It’s the best time of year to buy a new smartphone. I review dozens and dozens of handsets every year, and I exclusively recommend you buy them unlocked—don’t be beholden to a carrier! But the sticker shock of a new phone can be scary; these Black Friday phone deals can help ease the burden on your wallet. Whether you want a folding flip phone, a super-slim Galaxy Z Fold, or the latest magnetic Google Pixel 10, you’ll find your next smartphone upgrade in this list.
Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S25 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is seeing healthy discounts this Black Friday, probably because its successors are right around the corner—the Galaxy S26 series is expected to be announced in January. But if you don’t really need the latest and greatest, you have three excellent smartphones to choose from. The S25 is the smallest, the S25+ gets a few extra perks plus a bigger screen and better battery life, but it’s the Galaxy S25 Ultra that really steps things up, with a dual telephoto camera system, integrated S Pen stylus, and a beefy battery.
This is the smartphone most people looking for a new handset should buy. If you’re not married to a particular camp or brand, the Google Pixel 9a (9/10, WIRED Recommends) strikes the best balance between features and price, and this sale makes that even better. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better camera system at this price, and if you hate ginormous camera bumps, you’ll love the flat-back design here. Performance is flagship-grade—it has the same Tensor chip that powers the Pixel 9 Pro—and you can access many of the great Pixel software perks, like Call Screen to cut spam calls from your life.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Samsung
Galaxy Z Fold7 and Galaxy Z Flip7
Folding phones are not as fragile as they used to be. No, seriously. Companies have been improving durability year over year, while also slimming them down. The Galaxy Z Fold7 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is my favorite booklike folding phone this year—it’s so amazingly slim that what used to be a chunky device now feels kind of like a candy bar phone. Use the front screen like normal, and when you need extra real estate, open the device up. You can view apps on a much larger scale or easily split-screen two apps. Don’t want a big folding phone? The Galaxy Z Flip7 is a pretty solid update this year, with a more usable front screen. These devices are still annoyingly expensive, but this Black Friday sale makes the prices a little more palatable.
If you’re really interested in the idea of a folding flip phone, then might I suggest Motorola’s Razr Ultra (8/10, WIRED Recommends)? Take your current phone today and fold it in half—OK, don’t actually do that, but that’s kind of what it’s like to use this style of smartphone. Right now, the Razr Ultra is the best in this category, with a fresh design, good performance, surprisingly great cameras, and a functional external display. If you hate big phones, you’ll love being able to stuff the Ultra in any pocket or purse. There’s also the cheaper Razr 2025, which doesn’t have as good performance or a camera system, but is still an incredible value, especially on sale.
Do you want a headphone jack? Do you want a microSD card slot? Are you a very cool and smart person? Yes. Then this is the smartphone for you. This is an incredible deal on a phone that delivers surprisingly smooth performance, not to mention a bright and sharp screen, and an integrated stylus. It looks smart with a textured back, and while it may not get many software updates, it’s just hard to beat at this price. And you get 256 GB of storage to boot.
It’s not flashy, but the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE is a perfectly serviceable Android phone that should only be purchased at this $175 discount. Seriously, it’s not worth the MSRP because you can usually find a Galaxy S25 on sale for close to that price. But under $500? You’re getting a solid triple-camera system with a 3X optical zoom sensor, smooth performance, and day-long battery life, plus all the usual flagship extras like Qi2 Ready wireless charging and IP68 water resistance. It’ll still get seven years of software updates, too.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Prefer Pixel phones but want a folding phone? This Pixel 10 Pro Fold (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is pretty much your only option. The cameras aren’t as good as the Pixel 10 Pro series, but they’re still respectable. The phone isn’t as slim as the Galaxy Z Fold7, but it’s one of the only folding phones with an IP68 dust- and water-resistance rating. Considering it launched last month, this is a heck of a discount. I have to say, having Qi2 magnets in a folding phone is very nice.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Nothing’s Phone (3) (7/10, WIRED Recommends) looks nothing (heh) like any other smartphone in this list. That’s the company’s calling card, but it extends to the phone’s Android interface, which is beautiful and unique. The fun Glyph Matrix display on the back offers up notifications and can even be used to play rock, paper, scissors. It’s a quirky device, but performance is slick, the cameras are solid, there’s 256 GB of storage, and good battery life. It’s not the best value from a price perspective, but that might not matter if you’re head over heels about how it looks.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Despite launching in January of this year, the OnePlus 13 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is no longer the latest flagship phone from the company. That’d be the OnePlus 15. But the latest and greatest isn’t on sale, and the OnePlus 13 is still a very good smartphone with good battery life, extremely fast charging, and a decent camera system tuned by Hasselblad (this partnership is effectively over in the OnePlus 15).
What About iPhone Deals?
