Ars Technica
To help those looking to get a good price on worthwhile gadgets and tech gear this holiday season, we’ve put together a comprehensive roundup of the best Cyber Monday deals we can find. And though Black Friday is over, many of its better offers are still rolling, and represented here.
As always, each deal in our list is handpicked by us. We’ve spent days poring over as many sales events as possible, consulting our own testing, researching reviews, and checking price histories to ensure each highlighted product is both cheaper than its typical street price online and actually worth your attention.
If you’ve been following the various Black Friday sales that’ve been floating around the web over the past few weeks, more than a few of the deals highlighted below should look familiar. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become a near-month-long event. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of gadgets we like available at prices we like below, and we’ll update this post to include any new deals we find over the course of the day.
Featured Cyber Monday 2021 deals
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All deals in this guide were handpicked by us. Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.
Corey Gaskin / Ars Technica
Apple Gift Cards included with several devices at Apple’s online store
Apple does not typically participate in aggressive Black Friday or Cyber Monday promotions through its own online store, so this sweeping sale that doles out varying Apple Gift Cards alongside most of the company’s product lineup is notable. While a few of the offers here are outclassed by outright discounts you can find for the same products at other retailers—particularly those involving AirPods and most Macs—others for the Apple Watch SE (which comes with $50 in gift card credit), Apple TV 4K (ditto), iPad Pro ($100), Mac mini ($100), and a four-pack of AirTag trackers ($25) are among the better deals we’ve seen, provided you know you’ll use the gift card for future Apple purchases. If so, just note that shipping times look to be delayed past Christmas for more than a few of these products, and Apple says you won’t get your gift card credit until “within 24 hours from the time your new product ships or is available for pickup.”
$100 Apple Gift Card + $15 store gift card at Amazon (use code: APPLENOV)
If you’re planning on buying an Apple device for the holidays anyways, you can get an extra $15 in store credit when you buy a $100 Apple Gift Card from Amazon. Just note that you have to use the code “APPLENOV” at checkout to enable the deal. This one pairs nicely with Apple’s storewide sale above, as you can feasibly snag store credit from one of these three retailers by picking up an Apple Gift Card, then spend that gift card in Apple’s sale and get another Apple Gift Card back in the process.
4K TV streaming sticks from Google, Amazon, and Roku, all priced below $40
If you’re looking to update the streaming stick behind your TV—or if you’re shopping for a future cord-cutter—just about all of the premier options from Google, Amazon, and Roku are still discounted for Cyber Monday. Google’s Chromecast with Google TV is our top pick: it has the cleanest interface of the bunch, with the most comprehensive search function, wide app support, hassle-free performance, support for Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos, and genuinely useful suggestions on what to watch next. It’s down to $40, which is a $10 discount and $5 off the lowest price we’ve tracked.
If you’ve already grown comfortable with Roku OS or Amazon’s Fire TV platform, though, you have options there as well. Amazon’s steady Fire TV Stick 4K is down to $25, while the faster Fire TV Stick 4K Max is available for $10 more. Roku’s updated Streaming Stick 4K, meanwhile, is available for $29. All of these deals match the lowest prices we’ve seen. If you opt for Roku, though, just note that the company’s ongoing dispute with Google may cause its devices to lose access to an official YouTube app in the near future.
Sony WH-1000XM4 for $248 ($330) at Amazon, Target, Best Buy
A number of noise-canceling headphones we like are currently on sale, but this deal on our top over-ear pick is a particular highlight. The Sony WH-1000XM4 make up for their atrocious product name with stellar noise-canceling quality, a comfortable design, 30+ hours of battery life, multi-device pairing, and a fun, bass-forward sound that can be customized to your liking if needed. The integrated mic isn’t the best for calls, and we’d prefer physical controls to touch-based ones, but this is still a supremely well-rounded set that does most things right. This leftover Black Friday deal continues to match the XM4’s all-time lowest price.
