The Black Friday shopping frenzy is over, now we’re back to our regularly scheduled schedule – almost. The holidays are fast approaching and if you haven’t picked out any gifts for yourself or others yet, now would be a good time.
The price for the base 256GB model of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is less than $1,000, but due to current discounts, upgrading to 512GB is a bit expensive.
Samsung’s other flagship, the Galaxy Z Fold6, is currently discounted to a hefty $590 (again, the discount for the 256GB model is better than the 512GB one). There is still a big difference between slab flagships and foldable flagships, but there are no signs of this changing in the near future.
Moving on to Motorola for some more affordable offerings, the Edge (2024) is 45% off. It has a premium look with a curved OLED display and vegan leather back along with IP68 dust and water resistance. The 50+13MP camera and 5,000mAh battery with 68W/15W charging is good enough for a mid-range. It’s the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 that is the only weak spot for the Edge.
If you want a cheaper 5G phone, the Moto G (2024) costs half the price of the Edge (2024). This is a fairly basic model with a 6.6” HD+ IPS LCD (120Hz), Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 and a 50 MP camera. The battery capacity is the same, 5,000mAh, but only supports slower wired charging (15W).
Like other tech giants, Apple is focusing on AI and has re-released the iPad mini with the Apple A17 Pro chipset and more RAM to support the new Apple Intelligence. It also increased the base storage to 128GB, reducing the pressure to move to the pricier 256GB model.
The iPad mini (2024) is the only high-end mini tablet on the market. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 is the smallest in its family, but it’s still an 11-inch slate. With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, it is fully capable of running Galaxy AI features (running on the device, of course). If you get the 128GB model, you can expand its storage with a microSD card (we’ve got some tips below).
The Apple Watch Series 10 is a completely new design – Apple made it thinner, gave it a bigger display (the biggest ever, in fact), improved the speakers, so you can now use it to listen to music or podcasts without a headset. There’s also a depth gauge and water temperature sensor, just like the Watch Ultra (but without the Ultra’s price premium and physical bulk).
Sony refreshed its LinkBuds series with two models called Open and Fit. Both cost the same, so it’s a matter of preference. Open lets you hear everything around you as if you weren’t wearing headphones, but you can still listen to music, podcasts, or anything else without disturbing people nearby. The Fit is more oriented towards blocking out the outside world with better noise cancellation.
Finally, some microSD cards for those who can still use them. Both the Samsung Pro Plus and the Evo Select are rated A2 (which stands for random access, making it suitable for installing apps) and U3 V30 (sequential write speed). The difference between the two is that the Pro Plus offers faster transfer speeds, while the Evo Select gives you more storage for less money.
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