Apple doesn’t have sales, and you won’t find discounted iPhones at third-party retailers. The only way to spend a little less is to look at the Black Friday carrier offers. We typically don’t recommend carrier devices because it means you’re getting a locked phone, but most people upgrade through their carrier. If you’re going to do it, here’s what the big three are offering right now.
Verizon’s hot Black Friday promotion is an iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple Watch, and iPad for free if you get a new line on select unlimited plans. You also have to get a cellular plan for the watch and iPad, though.
T-Mobile has something similar. You can get an iPhone 17 Pro, iPad (A16), and Apple Watch SE3 for free if you trade in an eligible phone in any condition on an Experience Beyond plan. (Make sure to read the fine print for all the details.) Keep in mind that the “savings” are usually in the form of bill credits.
AT&T is offering the iPhone Air for less than $3 per month if you get a new line. This offer is available online only and runs out on December 1. It requires a 36-month plan and “well-qualified customers.”
Now, there’s another class of high-end gaming laptop that focuses more on performance than being thin or portable. The Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10 is one of my favorites in this class, featuring a beautiful white chassis and glossy OLED display. Unlike some OLED displays, the Legion 7i’s screen can be cranked up to over 1,000 nits of brightness. The result is some really splendid HDR performance that brings games to life. HDR is a powerful way of improving the visuals of your games without a performance cost. The Legion 7i Gen 10 is one of the very best in this regard.
It’s still fairly thin at 0.7 inches thick too, while a lot of the ports are found on the back. It’s the definition of a “clean” gaming laptop. It’s no slouch when it comes to performance either, offering either the RTX 5070 Ti or RTX 5080 for graphics.
Cheap Gaming Laptops That Are Worth It
No gaming laptops worth buying are actually cheap. High-refresh rate displays and discrete graphics will always make them more expensive than standard laptops. But as you get closer to $1,000, there is one laptop I always come back to: the Lenovo LOQ 15. Pronounced “Lock,” this Lenovo subbrand is known for cutting the fluff and focusing on giving gamers the performance they need at an affordable price. No laptop does that better than the LOQ 15. Many laptop manufacturers sell their RTX 5060 configurations for hundreds of dollars more. In reality, if you’re shopping around $1,000, there’s no reason to not buy the LOQ 15. Just do it.
If you do want to save some extra cash, there is another option that is cheaper than the LOQ 15 with a few compromises in key areas. The Acer Nitro V 16 is that laptop, which comes with an RTX 5050. This was as affordable as $600 at one point last year—before prices on laptops have risen due to the ongoing memory shortage—but it remains the only laptop cheaper than the Lenovo LOQ 15 that’s actually worth it. It’s fairly powerful for the RTX 5050, and while the screen is pretty shoddy, it’s not a bad-looking laptop. The one big caveat is that the 135-watt power supply it comes with doesn’t deliver quite enough power to keep it charged in Performance mode. Read more about this issue in my review, as it’s important to know about if you’re planning to buy it.
There are other cheap gaming laptops out there I’ve tested, such as the MSI Cyborg A15, but either the Acer Nitro V 16 or Lenovo LOQ 15 are better, cheaper options. You will also find lots of gaming laptops under $1,000 that use older graphics cards, such as the RTX 4050 or 3050. In general, I’d recommend staying away from these. They’re only one or two generations back, but remember: Nvidia only releases new laptop graphics cards every couple of years. So, an RTX 4050 laptop may be well over two years old already, and an RTX 3050 is over five years old. Not only do you get worse graphics performance, these laptops are much more likely to need to be replaced sooner.
Experimental Stuff
One of the exciting things about the world of gaming laptops right now is the experimentation. While clamshell gaming laptops with a conventional Nvidia GPU are the most standard way to go, there’s a few different ways to take your PC games on the go that stretch the boundaries. You might consider a gaming handheld, for example, like the Steam Deck or Xbox Ally X. These handhelds have their fans, and while you can’t also do your homework on these devices, they’re great on couches, trains, and planes.
The Sans Institute, one of the world’s pre-eminent cyber security certification and training bodies, is to play a key role in the annual Nato Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) Locked Shields exercise, held in Tallinn, Estonia, through the provision of a fully functional power generation system that participating teams will attempt to defend during the game.
This year marks the 16th running of the Locked Shields live fire security defence exercise, which unites blue teams from across Nato’s 32 member states, as well as other allies and observers.
This year, however, Sans has been entrusted with the task of building a genuine, operational cyber range, as opposed to creating a simulation. It is using real industrial control systems (ICSs) and physical equipment that 16 teams of defenders will have to protect while under live cyber attack, with the decisions they make having an immediate physical impact on a national-scale power grid.
