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Should you buy a tablet on Black Friday or wait for Cyber Monday?

A lot of folks wait all year for Black Friday so they can pick up a tablet, but many also worry about whether waiting for Cyber Monday is a better idea. Well, we’ll look into that, as well as some great Black Friday deals you can pick up right now.

Should you buy a tablet on Black Friday?

Yes, absolutely, especially since Black Friday is one of the best times to pick up electronics like tablets. If you’re worried about Cyber Monday, the truth is that while offers tend to be mirrored, there’s no absolute guarantee that you’ll find the same item on sale for the same price or at all. That means you’re better off picking up Black Friday tablet deals when you see them rather than waiting. That said, even if you do find a better deal on Cyber Monday, you should still be within the return window for Black Friday, so you can return that tablet for a full refund and buy the one with the better offer.

Our 5 favorite Black Friday tablet deals

Fire HD 10 tablet —  $75, was $150

Amazon Fire HD 10 2021 is the newest incarnation of the Fire HD tablet.

The Fire HD 10 tablet is Amazon’s attempt to hit the budget tablet market running, and they do a surprisingly good job of it. You get a 10.1-inch FHD display with relatively good brightness and 3GB of RAM, which is more than enough for most day-to-day usage. With this deal, you also get 32GB of storage, although you can bump it up to the 64GB version if you feel you need it. It has the same experience as the Fire TVs since it carries the same OS, so if you’re already a fan of that, you’re in luck! One thing we need to point out, though, is that this is a lock screen-ad-supported version, which is why it’s so cheap. Luckily, you can get it without the lock screen ads for an extra $15, and we encourage you to do that if you can.

2021 Apple iPad — $270, $329

The iPad 10.2 on a table.

If you want an excellent iPad without paying a ton of money, this is one of the better iPad deals you’ll find during Black Friday. The 2021 Apple iPad is surprisingly powerful, even though it’s running the A13 Biochip, a few years old, with relatively smooth performance for the price bracket. The screen is a 10.2-inch Retina display, so it’s perfect for shows, films, and general browsing, while the 64GB of base storage allows you some space to download stuff for online use. There is an option to go for 256GB instead, which might be worth it if you download a lot. Similarly, while this deal is for the Wi-Fi-only version, you can grab a Wi-Fi + Cellular version instead.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 — $580, was $780

Side view of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+.
Adam Doud/Digital Trends

If you’re comparing the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab S7, you’ll notice many similarities, but for the same MSRP, the Tab S8 manages to be better. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 has many great features, the main one being the excellent software and OS that far outshines competitors and makes using the S Pen very enjoyable. Under the hood, you’ll find a Processor Model Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 SM8450 Gen 1, one of the most powerful chips on the market; paired with the 8GBs of RAM, we doubt the Tab S8 will have any trouble handling most tasks that are thrown at it. As for the screen, it’s a gorgeous 11-inch 2560 x 1600 resolution panel. Internal storage comes in at 256GB, although you can upgrade it to 1TB with a microSD card if needed. As for the battery, you’ll get about a day’s work out of it, which isn’t too bad.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra — $970, was $1,200

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+ sits on a table with two lego minifigs.
Adam Doud/Digital Trends

While the Tab S8 is impressive, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is the king of tablets, or at the very least, is very much in competition with the iPad Pro. With a massive 14.6-inch screen, it easily competes with things like Chromebooks and notebooks, with the added benefit that it’s genuinely a tablet and doesn’t have to masquerade as a 2-in-1. Of course, the big screen makes it hard to handle, and the 1.6-pound weight is borderline challenging to hold up for long periods. Truthfully though, it’s built for power users, with the same specs as the Tab S8, only with a larger and higher-end AMOLED screen and 12GB of RAM instead of 8GB. Whether it’s worth the extra few hundred dollars is hard to say, but it’s one of the best tablet deals if you want something that comes close to a regular laptop.

2022 Apple iPad Pro — $1,099, was $1,199

ipad pro 2021.

