Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year. But is it worth your time and money? We take a look at the best Black Friday deals, discounts and sales.
It’s official: Black Friday has arrived. Love it or hate it, Black Friday is here to stay, and this year looks set to be bigger and better than ever. Most retailers started their deals events early but today is the day you’ll find the best bargains of the year.
Retailers are offering huge deals, discounts and sales on their goods in store and online to get the deal-hungry shopper within us all to spend money. UK customers spend millions on Black Friday every year on everything from TVs and lawnmowers to nappies and candles. You’ll find anything you can think of at a discount.
Here, our team of tech experts – who review products and write about tech all year long – have scoured the web to bring you only the very best Black Friday deals on only the best products – to help make sure you don’t miss out. We also bring you everything you need to know about Black Friday, and how to get the most out of it.
Retailers are offering huge Black Friday deals, including major sites like Amazon, Currys, and Argos. We bring you the best right here at Tech Advisor. You can see our expert pick of the top ten below, and see all of the deals we’ve found on our deals site by clicking here.
Read on to find out more about how to find a great deal on Black Friday and our top tips for Black Friday shopping.
After a holiday of giving thanks for family, friends and settled life, American retailers opted to juxtapose Thanksgiving with a huge day of commercial spending. Who were we Brits to resist the allure of heavily discounted items too?
It is debated whether or not Black Friday refers to a day retailers finally went ‘into the black’, meaning they finally made profit for the year thanks to heightened sales, or whether it actually has morphed from a description of horrible traffic in Philadelphia on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
When Black Friday first gained huge popularity about ten years ago, it was usual to see newsreel of people physically fighting over big TVs in the middle of Wal-Mart (or Asda in the UK, who has now actually opted to not take part because of the mayhem).
You can’t blame them really, as scenes often got out of hand at shops. But Black Friday has passed beyond trivial now as it has moved online, and it is serious business for retailers.
UK shoppers spent nearly £2bn on Black Friday 2016, a lot of it on discounted technology such as phones, cameras, TVs and Fitbits .
Oh yes, and after Black Friday there is Cyber Monday, so-called after retailers realised people go back to work on Monday and kept spending online at their desks.
We might as well call it Black Weekend though, because Saturday and Sunday don’t escape either, it’s four solid days of relentless spending, savings and tempting deals. Gulp.
Tech is a big draw on Black Friday, and not just because a lot of people are buying from behind computer or smartphone screens. If you’ve been waiting to spend on a new phone, particularly if you are buying the handset outright, you might be waiting for a Black Friday deal.
Amazon is one of the best places to go for Black Friday deals, and it kicked off its annual Black Friday sale from 17 November, though the first couple of deals appeared from 15 November, with discounts on the new Echo 2 and Echo Dot. Deals have continued since with lots more Amazon devices on offer as well as thousands of other products. Amazon’s Black Friday Sale will run until 27 November.
We’d recommend signing up to Amazon’s 30-day Amazon Prime free trial. It will get you free next day delivery (although that is sometimes a little longer after the Black Friday rush) and will also get you access to Lightning Deals 30 minutes before those who aren’t Prime members. Some Lightning Deals are so great that they sell out before that 30 minutes are up so without the Prime membership or free trial you may find you miss out completely.
Amazon is also offering Deals of the Day every day, in addition to the thousands of Lightning Deals.
We’re bringing you the best Amazon deals across our deals site and the articles listed below to make sure you’re spotting the very best deals (there are so many on Amazon that it can be hard to find what you’re looking for) and also to make sure you couldn’t get a better deal elsewhere. Bookmark the articles you’re most interested in and check back regularly for our pick of the best deals in that category.
Carphone Warehouse and others such as Mobile Phones Direct also have a lot of decent smartphone deals, be it on contract or SIM-only. Given that we now have excellent handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S8, and now iPhone 8 and iPhone X, you can expect retailers to offer some very tempting deals. We’ve gathered all of the best phone deals here.
November also saw the Xbox One X go on sale, so many gamers among you will be on the look out for a bargain. Games consoles are often part of genuinely decent discount, with many PS4 bundles going for under £200 last year. The hottest gaming bundles this year are for the PlayStation VR and Xbox One S, but Switch offers are also selling out fast.
Meanwhile, places like Currys PC World are discounting 4K TVs, sometimes by hundreds of pounds.
Below is a list of all of our individual Black Friday deals pages for your convenience:
And here’s a list of our favourite places to shop for Black Friday deals
The most important thing to do when considering if something is a good deal is to ask yourself: “Would I still want and buy this if it was full price?” Often the answer to this can be no, which means you need to think whether you’re saving money with a discount, or wasting it caught up in the excitement of a sale.
A deal for one person won’t be a deal for someone else, no matter how many times Amazon, Argos or John Lewis might tell you otherwise.
Sometimes it’s more obvious though. For example, 50% off a £140 Fitbit Charge 2 is a good deal, particularly if you were thinking of getting it in the first place. Conversely, 50% off a £2,000 TV is still £1,000 – think carefully.
Also, it isn’t unusual (or difficult, or illegal) for some retailers to put prices up on Black Friday. Yes, that’s right – sometimes discount prices are higher on Black Friday compared to the rest of the year because dishonest retailers know they will get more page views from people ready to click buy.
