CNET’s deals team and I are always looking to bring you the best discounts from your favorite retailers, like Amazon and Walmart. With the Prime Day sale event creeping up on us, we’re seeing quite a few early discounts that are secretly dropping. It can be tricky trying to decide if it’s a real steal or just retailer fluff, especially during a sale event. We rounded up the standout discounts our CNET shopping experts actually recommend this week, including savings on tech, home essentials and everyday favorites.
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Best deals of the week
The Amazon Smart Thermostat works with Alexa to create schedules, adjust temperatures automatically and let you control your home’s temp from anywhere through the app. It is Energy Star certified and compatible with select Alexa devices. Plus, DIY installation makes setup relatively easy.
The Houl Zallee portable speaker is built with dual tweeters, woofers and passive radiators to deliver punchy bass and room-filling audio. The IPX7 waterproof rating means it can handle sudden rain showers or splashes from the pool party. A battery life of up to 32 hours helps keep the music going all weekend long, and the integrated carry handle makes it easy to take from the backyard to the campsite.
This lightweight camping hammock is 16 ounces and can pack down small enough to fit in most backpacks. It’s made from parachute nylon with triple-stitched seams so it can handle everything from campground overnights to evenings in the backyard. The included tree straps and carabiners makes for easy setup.
This handheld fan doubles as a desktop fan, thanks to an included USB-C charging dock. It features 100 adjustable speed settings, an oversized seven-blade design for smooth airflow and a built-in cooling plate. With up to 16 hours of battery life, a foldable design and a detachable lanyard, it’s perfect to take anywhere all summer.
The A16 iPad is a solid tablet, even though it’s been overshadowed by newer, fancier models. It’s an excellent size and offers amazing graphical performance with the A16 Bionic chip. Best of all, you can pick one up now at a discounted price.
How we choose the deals at CNET
Many of us at CNET have covered shopping events for over five years, including Black Friday, Prime Day, Memorial Day and countless others. Not to mention covering, researching and hunting deals on the daily. We’ve gotten good at weeding out scams and superficial deals, so you see only the best offers from all over.
When choosing deals to show you, we look for real discounts, quality reviews and remaining sale time. Our team of experts has tested countless products to ensure we’re only sharing the best deals.
- Real discounts mean exactly that. We look at the price history for that product to make sure no brands are inflating prices to make the discount seem more substantial than it is.
- Quality reviews and in-depth testing are important for any product. If you’re unhappy the first time you use it, the discount wasn’t a worthwhile one.
- Remaining sale time is a huge part of our vetting process. If a deal seems like it will only be around for a short while or will only be available for the remaining stock, we’ll let you know upfront so you don’t come back to the deal later only to be disappointed.
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