Cyber Monday Turns 20 Today, and We Will Celebrate By Buying Things on the Internet

All right, that’s it for WIRED’s live coverage of Cyber Monday deals. We came, we saw, we clicked. We leave this weekend richer in gadgets and maybe even in spirit. Certainly I own more AirTags.

Our colleagues Parker Hall and Luke Larsen will continue monitoring the best Cyber Monday deals into the evening, and WIRED will pick up the pieces by tracking the best deals that remain even after the final bell. Assuming Cyber Monday has a bell.

Until then, check out the best deals at WIRED’s definitive list of the Absolute Best Cyber Monday Deals.

The humble, basic iPad is the perfect tablet, argues WIRED reviewer Julian Chokkattu. It has the things you want: good performance and battery life, a big enough screen, a price that makes it feel worth it. This deal is an even more terrific deal, just $274. The price has been a bit unstable on Amazon, depending where you live, but the deal’s still live in all its glory at Walmart and some other retailers.

I don’t really think it was an eco-friendly move for companies to stop including a charging block in the package when you buy a device. It was just to marginally lower the price, because now I just … lose all my charging blocks, or my kids or mom steal them, and I have to buy more. I really, really am going to buy this narrow one because I do need another one. It has two USB-C ports and can charge a MacBook Air and a smartphone.

After testing almost two dozen chef’s knives over the past year, I can say with full confidence that not all knives are created equal. This Hedley & Bennett Chef’s Knife is my favorite because it’s thin, balanced, and easy to handle. The natural handle shape makes for an easier grip—in part because of the transition between handle and blade that makes it feel like one cohesive tool. The German-style handle has two bevels and comes in a variety of colors (and you can personalize it with your name on H&B’s site) if you’re an Aesthetic Chef™. The blade has three layers of Japanese steel, an AUS10 core, SUS1A-1 outer layers, and an 11.5-degree edge. It may be the only knife you need in the kitchen, and now it’s less than $100.

I have made it through this entire shopping event without buying anything, which is actually a sign of poor decision-making on my part because I still have a whole family left to buy holiday presents for. I’ve been perusing our gift guides, trying to remedy this, and a weird number of Tech Gifts Under $100 are actually on sale for Cyber Monday! I am thinking of getting this umbrella for myself, but I also got a Tiny TV ($48, $12 off) for my kids last year for Christmas that they ended up loving.

Isn’t It Time You Finally Owned A Staub Dutch Oven?

Twinsies

I once heard the website Huckberry described as “if you wish you were really outdoorsy, but you lived in Park Slope.” I do not live in New York, so I’m not entirely sure what the Park Slope part means, but I get the general gist and I also get that it’s not complimentary. However, it does not stop me from wanting everything on Huckberry’s website.

The important part that you need to know here is that for years, the Pedro Pascal Last of Us waxed canvas jacket was only available in men’s sizes. Huckberry only recently made it available in women’s sizes, at which point I procured it as quickly as possible. And it is now on sale ($238, $59 off)! Do as Pedro does and size up so you can wear multiple sweaters and hoodies underneath and be protected by the weatherproof canvas that can be re-waxed and not get thrown in the trash when the DWR wears off.

These jackets never go on sale so this is a very big deal for me. I love this jacket. The wax warms up when you wear it and it eventually molds to your body, in a flattering and not-creepy way. Huckberry has a bunch of other things on sale, too, here, for another few hours.

Many people filter their tap water in some way, whether via a refrigerator water filter or pitcher like Brita, but most people perhaps don’t know that most of these filters don’t filter out PFAs, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly called “forever chemicals.” Most municipalities don’t test for this, but many—perhaps even most—water supplies have them. A couple of pitcher-type filters (like Zero Water) can remove PFAs, but it’s a huge pain to refill these containers multiple times a day. The best long-term option is an under-sink reverse-osmosis filter with a separate tap. Waterdrop is widely considered to make the best of these systems, and the X16 is Waterdrop’s top-of-the-line model—tankless, with fast flow, a built-in TDS (total dissolved solids) meter, and the ability to filter 1,600 gallons per day. That’s enough for even the busiest kitchen or largest family. It’s rarely this cheap, so if you were planning on making an investment in your health for 2026, we’d recommend checking this sale out.

Reviewer Louryn Strampe wrote this post, but I wrote the headline with the “heart so true”, because my kids are obsessed with Pokémon and the show has been in the background all weekend. Some obscure bit of knowledge has helped me in my job, yet again! Watching this show, I sometimes feel quite bad that some of these Pokémon get captured as children, little baby Pokémon, and then trained and forced to do their captor’s bidding? That seems wrong, right? Anyway, those are thoughts for another time.

