The weather is getting warmer in many parts of the world, so if you like being in the sun, you may be looking for something to do outside. We’ve found deals on grills, smartwatches, cameras, portable speakers, and even tablets so you can binge the new season of Stranger Things poolside. Many of these items would also make great gifts for Dad—Father’s Day is next weekend after all. Check out our Father’s Day Gift Ideas guide for other options.
Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you’d like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.
Grill Deals
Be sure to check out our Best Grills, Best Portable Grills, and Best Grilling Accessories guides for other recommendations.
Weber’s Spirit II E-210 competed with around half a dozen other gas grills but was awarded “Best Gas Grill” in our Best Grills guide. WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson said its simplicity, build quality, even cooking temps, and easy-to-adjust burners made it his favorite. It doesn’t have a side burner, but its compact size is well suited for smaller yards or patios. You can find this deal from Home Depot and directly from the Weber store too.
The Traeger Ironwood 650 (7/10, WIRED Review) is significantly more expensive than Weber’s grill, but it uses wood pellets instead of gas or charcoal. You get the ability to smoke your meat for the neighborhood’s best backyard barbecues. It connects to Wi-Fi too, so you can relax in the AC while your food perfectly cooks away. The app also includes recipes. The downside, other than its already high price, is that Traeger recommends only using its own proprietary pellets. The Home Depot is offering this sale too.
Smartwatch Deals
Check out our Best Smartwatches guide for more details about these watches.
The ScanWatch (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has an FDA-cleared electrocardiogram, heart rate monitoring, and can track blood oxygen levels, but it looks just like an analog watch. The only giveaway is the tiny OLED subdial on the face. Here, you can glance at your heart rate, step count, and date, but it’s too small for looking at notifications (even though you can). It goes a whole month between charges, and the face is covered by sapphire glass (with a stainless steel case). The 38-mm and 42-mm options are on sale.
You’ll see the discount at checkout. This watch isn’t very “smart.” It’s attractive, if a bit masculine, but you can set an app to each hour mark. So if you set Gmail to 3 o’clock, when you get an email, the watch’s hands will move to 3. You’ll need to memorize what apps you set to which hour, but WIRED editor Julian Chokkattu says he picked it up relatively quickly, and it helped him leave his phone in his pocket in social settings. You can also use it as a trigger for your phone’s camera, control music playback, show another time zone, and track sleep.
This is WIRED editor Julian Chokkattu’s favorite smartwatch. It’s a Wear OS by Google smartwatch, but it plays well with iPhones too. You can check and respond to notifications, talk to Google Assistant, track health and fitness data, and expect smooth performance. Because it’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100+ processor, it’ll get the update to Wear OS 3 at some point this year (though you’ll need to factory-reset the watch when you update).
This is another Wear OS smartwatch that is powered by the same chip as the Falster Gen 6, so it will receive a future update to Wear OS 3 as well. What makes this watch unique is its dual-screen feature. It uses an AMOLED screen for smartwatch functions, and in ambient mode, it switches to a monochrome LCD panel to conserve battery. You can still see basic data on that screen, and this effectively gives it two-day battery life. You can turn on an Essential Mode to make it last more than a few days and still view the time, step count, and heart rate on the LCD screen.
Clip the coupon button to see the deal at checkout. This is a no-frills Wear OS smartwatch. If you just want an easy way to see and respond to notifications and perform basic smartwatch functions, this is a wallet-friendly option, especially with this deal. It does feel plasticky and cheap, but you can swap out the straps for something nicer to elevate it a little. This uses the same processor as the TicWatch above, so it will get Wear OS 3.
This barely smart watch connects to your phone via Bluetooth, meaning it will automatically change the time to whatever time zone you’re in. You also get a reliable compass, altimeter, barometer, and the ability to track steps. It’s a big watch, and its battery can last two years before you need to replace the cell.
This is our favorite hybrid smartwatch. It utilizes an E Ink screen to show heart rate data, step count, and the weather (it’s not useful for viewing other data, like notifications). You can control music playback via the pushers, and it’ll last more than a week on a single charge. The smaller 38-mm version is also on sale for $146 ($49 off).
Camera and Photo Accessory Deals
Check out our Best Instant Camera, Best Action Camera, and Best Mirrorless Camera guides for more.
I love everything about a Polaroid. It just brings you back to better, less connected days. The Polaroid Now (7/10, WIRED Recommends) isn’t a huge change from what you might remember, thankfully. It adds a 35- to 44-mm autofocus lens, replacing the single-focal-distance lens, a change anyone can appreciate. That said, the lens occasionally didn’t focus correctly.
We love Moment’s mobile lenses to improve your phone photography game, and right now a bunch are discounted, as well as the phone cases you’ll need to pair them with. This Tele Lens is great for portraits and street photography. We also like the Anamorphic Lens (also $110 right now) for cinematic videos. You can shop Moment’s Father’s Day Sale here.
This camera is one of our favorites. The V2 version uses a 62.5-megapixel full-frame sensor, and WIRED writer Scott Gilbertson says it’s unmatched from a pure resolution standpoint. The RAW files from this are huge at 125 megabytes per image, so you may need to pick up large storage cards. The accessory kit gets you a few extras, including a 128-gigabyte memory card, a backpack, a cleaning kit, and a battery. If you’re only focused on video, you might want to snag a different camera.
This isn’t the most spectacular or uncommon deal—it’s been this price for a few months, however it does reach $2,199 occasionally. If you’ve been considering a drone, it’s not a bad time to buy one. DJI’s Mavic 3 drone (8/10, WIRED Recommends) gets you the best-looking video footage from a consumer drone. WIRED writer Scott Gilbertson says, “If your primary use for a drone is capturing high-quality photos and videos, this is the best drone on the market by a wide margin.” This deal is also available at Adorama.
