Best Deals Under $100

The Amazon Fire TV Cube is a mashup of an Amazon Echo and a 4K Fire TV streamer, and outside of major events, it only goes on sale sporadically, but the discount doesn’t often last long. Its universal remote control capabilities let you control a host of other compatible A/V gear, including TVs, soundbars, receivers, and even some cable and satellite boxes. New features include HDMI 2.1 connections—one input and one output—for controlling other devices using your voice. (One cool trick is that the Cube will also upscale any content from a source connected to its HDMI input.) Other features include support for WiFi 6E, support for both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ HDR, and an Off button that disconnects the microphones if you don’t want the device in an always-listening mode.

Looking for a really good, inexpensive small speaker? The Flip 6 is at a great discount at Walmart right now in a few colors. This speaker is very similar to the venerable Flip 5, and that’s a good thing. It’s water and dust-resistant, has a 12-hour battery life, and is just the right size to slip into a bag or even the water bottle pocket on a backpack.

The main thing that the Canon PIXMA TS7720, an all-in-one inkjet, has going for it is its price, especially because this matches the best we’ve seen. The real street price is closer to $100 than the original $150, but you’re still getting nice savings here. Our estimate of ink cost is $68 a year, pretty typical for a cartridge printer. The lab results it turns in are decent, not extraordinary.

The BigBlue 28W Solar Charger is a solid pick for outdoorsy types who plan to carry their portable solar device in a backpack. It’s made of fabric and is particularly compact and light, weighing just 1.4 pounds and folding up neatly to around the dimensions of a magazine. It even comes with carabiners for attaching to the outside of a backpack, allowing it to get some sunlight while you’re on the move. 

This battery charger claims a max power output of 28 watts, which is enough to charge smaller devices like a cell phone or an external battery pack within a few hours, depending on the amount of sunlight available. It has three USB-A ports, so you can charge multiple devices at once. With an IPX4 rating, it can withstand some rain or a light splash, though it’s not rated for protection against dust or dirt.

This is a good deal on a wireless router that does quite well in our ratings. It’s not a mesh router, but if a single-unit router is sufficient to envelop your home in WiFi, this one should do a good job. Our testers note high speeds (technically referred to as “throughput”) across near, medium, and far distances, as well as useful features like automatic firmware updating (which helps keep you and your data safe) and the ability to manage everything from a smartphone app

The Ninja Single Serve Pods & Grounds PB051 dual coffee maker is perfect for college students sharing a dorm or an apartment. It’s virtually three machines in one: A pod coffee maker, a drip coffee maker, and a milk frother. For single-serve Keurig K-Cups, a speedy first cup is paramount, and our testers found this model excellent in that regard. For drip brewing, we found its brew performance to be very good, meaning the machine brewed at between 195° and 205° F for five or six minutes, the industry standard for optimal brewing and the best flavor. This Ninja model has a removable reservoir, water filter, and an indicator to tell you when you’ll need to clean it.

The Instant Vortex 4 Plus Air Fryer 4QT is a standout for the legibility of its digital controls, relatively low noise levels, and ease of cleaning. What’s more, its square basket design makes it easy to fit in a small Pyrex dish or baking pan—great for turning out sweet treats. The measured 3-quart model has a 1-year warranty.

The KitchenAid KHM6118CU 6-Speed shows nearly the same performance in our tests as the more expensive 7-speed KitchenAid Architect KHM7210, plus it has a flexible rubber-like sleeve on the bottom of each beater to help scrape up ingredients more easily and make quicker work of mixing. We’ve seen lower prices on this model before, but this is still quite a deal for a KitchenAid, and it’s a highly giftable item, to boot.

Although the price has gone up by $10 since Prime Day, it’s still better than paying full price if you need a trusty hand mixer right now. If you can wait, the price may drop further during the upcoming holiday sales.

The GE G8H1AASSPSS Blender is an immersion model that comes with a whisk and chopper, and it’s available now at a sweet price. It showed excellent performance in our soup puree tests, and the chopper attachment did a great job grating cheese. The whisk attachment allows you to quickly whip egg whites to stiff peaks and easily turn heavy cream into rich whipped cream.

The low-priced, ultrasonic Levoit Classic 300S can humidify a room of up to 505 square feet, earning it a solid rating in our output test. It aces other evaluations, too. It has a variety of features, including automatic shut-off, a digital humidity display more accurate than those of most competitors, and the option to diffuse aromas. It’s been as low as $64, but this is the best discount we’ve seen in a few months.

You can’t really go wrong with the HoMedics UHE-CMTF45-GY Total Comfort UV-C, which is designed to humidify small rooms of up to 278 square feet. It’s quiet, energy-efficient, and has top-tier moisture output. It comes with a nightlight feature and has an indicator that shows when you need to clean the humidifier.

The HoMedics massager sets itself apart from the other models we evaluated because it’s wireless and rechargeable. This normally makes it a bit pricier, but the discount and on-page coupon help make it a more reasonable purchase. Because it’s more of a pillow shape, our evaluator said it was harder to use on shoulders, but it was comfortable on their back. The only downsides are that the heat function doesn’t get quite as hot as other models, reaching only 93º F, and there is no way to control the speed.

The Renpho R3 massage gun might be the best all-around device for most average users because it’s small, lightweight, and quieter than other devices. But it’s not the ideal choice for people who want the most intense massage or the best model to massage areas on the back. The pistol grip could add some more postural stress than other devices, though its light weight and small form could help alleviate stress for some. As a bonus, this can be charged with a standard USB-C charging cable.