We’ve reached the point in Cyber Monday when Amazon starts issuing a countdown timer, to when the deal won’t be there. In 9 hours, this ridiculously good Surface laptop will not be $700, I can say that with assurance. It’s weird that it’s $700 right now—an all-time low just for Cyber Monday.

The Surface Laptop 13.8-inch, is one of the best Cyber Monday tech deals overall, in part because of the laptop’s specific configuration. Amazon’s selling the more powerful model with the Snapdragon X Elite chip for less money than the X Plus model. Which caused our laptop reviewer, Luke Larsen, to reach for his thesaurus to describe how absurdly good the deal was.

I honestly don’t know how any of you live without a municipal composting system. One day—just one day—I caught my husband throwing food waste into the kitchen trash can, and it smelled to high heaven. Even if you don’t have a garden or somewhere to put the processed grounds from the Vego food recycler, it will take up so much less space in your garbage and smell so much better. Vego also has a few other items on sale at Amazon; I’m also going to buy a few of these raised beds for my yard.

This Anker is our top power bank recommendation for anyone who wants to recharge anything more demanding than a smartphone, and it’s on a nice deal right now. It stores 25,000-mAh, which is plenty of charge but still airline-compliant). It can deliver 100 watts to a single device, or up to 165 watts to two. And you can recharge a Macbook Air with it. Nice. For more power bank advice, feel free to check out our Best Power Banks guide.

If you’ve never played on a VR headset and you’re even mildly curious, the Quest 3S is the one you should try. It’s light, wearable, and easy to use, and the games are actually pretty fun. (Be careful walking next to your spouse while he’s playing though, as I’ve accidentally gotten myself punched in the head before.)

You already know what’s going to happen. In January, you’re going to be bored out of your mind, and you’ll mull over an HBO Max subscription to break up the monotony of long winter days inside. And you’ll remember that a month ago you could have had it for $3 a month. Don’t be like that fictional version of yourself!

If you’re more of a space western person, or a “nihilist Red-state Entourage” person, Disney/Hulu and Paramount/Showtime also have deals. Check out the best Cyber Monday streaming deals here.

I’ve written about the Brick in my newsletter, Thank Me Later, but the company is having a 30 percent off sale today. This is for anyone who has a hard time logging off work or social media. You download the app on your phone and create different profiles that “brick” different apps (I have an Off Work profile, one profile just for Instagram, et cetera).

When you find yourself getting stuck looking at your phone, you walk over and tap your phone to the little gray brick to brick the app. Once it’s bricked, you just can’t access Instagram or Substack or whatever you’ve been staring at for no reason. For some reason, the act of having to walk over to unbrick Slack makes it that much harder to do it. Yes! For once, my laziness is working for me instead of against me! Anyway, it’s totally worth it and you should get one.

Chromebooks at this price are never this good, especially not models from this year. But the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 makes higher-spec Chromebooks accessible to nearly everyone with this Cyber Monday deal, with display and performance far better than other Chromebooks at this price. The colors aren’t exactly impressive on the display, granted. But unlike every other sub-$300 laptop, ever, the touchpad won’t make you hate your life, notes WIRED reviewer Luke Larsen, who listed this among his favorite Chromebook picks even at regular price. This is far less than regular price.

I’m including this jacket in my Gift Guide for Cold People. Truly, I understand why you would get a super-expensive puffer jacket instead. You don’t want your ability to stay alive to be dependent on a battery pack that could malfunction at any minute. However, if you’re just walking the dog or at your kid’s soccer game and don’t want to pack too much bulk or spend too much money, a little, relatively lightweight and cheap electric heated jacket ($200, $80 off) is great! Ororo’s is the best one I’ve tried—you can customize the heating zones and the battery lasts all day, as compared to the ones I’ve tested before that just lasted through the morning.

I lose everything. I lose my keys when I go to the bathroom. I lose my phone when my coffee pot is done brewing. I then proceed to lose my mind looking for them. (The phone is on the fridge. The keys are in an open box for some reason.)

Well, AirTags are the cheapest they have been in any recent memory: $18 apiece. $63 a four-pack. And so guess what? Keys, wallet, car, bicycle. PLEASE NOTHING GO LOST AGAIN.

I’ve mentioned this watch in a couple of different places (it’s the Best Budget Smartwatch, for example) and reviews editor Julian Chokkattu was mildly surprised that I liked it so much. My spouse, who wears an Apple Watch, does not particularly like its chunky, retro aesthetic, either. But it’s a fully-featured smartwatch with a weirdly accurate optical heart rate sensor, it has dual-band GPS, a voice assistant, wrist-based gesture controls—what more you could want for well under $100? The animations and app are also weirdly adorable, if a little utilitarian-looking.

Photograph: Ryan Waniata