Amazon’s kitchen-friendly Echo Show 15 is going for $80 off right now
A smart display can amalgamate the various smart home and virtual assistant tools at your disposal, whether you prefer voice-activated assistants or smartphone-like interfaces for direct control. That’s exactly what Amazon’s Echo Show 15 provides, and right now, the wall-mountable panel is down to $199.99 ($80 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.
The Echo Show 15 is a solid 15.6-inch smart display that can double as a 1080p TV thanks to its Fire TV integration, which makes it ideal in the kitchen for viewing recipes or enjoying a side of entertainment with whatever meal you’re cooking. The touchscreen display lets you control a range of compatible smart home devices using various widgets and apps — which are great for viewing calendar appointments, the weather, and other tidbits of information at a glance — though we’d sooner wait for the forthcoming Echo Hub if you’re in it purely for smart home control, as the latter supports the new Matter standard, Thread, and Zigbee.
Still, the Echo Show 15 is especially nice for checking in on security cameras, as it uses the extra screen size to show multiple feeds. An integrated camera lets you carry on with video calls to other Echo Show owners or anyone with the Alexa app; however, the display’s subpar camera quality means it’s probably best reserved for, say, dialing grandma for an emergency tutorial while your hands are tied up.
Read our Amazon Echo Show 15 review.
I hope the retro renaissance never dies. There’s something special about preserving the technology and ideas that paved the way for all of the fun gadgets we enjoy today, which is why I’ll probably pick up another Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 for myself. We consider it the best instant camera for most people, one that’s currently down to a record low of around $69.95 ($10 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo.
The Fujifilm Instax Mini is one of my favorite things to gift people, especially since it can help you capture memories right out of the box. You get a cartridge of Polaroid-like film to print photos on demand, and it’ll spray the resulting capture onto a wallet-size card, which develops within a couple of minutes, whether you violently shake it or not. There’s also an integrated flash to help in dimly lit situations, along with a front-facing mirror for helping capture selfies.
The Instax Mini 12 is an ideal first camera for kids especially, not just because of the appealing assortment of colors but also because it’s light yet sturdy enough to survive the eventual bumps it’ll take. It’s a little on the basic side in terms of features — it lacks extra shooting modes and other options, and you can’t easily edit the resulting captures before printing — but that’s what keeps the cost so low.
Five more deals worth considering
- With a name like the Ultimate Ears Hyperboom, you should expect UE’s mammoth Bluetooth speaker to emit thunderous sound. It does exactly that, and it’s down to $399.99 ($50 off) at Amazon. It’s pricey, but one of our reviewers once considered it their ideal desert companion thanks to its all-day battery life and ability to overpower ambient noise. Its large size isn’t ideal for everyday deployment, though, and there’s also no Wi-Fi support for smart features, which is disappointing given the price. Read our review.
- Amazon’s third-gen Echo Buds are down to $39.99 ($10 off) at Amazon, which is only $5 more than their lowest price to date. The budget earbuds have a semi-open design akin to Apple’s AirPods, allowing you to hear your surroundings without costly passthrough tech. You may find them more comfortable than the 2021 Echo Buds, though they lack more premium features like ANC. You do get Bluetooth multipoint for seamless device switching, though, along with Alexa support and customizable tap controls.
- Today only, Woot is selling the PlayStation Edition of the Backbone One for $69.99 ($30 off), matching the mobile controller’s all-time low. The handy accessory is usable with any game or app that supports controllers and has two analog sticks, a directional pad, shoulder buttons, and four other miscellaneous inputs. It stretches to fit any Lightning-compatible iPhone, though iPhone 15 owners will need a model with USB-C support. Read our review.
- Speaking of PlayStation controllers, Verizon emerges as the unlikely purveyor of discounted DualSense controllers. Right now, you can pick up a white DualSense for the PS5 for as low as $55 ($25 off) via the carrier’s online storefront. We’re seeing the same price on the black model, and the purple config is only $5 more, but as of this writing, both appear out of stock.
- Even at $399, the DJI Osmo Action 4 is one of the top action cams, but that’s doubly true at $239 — the current price for a refurbished Standard Combo at DJI. The 4K, water-resistant camera features a 1/1.3-inch sensor that does well in low lighting conditions, and it comes with a host of accessories to help you mount and protect the camera. It supports 10-bit footage with the D-Log M picture profile for greater dynamic range and impressive color. All of DJI’s refurbished products come with the same one-year warranty that new products do, but you can extend that and cover accidental damage with DJI Care Refresh for as low as $25.