Jeff Dunn
Apple AirPods Pro for $179 ($205) at Amazon (delayed shipping)
The AirPods Pro remain a strong choice for those who want active noise cancellation from an in-ear headphone. They block out noise better than most true wireless pairs, and they offer several useful conveniences with iOS and macOS devices, from simplified pairing and device switching to “Find My” tracking to hands-free Siri support. They’re also among the better-sounding earphones in the category, with a balanced, largely neutral profile that doesn’t overemphasize bass or treble and catches good detail. Battery life is middling at roughly five hours per charge, though, and many of the Pro’s best perks get thrown out the window on Android or Windows. Still, while the earphones were as low as $159 on Black Friday, this deal still brings them $20 below their usual street price.
A whole lot of discounts on video games we like
The Black Friday sales from Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Steam, Epic, and most other popular video game storefronts are still kicking, as are many of the gaming deals we saw from third-party retailers last week. We have a separate list dedicated solely to the gaming deals worth your time, which includes actual discounts on several of the year’s best-reviewed games.
The tense roguelike Returnal is worth a shout at $20 off, for one, as is the fellow PS5 exclusive Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, which is also available for $50. Charming platformers It Takes Two and Psychonauts 2 are at new lows of $20 and $30, respectively, while the Ars-approved Switch game Monster Hunter Rise is down to a new low of $25. There are many more gaming deals of note beyond those, so it shouldn’t be hard to find a good price on something worth playing over the holidays.
Sony Interactive Entertainment / Housemarque
12 months of PlayStation Plus for $40 ($60) at Amazon, Target, Best Buy
Like it or not, PlayStation Plus is still required to use the online multiplayer modes in many PlayStation games. It does somewhat make up for the fee by doling out a couple of downloadable games to subscribers each month, though. If you own a PlayStation 5, it also gives access to a “PlayStation Plus Collection” that includes 20 popular PS4 games. This price isn’t the absolute lowest we’ve seen for a 12-month membership, but if your subscription is running out soon, it’s still a good opportunity to top up.
If you’re all set on that front and are just looking for pick up some new PlayStation games, though, we’re also seeing a nice deal that gives $100 of PlayStation Store credit for $90.
For Xbox players, meanwhile, note that a three-month subscription to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate—which includes access to hundreds of downloadable games, many of them worthwhile—is available for $25. That leftover Black Friday deal still matches the best price we’ve tracked.
LG C1 (55″) OLED TV for $1,297 ($1,500) at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart
Most of the deals on TVs worth buying for Cyber Monday have been live for much of November, this one included. But if you’re looking to pick up a premium TV for the holidays, LG’s C1 OLED set is widely regarded as a top pick. While we don’t often review TVs at Ars, several review sites we trust have lauded the C1 for its top-tier picture quality, which is bolstered by the superdeep contrast and vivid colors typical of a good OLED panel. A slim design, wide viewing angles, and user-friendly interface (relative to other smart TVs, at least) all help, as do gaming-friendly features like four HDMI 2.1 ports, variable refresh rate, and the ability to play in 4K at a high 120 Hz refresh rate.
As with many OLEDs, the C1 can’t get as bright as the best LED displays, so it’s best used in darker settings, and there’s still a minute chance of image “burn-in” if you leave static elements onscreen for seriously excessive amounts of time. LG has other OLED models as well, but the C1 is generally seen as having the best price-to-performance ratio. While this deal has been live since late October, it remains the largest outright discount we’ve seen for the 55-inch C1. Larger and smaller sizes are discounted as well.
Valentina Palladino
Google Pixel 5a for $399 ($449) at Google Store
Google’s Pixel 5a is the best Android phone under $500 for most people, offering a top-notch camera, a long-lasting battery, water resistance, a good 6.34-inch OLED display, clean software that’ll be regularly updated until at least August 2024, and speedy enough performance. It’s a few steps behind the flagship Pixel 6, but for $200 less with this deal price, it’s an excellent value. This offer from Black Friday is first significant discount we’ve seen.
