All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
Christmas is over. The bins are stuffed with wrapping paper. Family resentments have simmered into a fine festive broth and it's time for some post-Christmas boxing day deals.
This year we've seen some of our Black Friday favourites return for another assault on your purse, but there are some fresh deals too. Several of the strongest picks fit into the “computing" category. If you're looking for a portable SSD, a good-but-cheap wireless mouse or a gaming monitor, you're in luck.
There are also some home bargains, like smart light bulbs, a robot vacuum and a low-cost home security camera system that will also let you keep an eye on your dog while at work.
It's Prime Day 2023, so we've uncovered the top discounts. Check out the best Prime Day deals in the UK here.
The Galaxy Buds Pro are Samsung’s most high-end earbuds, throwing active noise cancellation (ANC), up to 13 hours of battery life, IPX7 water resistance and a stylish yet unassuming design at you all at once. Of course, they are made to work seamlessly with other Samsung products, with swift multi-device switching, but they work well with Android and iOS too.
There are several newer Amazfit watches than this GTS band, but it’s a bargain at £60 and can probably do everything you need. Its star feature is full GPS, which lets the Amazfit GTS map runs solo, without being connected to a phone. The OLED screen looks great and the outer design is a surprisingly good take on the Apple Watch blueprint. It’s not a full-on smartwatch but it can display phone notifications and messages, and the battery lasts up to two weeks off a charge.
Creators of the likes of Prey and Dishonored, Arkane, brought another smash hit into the gaming world for 2021. Deathloop received much critical acclaim for its intertwining and intricate timeloop hijinx. While there’s much fun to be had in unpicking the cleverly devised narrative, the combat is a delightful romp as well. This Deluxe Edition gets you a range of aesthetic in-game extras as well as a classy poster showcasing the game’s main characters.
Philips Hue lightstrips are a great way, as the name suggests, to add a bit of moody ambiance to a room. However, they can often be prohibitively priced—making this £20 saving particularly welcome. They are simple to install and can add a coloured glow of your choice to everything from the back of a TV or desk to livening up the corner of a room.
Samsung has gone big on laptops with 4G and 5G mobile internet. This Samsung Galaxy Book deal is one of the cheapest ways to get hold of a slim and light with 4G. Just slot in a SIM card and you can get online just about anywhere. It is also powerful, thanks to its 11th Gen Intel Core i5 processor with Intel Xe graphics — able to handle games like GTA V, Fortnite and The Witcher 3. The keyboard is a little shallow, but it’s a quality laptop.
Osmo makes a ton of toys aimed at getting kids into coding. This bundle is made to work alongside an iPad or Amazon Fire tablet and uses tactile physical blocks to help in the solving of questions and tasks. It comes with a clever reflector to be placed over the camera that allows the device to look down and see what blocks your child has chosen. The games themselves include an adventure with character Awbie, a music-themed mode called Coding Jam and lots of puzzles in Coding Duo.
The Xiaomi 11T 5G is the sensible route to a phone that feels high-end, and with a Xiaomi there are fewer glaring compromises than in rival brands. Its back is glass, the sides are metal: no plastic here. The screen is a large 120Hz OLED, charging is fast and the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 CPU provides performance similar to a last-generation top-tier Qualcomm. There’s no zoom camera but low-light performance is solid for the price.
You may think you haven’t heard of contemporary home brand Eufy but, if you know of handy battery bank seller Anker, you have. Anker branched out into affordable home tech with Eufy and offer everything from smart scales to robot vacuums. This handheld vacuum is a bit more typical but gets its appeal from a low price—discounted even lower for Boxing Day—while still offering a lightweight, useful detachable battery and the ability to tackle hard floors.
The Odyssey G7 is Samsung’s range of high-end but not ridiculously expensive curved gaming monitors. You can get around £130 off the 27-inch version from Amazon. Highlights include excellent contact, a 240Hz refresh rate, good brightness and deep colour. It was one of the best all-round monitors for gaming even before the post-Christmas discount.
