The Apple Watch Series 9 is back on sale for $299, plus the rest of this week’s best tech deals

The Apple Watch 9 is back down to $299 at Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart. That’s about $30 more than the lowest price we’ve tracked, when certain colorways went down to $269. Overall this current deal is $100 cheaper than paying full price and about $30 less than the sale prices lately. The deal applies to the 41mm case size with GPS and Bluetooth connectivity and is currently valid for all four colorways. If, like me, you prefer the larger 45mm case size so it’s easier to see the numbers on the display, you’ll have to pay the full $429 unless you want it in Starlight. Then it’s $100 off.

The Series 9 is the top pick in our guide to smartwatches and Engadget’s Cherlynn Low gave it a review score of 92 when it came out last September. It’s a great companion for an iPhone and the always on display makes it much easier to see things at a glance. The health and fitness tracking is comprehensive and the new Double Tap feature is handy (when it works) for answering calls and pausing timers.

We call Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 the best option for Android users in our guide to smartwatches. Walmart is now selling the wearable for $229, which is $70 off the list price. That’s not an all-time low, but still a decent savings if you’re looking for a wrist computer that plays nice with your Galaxy phone. The deal applies to the 40mm case size with Bluetooth connectivity in the Graphite colorway.

We gave the Galaxy Watch 6 a review score of 84 when it came out last September. It’s not a huge change from its predecessor, but that’s not a bad thing. The bezels are thinner and the screen is brighter, plus it gives you lots of health and fitness tracking features. The battery life is decent for a smartwatch, lasting more than a full day with the always-on display enabled. If you want a wearable that lasts even longer, you might be better off going with a fitness tracker. Our top pick in that category, the Fitbit Charge 6 is on sale for $140 directly from Fitbit.

The Google Pixel Watch 2 has dropped back down to $300 after a 14 percent discount at Amazon, Best Buy and directly from Google. Engadget’s Cherlynn Low gave the smartwatch a review score of 79 when the wearable came out last October. The design is beautiful, the stress management features are useful, and the health-focused sensors accurately produce helpful data. But software quirks, like the clunky integration of the Fitbit app for fitness tracking and some confusing presentations of your health data.

The Echo Dot, our favorite smart speaker under $50 is now down to $28 at Amazon after a 44 percent discount. That’s about $5 more than the lowest its ever sold for, which we saw during last year’s Black Friday sales. The Echo Dot puts out surprising sound for its size and lets you access the helpful skills and voice controls Alexa has to offer. It’s a good entry point into the world of smart home automation and can play music with decent audio when its not turning off your lights, telling you the weather or reminding you it’s trash night. If you’d rather buy from Target, the Echo Dot is the same price from that outlet.

The even smaller Echo Pop is also on sale and down to $20, or about $2 more than its all-time low. We haven’t tested this one yet, and wouldn’t expect the sound to be particularly robust, but if you’re just looking for another access point to Alexa’s abilities, this is one of the cheaper ways to go.

The unlocked Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is on sale for $1,100 at Amazon and Best Buy. Even with the discount, that’s still an expensive phone. The deal applies to the base 256GB model and takes $200 off the list price.

We named the S24 Ultra the “best premium” pick in our guide to the best Android phones. Samsung’s flagship has a speedy Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, a long battery life and a bright and clear 6.8-inch OLED display. The titanium frame feels premium and it comes with the pretty responsive S Pen built-into the handset. Plus you’ll get a full seven years of software updates out of Samsung.

Our top recommendation, Google’s Pixel 8 Pro, has a slightly better camera set and cleaner software (not to mention a much lower price as it’s currently on sale for $800 at Amazon and from Google).

The 6.7-inch Galaxy S24+ is back down to $850 as well. That’s a $150 discount and another all-time low for the unlocked model. We gave the S24 Ultra a score of 89 in our review earlier this year, while the S24+ earned a score of 87.

The Bluetooth tracker we recommend for anyone who uses a Galaxy phone is Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag2. And currently Amazon is selling a single tag for $21. If you’ve got multiple things to keep tabs on, you can get a four-pack from Best Buy for $77, which works out to $19.25 a pop.

The tags only work with Samsung phones, and use a similar approach to Apple’s AirTags in that the fobs anonymously ping nearby Samsung phones to help locate your lost items. In our tests we found the SmartTags2 to be loud and nearly as precise in their finding abilities as AirTags. Of all the tags out there, I thought these had the most attractive design with a smooth and rounded shape with a large eyelet. The left-behind feature wasn’t as quick and the ring-to-find wasn’t as loud as our top pick, the Chipolo One, but the SmartTag2 remains a good companion for Samsung phones.

The second generation Apple Pencil is back on sale for $79 at Target, Walmart and Best Buy. That’s a $35 discount off the full price and matches the lowest price yet for the stylus. While this is a deal we’ve seen a number of times before, it’s important to note this time that Apple will host a product launch event on May 7 and a new Pencil is likely to be part of the announcements. It might make sense to wait until then before you buy. That said, at $79, it’s a relatively inexpensive way to get your hands on a responsive stylus. It’s currently the top pick in our iPad accessories guide and pairs quickly and works well with the current generation iPad Air, Pro and Mini models.

When Engadget’s Sam Rutherford reviewed the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, he said, “the main factor preventing it from being a great mobile gaming battle station is its price.” Amazon is now selling the base model for $1,700, which is a 32 percent discount off the $2,500 list price. This configuration comes with a NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

We named the Duo 16 the best gaming laptop with a dual screen in our guide because it’s powerful and the extra screen makes multitasking a lot easier. If you don’t love being without your extra monitor when you’re away from your main workstation setup, this is a decent mobile solution — though at five-and-a-half pounds and nearly an inch thick, this isn’t a lightweight portable by any means. But at least some heft has been removed from the price.

Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are $50 off and down to $249 at Amazon, Walmart and directly from Bose. That deal has surfaced quite a few times over the past year, and matches the buds’ lowest price.

Engadget’s Billy Steele gave the QC Ultra earbuds a score of 88 in his review, and they’re the top pick in our buying guide for best noise cancellation. If you want to shut out the world, these are the buds to get. The earpieces are on the large side but we found them comfortable. There’s no wireless charging or multi-device connectivity, however, and both the battery life and mic quality could be better.

If you want over-ear noise cancellation, note that the brand’s Quiet Comfort headphones are on sale for the same price as part of a larger sale at Bose’s site.

Anker’s 20,000mAh Prime portable charger is down to $90 from its list price of $130. That’s a discount of 31 percent and matches a previous record low. It’s our pick for a premium power bank in our guide to the best power banks. It looks slick, has a built-in screen and offers one USB-A and two USB-C ports. It charged an iPhone 11 from near dead to full in about an hour and 45 minutes and did that three times, with enough left over for a 75 percent refill. Stick this in a pack (with a cable) and you won’t have to worry about a dead phone.

Another pick from our guide, the Anker Nano Battery with fold out USB-C connector is on sale for $16 with an on-page coupon, which is $14 off the device’s list price. That’s if you don’t mind getting it in white. Other colorways are $19. The fold out connection means you can leave the cables at home and its small size makes it easy to keep with you so you can give a partial refill to any phone with a USB-C port.

Wi-Fi dead zones are annoying, but if you’re not ready to step up to a full mesh system, an extender may be your best bet. TP-Link’s RE315 Wi-Fi extender is our pick for the best budget option in our buyer’s guide and right now, Amazon is selling it for $23, which is a 23 percent discount and the lowest price we’ve tracked.

It provides up to 867 Mbps speeds on the 5GHz band and 300 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, and covers up to 1,500 square feet. That won’t cover a huge house and if you need lightning fast speeds or support for Wi-Fi 6, you may want to go with a more expensive model.

The Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite is down to $50 after a 38 percent discount, which is the lowest price we’ve seen since last year’s Black Friday sales. Engadget’s Jeff Dunn named it the best gaming mouse for MMOs thanks to its comfortable shape and 12 programmable side buttons. Those let you access several in-game actions with just a press, and some of the buttons are textured to help you tell them apart without looking. He does note, however, that Corsair’s iCue software to assign the keys is wildly unintuitive.

We recommend this mouse in our guide to work-from-home gear for new grads, but anyone will appreciate the ergonomic features of the Razer Basilisk V3 X HyperSpeed. Right now, Best Buy is selling it for $60, which is a mere $10 discount, but is within a dollar of the lowest price we’ve seen this year.

It’s marketed toward gamers, but the contoured shape and thumb rest make it comfortable for most right handed people, gamer or not. The mouse feels sturdy has a precise scroll wheel and lasts for hundreds of hours on a single AA battery.

The Litra Glow from Logitech is one of the things we recommend for anyone who’s just getting started on their game streaming journey. Right now, Amazon is selling it for $49.50, which is $10 off the list price, though its not the lowest price we’ve seen. It clips onto the top of a monitor and generates a clean, even glow to help you look better on camera.

JBL’s Flip 6 is on sale for $100 at Amazon, Target and directly from JBL. That’s a 23 percent discount off the $130 price tag and about $10 more than the all-time low it hit for Black Friday last year.

In our guide to Bluetooth speakers, the Flip 6 earns high marks for overall sound quality, durability and volume considering its size. The unique shape lets you stand it on its end or rest it on its side, depending on where you’re listening. Based on our guide’s recommendation, I went ahead and bought one and have been impressed with the easy pairing and clear audio — that I can easily take from room to room and out into the backyard.

If you want bigger sound and more battery life, go for the midrange JBL Charge 5. It’s on sale for $140 instead of $180 at Target and from JBL.

Another pick from our Bluetooth speaker guide, Bose’s SoundLink Flex, is back down to $119 at Target, Amazon and Bose which is a 20 percent discount and matches the all-time low we saw for last year’s Black Friday sale. It’s not a room filler, but the sound is bright and dynamic and the bass is impressive for its size. The outside feels nice with an exterior sheathed in soft-touch silicone, except for the powder-coated steel speaker grilles. It’s also IP67 rated so you can feel comfortable using it near a pool or at the beach, or just in the backyard where the hose might get it.

If you want bigger sound and don’t mind paying full price, Bose will soon offer a bigger version, the SoundLink Max, for $399.

Apple’s Studio Display is expensive at $1,600, but now Amazon is selling it for $1,300 after a 19 percent discount. That’s the lowest price we’ve tracked and beats the price it went for during Amazon’s October’s Prime Day sale. The deal applies to the tilt-adjustable stand, not the height and tilt stand. That version is also on sale, but is going for $400 more.

As we Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar said in his review, the display is really just for the Apple faithful, everyone else would be better served by another monitor. That said, the build is solid, the speakers are good, and the screen is bright and accurate. Plus the A13 Bionic chip inside make its webcam and mics a little more responsive.

One thing to note is that Apple is hosting its iPad event in a few days, though a new display is not one of the things we’re expecting (this model was introduced along with the iPhone 13 in 2022).