Believe it or not, May is now just a few weeks away, which means both Mother’s Day and graduation season are nearly upon us. If you plan on picking up a gift for either occasion, it might be wise to get a head start on your shopping now before your calendar fills with festivities.
Apple’s colorful HomePod Mini is down to one of its best prices to date
Apple’s colorful HomePod Mini is down to one of its best prices to date
For Apple aficionados, Apple’s Siri-enabled HomePod Mini makes for a versatile gift, one that’s on sale at Costco for members for $79.99 ($20 off) through April 23rd. Non-members can also buy the smart speaker at a discount when they pay a 5 percent surcharge, which raises the final sale price to $83.99 — a price we still rarely see.
If you’re already embedded in Apple’s ecosystem, the HomePod Mini will let you do more than just play music and check the weather. It also allows you to make calls via your iPhone and acts as a hub for your HomeKit devices. What’s more, thanks to some recent software updates, it can monitor the room temperature and humidity levels. As a result, you can program your smart thermostat or air quality monitor to adjust itself when those levels go up or down. The fact it offers good sound for its size and comes in a number of vibrant colors just makes it more attractive, especially as a fun piece of desk decor.
Apple HomePod Mini
$80$10020% off
$80
Apple’s smallest smart speaker, the HomePod Mini, comes with Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, built in and can play music, set timers, and control your smart home as well as send messages and make calls using your iPhone. It comes in white, dark gray, blue, yellow, or orange.
Thanks to Microsoft’s spring sales event, there are also a number of good deals this week for Windows fans. As a part of the ongoing promotion, Microsoft is discounting various configurations of the 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 5. Right now, for instance, you can grab the model with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7 Evo processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $1,399.99 ($300 off) from Best Buy and Microsoft. That’s the best price we’ve seen on this configuration so far this year; however, if you can get away with less power, it’s also on sale at Best Buy and the Microsoft Store with a Core i5 chip starting at $899.99 ($100 off).
If you’re looking for a Windows laptop for general use, the Surface Laptop 5 is a beautiful and highly capable machine. It offers more than enough power for day-to-day work and even some prowess when it comes to photo editing. Its thin, light build makes it highly portable as well, while its spacious 3:2 display is bright enough for home use. It even features an audio jack and support for Thunderbolt, even if the port selection is rather limited.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (13.5-inch, 12th Gen Intel Core i7 Evo processor, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD)
$1400$170018% off
$1400
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 5 is a beautiful device with strong performance, a nice 3:2 display, and support for Thunderbolt.
If you’d like to add some smart lighting to your home, the Philips Hue smart button starter kit provides everything you need to get going. And right now, you can pick up the five-piece package at Amazon for just $58.22 ($42 off), its best price yet.
The apt-titled kit includes three white A19 Philips Hue smart bulbs, each of which offers 800 lumens of brightness and is designed to emanate various hues of white light. The bulbs are compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant as well, so you can turn them on and off with your voice. The kit also comes with a Philips Hue smart button that allows you to control your lights without a smartphone as well as a Philips Hue Bridge, which lets you add up to 50 lights, set automations, and control them from anywhere in the world.
The Bridge isn’t a necessity given the bulbs support Bluetooth, but it’s a nice perk considering it normally retails for $59.99 on its own.
Philips Hue white smart button starter kit
$58$10042% off
$58
The Philips Hue starter kit includes a Philips Hue Bridge, a smart button, and three white ambiance bulbs that offer shades of white light from cool to warm.
If typing up long-winded emails on your iPad Pro or iPad Air feels out of place, you might want to check out today’s deal on Apple’s Magic Keyboard. Right now, the handy accessory is on sale at Amazon and Walmart in black for $229 ($70 off), its best price of the year.
In essence, the keyboard allows you to use your iPad more akin to a traditional clamshell laptop. It magnetically attaches to your tablet, letting you position your iPad at a more comfortable angle, and it features an excellent trackpad with gesture support. It also provides a great typing experience, along with a USB-C port on the side that allows for passthrough charging. Just note that while it is compatible with every iteration of the 11-inch iPad Pro, it only works with the fourth- and fifth-gen iPad Air.
Apple Magic Keyboard (11-inch iPad Pro or iPad Air)
$229$29923% off
$229
Apple’s Magic Keyboard for the 11-inch iPad Pro as well as the fourth- and fifth-generation iPad Air lets you angle the tablet to your liking. It also provides a USB-C port for keeping it charged, though that port doesn’t support data transfer.
We’re not done yet
- If you’re comfortable buying a pair of refurbished headphones, Sony’s WH-1000XM5 are on sale for $219.99 with a two-year third-party warranty at eBay (via Secondipity) — $180 less than if you were to buy them new. They remain our favorite pair of noise-canceling headphones and offer good sound quality alongside perks like multipoint support. Read our review.
- Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4, like the Galaxy Z Flip 4, is on sale for one of its best prices to date. Right now, you can buy the foldable phone in an unlocked configuration on Amazon with 256GB of storage for $1,399.99 ($400 off). The phone’s 7.6-inch display folds up like a book and sports a more capable camera than the Flip 4’s. The phones are similar otherwise, with both offering a maximum 120Hz refresh rate and good performance. Read our review.
- If you want to gift your mom a plant that won’t die, you can buy the Lego Succulents building kit for $39.99 ($10 off) on Amazon. The kit comes with all the Legos you’ll need to build a beautiful, vibrant set that consists of cacti and other assorted succulents.
- The sturdy Segway Ninebot KickScooter Max G30LP is down to just $599.99 ($180 off) at Amazon, which is the scooter’s second-best price to date. It can travel up to 25 miles per charge and tops out at 18.6mph, yet it also folds down for easy storage.