Best Early Black Friday Deals Under $50

The unassuming, inexpensive Hamilton Beach 12-Cup Programmable 49465R, which typically costs $40, might be easy to miss, but it can brew a mean cup of joe at a fantastic price. It has all the essentials in a basic black-plastic finish. It’s programmable and has auto-shutoff. What’s more, it does a superb job in our brewing test and can make a fresh pot in just 10 minutes. This model also performs strongly for convenience and carafe handling in CR’s lab tests. But it’s worth mentioning that this model is more prone to overflow, unlike some other models we’ve tested.

When you think of the brand Instant Pot, its line of multicookers usually comes to mind, but the company has branched out into coffee makers and frothers. Its affordable Instant Milk Frother, which typically retails for $40, was one of the best models in our at-home review, offering performance almost on par with the Nespresso Aeroccino4 milk frother, which costs more than twice as much. The only downside is that the Instant Milk Frother isn’t dishwasher safe, since its controls are built into the side of the carafe. Cleaning is still a breeze, though—you just need to hand-wash it with a wet cloth.

The 7-cup Secura Original electric kettle is plastic on the outside, stainless steel on the inside, and almost 11 inches high. It’s the only model to snag a top rating in our time-to-cool tests. It kept 4 cups of boiled water warm for 75 minutes, longer than any of the other kettles we tested. The warranty lasts two years.

The Cuisinart CPT-122 Compact Plastic two-slice toaster delivers an overall solid performance and comes with cord storage, as well as defrost and reheat settings—features you don’t always see on budget-friendly models. It turns out perfectly browned toast in both our full batch and one-slice tests, and does so rather quickly. You can also expect cleaning to be fairly easy.

The Babish 14-inch carbon steel wok has a flat bottom, making it usable on all types of cooktops, including electric and induction. In our tests, cooking evenness in this wok was top-notch, and it showed very good heating speed. In addition to its main handle, there’s a metal helper handle, making it easier to lift when full. Our testers found it easy to clean and use. This wok comes pre-seasoned, which is handy because seasoning a wok manually can be a time-consuming process.

ThermoPro’s SmartBT Meat Thermometer TP920 is one of the lower-priced leave-in two-probe wireless thermometers. It sends instant temperature readings to your smartphone via Bluetooth, offering excellent response time and accuracy. The easy-to-use app estimates the remaining cooking time for nearly all cuts and varieties of meat based on guidelines from the Department of Agriculture.

If you want a reliable pair of noise-canceling headphones under $50, this Soundcore model could be right for you. Soundcore Q20i Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling headphones performed admirably in our tests for noise reduction and sound quality, and they come with a detachable audio cable and a USB-A to USB-C charging cable.

For simply listening to your favorite playlist, the JBL Tune 510 hits the value button. These on-ear headphones don’t have active noise cancellation and offer only modest physical isolation. But they sound a lot better than they should for under $30, comparing favorably to headphones that cost hundreds of dollars more.

The Roku Streaming Stick 4K shares most of the same features as the more expensive Roku Streaming Stick 4K+, including improved WiFi, support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR, and compatibility with Amazon Alexa, Apple AirPlay, and Google Assistant. But it uses the older WiFi 5 standard to connect to home networks and comes with a standard Roku remote.

This latest stick-style streaming player from Amazon—the Fire TV Stick 4K Max—is among the company’s fastest, thanks to a more powerful processor; apps launch quicker than on earlier models. The player works on the WiFi 6 wireless standard and includes support for both the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats, as well as Dolby Atmos audio. The price is a bundle with the player and a two-year protection plan.

The Weekender Gel Memory Foam pillow marries the cooling properties of a gel pad with polyurethane foam. It offers only average support for back sleepers, but it’s very good at supporting those who sleep on their side. Our testers find the resiliency and breathability of the pillow to be top-notch, as is its breathability.

If you don’t mind synthetics, the Mellanni brushed microfiber sheet set is a soft, wrinkle-resistant standout that retains its shape and strength even after a year of washing. It’s durable and smooth, though best suited for mattresses 10 inches deep or less, despite its “deep pockets” claim.

This 2-inch memory-foam topper provides great support while still allowing you to sink into it. And at 8 pounds, it’s not overly heavy to maneuver. It’s flippable, but this deal doesn’t come with a cover (though you can add one on yourself), and a lack of corner straps means it might shift around. You can return Linenspa products for a full refund within 30 days of purchase.

