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Fry's Black Friday deals include $98 Samsung Chromebook, $244 iPad, $788 MacBook Air

You'll need to sign up for the regional electronics retail chain's email list to get access to many specials, but the savings could be worth the trouble.
Written by Sean Portnoy, Contributor
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Fry's Electronics Black Friday ad.

Fry's Electronics is a long-time regional electronics retail chain with numerous locations in California and Texas and outposts in several other Southern, Western, and Midwestern states. That's a shame for people living in other states, as the store's Black Friday deals have typically required an in-store purchase or pickup.

It looks like Fry's is loosening that requirement up this year, as it will ship free for online orders in addition to in-store pickup and even local delivery. But it does have a hoop for all customers looking to score the best savings, as you need to sign up for the retailer's email list in order to get the promo codes that unlock many specials.

It could be worth it, however, as Fry's tends to have aggressive discounts. For instance, if you order online on Thanksgiving between 6 a.m. and noon PST with the email promo code, you can score a Samsung Chromebook with Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and 11.6-inch screen for just $98. For $20 more, you can get a Samsung Chromebook with twice the RAM, or an HP Windows 10 laptop with AMD E2 CPU, 4GB of RAM, 14-inch display, and (measly) 32GB hard drive for $159.

Other early Thanksgiving deals include a base 13-inch MacBook Air configuration with Intel Core i5, 8 gigs of RAM, and 128GB of solid-state storage for $788. If you don't mind buying last-generation hardware, Microsoft's Surface Pro 4 with Core i5, 4GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, and 12.3-inch is slashed to $599. A slightly more powerful Windows notebook option is the 15.6-inch touchscreen HP 15-bw035nr with AMD A10 processor, 4GB of memory, and 500GB hard drive for $277.

Next up are deals from noon PST on Thursday through the remainder of Thanksgiving, including the latest base 9.7-inch iPad for just $244 or the base 21.5-inch Apple iMac with Core i5, 8GB of RAM and terabyte hard drive for $888. If you'd prefer a laptop, there's a cheap 2-in-1 from Asus with Celeron chip, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in storage and 11.6-inch touchscreen for $168, or more powerful ones from Dell (AMD FX-9800P processor, 8GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, 17.3-inch display) and HP (Core i7, 8GB of RAM, terabyte hard drive, and 15.6-inch screen), priced at $399 and $447, respectively. You can get a desktop PC with a Core i7 processor for under $400 ($397, to be exact) in the form of an Acer Aspire AXC-780-UR16 slim tower also equipped with 4 gigs of RAM and terabyte of hard drive space.

Fry's Black Friday starts at 6 a.m when physical stores open and includes more PC specials that become extra-special with emailed promo codes. These include an Apple iPad mini 4 with 128GB of storage for only $269 -- note this is an in-store only deal -- and a base Mac mini desktop with Core i5, 4GB of RAM, and 500GB hard drive for $358.

There are three additional laptops selling for under $200 at Fry's on Black Friday, with the Acer TMB117-M-C0DK with Celeron processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and 11.6-inch screen as low as $127. Other budget portables include a HP Stream notebook with similar specs as the Acer but with a 14-inch display for $167 and a choice of Dell 2-in-1 (Celeron, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 11.6-inch touchscreen) in either gray or red for $177.

Black Friday desktop sales at Fry's feature a Dell slim tower with Core i3-7100, 4GB of RAM, and terabyte hard drive for $347 or an Acer with Core i5 and twice the RAM as the Dell for $50 more. Those seeking more power can grab a Dell XPS 8920 tower with Core i7-7700, 8 gigs of RAM, and 1TB hard drive for $689.

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