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Black Friday 2025: Everything you need to know


Once upon a time, Black Friday was a magical day of shopping where you’d wake up uber early after Thanksgiving, curse yourself for eating so much, and camp outside shops before they opened so you could grab whatever you could at never-before-seen prices.

In recent years, Black Friday has lost much of its luster because most of the deals aren’t so good anymore. But if you know where to look, you can still score exciting discounts that are truly game-changers—and with Black Friday week officially kicked off, we’re already seeing all kinds of worthwhile deals this year.

When’s the right time to buy? How do you know if you’re actually getting a good deal? What’s worth waiting on? We have lots of juicy tips to help you get the most for your dollar without any buyer’s remorse.

When is Black Friday this year?

Black Friday is always the fourth Friday of November, the day after Thanksgiving. In 2025, that’s November 28th. That also means Cyber Monday will be December 1st. But since stores don’t limit themselves to just these dates anymore, you can already shop for discounts.

Great Black Friday tech deals

One of the things we do every day here at PCWorld is scour the various stores for the best possible deals. Obviously, we can’t skip Black Friday! Here are some of the most impressive discounts right now:

5 tips to score the best Black Friday tech deals and come out a winner

If you want independence to find your own deals, that’s fine by us. But at the very least, let us help you! Black Friday shopping can be time-consuming, but we can help shave some hours down for you.

Tip #1: Make a plan (and a budget)

Sample Black Friday Trello board
Tracking your potential purchases helps knowing when to pull the trigger on a deal—and for keeping track of all the packages that eventually arrive.

PCWorld

If you want to save money, you need to know what you’re looking for. There are way too many good deals out there and they can distract you from focusing on the things you actually need. So, write ’em down. What do you want? What’s your overall budget? What’s your strike price for each item, where you’ll only pull the trigger if it drops below it?

For instance, you’re looking for a laptop. What minimum specs do you need? Any preference for brand or model? Highest you’re willing to pay, even if it doesn’t drop to its best-ever price? Any backup models you’re willing to get in case the main one doesn’t drop? I keep tabs on products I want for a few months—especially if they’re more expensive—so I know exactly how their prices fluctuate.

The fun thing about Black Friday is you never really know what will actually go on sale or for how much. Some years you’ll find everything on your list down to winning prices, while other years are simply duds that leave you disappointed with no good sales.

Tip #2: Know your prices

Keepa sample listing (8600G)
Keepa is a site (and browser extension) that shows detailed historical price data for products on Amazon. Camelcamelcamel is another popular alternative.

PCWorld

As with all sale events, not all deals you see on Black Friday are actually good. Some are just “meh” and aren’t worth your attention (unless you really, really, really need that product). That’s why it’s so important to do your research, so you know when a deal is actually good.

There are several ways to check how good a deal is and whether it’s worth your attention. Here are my favorite methods:

  • Keepa.com or Camelcamelcamel.com: These are two sites we check day in and day out. They show historical price charts for products on Amazon, allowing you to see how prices have fluctuated over time. Use them to check if a deal price is actually a deal compared to historical prices.
  • BlackFriday.com: More retailers have begun releasing their circulars early, but for those who haven’t, sites like BlackFriday.com publish scans of leaked Black Friday ads for major retailers (including Best Buy, Target, Newegg, Micro Center, etc.). While none of these prices are guaranteed, it’s a good way to get a decent idea of what prices to expect when the sales hit in full force.
  • Slickdeals.net: You don’t have to suffer through Black Friday on your own. This forum of crowdsourced deals is where avid deal-hunters post the deals they find. Look for the items on your list and you’ll see if anyone has managed to spot a good price for it.

Tip #3: Set deal alerts on Slickdeals and Amazon

bffaq slickdeals 2019
Using the alert feature on Slickdeals can help you catch deals that you might otherwise miss. Here’s a historical snapshot from several years ago.

PCWorld

Slickdeals makes it easy to set up a free account and create up to 200 different deal alerts. Just prepare for your inbox to ping like crazy! You can even get notifications through the mobile app or your browser, too, if that’s more your vibe. Thankfully, you can customize things a bit, so you won’t get alerts for stuff you don’t care about—only when notifications match your particular deal keywords.

Amazon has a similar service available for its Lightning deals. We’re partial to setting up deal alerts through Keepa.com or Camelcamelcamel.com though, even if they have a slight delay between the time deals go live and when you get the emails.

Tip #4: Sign up for emails from your favorite stores

Newegg promotional signup (Nov 2024)
Signing up for a store’s email newsletter can alert you to hot sales.

PCWorld

Another great way to get your eyes on the best deals is to sign up for email newsletters at retailers. Sometimes, you’ll even get a sneak peak and know what’s coming ahead of time, so you can be prepared to add those things to your cart before everyone else does.

Then there are deals that are only available if you’re already on the store’s email list. For example, Newegg often creates coupon codes that only work for email subscribers. And some sites may even offer codes for discounts and free shipping through their email newsletters that don’t always show up on deal and coupon sites.

Then there are the places with niche items that rarely go on sale, like Apple products. Even if the product stays at normal price during Black Friday, some vendors will at least provide a gift with purchase.

Note: If inbox clutter is a concern, you can use an email filter or a junk email address to collect all the emails in one spot. You usually don’t need to use the same email address at checkout for codes to work.

Tip #5: Keep an eye out for bundle deals

Micro Center 9700X bundle (Nov 2024)
Micro Center often has CPU/motherboard bundle discounts. When combined with their insanely low in-store prices during Black Friday, you can save some serious cash.

PCWorld

If you’re shopping for PC parts, you should pay attention to retailers that favor bundle deals so you can save the most. That’s typically Newegg and Micro Center, but on occasion other stores offer them as well.

You can save quite a bit this way. For example, Micro Center often offers a combo discount for buying a CPU and a motherboard at the same time. That’s in addition to already-reduced prices on both components.

You can see how we made the most of these kinds of deals in our Cheapest Black Friday / Cyber Monday PC Build articles from 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.

Where to find good Black Friday tech deals

Curious to know which stores we frequent the most? These are the places we make our own personal purchases at:

We also shop directly on manufacturers’ websites as well, including the big ones like Dell, Microsoft, HP, Apple, and Google.

How to get free shipping for Black Friday

Best Buy Free Shipping Info (Nov 2024)
Most big-box retailers offer free shipping for orders over a certain threshold. Others usually offer free in-store pickup, which is great if you live near such a store.

PCWorld

Getting free shipping is perhaps one of the easiest things you can do ahead of Black Friday. As long as your order is above $35, free standard shipping is common across most stores. With subscriptions, you might even get next-day or two-day shipping as perks.

If you sign up for newsletters now, you should get notifications of all promos, including those with free shipping.

Returning Black Friday purchases

Got something that was better in the description than in reality? Well, all stores have return policies. For most US retailers, the return policy for your Black Friday purchases expands well into December, so we’re sure you’ll have plenty of time to handle that. Since policies vary from shop to shop, always check a store’s return policy before purchasing.

Grab these hot Black Friday tech deals

We can’t spend so much time talking about early Black Friday deals without picking out some great discounts for you! Check out these tech discounts that you can score right now:



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