One of the best times to buy ahead of the holiday season is during a sale, and ahead of the holidays, Black Friday is revealing some big sales. What’s worth checking out?
The year hasn’t been kind to the cost of living, but if you’ve been waiting all year to buy something, your time might be here. Yes, Black Friday sales have arrived.
You probably know that already, though. If your inbox is anything like ours, it is flooded with offers and discounts and sales alerts aplenty, as Black Friday 2023 goes off with a bang.
We’ve heard from manufacturers selling across the country and even gone on our own searches to get you the best offers out there.
From sound to video to appliances and more, this is our roundup of what’s happening in the world of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales across Australia in 2023.
Phones, laptops & tablets
First up, there are phones, though there aren’t scores of sales on the mobile devices we know and love.
Motorola has announced up to 50 percent off for its devices, with the most impressive being $1199 for the Razr 40 Ultra, one of our favourite foldable phones that normally retails for $1499. Meanwhile, the less expensive Razr 40 will drop from $999 to $799, making it one of the most wallet-friendly foldable yet. The biggest Moto price drop is on the Edge 30 Fusion, which sees the 50 percent reduction going from $899 to $449.
Google’s Pixel 8 Pro also gets an early price drop, moving from $1699 to $1299 for Black Friday, which might be just enough of a sweetener for some folks, while Samsung is talking up a 256GB Galaxy S23 Ultra for just under $1449, down from the $1949 it cost earlier in the year. Flagship phones for less is always a nice thing.
Acer is doing price drops, and while the recently reviewed Swift Edge 16 isn’t one of them, gamers keen to get a Predator model can find the 15 inch 3D-screen equipped Core i9 Helios 3D 15 at $5497 down from $7599 as well as the 14 inch Core i7 Predator Triton 14 at $2997 down from $4599.
Regular working computers have also dropped in price at Acer, with the least expensive being the 15 inch Acer Aspire 5 for $798 down from $1298, with other models sporting similar price drops all about the place.
Samsung also reports that last year’s oversized Tab S8 Ultra is practically half price, shedding $800 and fetching $999 this year, while an extra screen that isn’t touch-enabled but does expand on your laptop will also be less expensive, as the Mobile Pixels Duex Lite we checked out earlier sees a 20 percent price drop, too.
Elsewhere in the accessory and peripheral world:
- Satechi’s gear sees 20 percent off
- Twelve South is seeing up to 20 percent off
- Backbone’s USB gaming controllers are 30 percent off
- Yubico’s physical password Yubikey is buy one, get one 50 percent off
- Bellroy backpacks see up to 33 percent off
- Koala’s office chair is up to 25 percent off, and
- Gaming seats from AndaSeat and X Rocker see some price drops, as well.
Headphones & speakers
Next, let’s tackle one of our favourite categories: sound.
Sennheiser has some solid savings on some great headphones during the sales, including the Momentum 4 Wireless dropping from $579 to $499, while Jabra is sending a lot of Black Friday love with some serious in-ear discounts. The budget-friendly Elite 3 are practically half price, dropping from $119 to $58, while the slightly more premium Elite 7 Pro go from $299 to $149.
There are little price drops worth taking a look at here and there, such as Google’s noise cancelling Pixel Buds Pro fetching $179 during the 2023 Black Friday sales instead of the $299 they normally cost, and Sony’s cost-effective WH-CH720 dropping from $259 to $147 at select stores around the country.
Both pairs are excellent and deliver some stellar savings, as does last year’s Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, which cost $299 during the sale, down from their usual cost of $429. The difference between the QC Earbuds II and the latest pair, the QC Earbuds Ultra, is essentially support for spatial audio, so if you don’t care about that, the QC Earbuds II are still excellent and picked up a Best Pick from Pickr last year.
Over in soundbars, look for savings at Samsung and LG, the latter of which includes LG’s half-price 9.1 Atmos soundbar half-price at $999!).
Meanwhile, Sonos looks to have some of the more interesting savings in this category, with $300 off the excellent (and normally $1499) Sonos Arc coming in at $1199 during the Black Friday sales, while the great entry-level soundbar in the Sonos Ray is cheaper than ever, dropping from $499 during the sales to $379.
While the Era 300 isn’t a part of the sale, quite a few Sonos speakers are, so if you’re looking for something to start or even expand on a Sonos line-up with, you might want to check out the Black Friday sales at Sonos.
Home security
Smart home security hardware also sees a discount or two, starting at the front door. Ring will have price reductions on its smart doorbell tech, as the 2nd-gen Video Doorbell drops from $149 to $99 while its wired Floodlight drops form $299 to $199.
Ring’s most recent entry, the Video Doorbell 4, is also on sale, dropping from $329 to $249 for the Black Friday 2023 sales, with cameras from the company also seeing price reductions, as well.
