who want to still venture out and pick up their goods by the curbside.
What it won't mean is throngs of people queueing up at all the traditional retailers - while some will likely remain open as normal, social distancing is almost certain to be in effect, so the packed queues and stampedes aren't going to be part of 2020's tradition.
There's also the point that Amazon Prime Day 2020 is going to be much later this year, rumored to be in early October. This will mean the Black Friday and Prime Day existing in close proximity in the calendar, and could have a gravitational pull on the sales that are snapped up when buying holiday gifts. Additionally, Walmart Plus may arrive with very similar deals to compete with Amazon.
The possible rise in online sales isn't something that's surprising, even without the pandemic, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals already set to rise in 2020. According to Adobe Analytics, 2019 saw a near-20% uplift in traffic for those searching for savings on their holiday gifts.
Whether the same things will be big winners will depend on the attitude towards spending - where last year it was toys in the most-purchased category and the Nintendo Switch as the big console, this year it might be the PS5 or Xbox Series X as the big winners.
We tracked last year's Black Friday deals closely, and we saw a number of hot sales from Walmart, Best Buy and Amazon that impressed - Target was also a big player in the technology space, aping the best iPad deal down to $250 for the base-level iPad from Apple. Whether that continues in 2020 remains to be seen, but there will still be top deals to be grabbed.
It's odd that consoles were so highly-sold lasts year, as we had little in the way of a cracking Nintendo Switch Black Friday deal, and even the PS4 deals - while they existed, and weren't too bad - were more scarce than we expected.
Other winners were Apple products, with $400 cashback on an iPhone 11, lower prices on AirPods and Apple Watches and MacBook / iPads being cheaper than ever before - and people bought them in their droves.
We saw Dyson being popular for Black Friday last time around, DNA kits a surprise package and we even saw great discounts on power tools as well.
So what does this tell us for Black Friday 2020? Well, as mentioned with the new consoles incoming, the current range of PS4, Xbox and Nintendo Switch deals will be improved.
Apple's AirPods Pro are mature in the market now, so we're expecting big discounts there (far more than the $15 drop we saw last year) and the AirPods Classic might even creep closer to $100, which would be a great saving and see Apple clean up on something that could be popped into a (fairly affluent) stocking.
However, there's nothing this year that suggests the likes of Instant Pot, TVs, laptops (which were huge this year too) along with Amazon's best own-brand products won't be the things to wait to buy on Black Friday 2020 - so expect more of the same and time your top purchases accordingly.
The top Black Friday deals we saw last year
HP Laptop 15t:$979.99 $519.99 from HP This HP laptop was a phenomenal price and came with a 15-inch display paired with a powerful 10th gen Intel Core i7 processor to power the whole thing. It also had 256GB of SSD storage onboard with Windows 10 built-in.View Deal
Powerbeats Pro wireless earphones |$249.95$199.95 at Amazon Powerbeats Pro were available for $50 off at Amazon, offering up to nine hours of the high quality audio you'd expect from Beats. Perfect for fitness fanatics, the Powerbeats Pro offer an adjustable ear hook design that keeps your buds firmly in place. You're also getting the Apple H1 chip, so using your earbuds with your Apple devices is smooth and simple. View Deal
Apple 10.2-inch iPad, 32GB:$329.99$229.99 at Target This was the absolute lowest price we'd ever seen on a 2019 iPad, with the 32GB model coming in just under $230 this Black Friday weekend (although it was actually after the Friday itself). You could pick it up in Gold or Space Grey and enjoy all the latest features for less. View Deal
iPhone 11 for $699 at Verizon |Get up to $400 off the iPhone 11 with select trade-in and Unlimited
A big hitter, you could get up to $400 off the iPhone 11 if you traded in a select phone, and if you switched to an Unlimited plan with your handset you could also get a $400 prepaid Mastercard too. View Deal
Hulu for $1.99/month:$5.99now just $1.99/month at Hulu You could pay $6 a month for Hulu's memorable TV shows and movies, or you could have paid just $2 a month for the best deal in streaming. We did, and now we won't be saying "Oh, I wish I had a Hulu subscription" at any point in 2020. View Deal
Xbox One X | Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order:$499$349 at Best Buy
The Xbox One X is still one of the most powerful consoles on the market right now, and this early Black Friday deal made it finally affordable. You'll can now play all your favorite games in 4K, and this one even comes with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. View Deal
HP 14 Laptop:$599$369 at Walmart A big seller, you could save $200 on the HP 14 laptop at Walmart. The powerful 14-inch laptop packs an Intel 10th Gen Core i5-1035G1 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. View Deal
