Black Friday as it happened: Deals, news and offers from across the web
Black Friday 2017 is expected to be the busiest shopping event of the year. Though sales were supposed to kick off on 24 November, the day after Thanksgiving 2017, major retailers sent their Black Friday deals live early this year.
It's a great time to purchase all manner of products, such as laptops, TVs, smartphones, furniture, clothes and even alcohol.
Click here for Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals
There have been a staggering number of offers to choose from and, as ever, consumers have had to move quickly to get their hands on them.
As we’ve learned from previous Black Fridays, consumers can get fiercely competitive, with in-store fights sadly not uncommon. Fortunately, it can be much easier to find your bargains online.
However, while many Black Friday deals are genuinely great, others aren't.
After all, as well as being the best time of the year to pick up bargains and get your Christmas shopping out of the way, Black Friday is also the best time for retailers to get rid of their unwanted stock and make offers look better than they really are.
Here are the best Black Friday 2017 deals we spotted.
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Lenovo’s offering up to 30 per cent off its laptops, desktops, tablets and accessories for Black Friday. There are loads of deals available on its website, and one of them lets you save £300 on the excellent ThinkPad X1 Carbon.
Need a new pair of headphones? We’ve rounded up Amazon's best headphones deals here, including the Jabra Sport Pulse Special Edition wireless Bluetooth stereo earbuds for £79 (from £129.99), and the Bose SoundTrue Ultra in-ear headphones for Apple devices for £54.99 (from £99.95).
Research firm Kantar is expecting UK shoppers to spend slightly more this Black Friday than they did last time round.
A survey it conducted in the past week suggests “UK shoppers are set to spend an average of £246 – a rise of 9% from 2016 (which saw an average spend of £225)”, it says.
In the US, it expects people to spend an average of $298 (£224) each (a rise of seven per cent from $274 (£206) in 2016).
You can get up to 20 per cent off at Selfridges with the promo code SELFCCE. Just enter it at the checkout for discounts on all manner of products, from clothes, shoes and bags to gadgets and homeware.
Weird Black Friday-themed story of the day. A woman claims to have been tricked into buying a box of chopped potatoes instead of an iPhone 6 in a scam Black Friday deal.
To add insult to apparent injury, she says the seller packed an Android phone charger with it.
Currys PC World says 14 of its most popular products this Black Friday have been TVs, with PS4 console bundles, the Xbox One bundle, the Dyson V6 Animal and the Microsoft Surface Pro also proving popular.
At 00:13am, when orders peaked, it says 2.35 orders were being made every second.
Fancy a break? Thomas Cook is offering £200 off holidays with the code BF200, and Expedia is offering 75 per cent off flights and hotels with the code UKBLACKFR75, and £550 off select packages with the code UKBLACKFR550.
If you’ve got nothing better to do, Amazon has actually created a popup “Home of Black Friday” store in Soho, which is open until 7.30pm tonight.
“Visitors will have the chance to explore over 100 curated Black Friday deal items, enjoy beauty treatments, play games to win great prizes and take part in workshops hosted by Amazon Handmade Artisans,” the company says.
It's like stepping into the Amazon website.
Here’s a message from phone manufacturer OnePlus about why it’s not interested in Black Friday:
“Our goal is to share good technology with the world. That's why we price our devices fairly year-round, so that you don't have to double check the math. Say no to Black Friday price games.
“Mind games are tiring for everyone. (A great line for your Tinder profile.) We prefer to keep the focus on making good products to share with the world. In order to do so, we have to make some money in the process. At the same time, our users would like to save some money.
“This is where fair pricing comes in. Cut through the BS. Keep things simple. We make money to fund our product and feed the team. You save money and get the best user experience, whether it's Black Friday or Taco Tuesday.
“So pick-up your OnePlus 5T today at basically the same price - just £0.01 off. We'll throw in our Dash Power Bundle at 50% off for 24 hours. We can do that much. You won't get a huge price slash or rebate on this device today if you order today. You'll just get the best device we've ever created and the immense satisfaction that you're supporting a smartphone that is changing the way our industry works.”
The new OnePlus 5T costs £449, but is designed to compete with much more expensive handsets from the likes of Apple, Samsung and Google.
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