Traditionalists might balk, but the holiday shopping season is already underway. Skeptical? Head to your local department store and you'll be inundated by Christmas trees and ornaments. Bargain hunters, though, know that the real deals are more than a month away.
Black Friday, traditionally, is when retailers truly slash prices. Early birds can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars off of their holiday bills. Switched.com checked with a few elves, who gave a sneak peek at what you can expect deal-wise this year.
Blu-ray Players and Movies: Blu-ray is shaping up to be the biggest door buster of this year's Black Friday. de Grandpre expects at least one retailer will offer a Blu-ray player for just $49. Look for bargains on Blu-ray films as well, with last year's hit titles (such as "Iron Man") to fall as low as $5.
Laptops: With the proliferation of Netbooks this year, it's never been easier to find affordable portable computing, but Dan de Grandpre, CEO of DealNews.com says it will get even cheaper on Black Friday. Look for well-equipped Netbooks to sell for $199 – and basic 15" laptops to go for as little as $249.
HDTVs (Pretty big): The holidays are typically the best time to buy a new TV – and Black Friday is the time to do it. If you're looking for a normal sized set, you're in luck. Piper Jaffrey analyst Mitch Kaiser says he expects to see 32-inch LCD sets for as low as $299. GottaDeal.com is estimating 37-inch plasma and LCD sets will fall to $399 or less.
HDTVs (Really big): Need something bigger? How about a 46-47 inch LCD set for $599 – a 25 percent savings? Or a 52-inch LCD for $999? Dealnews says you can expect both. Plasma deals will be a little harder to come by, but a 50-inch set should run roughly $899.
HD Camcorders: You've wanted to shoot your child's school play in HD for a while, but haven't been able to spring for the pricey camcorder. This might be the year. Low-end, flash-based 720p models could drop as low as $60 (though you won't be able to zoom with those). Expect a high quality 1080p HD camcorder for $349.
GPS: While navigation systems have dramatically expanded their reach this year – even making it onto the iPhone – there's still a market for car-based systems. Dealnews predicts you'll be able to find a no-name entry-level system for $49, while a Garmin or Tom-Tom brand will be as low as $69.
Digital Picture Frames: Showcasing your digital pictures consistently gets cheaper. This year, skip the 7-inch screens and focus on the 8- or 9-inch ones, which should be available on Black Friday for as little as $30.
Monitors: Computer monitors might not be the sexiest of gifts, but they're usually welcomed with open arms – and they'll be cheap this year. Name brand 22-inch LCD models may go for as low as $99, while 24-inch models will drop below $150.
Memory: Don't know anyone who needs a monitor? External hard drives are always popular, since they're an easy way to back-up data. Dealnews expects a 1TB drive to fall as low as $49 this year. Gottadeal is looking for 8GB flash drives to hit $15.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Frank Beirne said 2:25AM on 2-14-2008
What I can't understand is if these playstations are so great why are they selling so cheap on ebay.Sure you see a few on there selling for 2000.00 dollars,but most of them are going for around 25.00 dollars.I have one of these units that I gave 10.00 dollars for and got everything with it and it works great.Sure I would like to sell mine for 2000.00 dollars,but get real please.
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mike said 2:35AM on 2-12-2008
They are not that great at all!! my yamaha cd player sounds like a $50,000 unit if you call that hunk of meat a $6,000 sounding unit - heres an idea, do what I did with my sons old P.O.S - measure the THD SNR l+r delay and put it under a scope with no music or on pause and eat up all the noise you see!
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time traveler said 4:57AM on 7-14-2007
While it has been known for sometime that the playstaion 1 did have a decent audio output it is by far no where near even a 1000 dollar player let alone a 6000 dollar player as the article suggests. The engine of high end cd players is based around super high quality power supplies, often split between the analogue left and right and digital supplies. High end cd players often have very accurate master oscillators (clocks) which are also isolated from the main power buss. High end cd players often have individual DACS for each channel and mostly use the famed Phillips TDA series renound for Zero oversampling modes. All this and i havent even brought into account the quality of the analogue output stage after the DAC
After seeing the guts of a playstaion on many occasions, some after collisions with baseball bats i can confirm the playstation has neither of the admirable traits as described above
so hold onto your wallets, its good, but its just a piece of consumer gear
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bill ryder said 8:50AM on 10-10-2007
I agree that the original playstation is not all that great when it comes to true audiophile sound quality. A true audiophile cd player would have 1 bit or eqivilant digital processing and offer digital sound output either in the form of a coaxial digital(spdf) or optical output so the signal could be further processed in dolby surround sound or some other form of digital processing.
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