MacBook Air 2019:$1099$899 at B&H
Often MacBook deals are hard to find, but $200 on a new MacBook Air was pretty nifty. This was for the 2019 model, and features a 13.3-inch display as well as 128GB of internal storage. It runs on a Intel Core i5 with 8GB of RAM and is still worth checking out now. View Deal
Fujifilm Instax Mini 9:$69$49.95 at Amazon You could have grabbed a huge 50% off on the Ice Blue and Flamingo Pink versions of the Instax Mini 9, thanks to this combination of a 28% discount and a $14.96 coupon. This was the bundle without a mini film pack, but represented incredible value for instant photography beginners.View Deal
Instant Pot DUO60 6 Qt Pressure Cooker:$99.95$49 at Walmart Walmart Black Friday shoppers could save 50% on the best-selling Instant Pot DUO60. That's the lowest price we'd seen for the pressure cooker, and made it a perfect gift for anyone on your list as Instant Pot's reign as top pressure cooker continued unabashed.. View Deal
Sony WH-1000XM3 Noise Canceling Headphones:$349.99$279.99 at Best Buy
These headphones from Sony are the best in the world (according to us), with excellent comfort, high-quality sound, and superb noise cancelling that made them an easy buy at this price. View Deal
Dyson V7 Motorhead Cord-Free Vacuum:$279$179 at Walmart The powerful Dyson V7 gained a $100 price cut at Walmart. The cord-free vacuum features a V7 motorhead to deep clean carpets and hard floors and includes a convenient hand-held vac, making it our top vacuum cleaner sale of 2019. View Deal
Top 4K TV deal – TCL 6-Series 55-inch:$649$599 at Amazon This is the TCL 6-Series 55-inch 4KTV and it's one of our favorite TVs on a normal day. And when it came to Black Friday, it was even sweeter thanks to an extra $50 price cut through Amazon.
Apple AirPods Pro:$249.99$234.99 at Amazon You asked for it and we delivered: a real-life deal on AirPods Pro with delivery just before Thanksgiving. Yes, that's how limited this Black Friday AirPods deal was – it sold out twice on us until it finally died. Expect this to be bettered in 2020.View Deal
JLab Audio - JBuds:$49$29 at Best Buy
True wireless earbuds can get expensive quickly - just take a look at the AirPods. However, this pair of JBuds from JLab Audio brought that freedom from wires into a package that was a fraction of the cost for just $29.View Deal
MyHeritage DNA Test Kit:$75$49 at Amazon Amazon had the top-rated MyHeritage DNA test kit on sale for $49. You can discover your ancestry and a detailed ethnicity breakdown from 42 regions. View Deal
When is Black Friday 2020? And what is it?
Black Friday, for the tiny amount of people that don't know, is the Friday immediately after Thanksgiving when retailers begin the holiday shopping season. It was based around the aforementioned “doorbusters”, discounts so impressive that bargain-crazed customers will try to break the doors down before the shop opens - although that won't be the case this year with social distancing.
The actual date shifts every year, by the day of the week stays the same: it's always the Friday after Thanksgiving, and like last year it's later in the month of November.
The official Black Friday date is November 27, 2020, meaning it's close to Christmas again (under a month before Christmas Day), and that gives you less time to shop online.
That may not seem like a big deal today, but you'll have to factor in waiting on the best deals, pouncing on the lowest price, and factoring shipping wait times.
As we've highlighted, Black Friday weekend isn't just a four-day affair, and deals don't necessarily follow the normal pattern of prime products to be unleashed - you can see new TV deals in the small hours of the morning or a brilliant wearable price slash just after the Thanksgiving turkey is prepped, so shoppers need to be more flexible than ever.
With the outbreak causing retailers to be less specific in their timing for unleashing deals, it could be harder than ever to spot when a new, impressive deal appears.
Let’s take a Black Friday history lesson: the first known mention of Black Friday related to this shopping experience was in November 1951, when the journal Factory Management and Maintenance used it to describe people calling in sick the day after Thanksgiving so they could have an extra day off work.
At the same time US police were using the phrases “Black Friday” and “Black Saturday” to describe the horrendous traffic that occurred at the beginning of the pre-Christmas shopping season.
In 1961 there was a movement from the local government to change the shopping season to “Big Friday” and “Big Saturday”, but it never caught on, and the notion that it was the time when retailers moved 'back into the black' was seen far later and clearly an attempt to bring positivity to the term.
Black Friday ads: when will we see them?
Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon and Target have a habit of stretching the saving across multiple days preceding the classic four-day window, posting Black Friday ad leaks in October and early November.
Trust us when we say we'll be monitoring the Black Friday ads hard this year, and giving you all the information as they drop.
