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33 Best Deals From the Amazon Big Spring Sale (2024)

33 Best Deals From the Amazon Big Spring Sale (2024)

Retailers love make-believe shopping holidays, and the latest is the Amazon Big Spring Sale. Running now through March 25, Amazon is promising the usual: oodles of deals on everything your heart could ever want, with some exclusive deals for Amazon Prime members. We at WIRED are expert deal sleuths, and we’re hunting through the chaos to find deals on WIRED-tested gadgets that we like—you won’t find any fake discounts here. We’ve rounded up the best deals below, and we’ll continue to update this story with more.

Updated March 22, 2024: We’ve adjusted pricing where necessary and added new deals on Backbone mobile gaming controllers, our favorite Dyson vacuum, and a great indoor security camera.

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Amazon Device Deals

2023 Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet

Photograph: Best Buy

Our favorite Amazon Fire Tablet drops to this price pretty regularly, but it’s rare to see it dip down any lower. It has a faster processor than previous versions did, plus a larger display that has been upgraded to 1080p. You can also upgrade the storage capacity with a microSD card. Note that you’ll need to spend $110 to get the version without lockscreen advertisements, but that’s still a $45 savings. Our Best Amazon Fire Tablets guide has additional recommendations.

This is the best kids’ tablet. It comes with a rugged case, plus a two-year worry-free guarantee. If your kiddo runs the tablet over on their baby four-wheeler or spills an entire gallon of juice on the device, you’ll be covered. It also includes a free year of Amazon Kids+, which provides access to age-appropriate games, books, shows, and more, all with parental controls. Other versions of Amazon’s Kid Edition Fire Tablets are also on sale; You can read more about their differences in our Kids Tablets buying guide.

Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max

Photograph: Best Buy

This is the best streaming device for folks embedded in Amazon’s ecosystem. It obviously favors Amazon’s own content, whether that’s Prime Video or Freevee. You can still stream from the usual services, like Netflix or Hulu, but the software really wants viewers to consume Amazon content. If you don’t mind, this is a fine streaming device, with Alexa built in and a fun “Ambient Experience” mode that can display art and photos on your TV when you’re not watching something.

The Echo Dot with Clock makes a really good alarm clock. We say as much in our Amazon Speakers buying guide. Aside from the built-in clock display, this speaker is pretty close to other Echo Dot models. It’s the right size to play your favorite playlists when falling asleep or getting ready, but it’s not going to give you room-filling sound—which is why it’s perfect for a nightstand. It has been cheaper during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, but $10 off is still alright if you don’t want to wait. If you don’t care about the built-in clock, you can get the fifth-gen Echo Dot for $35 ($15 off).

Smartphone, Tablet, and Laptop Deals

Google Pixel 7A

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

We’ve seen this deal many times, but it’s still the best price we’ve seen for our favorite Android phone. The Pixel 7A (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has just about every feature you could ever want in a phone, and the value offered for the price is incredible. We have some complaints about the battery life, and you should note that it doesn’t have a headphone jack or a microSD card slot. But for the money, it’s difficult to find a better device that checks off nearly all of the boxes.

This is the best deal we’ve seen so far for the Google Pixel 8 (7/10, WIRED Review). The Pixel 8 is the latest flagship from Google, and it maintains the excellent camera system Pixels are known for. The Pixel 8 Pro is also on sale at $749 ($250 off), and it has some additional perks, such as the 5X optical zoom camera. You can read more about these phones in our Pixel Buying Guide.

The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of our favorite budget phones. It goes on sale relatively frequently, but if you’re in the market, this is a safe buy. It has a bright display with a 120-Hz screen refresh rate, solid performance, decent battery life, and upgradeable storage. The cameras are OK too.

Samsung Galaxy S24

Photograph: Amazon

This deal has been around for a bit, but the price is still a match of the best we’ve tracked. The flagship Samsung Galaxy S24 lineup (8/10, WIRED Recommends) was released in January. This phone has great performance, great battery life, and a stunning 6.7-inch display. There are fun, smart software features, and the phones are available in neat colors. This is the middle sibling in the lineup. Aside from the larger screen, it has a better battery, beefier RAM, and a larger base storage capacity. Protect your new purchase with one of these reviewer-approved Galaxy S24 Cases and Accessories.

