The 14 Best Black Friday Ads So Far

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This post comes from Louis Ramirez at partner site DealNews.

Now that the Black Friday ads are leaking at a steady pace, we’re getting a clear picture of the 2014 Black Friday landscape.

We’ve examined the advertised deals from stores such as Target, Best Buy, Sam’s Club and Staples, and we’re ready to pick some early winners.

Keep in mind, though, that ads will be coming out at a clip now that we’re in mid-November, and we’re still in the process of analyzing Walmart’s hefty circular. But in the meantime, here’s our roundup of the top Black Friday ads so far.

Panasonic 50-inch 1080p LED LCD HDTV for $199.99 at Best Buy

If you want to make a statement, offering a brand-name HDTV as your show-stealing doorbuster is a heck of a way to do it. This Panasonic 50-inch set comes in at an astonishing $99 below our Black Friday prediction for the 46- to 47-inch-class TVs. In fact, this deal will be tied as the best price we’ve seen for any 50-inch HDTV by about $100, including refurbs. (We’ve only seen a 50-inch TV drop this low once before, on Thanksgiving last year.)

Best of all, this price outshines the leaked Black Friday prices for every other TV in this size range, including Target’s incredible $235 48-inch set. The only drawback to this doorbuster is that you’ll have to go to the store to grab it.

Asus Intel laptop for $100 at Staples

We admit that the ad is as vague as you can get, but even without specifics it’s safe to assume this laptop is housing a low-cost Intel Atom or Celeron processor. Nevertheless, as far as budget systems are concerned, this deal is poised to blow all other deals out of the water.

Not only does it beat our laptop prediction for budget machines by $78, but when this deal comes to fruition, it will set a new benchmark for cheap laptops — and become the cheapest laptop in DealNews history.

Element 40-inch 1080p LED LCD HDTV for $119 at Target

Just when we thought 40- to 42-inch TV deals had plateaued, Target went and slashed the price of this 40-inch Element to $119. Not only does that destroy our Black Friday TV prediction for this size category by $59, but it’s just $9 away from tying last year’s best Black Friday price for a 32-inch TV.

Without a doubt, this is the star of Target’s Black Friday ad and easily snags a spot in our Top 10.

Samsung 55-inch 4K 2160p smart LED LCD ultra HDTV for $899.99 at Best Buy

Remember when we said you shouldn’t buy a name-brand smart TV on Black Friday? Here’s the glaring exception to that rule. You don’t even have to brave the in-store crowds to score this incredible Samsung 55-inch 4K smart TV deal; according to the ad, this doorbuster will be available online.

At $900, this set beats our August mention of a refurb, becoming the cheapest Samsung 55-inch 4K TV we’ve seen by $315.

Apple MacBook Air Haswell Core i5 11.6-inch laptop for $779.99 at Best Buy

If you’re shopping for a current-generation MacBook Air on Black Friday, this is definitely the deal to beat. That $780 price point not only shatters our Black Friday prediction by $19, but it blows past our previous all-time low by $70. Best of all, it knocks a delightful $120 off Apple’s price.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7-inch 8GB Android tablet with $20 in SYWR points for $150 at Kmart

This is an incredible deal, bar none. First off, Kmart’s ad price beats the best deal we’ve ever seen for this tablet by $6. Plus, the Shop Your Way Rewards credit brings this popular 7-inch slate to $20 below our Black Friday prediction for a small, mainstream Android tablet.

Coincidentally, the credit also helps Kmart beat Sam’s Club’s leaked Black Friday price for this tablet.

Amazon Fire HD 6 6-inch 8GB Wi-Fi tablet with a $20 Meijer custom coupon for $79 at Meijer

Here’s an ad that blows our Black Friday tablet predictions right out of the water. Against all odds, here’s the Fire HD 6 (the bottom-tier tablet in Amazon’s recently refreshed lineup), marked down by $20 with an extra $20 credit tacked on for good measure.

Assuming you’ll use the credit, that’ll be 40 percent off and the very first discount we’ve seen on this tablet. Furthermore, Meijer’s leaked price beats Kmart’s by $11 once all credits are taken into account.

Apple iPhone 6 16GB smartphone for $99 at Sam’s Club

Although iPhone 6 deals have been mediocre since Apple’s launch, this deal may be the one to open the floodgates. Outside of an early Walmart preorder, the 16GB iPhone 6 has not dropped below $179. This Sam’s Club deal cuts the list price by 50 percent to just $99 (with a two-year contract renewal), which is right on par with our iPhone prediction. Better yet, this price beats Target’s iPhone 6 ad by $51.

All of the Sam’s Club Black Friday iPhone deals go live on Nov. 15, so proceed with caution because other retailers may swoop in and undercut them.

Samsung Galaxy S5 16GB Android phone for 1 cent at Target

We haven’t seen a decent discount on a subsidized Samsung Galaxy S5 since August, and that one cost $100. Flash forward to Black Friday, when Target will drop this in-demand Android to just one penny (with the activation of a two-year contract). Unless we start seeing for-profit deals, this is as good as smartphone ads get — it even beats Sam’s Club’s deal by about a buck.

Xbox One Assassin’s Creed Unity 500GB console bundle with a $50 Target gift card for $330 at Target

Bring on the Black Friday price wars! Not only does this Target deal knock $19 off Microsoft’s price for the Xbox One Assassin’s Creed Unity bundle, but the added $50 gift card comfortably undercuts the leaked prices from both Dell and Sam’s Club. Assuming you’ll use the gift card, that takes this next-generation bundle down to $70 below our Black Friday prediction for a Kinect-less Xbox One.

Beats by Dr. Dre Solo HD on-ear headphones for $79.99 at Best Buy

Sorry, Target: Best Buy just became the place to buy a pair of Beats cans on Black Friday. Even we’re floored by this $80 doorbuster; that ties the all-time best price we’ve seen for these headphones refurbished.

Apple iPad Air 2 16GB tablet with $140 gift card for $499 at Target

Target is currently the king of iPad Air 2 deals, bundling a very generous $140 Target gift card with the purchase of the 16GB model. That’s effectively $140 off the tablet’s retail price and easily trumps last Black Friday’s $429 iPad Air low.

If you don’t want to deal with gift cards or if you just want to pay the least amount possible, Best Buy gets runner-up for shaving $100 off the full cost of the iPad Air 2.

Vizio 8-foot high-speed HDMI cables three-pack for $1 at Sam’s Club

This may not be the sexiest Black Friday deal out there, but at roughly 32 cents per cable, it’s the cheapest HDMI cable deal we’ve ever laid our eyes on. Even if you don’t need new cables, at this price it’s a must-buy for anyone who owns an HDTV.

Predator 8,750-watt 13HP gas generator for $550 at Harbor Freight Tools

Power outages are probably the last thing on your mind this month, but emergency preparedness is always a good thing, and this generator is $225 under the cheapest 8,000-watt generator we’ve seen all year. Even better, it also manages to undercut every 5,000-watt generator we’ve posted this year.

While most experts recommend a 4,000-watt unit, at $550 you can afford to double the power. A great buy for homeowners who’ve yet to purchase a generator.

As of this writing, we’re still sorting through Walmart’s ad, but the 2014 landscape is already packed with incredible offers. We hope we’ll see more ads that are just as good as Staples’ $100 laptop and Target’s $119 TV in the coming days, but the deals above will certainly be hard to beat.

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