Glamburg bath towels are very soft, and a set of four for this price is certainly a value. They are on the smaller side, measuring 27 inches wide by 54 inches long, and after 10 washes, they showed some signs of shrinkage along the borders. However, they received high marks in our tests for softness and drying time, making them one of the most highly rated options we tested.

This handheld steamer is a great option if you need something for travel because it’s lightweight, about the size and shape of a flat iron (great for packing), and you can use regular old tap water. It offers 8 minutes of steaming with a manual steam button on the handle, and it was the fastest steamer to heat up in our lab test, ready to go after 40 seconds. Our evaluator recommended using a spray bottle to dampen any especially deep wrinkles to help the steamer get the job done. It was $5 less recently, but this is still a good price for the convenience.

The Labigo Electric Spin Scrubber comes with four different cleaning heads (large flat, small flat, pointed corner, and large round). It has a single speed and weighs 26 ounces with its extension handle. The unit’s battery is located in the handle, and its head is fixed at 45 degrees, so this unit may not fit into tighter spaces.

This sale price comes and goes pretty regularly, but we’ve never seen it for less.

The Phomemo M110 is the bigger, bulkier version of the Phomemo D30, which we also evaluated and liked. The M110 offers a bit more flexibility with the size of the label you’re creating. It uses the same app and has a wide variety of fonts, styles, and images, with quick creation and easy label cutting. Its size, compared with the smaller Phomemo, makes it a bit less portable, and its alignment isn’t as precise when it comes to cutting the label exactly on the cut line compared with other label printers. But it’s still a solid option.

The Arlo Essential 2K (VMC3050-100NAS) is one of Arlo’s more budget-friendly security cameras, and we’ve never seen the price dip so low for this three-camera bundle. It performs well in our tests and features a built-in spotlight, a siren, and voice/app control via Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Additional features, such as activity zones, person detection, and cloud video storage, require an Arlo Secure subscription.

The TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim EP25 is one of the most versatile smart plugs on the market, offering energy monitoring and compatibility with all four major smart home systems: Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings. It’s also very easy to use and set up based on our expert evaluations, and it offers decent data security. This four-pack is down to the lowest price we’ve seen for it.

One of the best (and least expensive!) doorbell cameras you can buy, the TP-Link Tapo D130 offers a bunch of features—even without a subscription. These include 24/7 recording with local video storage on a microSD card (up to 512 gigabytes, sold separately), AI object recognition (for people, vehicles, packages, and pets), activity zones, and color night vision. This model needs low-voltage doorbell wiring for power. Cloud video storage is available via subscription.

If you want an electric toothbrush that won’t cost an arm and a leg, the Sonicare 4100 is a good choice. This is the standard sale price that’s available more often than not, but it’s much cheaper than other options that rate just as highly in our tests. Although this toothbrush is on the simpler side when it comes to extra features, it still performs admirably when it comes to teeth cleaning and ease of use. It offers two cleaning modes, and it comes with two especially helpful features: a timer and a pressure sensor. It doesn’t offer any connectivity to an app.

This massager, made famous on TikTok, falls in the middle of the pack in terms of pricing, compared with the other models we evaluated. The reviewer found that the nodes pressed into their neck in an uncomfortable way, but two others who tried it loved it, so you might find the massager is just right or not right at all (but don’t worry—there’s a 30-day return window on Amazon). However, when it came to heat, this massager really shone. It reaches temperatures of 109° F. You can use this massager on various body parts, and it even comes with a car adapter, making it a boon for road trips.

The Papillon Shiatsu Neck and Back Massager Pillow is at the lowest price we’ve ever seen. It checks a lot of the boxes for being the perfect massager. It’s effective and lightweight. In fact, it’s the lightest of all the electric massagers we tried, according to our measurements. It’s also fairly inexpensive. You can use the massager on different body parts, such as your back, neck, shoulders, legs, and feet. It also offers a good amount of heat.

The PetSafe Creekside Ceramic Pet Fountain holds a modest 60 ounces of water, making it the smallest of all the pet water fountains I evaluated. It’s crafted from scratch-resistant ceramic and uses two filters—one carbon and one foam—to keep the water clean and debris-free. Assembly was surprisingly straightforward and intuitive. The fountain is quiet and dishwasher safe, and its larger size makes it a good choice for a multi-pet home.