Sony’s PlayStation 5 drops back to an all-time low, plus the rest of this week’s best tech deals

This week marks the official availability of Samsung’s two new foldable phones and our reviews are in. While you wouldn’t expect a deal this early, Amazon is throwing in a gift card if you order either the

foldable

or

flip

phone from it site. Other deals include a decent $50 discount on the disc version of the

PlayStation 5

from multiple retailers and $100 off Apple’s

5th-gen iPad Air

. Google Pixel devices are also on sale, with a $55 discount on the very capable

Pixel 7a

smartphone and $60 off on both the

Pixel Tablet

and the

Pixel Buds Pro

. Music makers might want to check out the summer sale at

Arturia

and live streamers in may like Amazon’s discount on Razer’s

Stream Controller X

. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

PlayStation 5

Once upon a time (last year) it was tough to find a

PlayStation 5

in stock, and now it’s on sale at multiple retailers for its lowest price yet. Right now the pricier disc-enabled version is $50 off at

Amazon

,

Walmart

,

Verizon

and

Best Buy

—you can even get the same deal

directly from Sony

if you prefer. We think the PS5 is the best premium gaming console you can buy. The graphics are stunning and the performance is seamless, thanks to big improvements in power and visual fidelity over the PS4. Plus PlayStation has a deep bench of exclusive titles to play.

The console also comes with an excellent DualSense controller that gives you precise and intense haptic feedback along with triggers that adjust the tension in response to your in-game actions. And speaking of…

PlayStation DualSense controller

Your new PS5 comes with one

DualSense controller

, but if you need another for couch co-op games or if you want a spare just in case, this is a good time to buy as Amazon has multiple shades of the Sony

controller

on sale for up to 35 percent off. That brings it down from $75 to $40 or $50, depending on the color. Note that the discount doesn’t apply to the

DualSense Edge

controller, which is holding strong at $200. That gamepad includes swappable joysticks, additional paddles and easy button remapping, which we liked overall, but did take some issue with a battery life that could be longer.

Apple iPad Air (5th gen)

Of all available Apple tablets, the

5th generation iPad Air

is the one we think will work best for most people and right now it’s down to $500. That’s the same price it went for during Amazon’s Prime Day last month, but now you can also snag the deal from

Best Buy

or

Target

. This sale price applies to the 64GB model with WiFi connectivity. The models with

more storage

and

added cellular capabilities

are also on sale, for between 13 and 22 percent off.

The iPad Air arrived in 2022, carrying Apple’s own M1 system-on-a-chip processor. The screen is bright and sharp, which is great for gaming and watching shows. Pair it with a keyboard and other accessories and it becomes a capable productivity machine, handling writing, drawing, moderate photo editing and work-related apps like Airtable, Slack and Zoom.

Google Pixel 7a

Our favorite mid-range Android smartphone is Google’s

Pixel 7a

and right now unlocked handsets are down to the lowest price we’ve tracked, selling for just $444 at multiple outlets, including

Amazon

,

Best Buy

and directly from

Google

. The price applies to all colorways, though if you’d like it in coral, you’ll have to get it from Google’s storefront as that hue is exclusively available there.

We gave the Pixel 7a 90 in our review, calling it a slightly smaller Pixel 7, but cheaper. It’s got the same processor, same 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage as the base base model Pixel 7 and actually contains a bigger battery and higher-res cameras than its pricier sibling.

Other Pixel devices are on sale too, including a 12 percent discount on the new Pixel Tablet, which brings it down to $439 at

Amazon

,

Target

,

Best Buy

or from

Google’s shop

. You can check out our review of the tablet (and its particularly useful charging speaker dock) here.

Google Pixel Buds Pro

Our favorite wireless earbuds for Android users are the Google Pixel Buds Pro, which are currently $140 at

Amazon

,

Walmart

,

Target

or from

Google’s storefront

. That’s a 30 percent discount and close to an all-time low. We like the deep, punchy bass and good noise cancelling capabilities. They have intuitive touch controls and a few extra features for Android and Pixel devices including Google Translate Conversation Mode. If you want something even cheaper, the

Google Pixel Buds A-Series

are down to $60 from $100 — a 40 percent discount.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 + $200 Amazon Gift Card

Samsung’s new foldables are now available, but Amazon is continuing to offer the $200 gift card bonus it included for pre-orders. Previously the retailer also threw in a free storage upgrade, but that deal looks to be expired. Still, $200 at Amazon is a decent perk — I’m confident most people can find something to buy.

Engadget’s review of the new Galaxy Z Fold 5 just hit our site yesterday, and in it, Sam Rutherford noted that Samsung seems to be losing momentum after getting a sizable head start in the foldable race. But the new foldable is still faster and sleeker than its predecessor and has a new hinge that makes it thinner overall. It’s just not a major upgrade from what we’ve seen previously. That said, if you’re interested in a powerful foldable with bright and useful screens, this $200 gift card should take some sting out of the still-high price tag.

Amazon has a similar deal going for the

Galaxy Z Flip 5

, shipping a $150 gift card when you order the phone. Engadget’s Cherlynn Low reviewed that device and deemed it “the best flip foldable,” partly thanks to the much larger 3.4-inch external display that’s now actually useful.

