Category: Black Friday

As part of their Black Friday sale, Samsung has dropped $150 off the unlocked variants of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus through their Amazon Storefront.  These are the unlocked variants of the phones and they have 64GB of onboard storage which can be expanded.

Samsung Galaxy S8 – $574.99

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus – $674.99

These are by far the lowest prices on the Samsung flagship phones since their introduction earlier this year.

The 5.8″ Galaxy S8 is powered by the octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor running four cores at 2.3GHz and the other four running at 1.9GHz.  It is coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage which is expandable up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD card.  The display renders at 2960 x 1440 QuadHD with an impressive 571 PPI.  Powering all of it is a 3000mAh battery which is charged with inductive charging.

Another great Black Friday deal that is going on at Amazon is on the Google WiFi mesh network access points.  Right now you can pick up the single unit for $99, a savings a $30.  If you need the 3-Pack, you save $50.  It is down to $249 today.

The question for most is which one do you need?  If you have a home or apartment that is 1500 square feet or less, the single should do the job for you.  No need to overbuy but if you have a multi-story home or an older home, it may not give you the coverage you need.  That is my case in my mid-70’s home.  Over that and up to 4500 square feet, the 3-Pack is what you need for your home.  That is also on sale at $269.  The nice thing is, if you get a single and add more later, it is easy to add the new ones to the network via the Google WiFi app on your Android phone or iPhone.

Amazon you can pick up a great deal on the 5″ mid-market Sony Xperia XA as part of Black Friday.  At $199, the Xperia XA has a Mediatek MT6755 octa-core processor running at 2GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage.  That onboard storage can be expanded up to an additional 200GB thanks the the MicroSD slot available.  The phone is sold unlocked and works with GSM carriers here in the United States like AT&T, T-Mobile and StraightTalk.  Sorry Sprint & Verizon customers, this phone won’t work on those networks.

Camera wise, you have a 13MP rear shooter with OIS with a front facing 8MP shooter.

Another great Black Friday deal is available on Amazon today.  The Huawei Honor 8 is available for $140 off thanks to the sale and an instant discount when you put the phone in your cart.  First, the details.  The Honor 8 is being sold unlocked so it will work with any GSM carrier here in the US like AT&T and T-Mobile.  It has a 2.3GHz octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB

Huawei Honor 8

of storage (expandable up to 256GB with the MicroSD slot).  The Honor 8 has a 5.2″ display, fingerprint scanner and a 12MP dual-camera rear shooter.

Normally the Honor 8 is $399.99 but today it is down to $289.99 for the 32GB model while the 64GB model is normally $449.99 and it is down to $339.99.  In both cases, when you drop the phone into your cart, you receive an additional $30 discount which drops the phones to $259 and $309 respectively.  Remember that this is the flagship device for Huawei when it launched in July and the company has committed to having an Android Nougat update out for the phone.  That is likely to come at the end of this year or early next.

Like other Black Friday deals, this one is for today only.  The Honor 8 is available in Black, White and Blue and all colors are eligible for the sale price.

• Honor 8 – 32GB of Storage – $259.99 (savings of $140)
• Honor 8 – 64GB of Storage – $309.99 (savings of $140)

If you have been craving a OnePlus 2 but haven’t got your hands on an invite, this week could be your week.  The Chinese manufacture has taken to Twitter to let everyone know that starting November 27th through the 30th you can order a OnePlus 2 without having an invitation.  They are terming it as “Unlimited” and fundamentally, it speaks volumes to the challenge that OnePlus has created for itself with their invitation system.

Like the OnePlus One, the company rolled out an invitation purchasing system for the OnePlus 2 announced this summer.  When I wrote a post outlining what the company needed to do to make this new flagship successful, I pointed out that a key to the success would be a smarter and far smoother roll out of this invitation system for this new device.  It has been anything but smooth and frankly, given the lack of some key features of the OnePlus 2, sales have not been exactly stellar. So to make up for it in a way, they are suspending the invite system for Black Friday so you can get your hands on one of these devices without having to wait for an invite.

No indication on how long you will have to wait for the device however.

Let’s get those Black Friday deals going a bit early.  If you want to get your hands on a great little Windows Phone, go straight over to Amazon and pick yourself up a Lumia 635.  Right now it is only $49.99, $50 off the regular price.  That’s without any contract requirements.

AT&T Nokia Lumia 635 – No Contract GoPhone

If you haven’t had a chance to read my review of the Lumia 635, you can do that here.