This week's best deals: Amazon Echo devices, iPad mini and more
Plus hundreds off a couple of TCL's high-end smart TVs.
If you aren’t set to go back to school (either physically or remotely), a number of this week’s sales can help. Amazon discounted a bunch of its Echo and Fire TV devices and you can get Apple’s latest iPad mini for $50 off. A few TCL 8-series Roku TVs are half off, too, and you can stock up on some digital Nintendo Switch games in the company’s latest eShop sale. These are the best deals from this week that you can still buy today.
Amazon “off to college” sale
It’s a good time to grab an Echo or Fire TV device now that Amazon has discounted most of them in its latest back-to-school sale. Of note is the Echo Plus, which stuffs a smart home hub inside the standard Echo design, on sale for $75 and the Echo Studio, the best sounding smart speaker that Amazon makes, on sale for $170. Both of those deals are being matched at Best Buy, too. If you’re looking for even more affordable (and possibly smaller) devices, the Echo Dot is discounted to $30 and the Fire TV Stick 4K is on sale for $35.
Shop Off to College sale on Amazon
Buy Echo Plus on Amazon - $75 Buy Echo Plus on Best Buy - $75
Buy Echo Studio on Amazon - $170 Buy Echo Studio on Best Buy - $170
Echo device bundles
Best Buy can help you get the most bang for your buck with a couple of Echo device bundles. Both the Echo Show and the Echo Studio are on sale for $180 and $170, respectively, and both include a free Echo Show 5 and a free Philips Hue smart light bulb. You’re getting over $100 worth of freebies in both bundles — that’s not only a great bargain, but it’ll help anyone jump start their quest to build a smart home.
Buy Echo Show bundle at Best Buy - $180
Buy Echo Studio bundle at Best Buy - $170
iPad mini
The iPad mini is the best small tablet you can get and now you can grab it for $50 less on Amazon. The 64GB WiFi model down to $350 and the 256GB WiFi model down to $500. If the limitations of a traditional e-reader frustrate you, the iPad mini is your best alliterative as it’s roughly the same size as most e-readers but it can do a lot more thanks to iOS. The latest model even supports input from the first-generation Apple Pencil, too.
Buy iPad mini at Amazon - $350
iRobot Roombas
Robot vacuums are handy cleaning machines and a couple of iRobot’s high-end Roombas remain on sale at Wellbots. The Roomba i7+ is down to $699 and the retailer also has the Roomba S9+ for $999. These are some of the most feature-packed Roombas you can get — both of them include a cleaning base, too, which is a garbage can of sorts that the vacuum automatically empties its bin into after a job. That means you don’t have to clean the bin yourself after every job, which adds another level of convenience to these devices. The Roomba i7+ is powerful enough for most people, but the S9+ is designed to clean up pet hair even more efficiently.
Buy Roomba i7+ at Wellbots - $699
Buy Roomba S9+ at Wellbots - $999
TCL Roku TVs
TCL’s 8-series Roku smart TVs have returned to their lowest prices ever: the 65-inch model is $1,000 and the 75-inch model is $1,500 right now at Best Buy. The last time they hit this low was at the end of July, and during that time, the 75-inch sale price didn’t last long. These are some of TCL’s latest smart TVs, featuring quantom-dot LED and micro LED technology. They also support features like Dolby Vision and HDR 10 and you can control them with your voice using Roku’s own interface, or Amazon’s Alexa or the Google Assistant.
Buy 65-inch TCL 8-series TV at Best Buy - $1,000
Buy 75-inch TCL 8-series TV at Best Buy - $1,500
Nintendo sale
Nintendo’s Share the Fun eShop sale is going on through August 30 and it cuts 50 percent off the prices of some Switch titles. Of note is Luigi’s Mansion 3 on sale for $42, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games on sale for $40, Diablo III: Eternal Collection for $30 and many more. Most of the games included in this sale are great to play with friends and family — you may not be inviting people over right now, but you can still have fun with your whole household.
Shop Nintendo’s Share the Fun sale
New deals additions
Razer Blade
Both Best Buy and Amazon have one model of Razer’s Blade gaming laptop for $200 off, bringing it to $1,600. While it’s still an expensive machine, the Blade packs a punch at every level. Not only is it a gaming laptop with one of our favorite, relatively minimalist designs, but this model also has a 10th-gen Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2060 graphics chip. If you’re not constrained by a budget, it’s a sold laptop to invest in before heading back to school if you want one device for both work and play.
Buy Razer Blade at Best Buy - $1,600
Buy Razer Blade at Amazon - $1,600
Samsung Galaxy Note 20
Sam’s Club members who are also AT&T customers can snag a good deal on the new Samsung Galaxy Note 20 or Note 20 Ultra: buy one of Samsung’s newest smartphones and get a $200 Sam’s Club e-gift card. Members are also able to get up to $1,000 worth of bill credits when they trade on an eligible device. It’s a good deal if you fit into both categories, but keep in mind that the offer is only available online (you can’t get it at a physical Sam’s Club or AT&T location) and the $200 gift card promotion ends on September 30. We gave the Note 20 Ultra a score of 86 for its large, awesome display, top-notch performance and thoughtful new S Pen features.
Buy Galaxy Note 20 at Sam’s Club starting at $33.33/month
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