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

Whether you celebrate the “fourth” or not, Independence Day weekend is often 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, but with Amazon Prime Day kicking off in just over a week, we expect many of this weekend’s best discounts to stick around just a little longer than they otherwise would have.

Take our first deal of the day as an example. You can pick up at this time Nanoleaf’s Shapes Ultra Black Triangles bee Amazon And Best Buy for $199.99 ($20 off), which is the lowest price we’ve seen on the nine-panel kit since it debuted last year. The modular light panels are almost identical to the originals, apart from appearing completely black when idle, meaning they can still display 16 million colors and work with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home and Google Assistant. Plus, they’re equipped with Wi-Fi and Thread radios, meaning they can also act as a Thread Border Router – an essential part of the new Matter smart home standard.

Though I’d like to think most students aren’t even thinking about going back to school yet – just the school year just now ended in many parts of the country after all – it would be remiss if I didn’t point that out XPS 13 from Dell will see one of the biggest discounts yet. Right now, the school-ready laptop is for 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 pair of shoddy wireless headphones just won’t cut it do .

As one of our top picks for high schoolers and college students alike, 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, 16:10 display, and kind of lightweight construction that makes it a dream to carry around. take around from class to class. All the specs mentioned above also make it a great daily driver, even if you’re not one who plans to take a freshman composition class in the fall.

Mosquitoes are a seasonal fact of life, whether you live in the South or, like me, are a city dweller in the Northwest. Satisfying, Thermacell’s E90 Mosquito Repeller almost matches the best price yet at Amazon, where you can currently pick 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, although there is one Pattern of 40 hours available if you really need to keep them at bay longer.