Smart lights smart mugs and a handful of other weekend discounts

Smart lights, smart mugs, and a handful of other weekend discounts

Nanoleaf only manufactured a thousand units of its Ultra Black Triangles light panels, but they’re still available at some retailers. | Image: Nanoleaf

Whether you celebrate the “Fourth” or not, Independence Day weekend is oft considered one of the best times of the year to save on everything from TVs and laptops to the humble Toyota Camry. That’s still the case, however, with Amazon Prime Day kicking off in a little over a week, we expect many of this weekend’s best discounts to hang around just a bit longer than they might have otherwise.

Take our first deal of the day, as an example. Right now, you can pick up Nanoleaf’s Shapes Ultra Black Triangles at Amazon and Best Buy for $199.99 ($20 off), which matches the lowest price we’ve seen on the nine-panel kit since it made its debut last year. The modular light panels are nearly identical to the originals aside from the fact they appear all-black when dormant, meaning they can still display 16 million colors and work with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Assistant. Plus, they’re outfitted with Wi-Fi and Thread radios, meaning they can also act as a Thread Border Router — a vital component of the new Matter smart home standard.

While I’d like to think most students aren’t thinking about going back to school quite yet — the school year only just ended in many parts of the country, after all — I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Dell’s XPS 13 is seeing one of its steepest discounts to date. Right now, the school-ready laptop is on sale at Dell for $849 ($250 off) with 16GB of RAM, a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1250U processor, 512GB of storage, and a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter for those times when a shoddy pair of wireless headphones just won’t cut it.

As one of our top suggestions for both high school and college students, the XPS 13 has a lot going for it. The ultraportable Windows laptop remains one of the best alternatives to Apple’s MacBook Air thanks to its price-to-performance ratio, not to mention its gorgeous chassis, its 16:10 display, and the kind of lightweight build that makes it a dream to tote around from class to class. All the aforementioned specs also render it a great daily driver, even if you’re not someone who is planning on taking a freshman composition class come the fall.

Read our Dell XPS 13 (2023) review.

Mosquitos are a seasonal fact of life, whether you live in the South or you’re a Northwest city dweller like me. Thankfully, Thermacell’s E90 Mosquito Repeller is nearly matching its best price to date at Amazon, where you can currently pick it up for $39.96 ($10 off).

The straightforward, rechargeable device is a welcome alternative to the Deet- and- butane-heavy products of yesteryear, and should allow you to thwart pesky bugs within a 20-foot radius for up to nine hours at a time thanks to its built-in battery. Keep in mind that the repeller comes with a single, nine-hour repellent cartridge, though there is a 40-hour cartridge available if you really need to keep ‘em at bay for longer.

A few more cool, summer savings

• The Ember Mug 2 continues to be one of our guilty pleasures, one that’s on sale at Woot right now starting at $97.99 ($52 off). The app-controlled smart mug doesn’t do anything other than keep your drink warm, but there’s a small comfort in knowing your coffee is going to be the exact temperature you set it to any time you reach for it in the morning.
• iOttie’s wireless car charger — one of our favorite car gadgets — is currently on sale at Amazon for $34.99 ($15 off), which is just $1 shy of its all-time low. Not only is the handy, Qi-equipped mount wide enough to accommodate pretty much any iPhone or Android phone on the market, but it also features a one-touch design that lets you easily snap your phone in place. It’s a steal of a price if you’re okay with basic charging speeds, especially since the few Apple-approved MagSafe mounts still cost north of $100. Ouch.
• Anker’s Soundcore Liberty 4 NC are currently seeing their first discount, dropping them to just $79.99 ($20 off) at Amazon when you clip the on-page coupon or to the same price at Anker with offer code WSCPXLFXWN. Although we haven’t tested them yet, Anker’s newest earbuds look to be an excellent value thanks to features like adaptive noise cancellation and ear detection, the latter of which automatically pauses what’s playing when you take them out. We were big fans of the Liberty 3 Pro, and while I imagine the new earbuds might not be on par with the Pro model when it comes to sound, they still off a few features that are rare at this price point.
• Apple’s ninth-gen iPad is on sale at Amazon at checkout for $249.99 ($79.01 off) in the 64GB base configuration, matching its lowest price to date. The entry-level model remains a great kid-friendly pick if you’re looking for something less expensive than the latest iPad Air or Pro models, especially since it still packs a 10.2-inch screen, a robust selection of apps, and an A13 Bionic chip that’s still plenty fast enough for most people’s needs. Read our iPad buying guide.