The Google Pixel Tablet (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is our favorite tablet and smart display combo. With the included charging speaker dock, this tablet can convert into a great smart display quickly and easily. It can display photos or a clock, and you can use it to control compatible smart home devices via the screen or with your voice and Google Assistant. The 11-inch LCD is sharp, and the tablet has multiuser support, so the whole family can use it. Today’s price matches the best we have tracked.

This is a match of the best price we’ve seen for the Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus, which earned an honorable mention spot in our list of the best tablets. The “Fan Edition” designation means this tablet is like a pared-down version of the flagship, more expensive Tab S9 series. It includes a stylus, and the 12.4-inch screen is great—though a bit awkward to hold comfortably. Performance is solid as well.

Anker Nano 3 wall charger

Photograph: Anker

This is a must-have accessory, and we say as much in our Best iPad Accessories guide. This 30-watt adapter is good for phones and tablets, but if you need more juice, there’s a 65-watt option that’s also on sale for $28 ($25 off).

This didn’t make our list of the Best Portable Chargers, but we generally like Anker’s gear. It has enough juice to charge your phone a few times over, and the slim design makes it easy to stash in a bag.

OtterBox Commuter case for Samsung S24

OtterBox Commuter Case

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

If OtterBox makes it, it’s probably on sale right now. More than 200 of the brand’s protective cases are on sale, for all sorts of devices and in all sorts of styles. We’ve recommended OtterBox cases many times before. If you’re in the market for a case of any kind, this sale is worth browsing—while OtterBox cases go on sale quite often, the prices here are pretty good.

This is a solid deal for the Anker MagGo 633, which is featured in our Best Portable Chargers and Best MagSafe Power Banks guides. It’s a wireless charging stand that includes a spot on the base for wirelessly topping off headphones. But the fun part is that you can slide the power bank out of the stand and take it on the go. The 5,000-mAh capacity isn’t the biggest, but it’ll add at least half a charge to most phones, and it’s small enough that you can probably fit it in your pocket.

Headphone and Speaker Deals

Sony WH1000MX5 headphones

Sony WH-1000XM5

Photograph: Sony

This is an excellent deal for some of the best noise-canceling headphones you can buy. We’ve seen the price drop down a bit more, to $300, but this is still a great discount. The Sony WH-1000XM5 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) have fantastic sound quality. They look great, they’re comfortable to wear, and Sony improved the microphones in these, so they’re OK for phone calls too.

These have fallen to $25 less during Cyber Monday promotions, but $100 off is still a nice price. The Sony WH-1000XM4 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) aren’t the latest (see above), but they’re still some of our favorite noise-canceling headphones. They do a top-tier job of quieting the world around you, and they offer remarkable battery life and comfort. The mics aren’t as nice on these.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones

Bose QuietComfort Ultra

Photograph: Bose

This discount is small, but we haven’t seen a better price for the absolute best noise-canceling headphones. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra (9/10, WIRED Recommends) have clear sound, class-leading noise cancellation, and luxurious style and comfort. The control options are intuitive as well. We wish the battery life was better, but if you want the best of the best, you can save $50.

The discount will show up in your shopping cart. This price is an absolute steal for a great pair of cheap noise-canceling headphones. They don’t have the most modern design, but their sound quality is fantastic, the battery life is great, and they’re durable. If you’re on a strict budget, these cans are great.

These are already our favorite noise-canceling headphones under $100. Snagging them for $56 is an excellent score, especially since we’ve never seen them fall lower in price. They’re a little fragile, but they’ve got a 40-hour run time and decent hybrid noise canceling.

Samsung Galaxy Buds

Samsung Galaxy Buds2

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

These were $20 cheaper recently, but this deal is still a good one. The Samsung Galaxy Buds2 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) are some of the best headphones for Samsung users. They’re comfortable and have active noise canceling, plus workout-ready water resistance, cute color options, and five hours of battery life per charge.