Online cloud storage may be all the rage these days, especially with bundled offerings from the likes of Apple and Google. However, portable SSD options like this one are still the most reliable and speedy way to transfer files—a necessity for the likes of video editors and designers who need to move from device to device regularly. This Samsung SSD is pocketably small and has a robust and high quality feel that gives you a sense of relief that your stuff will be kept safe.
The Moto G60S typically costs £220. At that price it has major competition from budget stars like Xiaomi. But slice £40 off and the phone looks significantly more attractive. It has a large 6.8-inch 120Hz screen, and almost ridiculously fast charging for an Android this cheap. The 50W charger takes you from flat to 50% in about 18 minutes. Its battery life is sound too, making the G60S remarkably easy to live with.
Some portable SSDs are made for easily tucking away in a bag or not taking up much room on your desk. While this SanDisk model isn’t particularly big, it’s mostly about giving you plenty of storage and keeping it safe via two metre drop protection. A rubber hook means this can be securely attached to a backpack, making it an ideal travel companion that can store your treasured photos and videos. At well under £200 for Boxing Day, it’s an extremely reasonably price for 2TB of SSD storage.
Eufy gets most of its appeal by offering wallet-friendly value on useful products that you may typically be priced out of. This home security kit comes with a base station and two cameras for placing around your home—indoors and out. Each camera offers year long battery life, is wireless and IP65 water and dust resistant. Unlike some rivals, there’s also no monthly fee for file storage and the like, you simply get a 16GB MicroSD included for storing your videos.
This Asus ROG laptop is a sensibly priced way to get a laptop that can play all the latest games well, and handle tough productivity tasks like video editing. It has the top-end AMD Ryzen 9-5900HX CPU and an Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card, capable of rendering cutting edge ray tracing lighting effects. The screen is gamer-friendly too, with a native refresh rate of 144Hz. A few alternatives offer resolution even higher than the ROG Strix 15’s 1080p, like the HP Omen 16 and Lenovo Legion 15i, but you’ll have to pay around £150 more and will get a weaker CPU.
This Asus TUF monitor is entirely focused on gaming. It offers 1440p resolution, the best fit for play unless you have an obscenely expensive graphics card, and a respectable 155Hz refresh rate for cleaner-looking motion. It supports Nvidia G-Sync and the base is highly adjustable, including 90-degree rotation. The panel is “TN”, so contrast is not as high as the Samsung Odyssey G7’s, also on sale at the moment: pick that one for mixed movies and gaming use. However, TN panels are strong on motion clarity.
Anda Seat is a good alternative to slightly better-known gaming chair brands like Noblechairs. We have tested a couple, and found them very solid and comfortable. The Dark Demon, Kaiser and T-Pro series are on sale at the moment, and this T-Pro is the most tasteful of the bunch. It has fabric upholstery, although you do need to use the velour-covered lumbar and neck pillows for the best comfort and ergonomics. Its recline is excellent, offering up to 160 degrees of tilt, and like all good higher-end gaming chairs the arms have “4D” adjustability.
The best all-round Bose true wireless earphones are the QuietComfort Earbuds. However, these Bose Sports Earbuds are lighter, smaller, and cost significantly less. They are great for runners, using stabilising ear hooks that are much more comfortable than most. Their sound is rich and smooth, and while IPx4 water resistance is not the best around, it’s easily good enough for exercise in the rain. Bear in mind these earphones do not have active noise cancellation, the primary technical difference between this pair and the QuietComfort Earbuds.
- Want something to binge? Here are the best shows on Netflix
- These are the best board games for adults and families
- Quantum computers are already detangling nature’s mysteries
- The hunt for the master cow that will feed the world
- The government wants to sequence your baby’s genome
- Norway is running out of gas-guzzling cars to tax
- A dying child, a mother’s love and the drug that changed medicine
- These parents built a school app. Then the city called the cops
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