While the 2022 Apple iPad Pro isn’t quite as large as the Tab S8 Ultra, coming in at only 12.9 inches, it’s still very powerful, if not even more powerful than the S8 Ultra. It manages that performance due to the M2 Chip, one of the most powerful that Apple makes, something you usually find on their laptops, and is massive overkill, although we won’t complain. The screen has an excellent resolution of 2732 x 2048, with a whopping 1,000 nits of peak brightness and the ability to watch HDR content. This deal comes with 256GB of internal storage, but there are versions up to 2TB, which is probably more than you’ll ever need, but it’s there. You can also grab a version with Wi-Fi + Cellular, although this deal is for the Wi-Fi-only version.

Editors' Recommendations

The best 12.9-inch iPad Pro Black Friday deal we found is still available
Someone holding the 12.9-inch version of the iPad Pro (2022).

It's just been a month since the 2022 release of Apple's 12.9-inch iPad Pro, so we weren't expecting it to appear in this year's Black Friday tablet deals. To our surprise, the tablet's Wi-Fi, 128GB version is in the Amazon Black Friday deals with a $100 discount, which brings the device's price down to $999 from its original price of $1,099. Here's another surprise -- Black Friday is over, but the offer is still online. We're not sure how much time remains for you to take advantage of it, let alone if it will appear in the upcoming Cyber Monday deals, so don't waste this opportunity.

Why you should buy the Apple 12.9-inch iPad Pro (2022)
The latest Apple iPad Pro, the sixth iteration of the tablet that was just released in October, made a huge splash on its arrival. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro already claimed the title as the best big-screen tablet in Digital Trends' list of the best tablets, partly because the edge-to-edge display with 2732 x 2048 resolution works great for multimedia, gaming, drawing, and watching streaming content, among many other purposes. The iPad Pro also offers unparalleled performance with Apple's M2 chip, which can also be found in this year's versions of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

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This Apple Watch Ultra Black Friday deal hasn’t ended yet
The yellow circle shows the Apple Watch Ultra is in Low Power Mode.

There are still some Black Friday deals floating around even after the shopping holiday has ended, but we're kind of surprised that the Apple Watch Ultra remains on sale, as this is rare for a high-end Apple product. Well, if you've had your eye on one and want to buy it, Amazon has them on sale for $739, down from the usual $799 they go for. Similar offers have started going offline though, so you should hurry if you want to avail of this one, especially since it's unclear if the smartwatch will be part of the upcoming Cyber Monday deals.

Why you should buy the Apple Watch Ultra
There are many great things to say about the Apple Watch Ultra, and while it certainly is pricey, it has all the features that make it worth it. For starters, it has a large 49mm screen that gives you a lot more real estate to work with, and WatchOS 9 takes advantage of that, being more streamlined and having buttons that are designed better and are easier to work with. Of course, the new OS also brings a lot of improvements to fitness tracking, supplemented by newer and better hardware on the watch itself. For example, it not only displays more data tracking when you're working out, but it also has better heart rate and blood oxygen sensors, as well as a couple of new accelerometers that can sense if you're in a car crash.

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The best Black Friday phone deals for 2022
Best Black Friday Phone Deals

Slept through Black Friday? Or maybe you were too busy yesterday to check out the best Black Friday deals? Don't worry -- there are still some excellent Black Friday phone deals out there, though they may not stick around for long. To get you started, we've picked out some of our highlights among the phone deals out there, from Pixel phones to Samsung foldables. After all, with no shortage of options, things can feel pretty overwhelming. We'll help you enjoy making your purchase by taking out the hassle. Read on while we take you through everything.
Google Pixel 7 — $500, was $600

The first of our Black Friday phone deals is the very delightful Google Pixel 7, a phone we've already declared one of the best phones of 2022. The water-resistant Pixel 7 has a 6.3-inch screen, runs on Android 13, and uses the Google Tensor G2 processor. By default, you can grab it with 128GB of memory, but feel free to go for the 256GB or 512GB versions to boost your power; they aren't that much more expensive. Additionally, as we mention in our Google Pixel 7 review, the phone's camera is absolutely fantastic. The 50-megapixel main camera creates "vibrant, balanced, and visually punchy photos" via optical image stabilization (OIS) and overall excellent handling of lighting. Plus, get cool bonus features like live language translation and great security from the Titan M2 security chip built right into the phone. Don't forget to get one of the best Pixel 7 cases and covers when you pick up yours today!

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