This is a price match of what we saw during Cyber Monday last year. The Google Pixel Buds Pro (9/10, WIRED Recommends) are excellent earbuds for Android users looking for a simple user experience. And with features like noise canceling, transparency mode, seven hours of battery life, and a wireless charging case, you’ll get the most bang for your buck. These buds are also super comfortable to wear and come in fun colors.

Jabra Elite 8 Active Earbuds

Jabra Elite 8 Active

Photograph: Jabra

These are our favorite workout headphones. They’ve got robust IP68 water resistance, a great, comfortable fit, and they have good onboard button controls. Perhaps most important, they stay secure when you’re working out.

In our Workout Headphones buying guide, the Jabra Elite 4 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) are listed as a solid alternative to the Jabra Elite 8. This less expensive pair is still great. They don’t have as much water resistance, and they aren’t the most modern—they don’t support wireless charging and they lack an auto-pause function. But if you just want a good pair of headphones that’ll stay comfortable and sound great while you’re working out, these are a safe bet.

Smart Home and Gaming Deals

Image may contain Electronics Remote Control Phone Mobile Phone and Cell Phone

Roku Express HD

Roku

The Roku Express is a bare-bones streaming device that doesn’t support 4K content—but it’s a fine option if you’re streaming standard HD quality. It does have the same operating system as other Roku devices, but otherwise, the gadget is pretty basic. But it’s fine if “basic” is all you need.

The runner-up in our Best Video Doorbells guide, this Arlo video doorbell fluctuates between $80 and $50 frequently. This deal still comes within $5 of the best price we’ve tracked. It has a wide 180-degree viewing angle, and it’ll alert you to activity on your porch with few false positives. It also records detailed video. Just keep in mind that the best features are locked behind an $8-per-month subscription.

Nintendo Switch OLED

Nintendo Switch OLED

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

I know that $5 off a Nintendo Switch is like, the saddest deal ever, but these rarely go on sale, especially from first-party merchants. So I’m including it here, because the Nintendo Switch OLED (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the best model in the lineup so far, and because if you’re shopping for one, you might as well save whatever money you can (especially now that Mario Day deals have expired). The Nintendo Switch Lite (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is also $10 off at checkout if you don’t mind being locked to handheld gaming mode.

The Canon EOS-R series is our top mirrorless camera recommendation for Canon fans. The EOS-R5 is the beefiest of the bunch, and often it’s extremely expensive. We haven’t seen it go for cheaper before. It has a 45-megapixel full-frame sensor and can shoot 8K video at 30 frames per second.

Backbone One controller with Xbox game pass on the screen

Photograph: Backbone

The discount will show up in your shopping cart. Nearly every iteration and generation of the Backbone One Controller (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is on sale. We reviewed the first generation, but there are models available now that support USB-C, as well as PlayStation Editions that support Remote Play. The second-generation models are compatible with more phone cases. Both versions made our list of the Best Mobile Gaming Controllers, and their prices have rarely (if ever) dipped lower. The Backbone software is excellent, and playing supported mobile games is a blast. (I logged more than 100 hours in Stardew Valley with mine.)

If your kiddos are constantly asking for premium currency in Roblox, this sale will help you save some extra cash. Discounts range from a $25 gift card for $20 to a $500 gift card for $400. We take a deeper dive into the realm of Roblox here.

Deals on Everything Else

RoboRock Q5 robot vacuum on geometric blue backdrop

Photograph: RoboRock

This is a match of the best deal we’ve seen for the Roborock Q5+ (9/10, WIRED Recommends), which is a slight variation on our top pick. It’s similar, except this version doesn’t have a built-in mop. This robot vacuum runs reliably and accurately, and the app is easy to use. We wish it would empty its own bin, but for the price, it’s hard to find a better robot cleaner.

We haven’t seen a better price yet for our favorite Dyson vacuum. It’s a fantastic cordless vacuum cleaner for Dyson loyalists, so long as you can stomach the price. It has a neat laser light that illuminates the dust bunnies in your cleaning path, and it automatically adjusts suction as needed while you’re cleaning. The vacuum comes with a wide variety of accessories, and it can be converted to a hand vac for trickier areas.

