The 14 Best Weekend Deals on Smartphones, Laptops, and Audio
If you’ve managed to snag yourself some time in the great outdoors this weekend, hats off to you. Like the hero of a Gary Paulsen book, you’ve temporarily thrown off the oppressive shackles of indoor life and escaped to the wilderness. For those of you riding out wildfire smoke or heat waves, we feel your pain. As expert as we’ve become at spending time inside our homes over the last year, it gets stale and boring after a while. You may as well make home more tolerable and exciting with a new toy or three. It’s all indoor tech this weekend with deals on smartphones, earbuds, and things with screens.
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Laptop and Tablet Deals
The Flip is a 2-in-1 notebook, meaning you can use it like a regular laptop with the keyboard and trackpad in front of you or you can flip the keyboard away so to use the touchscreen like a tablet. Senior product reviewer Scott Gilbertson called it the best all-around model in his Guide to the Best Chromebooks.
Now updated with a USB-C port, the Sufrace Pro 7 is still our favorite 2-in-1 Surface laptop. It comes with a 12.3-inch touchscreen and a 3:2 aspect ratio that’s perfect for sharing work documents. It doesn’t say explicitly that it’s a deal, but it’s a similar price at Amazon.
We said the Ryzen 5 model was our favorite powerhouse budget laptop, but this Ryzen 3 version is still pretty good, if a little underpowered. It still has the latest chip, though, so this will work if your computing needs aren’t super-intense.
Senior product reviewer Scott Gilbertson calls this an ideal Chromebook for school. It’s an entry-level Chromebook that converts into a tablet, and it packs an AMD Ryzen 3 chip, 4 gigabytes of RAM, and 64 gigabytes of storage into a metal construction that gives it a nicer feel than the plastic-shell competition.
When it was launched in late 2020, the 4th-generation iPad Air stole a lot of the then-current iPad Pro’s thunder. With Touch ID and Apple’s A14 Bionic chip, this is all the iPad most people will need for web surfing, video gaming, and hobby-level graphical drawing.
Phone and Device Deals
Senior reviews editor Julian Chokkattu called it a Renaissance phone in his review, granting it an 8/10 score and a WIRED Recommends award for its snappy processor, surprisingly great 48-megapixel rear camera, and two-day battery life on a single charge. The $50 discount requires activation, but you can buy now and activate it later.
OnePlus has gained something of a cult following over the years for making premium phones and then selling them for mid-range prices. Julian gave it an 8/10 and WIRED Recommends award, and now it’s cheaper than ever. The catch? What catch? OK, you have to get it in green if you want it this cheap. But it’s a really gorgeous, deep seafoam green.
Totallee makes some of our favorite thin phone cases. You can use wireless MagSafe charging and Apple Wallet’s NFC payment app, and there’s no branding on it. The sale runs through August 8.
We haven’t seen a deal this good on the Brio since before the pandemic. Matt Jancer gave it top marks in his Best Webcams guide for its superb video.
Facebook updated the Portal late last year to allow video conferencing on several popular platforms, and senior associate reviews editor Adrienne So loved the Portal for Zoom calls. It tracks the on-camera subject automatically, so don’t be surprised if people think you have your own personal videographer when they see all the fancy zooming and panning.
Audio Deals
Reviewer Parker Hall gave them an 8/10 and a WIRED Recommends award for their good sound quality, included charging case, and integration with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. Just say “Hey Alexa” when you’re wearing them and Alexa will be summoned like your personal genie.
Click the “Apply Coupon” button before checkout to get your 15 percent off. Hall and reviews editor Jeffrey Van Camp both said these sound like earbuds that cost two or three times the price in their guide to the Best Wireless Earbuds for Every Mood. They only got about six hours of use on a full charge, but the buds’ IPX5 water-resistance rating means sweaty workouts won’t phase them.
They’re expensive, but reviewer Parker Hall says you get what you pay for—an incredible listening experience. He awarded them an 8/10 and a WIRED Recommends label, although their high price and 20-hour battery life aren’t great.
Click “Apply coupon” button before checkout to get your $20 off. Roku is our favorite streaming device, and its soundbar combines 4K video support and a voice-capable remote with decent speakers. Sure, it doesn’t have a subwoofer included—you’ll have to pony up $180 for that—but it’s still a great deal.
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