Sony’s take-anywhere XB100 speaker is on sale for less than $50

Sony’s take-anywhere XB100 speaker is on sale for less than $50

Few speakers offer as much bang for your buck — let alone charm — as Sony’s colorful XB100. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The world of portable speakers is vast and varied — a fact that is immediately apparent if you punch the words “Bluetooth speaker” into Google or Amazon. Thankfully, if you’ve been scouring the web for something affordable that will still sound better than your phone, Sony’s SRS-XB100 speaker is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and direct from Sony for as little as $48 ($12 off), its lowest price to date.

Despite its pint-size design, the XB100 manages to dish out crisp, clear sound with a surprising amount of low-end bass. The rugged little speaker offers up to 16 hours of continuous battery life and IP67 dust and water resistance, too, making it as suitable for an outing in the park as a pool party in your own backyard. You can even pair two XB100s together for stereo sound or use a single unit as a speakerphone, something that is seldom the case, even when you pony up for pricier Bluetooth speakers.

Read our Sony SRS-XB100 review.

Whether you want to admit it, back-to-school season is upon us. Fortunately for us deal hunters, the inevitable return to the classroom also means the return of back-to-school savings at places like Amazon and Best Buy. This year, eBay is also getting in on the action, offering 20 percent off select items through 11:59PM PT on August 6th when you apply offer code SAVE4SCHOOL at checkout.

As you might expect, eBay’s current promo covers a wide swath of gadgets and gizmos, from Philips Hue bulbs to LG’s unique StanbyME TV. One of the better deals available, however, is on the iRobot Roomba i4, which is available in refurbished condition via iRobot’s eBay storefront on its own for $139.99 ($110 off) or with an auto-empty dock for $219.99 ($130 off).

The Roomba i4 is nearly identical to our favorite budget robot vacuum, the Roomba i3 Evo, save for a longer runtime, which means it still packs smart mapping features, support for virtual assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and a physical spot-cleaning button for those times when you want to clean up a small area on the fly. Both models also come with a two-year warranty from iRobot, just in case buying refurbished tech gives you the slightest bit of pause.

Read our robot vacuum buying guide.

A few additional deals and discounts

• There’s more to eBay’s back-to-school promo than just vacuums. Now through August 6th, for instance, LG’s 48-inch C3 OLED is on sale at eBay via Electronic Express for $1,037.59 (about $262 off) when you use promo code SAVE4SCHOOL. The 4K TV isn’t a huge step up from LG’s already-fantastic C2 panel, but it does offer more processing power and a few new picture modes.
• Amazon’s third-gen Echo Show 5 is down to $44.99 ($45 off) at Best Buy, Target, and The Home Depot, beating its Prime Day price by $5. The Alexa-based smart display is a lot like the second-gen model we reviewed in 2021, only with a snappier AZ2 chip and better speakers — two upgrades that help solidify the compact display as one of the better options for your desk or nightstand.
• If you want a colorful piece of eye candy that will never wilt, Lego’s Wildflower Bouquet is currently on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for $52.99 ($7 off). That’s nearly the best price we’ve seen on the 939-piece Lego kit, which allows you to construct lavender stems, Welsh poppies, and several other types of flowers.
• You can grab Sony’s WH-CH720N at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for around $128 ($21 off). The budget-friendly headphones aren’t quite as impressive as Sony’s more premium models — most notably, the WH-1000XM5 — yet they still offer good sound, 35 hours of battery life, and active noise cancellation for far less.
• The physical version of Tears of the Kingdom is still available at Amazon and Walmart for $56.99 ($13 off). Nintendo’s wildly creative sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launched at $69.99, and while we have seen the excellent Switch title dip to as low as $52 or so, today’s deal remains worth pointing out given the sheer amount of game you get for the price. Read our review.