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The best deals under $50 from the Amazon Big Spring Sale: Earbuds, chargers, streaming sticks and more
A few of the best deals from Amazon's latest sales event are on budget tech we recommend.
Amazon's Big Spring Sale is still rolling on. While the offers aren't as extensive as what we typically see during Black Friday or Prime Day, there's still more than a few discounts worth calling out. And if you're specifically looking to make an upgrade without spending too much, a few of the sale's best deals apply to budget tech we've recommended in our various buying guides. To help you cut through the noise, we've picked out the best Amazon Spring sale deals under $50 below. The highlights include our favorite affordable earbuds, a handful of good Bluetooth trackers and Amazon's own Fire TV Stick streaming players and Echo smart speakers. As a refresher, Amazon says the sale will run through March 25.
The Anker Soundcore Space A40 is the top pick in our guide to the best budget wireless earbuds, and right now they're on sale for $49 at Amazon via Anker directly. That's an all-time low and $10 less than their typical sale price over the last couple of months. The deal applies to the black version; if you'd like a different finish, the blue and white models are also on sale for a dollar more.
The Space A40 provides the kind of feature set we expect from earbuds that cost twice as much: strong active noise cancellation (ANC), multi-device pairing, wireless charging, a transparency mode, custom EQ tools and a solid eight hours of battery life per charge. They aren't the most detailed-sounding earbuds you'll ever hear, but they have a warm profile that plays nice with most music out of the box. The main trade-offs are that they lack automatic wear detection, so they won't auto-pause your music when you remove an earbud, and that the built-in mic isn't especially clear for phone calls.
Amazon's Big Spring Sale has brought the most recent Echo Dot down to $35, which is $12 more than the lowest price we've tracked but still $15 off the smart speaker's usual going rate. It also matches the best price we've seen for the device in 2024. The Echo Dot is the "under $50" pick in our guide to the best smart speakers. It can still do just about all of the expected Alexa features, and it sounds decently balanced for something this compact. It can also serve as a node to extend an Eero mesh Wi-Fi system, if you own one of those. So long as you're comfortable having a voice-activated speaker in your home in the first place, this is a good way to see if you'd find an Alexa device useful.
If you can pay a little bit extra, the full-size Amazon Echo is also on sale for $65. Again, that's not an all-time low, but it's $35 off Amazon's list price. This model offers all the same functionality as the Echo Dot but sounds louder and fuller across the board, so it's better for streaming music.
The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is back on sale for $40, which is a deal we've seen for a good chunk of the last few months but still matches the 4K streamer's all-time low. It's also a $20 drop from Amazon's list price.
The 4K Max is the fastest streaming stick in Amazon's lineup, and it supports Wi-Fi 6E for those with a compatible router. All the major streaming services and HDR formats work as well, as does Dolby Atmos audio. The main hang-up, as usual, is software: Amazon's Fire OS is fairly aggressive about promoting the company's own content across the UI, and it's not shy about displaying ads. For most, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K or Google Chromecast will feel a bit cleaner to navigate. Still, this may not be a huge deal if you regularly use Amazon services like Alexa and Prime Video anyway, and the Max's hardware is good value if you just want a cheap, fast thing to stream apps on a 4K TV.
Other Fire TV devices are on sale as well. The standard Fire TV Stick 4K, for one, is down to $30. That's not an all-time low, but it's $5 less than the device's typical sale price in 2024. This model has a slightly slower processor than the Max; it tops out at Wi-Fi 6 instead of 6E; and it lacks Amazon's Ambient Experience mode, which displays artwork and pertinent info when the TV is idle. But its core experience isn't that different, so it's a fine buy if you really want to save $10.
The Fire TV Stick Lite, meanwhile, is available for $20. That's $5 more than the lowest price we've ever seen but $10 below its MSRP. This one is slower than either of the 4K models above, and it can only stream up to 1080p. Its remote also lacks built-in TV controls. But if you just want an ultracheap stick for an older TV, it might be enough.
A single AirTag is on sale for $24. We've seen this price for most of the last couple of months, so it's hard to call it a great deal, but it's still $5 off Apple's list price and close to the tracker's all-time low price. Unsurprisingly, we consider AirTags the best Bluetooth trackers for those with iOS devices since they use Apple's vast Find My network to keep track of your belongings. You can force them to ring to help you find your stuff if you're within close range, and newer iPhones can even display directions on their screens to guide you to your lost stuff. Just note that you'll need to buy a separate holder if you intend on attaching the AirTag to your keys.
A two-pack of Tile Bluetooth trackers that includes the Tile Mate and the Tile Slim is also on sale for $42. We saw the bundle go for a few bucks less around the holidays last year, but this deal still takes about $7 off its usual street price and matches its biggest drop thus far in 2024.
We consider Tile trackers to be worthy alternatives to Apple's AirTags for non-Galaxy Android users. Again, they're not as precise as Apple's pucks, but their crowd-finding network is still fairly large and they offer most of the same features. They also come in a wider range of designs: The Mate has a built-in keyring hole, and the Slim can slip easily into a wallet. We highlight the latter in our buying guide. Tile says each device should last up to three years, though their batteries aren't replaceable. They also lock separation alerts — which let you know when you've traveled too far from a tracked item — behind a subscription fee.
The latest Amazon Echo Buds are back down to $35 for the Big Spring Sale. That matches their all-time low and comes in $15 below their normal going rate. This is another pair we recommend in our budget earbuds buying guide, specifically for those who prefer an open design that lets in outside noise instead of totally sealing off the ear canal. This form factor means they can't produce much in the way of deep bass, but they're comfortable, and they can still sound better than most cheap unsealed earbuds with a little bit of EQ tweaking. They support automatic wear detection, multi-device pairing and hands-free Alexa access as well. That said, their five-hour battery life isn't great, they don't support wireless charging and they have a weak IPX2 water-resistance rating, so you won't want to use them in the gym. We gave the Echo Buds a score of 77 in our review.
Your Spring Sales Shopping Guide: Spring sales are in the air, headlined by Amazon’s Big Spring sale event. Our expert editors are curating all the best spring sales right here. Follow Engadget to shop the best tech deals from Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, hear from Autoblog’s car experts on the best spring auto deals on Amazon, and find spring sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.