Eufy Indoor Cam S350

Photograph: Eufy

This matches the best deal we’ve seen for the Eufy Indoor Cam S350, which made our list of the best indoor security cameras. This gadget has two lenses, so you’ll get a 130-degree field of view with up to 4K resolution, plus 3X optical zoom so you can see close-ups of everything that’s going on. It can pan and tilt, and software features like AI tracking provide smart coverage. You’ll also get two-way audio. Note that if you want non-cloud storage, you’ll need to supply a microSD card. Here’s one on sale.

If you know an Easter Bunny with baskets to fill, this sale is worth checking out. There are 11 pages of candy to choose from, all at a discount. (There’s also a random mix of other Easter essentials, like egg dye and seasoning for your cheesy potatoes.)

Apple’s iMessage Encryption Puts Its Security Practices in the DOJ’s Crosshairs

Apple’s iMessage Encryption Puts Its Security Practices in the DOJ’s Crosshairs

The argument is one that some Apple critics have made for years, as spelled out in an essay in January by Cory Doctorow, the science fiction writer, tech critic, and coauthor of Chokepoint Capitalism. “The instant an Android user is added to a chat or group chat, the entire conversation flips to SMS, an insecure, trivially hacked privacy nightmare that debuted 38 years ago—the year Wayne’s World had its first cinematic run,” Doctorow writes. “Apple’s answer to this is grimly hilarious. The company’s position is that if you want to have real security in your communications, you should buy your friends iPhones.”

In a statement to WIRED, Apple says it designs its products to “work seamlessly together, protect people’s privacy and security, and create a magical experience for our users,” and it adds that the DOJ lawsuit “threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart” in the marketplace. The company also says it hasn’t released an Android version of iMessage because it couldn’t ensure that third parties would implement it in ways that met the company’s standards.

“If successful, [the lawsuit] would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple—where hardware, software, and services intersect,” the statement continues. “It would also set a dangerous precedent, empowering government to take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology. We believe this lawsuit is wrong on the facts and the law, and we will vigorously defend against it.”

Apple has, in fact, not only declined to build iMessage clients for Android or other non-Apple devices, but actively fought against those who have. Last year, a service called Beeper launched with the promise of bringing iMessage to Android users. Apple responded by tweaking its iMessage service to break Beeper’s functionality, and the startup called it quits in December.

Apple argued in that case that Beeper had harmed users’ security—in fact, it did compromise iMessage’s end-to-end encryption by decrypting and then re-encrypting messages on a Beeper server, though Beeper had vowed to change that in future updates. Beeper cofounder Eric Migicovsky argued that Apple’s heavyhanded move to reduce Apple-to-Android texts to traditional text messaging was hardly a more secure alternative.

“It’s kind of crazy that we’re now in 2024 and there still isn’t an easy, encrypted, high-quality way for something as simple as a text between an iPhone and an Android,” Migicovsky told WIRED in January. “I think Apple reacted in a really awkward, weird way—arguing that Beeper Mini threatened the security and privacy of iMessage users, when in reality, the truth is the exact opposite.”

Even as Apple has faced accusations of hoarding iMessage’s security properties to the detriment of smartphone owners worldwide, it’s only continued to improve those features: In February it upgraded iMessage to use new cryptographic algorithms designed to be immune to quantum codebreaking, and last October it added Contact Key Verification, a feature designed to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks that spoof intended contacts to intercept messages. Perhaps more importantly, it’s said it will adopt the RCS standard to allow for improvements in messaging with Android users—although the company did not say whether those improvements would include end-to-end encryption.

The Swatch x Omega Snoopy MoonSwatch Has Landed

The Swatch x Omega Snoopy MoonSwatch Has Landed

The connection between Snoopy and Omega is long established, and it’s likely this iteration of the wildly successful Swatch collaboration will be its most popular model, especially as it is a proper new iteration and not a version of the Moonshine Gold MoonSwatches. “There seems to be an increasingly sonorous groan echoing throughout the enthusiast space with each new, and somewhat gimmicky, release,” watch site Time+Tide wrote upon the release of one timepiece that arrived to coincide with National Swiss Day. No such criticisms can be made concerning the Mission to Moonphase.