Nato and Sans said the aim of the game is to close the gap between sandboxed, classroom-based cyber security training and real-world operational readiness, which, amid the cyber dimension to the energy crisis precipitated by the war in Iran and spillover from the ongoing war in Ukraine, has never been more important.
“We are putting teams in an environment where cyber decisions directly impact physical operations,” said Felix Schallock, who leads the initiative at the Sans Institute. “If you lose visibility, if you lose control, the power generation can be affected. That’s the reality operators face every day. That’s what we’re training for.”
Nato CCDCOE director Tõnis Saar added: “Locked Shields is a technically advanced exercise that challenges participants to defend the critical infrastructure systems modern societies depend on. As much of this critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, strong public-private collaboration is essential. Industry partners such as Sans Institute play a vital role in making the exercise as realistic and impactful as possible.”
Hybrid architecture
The Sans Institute’s cyber range comprises close to 70 physical ICS devices, with programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), operator and engineering workstations, 100 virtual machines (VMs) and interconnected systems within the wider CCDCOE environment, all supported by live network infrastructure, the whole forming a hybrid information and operational technology (IT/OT) architecture.
During the exercise, blue teamers will be set the task of defending the “energy provider” while coming under sustained attack from opposing red teams.
The goal is to effectively demonstrate how maintaining a reliable generation system isn’t some metric on a scorecard, but rather the core mission, so success will entail more than just spotting and arresting threats – it will also demand operational discipline, maintaining uninterrupted power generation, preserving comms between IT and OT networks, guaranteeing visibility and control of ICS technology, and avoiding any destabilising disruptions.
The people defending our critical infrastructure deserve training that takes the threat as seriously as they do James Lyne, Sans Institute
Actions will be visible, rippling through the systems in real time, so participants won’t just see alerts, they will see turbines being throttled, breakers being opened or closed, and generation capacity being affected. As such, failure will be immediate and visible – missteps will degrade system performance, disrupt or halt power generation, or simulate national-level consequences.
Tim Conway, Sans Institute fellow and ICS curriculum lead, explained: “We’re showing teams how to defend infrastructure that can’t simply be rebooted or patched on the fly. You have to think like an operator, not just a defender. That mindset shift is what makes this environment so powerful.”
Sans Institute CEO James Lyne expressed great pride in what the Sans team has built for Locked Shields this year. “The scenarios these critical initiatives prepare for are playing out in the world – national espionage, cyber integrated to kinetic attacks and warfare, and retaliation attacks,” he said.
“Throw in AI or machine speed attackers and the need for defenders to adapt, and you have the most disruptive period in cyber security in 20 years. We are privileged to help our allies be ready and continuously improving to secure the future. The people defending our critical infrastructure deserve training that takes the threat as seriously as they do,” he added.
Schallock said the exercise was about preparing teams for protecting the systems that matter most. “Cyber security training must reflect the environment defenders are protecting. We’re not just teaching cyber security, we’re showing how to defend a nation’s infrastructure when it counts.”
In mid-April, astronomy enthusiasts will be able to enjoy one of the classic celestial spectacles. The meteor shower known as the Lyrids will illuminate the sky, especially in the northern hemisphere, and anyone will be able to see it with the naked eye, weather permitting—if they know where to look.
The Lyrids began to appear as early as April 14, but their activity peaks between the night of April 21 and the early morning of April 22, according to NASA. During those hours, the shower will show 15 to 20 meteors per hour under dark skies.
The shower gets its name because the meteors appear to emerge from the constellation Lyra. Locating the radiant is simple if you use an astronomical mapping app: Just find Vega, the fifth brightest star in the sky, surpassed only by Sirius, Canopus, Alpha Centauri A, and Arcturus. Once you locate it, look around it; the luminous traces of the Lyrids will seem to be projected from that point due to a perspective effect. Keep in mind that it takes 20 to 30 minutes for the human eye to adjust to darkness.
The moon will be in early crescent phase during the peak, so its light will interfere very little. With a dark sky, meteors should stand out easily. The shower is usually visible from 10 pm to dawn, although early morning offers the best conditions. It is best to stay away from light pollution and, if possible, to observe from high ground. An outing to the mountains works well.
Each meteor shower has a different origin. In April, Earth crosses the cloud of fragments left by comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) in its orbit around the sun. This comet, discovered in 1861, takes about 415 years to complete its journey. The grains of ice and rock that it released centuries ago enter the atmosphere at high speed and produce the flashes we know as the Lyrids.
After the Lyrids, the calendar still holds several spectacles for those who follow the night sky. The Eta Aquarids will arrive in May with debris from Halley’s Comet. The Perseids will appear in August, the Orionids will return in October, and the year will close with the Leonids in November and the Geminids in December. The latter is considered the most intense and reliable shower on the calendar.
This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.
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