The first signs of price drops come from these ad leaks, usually through major US newspaper print outs. Black Friday ad scans make their way online, giving you a heads-up on what to buy, how much to spend and where to shop.
This means Black Friday is more than just a one-day sales frenzy, or even an extended weekend tradition. It's going to be a whole month of savings in 2020, if you know where to shop and when to hit that checkout button. If you’re savvy, it's the best time of the year to shop, and you can save a lot of money.
Image credit: TechRadar
Will Black Friday 2020 be different in any way?
Black Friday 2020 should continue last year's trend of not just offering discounts, but offering discounts on items you'll actually want to buy, not least because the pandemic will have changed the way we shop in 2020 - both in terms of when we can get the best deals and the economic situation.
There was some fierce competition between Amazon, Walmart, B&H Photo and Best Buy last year, and that's a good sign given payday will fall after Black Friday in 2020.
Specifically, if the trends follow as expected, big-ticket items like 4K TVs with HDR support will be cheaper than ever – a once expensive proposition, and Apple to offer cheap iPads, which was a big hit last year again.
Essentially, that's more of the same. Beauty products and non-electricals should continue to increase in popularity as more brands and retailers look to take advantage of the Black Friday interest, particularly online.
The AirPods Pro, as mentioned, may see the older models on sale for a better price, while laptops, iPhones and Android smartphones should be at their lowest levels in 2020 once more.
It's not a surprise that Apple launches new iPhones in September to discount them (just a little bit) by Black Friday and Cyber Monday - although this year, the iPhone 12 delay might be an issue. This mostly happens through US carriers and BYGO Free deals, with some lovely cashback options last year as well to really sweeten the pot.
How does TechRadar prepare for Black Friday?
Black Friday is one of the most important times of the year for TechRadar to help our readers - we spend weeks ahead of the big day (or weekend) making sure the whole site is ready for people looking for the information they need to help them make the right buying choice. Whether that's knowing which is the best laptop, TV or iPad, or just seeing great deals for them through our Hawk price comparison widget, we've got everything you need to know.
Are Black Friday deals real?
Generally speaking, yes - although there are two kinds of deals. The first has been pre-agreed between brands and retailers, so they’re not as off-the-cuff as you might expect.
The other is sudden price drops, whether that’s an algorithm working out the best way to attract users to buy (as brands like Amazon often will) or just the big names price-matching one another, or pushing the price down further as they look to be the big winner. (We saw something similar with iPads in the US).
As with any sales event you’ll see a mixture of bargains, discounted end-of-line stock and strange things found in the back of a warehouse somewhere. In 2016, consumer magazine 'Which?' accused retailers of some pretty dodgy behavior.
You might notice that some items are cheaper after Black Friday - even as soon as Cyber Monday. But those are part of the natural Christmas discounting period, and our advice is to always grab a deal if you like it, and be prepared to return if it drops lower.
Where can I find the best Black Friday deals?
As mentioned, you’ll find the best options if you bookmark this page right now - there will be deals from the beginning of November 2020, and we’ll be bringing you the best of them, those that we think are worth checking out, the second that we see them flash up.
How do I get the best Black Friday deals in 2020?
Homework really helps. Some retailers up prices from August through to October so they can offer supposedly amazing discounts on Black Friday, so don’t be fooled by such moves.
They’re particularly prevalent in expensive consumer electronics such as TVs or laptops with product numbers rather than names, with products that were dropped down to a great bargain price suddenly being pushed back to their MSRP again.
It’s also a very good idea to be flexible: for example, if you fancy a Samsung UHD TV it’s best to think about the features you want rather than a specific model number: the BRV553ABD34-82C-9218-X may not be discounted on Black Friday 2020, but an almost identical set with the specification you want probably will be.
So do your research on what matters and we’ll do our best to give you the right comparison needed.
However, don’t be fooled into thinking that something that looks like a five star set is the same but cheaper - certain elements (often with regards to screen quality or image processing) won’t be as high quality to achieve that lower price point.
Can I get cashback on Black Friday deals?
Will Black Friday 2020 be different in any way?
Black Friday 2020 should continue last year's trend of not just offering discounts, but offering discounts on items you'll actually want to buy, not least because the pandemic will have changed the way we shop in 2020 - both in terms of when we can get the best deals and the economic situation.
There was some fierce competition between Amazon, Walmart, B&H Photo and Best Buy last year, and that's a good sign given payday will fall after Black Friday in 2020.
Specifically, if the trends follow as expected, big-ticket items like 4K TVs with HDR support will be cheaper than ever – a once expensive proposition, and Apple to offer cheap iPads, which was a big hit last year again.