Arlo has a few discounts, though most aren’t worth writing about. However the solar panel charger for its cameras is 30 percent off and costing $83, while the Arlo Essential Spotlight cameras also drop 30 percent, fetching a minimum of $111 if you want one or $209 if you want two.
TVs
A new TV could be just what the holiday season ordered, particularly with some of the sales.
That’ll start with Hisense and TCL, which sees some price drops, but LG and Samsung are clearly delivering the most interesting sales in this category.
LG is including itself in the Black Friday love, offering up to 40 percent off across its TV range, covering both OLED and QNED, including a 77 inch C3 OLED which drops from $6799 to $4799. Slightly older models are also seeing a change if they’re still around, such as LG’s 42 inch C2 OLED from last year, which drops from $2599 to $1499 for Black Friday 2023.
Samsung is also there, too, with some serious savings across much of its range. There are too many to dive into, but some of the key items worth checking out include the Samsung Neo QLED QN85C range, which sees savings of between $500 and $1500 depending on the size, while Samsung’s S90 4K OLED range sees drops of between $800 and $1800 based on size, as well.
VR
Virtual reality might not have seen the big push towards adoption the area had hoped, but if you’re looking to save some coin on the category, Black Friday 2023 appears to have you covered.
HTC’s Vive is seeing price cuts of as much as 40 percent, as the portable Vive Flow drops from $899 to $499 and the modular VR Vive Cosmos goes from $1299 to $699, while more pro-grade users will see price drops on the Vive Pro 2 and XR Elite, as well.
Meta is also doing deals for its Quest headset over Black Friday, but not on its latest Quest 3 headset. Rather, there’s the Quest 2 which is seeing just under 30 percent off in some places, dropping from $610 to $440 for the 128GB model, complete with a $100 Amazon gift card to use anywhere else. Amazon is the place where you can find this deal, unsurprisingly given it comes with an Amazon gift card.
Cameras
There’s a little bit happening in camera sales, mostly in the world of discounts and cashback offers.
You might find the odd discount or two for Sony bodies and lenses, while we’re seeing savings on the Canon EOS R8, with as much as 15 percent off in some places on what is a lovely little camera.
GoPro is doing a sale or two, and it even includes this year’s Hero12 Black, which drops from $649 to $559 for the week for everyone, while GoPro subscribers will be able to save $150, not $90 for a cost of $499.
Video games
Now that stock shortages on the PS5 appear to be a thing of the past, folks keen to pick up a console can find the PlayStation 5 with Spider-Man 2 for as little as $678 at stores across the country, while an extra PS5 Dual Sense wireless controller can be found for as little as $75.
Price drops can also be found on the Xbox side of things, where Black Friday will extend into Cyber Week for Microsoft, seeing up to 50 percent off games on the Xbox store, and a saving of up to $154 on the Xbox Series X if you need one.
Appliances
Finally, there are appliances, and while we’ve not seen a lot, there are a few gadget brands here and there worth checking out.
Australia’s Breville is one, with at least 15 percent taken off its products from its own website, seeing coffee machines drop a few hundred bucks, while a Hisense beverage centre — which is code for “see-through fridge for lots of drinks” — is roughly half-price, too. There’s a drinkable theme here.
In robot vacuums, Ecovacs is seeing price drops of up to 50 percent depending on the model you look at, while rival Dreame is offering sizeable savings on its robot vacuums, as well.
If you prefer a hand-held vacuum, Dyson’s mop-connected V15s Submarine is down $500 in the Black Friday sales, costing just under the $1000 mark compared to over it where it normally sits.
Meanwhile, for an appliance outside the home, Traeger Grills is cutting the cost of some of its pellet-based wood-fired BBQ tech, with savings of up to $400 depending on the model.
Black Friday deadlines
While all of these sales look to provide a way to help you save some cash (and that’s always a good thing!), if you want to buy things during a Black Friday sale, be sure to do it in a timely manner.
Black Friday typically runs over the Thanksgiving long weekend in America just after the Thursday for Thanksgiving, which Australians don’t partake in. However, because of this expected timeline, some sales will only run until Monday November 27, which is also called “Cyber Monday”.
In Australia where Thanksgiving doesn’t exist (for some pretty obvious reasons), some manufacturers and retailers will keep the Black Friday sale period running until November 30, but not all. Be sure to check where you’re buying whether that’s the case, otherwise you might be hit with the original price, or worse, the recommended retail price.
It’s not unusual to see retailers push prices back up in time for the holiday season, because the time between November 30 and December 25 is often one of the most lucrative times for shops around the world.
If you are caught out and still want to save money, consider waiting until December 26, which will not only see Boxing Day sales kick in, but also end-of-year sales, which often rival Black Friday sales in Australia.