The Renpho R4 Pro massage gun’s triangular shape makes it easy for users to get a good grip for those hard-to-reach spots on their body. It’s not particularly powerful, but its moderate massage should still be sufficient for many users. It’s straightforward to use, with one button to change speeds. It also did very well in our evaluations for handle ergonomics, postural stress, and ease of use, but changing out the attachments was a bit clunky and required a little bit of effort.

The TP-Link Tapo MagCam C425, back to its best price, is a compact, battery-powered security camera that performs well in our tests. It offers local storage with up to a 512-gigabyte microSD card (sold separately) and features person detection, pet detection, vehicle detection, monitoring zones, and more. Best of all, you don’t need a subscription to use any of these features. TP-Link also sells a $40 solar panel that can be connected to the camera to keep its battery charged.

This camera was $30 less during Prime Day, but you won’t see that price again until the fall sales start in October, most likely.

The Arlo Video Doorbell 2K is one of the best video doorbells you can buy. It provides the flexibility to install it wherever you need it. You can run it using the rechargeable battery or hardwire it to a home’s doorbell wiring for continuous power. Features include geofencing and voice/app control via Amazon Alexa and Google Home/Assistant. Cloud video storage and additional features (such as alerts for people, packages, animals, and vehicles) require an Arlo Secure subscription. The price has fallen $20 below the previous best price.

No matter what holiday you want to decorate for, to make your light display really pop this year, consider the Twinkly Strings. We tried out these lights a few years ago and found them to be a fun way to put on an elaborate light show. The lights connect to WiFi, so you can customize them from your smartphone, but they also work with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Home. You can currently get a 200 LED color set for 49 percent off, or a 600 LED set that can display colors and pure white light for 12 percent off. The 200 LED set can display white light by blending its colors, but it can’t display pure white light as it lacks the dedicated white LEDs found in the other set.

The Eve Water Guard is a great leak detector, but it only works for Apple Home users at this time. When it detects water, it triggers a siren and sends you a smartphone alert. The device plugs into an outlet for continuous power and comes with a 6.5-foot water-sensing cable that you can run from the detector along floors and around pipes. To increase the reach, you can add a 6.5-foot cable extension for $20.

This HelloBaby model is one of the lower-priced video monitors to earn CR’s recommendation, and it’s at the lowest price we’ve seen for this model, making it a smart buy. The device has its own 5-inch display and handles the video feed locally. It can show the room’s temperature in addition to visuals of your baby, with functions to remotely pan, tilt, and zoom. It also has built-in lullabies and can be used in audio-only mode. It lacks a night light, but that’s hardly a deal breaker.

The Delta Children Jeep PowerGlyde Plus is a lightweight stroller that stands out for its safety and for its especially ample canopy, which will help shield your child from rain and strong sunshine alike. Our testers found it highly maneuverable, too, though it’s a little unsteady on rough terrain (which isn’t uncommon for lightweight strollers). It’s pretty light and easy to carry at 14 pounds, and while it doesn’t fold with one hand or stand on its own when folded, it folds up to an extra-small size that won’t take up too much space at home or in the car. The stroller’s seat reclines (though not far enough to make it suitable for infants under 6 months old), and it has a decent-sized basket, though it can only accommodate something as large as a diaper bag with the seatback fully upright.

Dr. Brown’s Natural Flow Milk Spa uses a warm water bath to warm bottles, but setup is a bit more involved than with other models we tested. Once that’s done, it warms bottles with no sign of overheating long after the warming program has ended. The controls on this model allow users to select the type of bottle and starting temperature of the milk or formula (frozen, refrigerated, or room temperature) and to adjust the time of the program. Even though the display is a bit crowded, according to our usability expert, it was relatively easy to use and understand. If you like to reuse settings, this model remembers any adjustments to time that are made for your next bottle warming.

This Hauteur sterilizer is intuitive and easy to use. It’s “auto mode” runs both a sanitizing and a drying cycle, and a digital timer shows the progress while they run. It also has selectable drying times and a storage mode that restarts the heated dry cycle periodically to keep items clean for up to 72 hours. You can fit up to 11 bottles in the sterilizer. They won’t have their own prong, but with that many bottles, they’ll be close enough together that they won’t fall over.

The Petlibro Dockstream Smart Pet Fountain is a WiFi-enabled device that lets you accurately monitor your pet’s water intake. It comes with app-controlled features and remote scheduling, too. In testing, we found the app’s features surprisingly insightful, especially if you need to track your pet’s hydration habits.

The PetLibro automatic pet feeder was easy to use and has an app that makes setting schedules and dispensing food a breeze. It dispenses accurate amounts of dry food for dogs or cats and has a voice recording feature that allows you to call your pet for meals.

The Cube is not specifically intended for pet tracking but to help people keep track of a range of possessions, including cars, luggage, and kids’ backpacks, as well as pets. That puts the Cube at a disadvantage as a pet tracker, despite its competent core tracking abilities. The device is relatively large and heavy, but most dog collars won’t fit through its thin slots, so you need to purchase an add-on collar clip for $25. More significantly, the app lacks pet-specific features like fitness and activity tracking and a light beacon for spotting your dog at night.

On the other hand, it does let you set a home “safe zone” and virtual fence, and does emit a fairly loud sound alert. It’s also very solidly constructed, creates detailed and easy-to-read location histories, and, like the Link, is capable of delivering high-temperature alerts.