Essentially, that's more of the same. Beauty products and non-electricals should continue to increase in popularity as more brands and retailers look to take advantage of the Black Friday interest, particularly online.
The AirPods Pro, as mentioned, may see the older models on sale for a better price, while laptops, iPhones and Android smartphones should be at their lowest levels in 2020 once more.
It's not a surprise that Apple launches new iPhones in September to discount them (just a little bit) by Black Friday and Cyber Monday - although this year, the iPhone 12 delay might be an issue. This mostly happens through US carriers and BYGO Free deals, with some lovely cashback options last year as well to really sweeten the pot.
How does TechRadar prepare for Black Friday?
Black Friday is one of the most important times of the year for TechRadar to help our readers - we spend weeks ahead of the big day (or weekend) making sure the whole site is ready for people looking for the information they need to help them make the right buying choice. Whether that's knowing which is the best laptop, TV or iPad, or just seeing great deals for them through our Hawk price comparison widget, we've got everything you need to know.
Are Black Friday deals real?
Generally speaking, yes - although there are two kinds of deals. The first has been pre-agreed between brands and retailers, so they’re not as off-the-cuff as you might expect.
The other is sudden price drops, whether that’s an algorithm working out the best way to attract users to buy (as brands like Amazon often will) or just the big names price-matching one another, or pushing the price down further as they look to be the big winner. (We saw something similar with iPads in the US).
As with any sales event you’ll see a mixture of bargains, discounted end-of-line stock and strange things found in the back of a warehouse somewhere. In 2016, consumer magazine 'Which?' accused retailers of some pretty dodgy behavior.
You might notice that some items are cheaper after Black Friday - even as soon as Cyber Monday. But those are part of the natural Christmas discounting period, and our advice is to always grab a deal if you like it, and be prepared to return if it drops lower.
Where can I find the best Black Friday deals?
As mentioned, you’ll find the best options if you bookmark this page right now - there will be deals from the beginning of November 2020, and we’ll be bringing you the best of them, those that we think are worth checking out, the second that we see them flash up.
How do I get the best Black Friday deals in 2020?
Homework really helps. Some retailers up prices from August through to October so they can offer supposedly amazing discounts on Black Friday, so don’t be fooled by such moves.
They’re particularly prevalent in expensive consumer electronics such as TVs or laptops with product numbers rather than names, with products that were dropped down to a great bargain price suddenly being pushed back to their MSRP again.
It’s also a very good idea to be flexible: for example, if you fancy a Samsung UHD TV it’s best to think about the features you want rather than a specific model number: the BRV553ABD34-82C-9218-X may not be discounted on Black Friday 2020, but an almost identical set with the specification you want probably will be.
So do your research on what matters and we’ll do our best to give you the right comparison needed.
However, don’t be fooled into thinking that something that looks like a five star set is the same but cheaper - certain elements (often with regards to screen quality or image processing) won’t be as high quality to achieve that lower price point.
Can I get cashback on Black Friday deals?
Sometimes, yes. Your debit card or credit card may offer cashback on purchases. It’s definitely worth looking into, not just for Black Friday 2020 but for any online shopping, when you’ll be spending the most online.
Am I protected when I buy on Black Friday?
In general, you should be just as protected as you are when shopping any other time of the year. You’ll want to check on return policies and warranty periods, and you should also make sure you’re shopping at known retailers you trust.
While many deals can seem too good to be true on Black Friday, landing on an unfamiliar website claiming to have a product for pennies on the dollar is a good sign you’re in the wrong place.
Remember that using your credit card also can offer a level of protection, so as long as you have the means to pay it back straight away, using this method can give you more peace of mind.
Many credit cards can help you contest payments if you never receive a product, and some even offer extended warranties on products beyond the one included from manufacturer or retailer.
Sometimes, yes. Your debit card or credit card may offer cashback on purchases. It’s definitely worth looking into, not just for Black Friday 2020 but for any online shopping, when you’ll be spending the most online.
Am I protected when I buy on Black Friday?
In general, you should be just as protected as you are when shopping any other time of the year. You’ll want to check on return policies and warranty periods, and you should also make sure you’re shopping at known retailers you trust.
While many deals can seem too good to be true on Black Friday, landing on an unfamiliar website claiming to have a product for pennies on the dollar is a good sign you’re in the wrong place.
Remember that using your credit card also can offer a level of protection, so as long as you have the means to pay it back straight away, using this method can give you more peace of mind.
Many credit cards can help you contest payments if you never receive a product, and some even offer extended warranties on products beyond the one included from manufacturer or retailer.
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