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Dealmaster: The OnePlus 7 Pro for $549 may be the smartphone deal of the year

For 256GB of storage, too. Plus tons more early Black Friday deals.

Dealmaster: The OnePlus 7 Pro for $549 may be the smartphone deal of the year
Ars Technica

Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of deals to share. Today's deal is headlined by a $150 discount on the OnePlus 7 Pro, a device we called the "fastest, best-designed, best-value Android phone" on the market earlier this year.

The deal applies to unlocked models—which work on Verizon and GSM networks like AT&T and T-Mobile—and brings the phone down to $549. OnePlus says this is their official Black Friday discount for the holiday season, and our own Android guru Ron Amadeo told the Dealmaster it will likely go down as the "smartphone deal of the year."

You can read Ron's review from this past May for the full details, but the short take is that the OnePlus 7 Pro was already a good value at its standard going rate of $699. Despite being a large phone, it's been efficiently designed, with no notches or overly large borders blocking the the 6.67-inch 3120x1440 display. The in-display fingerprint reader and pop-up selfie camera only add to that efficiency, and both work well. That display supports a 90Hz refresh rate, too, which makes operating the device feel noticeably smoother across the board. The Snapdragon 855 processor, 8GB of RAM, and UFS 3.0 storage keep general performance as snappy as a top-of-the-line phone should. The triple-camera system on the back isn't the absolute best on the market, but it's still a great value for the price. And the "Oxygen OS" software remains a uniquely clean and useful take on Android.

OnePlus does make a few trade-offs to reach its relatively low price: there's no microSD slot, headphone jack, wireless charging, or always-on display support, and you won't get security updates as quickly as something like a Google Pixel phone. It's also worth noting that OnePlus recently launched a new phone called the OnePlus 7T, which adds a marginally faster chipset and flatter display than the 7 Pro's slightly curved panel but includes a notch and a more pronounced camera module on the back. The 7T typically starts at $599 outright, but with the deal here, there's little reason to get it over the 7 Pro, which remains a genuine flagship phone at a mid-tier price.

If $549 is still too much, OnePlus is also offering last year's OnePlus 6T for $449, which is another $150 discount. Either way, OnePlus says these offers will last through December 2.

If you have no need for a new phone, though, we also have plenty more early Black Friday deals in today's roundup, including a ton of discounts on Anker charging gear, a Nintendo Switch bundle, holiday pricing for Sony's DualShock 4 controller, and much more. Have a look at the full rundown below.

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Top 10 deals of the day

Laptop and desktop PC deals

  • HP Envy 13 laptop - Intel Core i5-8265U, 13.3-inch 1080p, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD for $499 at Microsoft (normally $849).
  • MSI GL75 gaming laptop - Intel Core i7-9750H, 17.3-inch 1080p 144Hz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, GeForce GTX 1660 Ti for $1,099 at B&H (normally $1,299).
  • Dell Inspiron 13 laptop - Intel Core i7-8565U, 13.3-inch 3840x2160, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD + Optane for $979.99 at Best Buy (normally $1,399.99).
  • 27-inch Dell UltraSharp U2717D monitor - 1440p, IPS, 60Hz for $269.99 at Dell (normally $399.99).
  • 24-inch Dell UltraSharp U2415 monitor - 1920x1200, IPS, 60Hz for $199.90 at Amazon (normally $214.99).

Video game deals

Gaming deals

TV and home entertainment deals

Electronics deals

Storage deals

  • Samsung T5 (2TB) portable SSD for $247.99 at Amazon (normally $284.99).
  • Samsung 860 EVO (2TB) SATA III internal SSD for $229.99 at Amazon (normally $299.99).
  • Samsung 970 Evo Plus (2TB) internal NVMe M.2 SSD for $329.99 at Amazon (normally $479.99).
  • SanDisk Extreme (1TB) microSDXC card - U3, V30 for $299.99 at Amazon (normally $439.99).
  • WD Easystore (5TB) external portable hard drive for $89.99 at Best Buy (normally $169.99).
  • WD My Passport (4TB) portable external hard drive for $94 at Walmart and Amazon (normally $109.99).
  • Samsung Evo Select (512GB) microSDXC card for $77.99 at Amazon (normally $89.99).

Accessories and miscellaneous deals

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