Yahoo Finance Black Friday 2021 tech deals: All you need to know and what offers to expect
Can you hear that? It’s only a distant rumble for now, but before you’ve had time to check the calendar and grab your credit card, Black Friday 2021 will be rolling into view.
You know the score by now, Black Friday is the shopping event of the year. Forget Amazon Prime Day and Boxing Day sales, even that time you found a pizza oven in the middle of Lidl pails in comparison. Black Friday is the big one – and it’s no bigger deal than in the technology sector.
It’s so big for tech, in fact, that we’ve already written a separate article just for television deals and discounts. That way, we’ve space here to focus on everything else, from games consoles and toys, to phones, tablets, smart home gadgets and electrical appliances.
There will be discounts on products from top-notch brands like Apple, Dyson and Samsung, plus deals from retailers including John Lewis & Partners, Currys PC World, Argos, Amazon and even Aldi.
So whether you’re in the market for some AirPods and an iPad, or a new Dyson and some smart lighting, the IndyBest team is here to help you find the deals you’re looking for. You might even bag yourself a PS5 or an Xbox Series X. Possibly.
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This article will be updated with the very best hand-picked deals we can find throughout Black Friday 2021 – which, in case you’re new to this, is always somewhat longer than a single day. Our experts are on hand to round up all of the best deals, letting you shop safely from your sofa.
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday, for those who have somehow managed to avoid the carnage of previous years, is a massive shopping event that used to be a single day but has since grown to take up an entire weekend.
It began as an American tradition and takes place the day after Thanksgiving, which always falls on the fourth Thursday of November.
Having eclipsed all other annual shopping days back in the mid-noughties, Black Friday has since grown to take up the entire weekend, spilling over into the following week, or, Cyber Monday.
What’s the history of Black Friday?
The origin of the name is open for debate, but a strong contender is its use by Philadelphia police back in 1961, who used Black Friday to refer to the heavy traffic caused by people heading home after visiting family for Thanksgiving.
Fast-forward to the mid-2000s and retailers began using the name to describe the opening day of the holiday shopping season. Very much an offline sales event at this time, Black Friday would see shops open at midnight as thousands of deal-hungry shoppers would flood in, grab as many cut-price televisions as they could occasionally fall over to the delight of news agency photographers – and return home triumphant.
Since Amazon brought Black Friday to the UK in 2010, the shopping event has felt as traditional as turkey, mince pies and dads panic-buying presents on Christmas Eve.
When is Black Friday 2021?
This year, Black Friday begins on 26 November and will continue across the weekend. Then, after a quick costume change, Cyber Monday will take place on 29 November.
However, Amazon kicked things off early in 2020, with the first deals landing a whole month ahead of schedule. We fully expect the retail giant to do the same again this year, so brace yourself for an early departure.
What is Cyber Monday?
In days of yore, Cyber Monday was the online-only equivalent to Black Friday. Now though, with online shopping bigger than ever, Cyber Monday is just another part of the Black Friday weekend (or week, in many cases).
Some physical retailers like to hold back certain deals until Cyber Monday, making them online-only. But for the most part, the two days have merged into a four-day shopping bonanza.
Last year, Cyber Monday was the largest online shopping day in US retail history, with $10.7bn (£7.7bn) of sales in a single day.
How to find the best Black Friday technology deals
You can find the best Black Friday tech deals right here at IndyBest. Simply bookmark this page, along with our other Black Friday guides – including these dedicated to TVs, laptops, gaming, Dyson and more – and check back closer to the big day to find all of the best deals and discounts. Our team of experts will be scanning through Amazon, John Lewis & Partners, Currys PC World, Argos and Very to bring you the very best deals as they happen.
It can be easy to get carried away on Black Friday, lured into pulling the trigger and buying stuff you don’t actually want or need. Remember, just because something has had its price reduced and the retailer wants you to buy it, you don’t have to.
We should also remind readers that less trustworthy retailers are known to increase the price of a product before Black Friday, only to claim it has been heavily reduced for the big day itself. Check the RRP of whatever you are interested in buying, then check the price elsewhere before reaching for your credit card.
More obvious advice, but make sure you are logged into the websites you plan to buy from, as remembering your password or creating a new account can waste valuable time when often Black Friday deals are time or quantity-limited. Systems like Apple Pay can also help speed things up.
If you plan to make a very large purchase on Black Friday, it could be worth checking with your bank or credit card provider to find out what your spending limit is per purchase. Otherwise, a large and unexpected purchase might be temporarily blocked by the card provider until you can prove you intended to make the purchase. Again, it’s all about making sure the transaction is processed quickly and smoothly.
What were the best Black Friday technology deals last year?
Technology deals offered on Black Friday last year included a huge range of product categories, from smart home devices like lights and thermostats, to laptops, tablets, earphones, smartwatches, fitness trackers, speakers, cameras, smartphones, streaming devices, security systems and broadband services.
Televisions are also a huge part of Black Friday – so huge that we’ve written a separate article dedicated to TV deals for Black Friday 2021.
Highlights for tech deals in Black Friday 2020 included a big discount on the Philips Hue white and colour ambiance starter kit (£59.99, Currys.co.uk), which had its price slashed from £149.99 to £89.99.
Other smart home deals saw the price of the Sonos move smart speaker with Alexa (now £399, Sonos.com) reduce by £100. While the Amazon Echo show 8 (still £59.99, Amazon.co.uk) fell from £119.99 to just £59.99. And there was a £60 saving to be had on the Hive active heating thermostat (now £224.10, Hivehome.com), which fell to £121.99.
Elsewhere, we were treated to an £80 saving on a GoPro Hero8 (£278.99, Amazon.co.uk) bundle, taking the price down to £299.99.
The Echo Dot (3rd Gen) (£21.99, Amazon.co.uk) was cut from £39.99 to £18.99, and a massive saving from Sky that saw the TV company’s “big bundle” cut from £106 to £66.50 per month.
Last year also featured Black Friday savings on iPhones, the Amazon Fire TV stick, and Samsung Galaxy smartwatches, among many others.
Where can I find the best Black Friday 2021 deals?
Here, of course. We recommend you bookmark this page and be sure to come back when Black Friday is approaching. That way, the IndyBest team can be on hand to bring you the very best technology deals and discounts for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
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Looking for more information on Black Friday 2021? Read our guide that reveals everything from the dates to what deals to expect