Razer Stream Controller X

Razer’s

Stream Controller X

is back down to an all-time low of $125, or 16 percent off its usual $150 price tag. The brand released the programmable streaming deck earlier this year and now it’s back down to the low it hit over Amazon’s Prime Day in July. The desktop device has 15 programmable shortcut buttons to get you streaming faster and in far more style than operating your apps, lights and effects manually. The button icons are customizable and you even have the option of swapping in different magnetic face plates so you can make your live stream setup your own.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Foldables are generating most of Samsung’s buzz right now, which is possibly why their latest no-fold smartphone is seeing a sizable discount. The

Galaxy S23 Ultra

is our current pick for the best Android smartphone you can buy and right now it’s cheaper than ever on Amazon, down to $950 after a $250 discount. We gave the S23 Ultra an Engadget review score of 89 and particularly appreciated the brilliant AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, the excellent cameras and substantial battery life that went for 19 hours and 26 minutes in our rundown tests.

The

Galaxy S23+

is also cheaper than ever, currently $800 instead of $1,000. Both that discount and the sale on the Ultra beat the all-time lows we saw back in July, but unfortunately, the base model Galaxy S23 handsets are sold out at Amazon as of this writing.

13-inch MacBook Air (M2, 2022)

A few different Apple laptops with M2 chips are seeing discounts right now. That may be due to the fact that machines using a newer M3 chip are imminent. The 13-inch MacBook Air from 2022 is down to $949 at

B&H Photo

and

Best Buy

, which matches the lowest price we’ve tracked. The discount applies to the configuration with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD, which usually goes for $1,099.

It’s our top pick for the best overall laptop, and earned a review score of 96 when it first came out. The ultraportable weighs just 2.7 pounds and has a thin, balanced design (the wedge shape of earlier Air laptops is gone). The screen is bright and accurate and the battery should last through 16 and a half hours of use, as it did in our video rundown test. Overall, it’s a dependable computer for everyday entertainment and typical productivity — if you want something for heavy media editing, you may want to go for the Pro model, below.

If you want a little more screen real estate, you can go for the new

15-inch MacBook Air

, which is currently $100 off, though earlier this week it saw a $200 discount at

Amazon

, a sale that will likely come around again, considering the coming M3 machines.

14-inch MacBook Pro (M2, 2023)

The M2 Pro and M2 Max chips give the MacBook Pro models a lot of processing power, which is ideal for music producers, video makers and other heavy users. The

14-inch model

with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage is down to $1,799 at Amazon, which is a $250 discount off the current MSRP and $50 lower than it went for during Amazon’s Prime Day sale in July. We gave the MacBook Pro a review score of 92 when it came out in January of 2023. We like the sturdy design, plethora of ports and the clarity and lushness of the Liquid Retina XDR display.

Again, Apple is likely to release the M3 chips later this year, but if history is any indicator, they probably won’t release the supercharged M3 Pro or Max chips until many months later. Either way, Apple is likely to keep these laptops in their lineup after the new chips arrive.

Google Chromecast HD

Google’s HD

Chromecast

dongle turns a regular TV into a smart one and right now is back down to $20, which matches its lowest price this year (it went for $2 less during last November’s Black Friday sales). This is the HD version of the dongle, which is best for people with 1080p screens (the

4K version

isn’t currently on sale). We reviewed the Chromecast with Google TV when it came out last year and appreciated the easy set up, the useful remote and dead-simple streaming interface. If you’ve got a standard TV that could use more smarts, or are heading out on vacation and want to watch your shows on the hotel’s (HDMI-enabled) TVs, this is a great device to have on hand.

Samsung storage sale

Engadget’s Jeff Dunn named

Samsung’s Pro Plus microSD

the best option for most people in his latest guide and right now multiple capacities are down to their lowest prices so far. The largest

512GB

version is $35 instead of $60 while the

128GB

size is just $12. These are the newer versions of the Pro Plus cards, which had the nearly the best sequential write performance and had faster random read/write speeds of all the cards we tested.

Other Samsung storage devices are on sale too, including the

970 EVO Plus 500GB

internal SSD for 23 percent off and the external

1TB T7 Shield portable SSD

for 56 percent off.

Arturia Summer Sale

Musicians looking for some new sounds would do well to check out Arturia’s summer sale, which is running through August 15th. Many of their digital instruments, sound bank packs and effects are 50 percent off. Engadget’s Terrence O’Brien had good things to say about their

Pigments synthesizer

, which is now $99 instead of its usual $199. The

Dist Coldfire

plugin, which Terrence says “might be might be the only distortion plugin you need” is now $49 instead of $99. Many more instruments and effects are on sale, so this is a good time to look around. Just note that the sale doesn’t include combo packs or hardware instruments and the sale ends August 15th.

HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless gaming headset

The top wireless pick in our guide to gaming headsets is the

HyperX Cloud Alpha

, which is now just $154 at Amazon or

Best Buy

. Engadget’s Jeff Dunn particularly liked the impressive battery life, which can go for 300 hours on a charge. The set is also comfortable to wear for hours on end so you can test out that capacity for yourself. The sound is a little bass heavy and the mic isn’t as great as others in its field, but the headset is perfectly serviceable. Jeff does point out that HyperX’s companion software has been known to introduce latency, so you’re better off going with third-party or built-in controls for audio EQ adjustments. It’s also not compatible with Xbox and requires the use of its USB dongle.

Instant Pot Sale

As part of a

larger Amazon sale

on Instant Pot appliances, the

Instant Pot Duo

is on sale for $60 instead of the usual $80. The do-nearly-everything cooker is an Engadget favorite, so it’s great to see a few

different iterations

on sale. The sale also covers the brand’s air friers, including the

Instant Vortex Plus ClearCook fryer

in the 6-quart size, which is $130 instead of its usual $170. That’s our current pick for the best overall air fryer you can buy.

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