17 Early Labor Day Deals on Laptops, Headlamps, and TVs
It still feels like summer, but football season is about to kick off, and Halloween candy is filling the aisles of big-box stores. The season is changing, folks. Luckily, there are a few great shopping holidays on the way, if you’re thinking about grabbing a few gadgets to last you through the rest of 2021. You might want to, as shipping delays are expected to get worse. Keep an eye out for more Labor Day deals coverage over the next week, but below you’ll find our favorite early Labor Day discounts, from laptops to headlamps.
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.
Home Entertainment and Audio Deals
It fluctuates in price often, but this is the lowest consistent price we’ve seen on the LG C1 OLED (8/10, WIRED Recommends). Each pixel inside the TV acts as its own backlight, which means astonishingly great contrast, and shockingly realistic black levels. This TV also has one of the lowest input responses we’ve ever seen and features Nvidia G-Sync and AMD Freesync, which means you can plug any gaming computer in for gorgeous 120-Hz 4K performance. Think of it as the world’s greatest computer screen.
TCL makes some of the best entry-level TVs on the market, which is why it’s impressive to see the 5 Series this cheap. It comes with quantum dot technology for vivid colors and the super-easy-to-use Roku interface.
This isn’t the lowest price we’ve seen, but it’s still cheaper than normal. If you like Alexa, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K is a great way to upgrade your TV’s crappy interface.
Sony’s latest cans go on sale at this price fairly often. If you’re looking for some of the best wireless headphones (9/10, WIRED Recommends), you should scoop these up. They have 30 hours of battery life, amazing sound, a great app, and one of the most comfortable fits around. The noise-canceling tech is also excellent, and Sony improved the microphones so you can sound better on Zoom calls.
This is one of our favorite corded gaming headsets, and this is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen it dip to in a while. It’s comfortable to wear, has a retractable microphone, and the GameDAC bumps up the audio quality so you can hear exactly where your enemies are closing in.
Laptops, Phones, and Tablets
MacBook Air with M1
Photograph: AppleThe M1-equipped Macbook Air (9/10, WIRED Recommends) has been at this price for some time, but it’s still a great deal. This model comes with a 13-inch retina display, 8 GB of RAM, and a 256-gig SSD. It should be more than powerful enough for most on-the-go adventures that don’t involve intensive video editing or gaming, and it’s thin and light enough that you won’t mind carrying it along.
The Razer Blade is a powerful enough laptop to play most PC games, and this one comes with a 120-Hz 1080p display that will make Rocket League look amazing. It also has 16 gigs of RAM, an Nvidia graphics card, and a 256-gig SSD for speedy storage performance.
The Surface Pro 7 is one of our favorite laptops. It has great performance, enough battery life to get you through a full workday, and it looks elegant. It skimps on ports, but it’s a great machine for students and parents alike, and ultra-portable if you find yourself working from lots of different locations.
This doesn’t look like a deal, but it’s a promotion to celebrate the launch of Motorola’s latest phone. After a few weeks, the retail price will jump back to $700. For $500, it’s much more competitive, offering good performance, a large screen, and a big battery that’s sure to last two days. We haven’t tried it yet, but if you like Motorola phones, it’s a solid option for this price.
We like Google’s new Pixel 5A more, but Samsung’s A52 5G (7/10, WIRED Recommends) does have a few advantages over it. There’s a MicroSD card slot, so you can expand on storage at any time, and it comes with three OS upgrades and four years of security updates, one-upping Google. It also has a 120-Hz AMOLED screen, which the Pixel lacks. For this discounted price, that’s not a bad deal at all.
Home and Outdoors
REI’s Labor Day sale just started, and its rain jackets offer incredible value for the money. This one uses high-quality laminate waterproofing instead of a cheaper coating, plus it’s made from recycled nylon, has venting pit seams, and is seam-taped. We have more recommendations in our Best Rain Jackets guide.
We have yet to update our Best Trail Running Shoes guide, but we love these ones from Altra. Like all of Altra’s shoes, they have a wide toe box and a zero heel-to-toe drop for a comfortable barefoot feel. Check out our Running Gear guide for more tips.
This multi-cooker from Magic Chef works like most Instant Pots, but it also features a sous-vide function, which makes it super easy to prepare your favorite meats and vegetables to perfection before a quick sear on the grill.
It’s really hard to find a bag that can go well with business or business-casual outfits. Something small enough that you’re not lugging a laptop-size messenger from meeting to meeting, but large enough to fit an iPad Pro and anything else you need to get you through the day. After more than a year with the Lo & Sons Pearl, it’s still one of our favorites. Lots of pockets and a gadget-forward interior design make it a reliable choice for hauling your devices around—whether that’s in the office or outside of it.
Fall cleaning will be a lot easier with this little cordless vacuum in tow. It comes with a portable charging stand for easy storage and provides up to two hours of suction, which should be more than enough to clean most small spaces.
The Vivoactive isn’t the newest fitness smartwatch, but Garmin’s fitness tracking remains among the best on the market, which makes this a solid choice if you want something to track your outdoor adventures.
Many WIRED staffers rely on Black Diamond headlamps for illumination, whether it’s during a local power outage or a trip through the woods at night. This $30 lamp is decent and comes in a number of colors, so you don’t mix it up with another at camp.
Retailer Sale Pages
Want to hunt down Labor Day sales yourself? We’ve rounded up our favorite retailers that have a head start.
More Great WIRED Stories