This also means, however, that anyone waiting for a budget Swatch Snoopy Speedmaster will need to be prepared to, once again, stand in line at selected Swatch stores, because like the other models this won’t be available to buy online.

OMEGA X Swatch Mission to Moonphase UV ink detail

Photograph: Swatch

Initially, the MoonSwatch was considered for online sales, and even Nick Hayek Jr., chief executive of Swatch Group, refused to rule out the possibility post-launch. “Ask me in four months if ecommerce can play a role,” he told WIRED in July 2022. “Perhaps. I don’t know.” Nearly two years later, no MoonSwatch has been sold new online, nor does it look likely they ever will be.

The Omega and Snoopy space connection stems from NASA’s Silver Snoopy award, a silver lapel pin first awarded in 1968 for outstanding achievements related to flight safety or mission success. Omega was awarded the Silver Snoopy in 1970 after the Speedmaster played a vital role during Apollo 13, serving as backup to the broken instruments during the mission, with Jack Swigert using his to time the critical 14-second rocket engine burn, allowing a safe return to Earth.

However, it wasn’t until 2003 that Omega created what was to be the first in a series of Snoopy Speedmasters to commemorate the brand’s spacefaring heritage.

Speaking to WIRED in January, when news of the Snoopy MoonSwatch first broke, watch specialist and WIRED contributor Tim Barber said such a model was inevitable. “Bringing in Snoopy was only ever a matter of time,” Barber said. “In fact, it’s remarkable there wasn’t a Snoopy version the first time around, which would of course have been the absolute must-have MoonSwatch.”

The MoonSwatch Mission to Moonphase is available beginning March 26, in selected Swatch stores. And, as with the whole MoonSwatch Collection, apparently only one watch can be purchased per person, per day, and per Swatch store.

Apple’s MM1 AI Model Shows a Sleeping Giant Is Waking Up

Apple’s MM1 AI Model Shows a Sleeping Giant Is Waking Up

While the tech industry went gaga for generative artificial intelligence, one giant has held back: Apple. The company has yet to introduce so much as an AI-generated emoji, and according to a New York Times report today and earlier reporting from Bloomberg, it is in preliminary talks with Google about adding the search company’s Gemini AI model to iPhones.

Yet a research paper quietly posted online last Friday by Apple engineers suggests that the company is making significant new investments into AI that are already bearing fruit. It details the development of a new generative AI model called MM1 capable of working with text and images. The researchers show it answering questions about photos and displaying the kind of general knowledge skills shown by chatbots like ChatGPT. The model’s name is not explained but could stand for MultiModal 1.

MM1 appears to be similar in design and sophistication to a variety of recent AI models from other tech giants, including Meta’s open source Llama 2 and Google’s Gemini. Work by Apple’s rivals and academics shows that models of this type can be used to power capable chatbots or build “agents” that can solve tasks by writing code and taking actions such as using computer interfaces or websites. That suggests MM1 could yet find its way into Apple’s products.

“The fact that they’re doing this, it shows they have the ability to understand how to train and how to build these models,” says Ruslan Salakhutdinov, a professor at Carnegie Mellon who led AI research at Apple several years ago. “It requires a certain amount of expertise.”

MM1 is a multimodal large language model, or MLLM, meaning it is trained on images as well as text. This allows the model to respond to text prompts and also answer complex questions about particular images.

One example in the Apple research paper shows what happened when MM1 was provided with a photo of a sun-dappled restaurant table with a couple of beer bottles and also an image of the menu. When asked how much someone would expect to pay for “all the beer on the table,” the model correctly reads off the correct price and tallies up the cost.

When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, it could only ingest and generate text, but more recently its creator OpenAI and others have worked to expand the underlying large language model technology to work with other kinds of data. When Google launched Gemini (the model that now powers its answer to ChatGPT) last December, the company touted its multimodal nature as beginning an important new direction in AI. “After the rise of LLMs, MLLMs are emerging as the next frontier in foundation models,” Apple’s paper says.

