TigerDirect Black Friday 2013 ad leaks: Laptop, desktop, tablet PC deals
Many of you will know TigerDirect as the primary rival to Newegg as an online tech retailer. Fewer of you may know that it purchased the CircuitCity and CompUSA brands a couple of years ago and rebranded its retail locations. Hence, the TigerDirect Black Friday ad that was just released emphasizes that the prices it lists are in-store only on numerous pages. That's great for those who live near its brick-and-mortar stores, which are scattered around the country with a cluster in Florida, but it means the prices aren't guaranteed for those visting TigerDirect.com. Keep that in mind as you read through the sales below.
TigerDirect's advantage for those in the market for a new computing device is the breadth of its sale offerings. However, most of its tablet specials are not of the out-of-this world variety. For instance, it is offering the Microsoft Surface RT 32GB with keyboard cover for $249.99, but so is Staples. Likewise, its prices for Samsung's Galaxy tablets are the same as elsewhere, though, to be fair, that's Samsung setting the pricing and not the retailers.
One true deal we've seen is the brand-new Dell Venue Pro 8 for $229.99. That's a $70 discount on the 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet's regular price, and $50 less than Staples's discounted price. (For its part, Dell is selling the Venue Pro 8 at its original price but throwing in a free case and a year of accidental damage service.) Another interesting offer is a 13.3-inch Hannspree tablet for $199.99, if you're looking for an Android slate with as large a screen as possible. Finally, TigerDirect is selling the Acer W510 Windows 8 tablet with 32GB of storage for $299.99. Note that the Surface and Venue deals are for the first five hours of Black Friday only (with stores opening at 5 a.m.).
TigerDirect has numerous laptop deals for everything from budget systems to pricey gaming notebooks. Starting at the low end, it has an 11.6-inch Asus with 2GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive, and touchscreen functionality for $249.99, along with a 15.6-inch Dell with 4 gigs of RAM, 500GB hard drive, and Intel Core i3 processor for $349.99. There are also a pair of Ultrabooks on sale: the Asus VivoBook S500CA with Core i5-3317U Ivy Bridge CPU, 6GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive and 24GB SSD, and 15.6-inch touchscreen for $449.99, after a $50 mail-in rebate; and the Dell XPS 12, which has a 12.5-inch touchscreen that can swivel or flip on a hinge, a Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB SSD for $999.99. Another "two-in-one" device, the Lenovo Flex is on special in a couple of variations: While both have 15.6-inch touchscreens, 8GB of RAM, and 500GB hard drive, the version with a Core i5 processor costs $599.99, whereas the model with the Core i7 chip is $100 more.
Mobile gamers won't feel left out, as TigerDirect has a few deals for them (all with 17.3-inch screens). These range from the Lenovo Z710 with Intel Core i7-4700MQ quad-core Haswell processor, 16GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT 745M graphics card, and 1TB hard drive for $899.99 ($100 off) to the iBuyPower Valkyrie with i7-4800MQ quad-core Haswell chip, 16GB of RAM, GeForce GTX 770M graphics, and both a terabyte hard drive and 120GB solid-state drive for $1,599.99 ($200 off).
If you prefer to game on an old-school tower PC, TigerDirect is advertising $50 off the Acer Predator gaming PC with Core i5-4430, 8GB of RAM, 2TB hard drive (with 24GB of solid-state storage) and GeForce GTX 660 graphics card. But note that you can get the same price -- $849.99 -- on TigerDirect.com right now with an instant "coupon." Other desktop tower deals include an HP 3500 with Core i5-3470 Ivy Bridge processor, 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, and the option for either Windows 7 Pro or 8 Pro for $479.99, and a Gateway SX2370 powered by an AMD A6-3620 quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM, and 500GB hard drive for $299.99.
Rather put your own PC together? TigerDirect has a pair of barebones kit at a discount. One includes an AMD Athlon II X3 450 triple-core processor, 4GB of RAM, DVD burner, and a Cooler Master Elite 241 chassis for $149.99, after a $45 mail-rebate, while the other is comprised of the same case, DVD drive, and amount of RAM but swaps in an Intel Core i3-4130 processor for $249.99, again after a $65 mail-in rebate. Finally, there's only a single all-in-one PC special -- $100 off the current price ($499.99) for the Lenovo C440 with Intel Pentium G2030 processor, 4GB of RAM, terabyte hard drive, DVD burner, and 21.5-inch full HD display.