Speaker Deals
Check out our Best Bluetooth Speaker and Best Sonos Speaker guides for more options.
Sonos makes great home speaker systems, so the quality of the Roam (9/10, WIRED Recommends) doesn’t surprise us. More than that, it has the same ease of use via the Sonos app as the other speakers, letting you stream from any of your favorite services. It also has an IP67 rating, so it’ll survive accidental dunks in water (30 minutes at 3 feet), and it gets roughly 10 hours of battery life. The Roam has smart capabilities if you prefer to use your voice to control the tunes. You can get this deal at Best Buy, too.
The Move (8/10, WIRED Recommends), Sonos’ other portable speaker, typically goes for around $379. Even with a $60 discount, it’s more expensive than the Roam. It’s bigger and meant to be moved around your home rather than outdoors. It gets 11 hours of battery life and will fill the whole room with sounds of The Wall, or whatever you’re listening to right now. You can buy the Move directly from Sonos for the same price if you’d prefer.
We like JBL’s other speaker options, but if you have a young child who needs a speaker for their room you might want to consider this one. Not only is it cheap, but you also don’t have to worry about it potentially getting lost or damaged. It isn’t going to bump as loud, which is a good thing for tiny ears. The button strap allows for it to be attached to backpacks, car seats, or even bed frames. (Maybe they like to listen to kid-friendly podcasts before bed?)
Calling this speaker expensive is an understatement, but it’s made to be repairable, so you don’t have to fling it if it breaks. The tech won’t age out either. As the website says, “Level is the world’s first Cradle2Cradle speaker, the global standard for regenerative design. That means you can easily upgrade it as audio technology evolves—next year or decades from now.” That’s something we can get behind. You can lay it down, hang it on the wall, or stand it upright, and it adapts to its surroundings. The gold color is particularly beautiful, but sadly it’s not discounted.
Backpack, Tote, and Sling Deals
United by Blue’s tote costs $118 from other stores, but Amazon usually sells it for $98. For this additional drop in price, you’re limited to the camo-adjacent print the brand calls midnight (it’s quite pretty in person). It converts from a tote to a backpack easily—the straps stow away in a zippered pocket—and it’s water-resistant with a 15-inch laptop sleeve. It’s made almost entirely of recycled materials. The interior and exterior are recycled polyester, the straps are recycled nylon, the padding is made of a combo of recycled nylon and recycled polyester, and the zipper pulls are recycled nylon paracord.
This sling bag is a favorite of WIRED writer Jaina Grey. She says it was the first hands-free sling she fell in love with, thanks to its ability to carry all the essentials for a day out, like keys, phone, wallet, and sunglasses, without getting bulky. If you need a bag, but don’t necessarily like bags, this is a good option to try.
A $3 discount is nothing to write home about, but this bag is. I bought it last month and have used it in that time almost exclusively. It’s my first waist pack, and I am suddenly seeing the light. Carhartt’s is a bit bulkier than the Bellroy, but it stays unobtrusive. I wear it around my body, but it can also be worn as a fanny pack if that’s your thing. You could save an additional dollar if you go for Carhartt’s iconic brown color instead of black.
Herschel is one of my personal favorite backpack brands and this one is made from 600-denier polyester. My Heritage bag is around eight years old and is only just starting to show signs of wear on the faux leather pieces—it was highly used and abused for most of those years. It has a 15-inch laptop sleeve but unfortunately no water bottle pocket.
You’ll see the discount at checkout. This bag is a little on the ugly side, if I’m being honest, but it’s an organizational dream to use, and it’s padded for extreme protection. The pockets have pockets, next to pockets … you get it. Its compartments make it perfect for photographers to keep lenses and cameras safe or for parents who need to access specific toys and snacks quickly. You can also remove the dividers or move them around as you need to. A back pocket is suspended for a 16-inch Macbook, and a separate sleeve holds a tablet.
Phone and Tablet Deals
Read our Best Cheap Phone and Best Tablet guides for more.
Why do $1,000 phones basically combust when dropped from where you’re sitting? Enter Nokia’s XR20 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu says that if you’ve ever wanted a phone that can survive a fall down the stairs, this is the one. Durability aside, it has a headphone jack and NFC for making contactless payments, plus it can be charged wirelessly, which is uncommon in phones in this price range. The camera isn’t too bad either. The phone won’t work on Verizon but will be fine on AT&T and T-Mobile. If you buy the phone directly from Nokia, you’ll get wireless earbuds for the same price.
This is our favorite Android tablet. The 11-inch LCD screen has a 2K resolution, so it’s sharp, bright, and nice to watch movies and shows on. You can also do some work with it too, thanks to its Productivity Mode, which kicks on when it detects a Bluetooth keyboard, but you might not want to throw your laptop out anytime soon. It has a pretty decent battery life, lasting around seven hours when used heavily in a single sitting, but if you aren’t working on it all day, it’ll last longer. There’s no headphone jack or fingerprint reader, sadly.
I’ve been using this Nokia tablet for a few months, and despite being an exclusively Apple user prior to this, I’m pleasantly surprised by how nice it is. Its 10.3-inch screen is a perfect size for me, and it made watching TV while walking on the treadmill a much better experience—and there’s a headphone jack! WIRED editor Julian Chokkattu says it nearly took the top Android spot in our tablets guide, but the Lenovo P11 Plus was just a nicer experience all around for a similar price. With this deal, however, the Nokia T20 is a steal, and it’ll get longer software support.
For all the latest Technology News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