MM1 is a relatively small model as measured by its number of “parameters,” or the internal variables that get adjusted as a model is trained. Kate Saenko, a professor at Boston University who specializes in computer vision and machine learning, says this could make it easier for Apple’s engineers to experiment with different training methods and refinements before scaling up when they hit on something promising.

Saenko says the MM1 paper provides a surprising amount of detail on how the model was trained for a corporate publication. For instance, the engineers behind MM1 describe tricks for improving the performance of the model including increasing the resolution of images and mixing text and image data. Apple is famed for its secrecy, but it has previously shown unusual openness about AI research as it has sought to lure the talent needed to compete in the crucial technology.

Fisker Suspends Its EV Production

Fisker Suspends Its EV Production

Following recent reports that Fisker has been preparing for a possible bankruptcy filing, today the embattled automaker announced that it is suspending all manufacture of its electric vehicles.

“Fisker will pause production for six weeks starting the week of March 18, 2024, to align inventory levels and progress strategic and financing initiatives,” the company said in a statement.

Fisker further said that it has secured a financing commitment from an existing investor of “up to $150 million.” The money would be organized in four tranches, but is by no means guaranteed; Fisker said it is subject to “certain conditions,” including the filing of the company’s 2023 Form 10-K, a comprehensive report filed annually by public companies about their financial performance.

WIRED asked Fisker’s PR representative to expand on what exactly the “certain conditions” are to secure the new investment. They declined to provide additional detail.

EV sales in the US have slowed more broadly, but Fisker has had an especially rocky run. Arguably, it lost a degree of quality control when it ceded manufacturing to Canada-based supplier Magna. Moreover, Fisker seemingly prioritized style over substance, as borne out by build and software issues of its Ocean SUV. These issues have fueled the view that in the car world there’s simply no substitute for the experience gained from making vehicles for a century, like, say, BMW has.

Likely looking for a potential lifeboat, Fisker has also confirmed it is in negotiations with “a large automaker” for investment in the company, joint development of one or more electric vehicle platforms, and North America manufacturing. That company is reportedly Nissan, according to Reuters. However, it sounds like these negotiations are far from completion, as the Fisker statement also says “any transaction would be subject to satisfaction of important conditions, including completion of due diligence and negotiation and execution of appropriate definitive agreements.”

WIRED tested the Fisker Ocean in July 2023 but, due to the unfinished nature of the test car, was left in the unprecedented position of being unable to provide a rating for the EV. Our test Ocean was plagued with squeaky pedals, an inoperative California mode (where the EV drops all its windows save the windscreen) forcing a switch in car mid-test, and poor handling that was supposedly to be fixed with a software update. Simply put, too many features were missing or “coming soon,” making the Ocean SUV an EV we just couldn’t rate properly.

Since launch, the Ocean has been dogged by quality issues, with owners complaining of sudden power losses, glitchy key fobs and sensors, hoods flying open, and brake problems.

Indeed, shortly after Fisker board member Wendy Greuel took delivery of her own Ocean SUV, it lost power on a public road. Similarly, according to a cache of internal documents viewed by TechCrunch, Geeta Gupta Fisker, the company’s chief financial officer, chief operating officer, and cofounder Henrik Fisker’s wife, experienced a shutdown in power while driving an Ocean.

Fisker has a checkered history beyond the Ocean. It was more than a decade ago when its eponymous owner, previously of BMW, Ford, and Aston Martin (where he was design director), last presented a car bearing his name. The Karma, a range-extender sports GT, was ahead of its time in many respects, but it was dogged by problems, including a disastrous Consumer Reports test and fires.

The company’s current situation looks bleak. Fisker states that it has approximately 4,700 vehicles in its inventory, carried over from 2023 and including 2024 production, and believes the completed vehicle value for this inventory is in excess of $200 million. It has delivered 1,300 vehicles in 2024 and shipped 4,900 to customers in 2023.

In February, Fisker reported that it made $273 million in sales last year but was more than $1 billion in debt. It also issued a warning that there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to stay in business. The prolonged pause in production seems to reinforce that doubt even further.