• Mia
• October 1, 2026
• No Comments

Black Friday in the UK stopped being a one-day event about five years ago, and anyone pretending otherwise is selling you something. By the time Currys posts its "exclusive" countdown clock on 24 November, the lower prices have usually been live somewhere else for a fortnight. The job now is working out which categories genuinely drop, when they drop, and how much of what you see is a price that was quietly inflated in September so it could be "slashed" in late November.

We've been pulling weekly price snapshots on roughly 180 UK tech SKUs since 2023, pairing CamelCamelCamel exports with John Lewis, Argos and Currys price pages. The pattern is clearer than the marketing lets on. Phones barely move. Laptops move hard but briefly. TVs are a different sport in October versus November. And headphones are the only category where the Friday itself still tends to hit the lowest point of the year. Here's what three Black Fridays of UK data actually show.

Phones Barely Discount, So Stop Waiting for Them

The marketing pushes "massive phone savings", but in testing, the median Black Friday discount on a current-generation iPhone across 2023, 2024 and 2025 was about 4 percent off the Apple RRP, and only on specific storage tiers. The iPhone 15 Pro 256GB dropped to £1,149 for a week in late November 2024 after sitting at £1,199 since launch. That's £50. Pixel is slightly more generous. The Pixel 8 Pro 128GB hit £799 on Amazon UK on 29 November 2024, down from £999, a genuine 20 percent cut because Google was clearing stock ahead of the Pixel 9 reveal in April. Samsung sits in the middle, with the Galaxy S24 Ultra 256GB bouncing between £1,049 and £1,099 for most of the Black Friday fortnight versus its £1,249 launch price.

If you want a flagship phone cheaper, the honest answer is wait until February or buy the previous generation. The S23 Ultra in December 2024 sat at £749 for the 256GB model, which is £500 under its launch price and about £300 under the Black Friday price of the then-current S24 Ultra. Mid-range Android is where November genuinely helps. The Pixel 8a dropped to £399 on 24 November 2024 from £499, and the Nothing Phone 2a hit £279 from £329. Buy mid-range Androids on Black Friday. Buy flagships three months after launch of the successor. The maths doesn't change.

Laptops Drop Twice: Mid-October and the Monday After

Everyone circles the Friday. The real UK laptop discounts hit twice, and neither of them is Black Friday itself. The first window runs from roughly 14 to 20 October, when Amazon runs its Prime Big Deal Days and John Lewis quietly matches. The MacBook Air M3 15-inch 256GB went to £1,249 on 15 October 2024, which was £50 cheaper than its lowest Black Friday price that same year. The second drop is Cyber Monday itself, 2 December in 2024, where Dell Outlet, Lenovo direct and HP's business store cleared configured stock. A Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 with the i7, 32GB and 1TB hit £1,399 on Cyber Monday from a £2,049 list price, which is the single biggest laptop discount we logged all year.

Windows laptops under £800 are the exception. These do see their lowest prices on the Friday itself, mostly because Currys and Argos use them as footfall drivers. The HP Pavilion Plus 14 with the i5 and 16GB sat at £549 on 29 November 2024, down from £799. The ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED went to £699 from £899. If you're buying a mainstream Windows laptop, the Friday is correct. If you're buying anything premium, Mac or ThinkPad or XPS, you want either mid-October or the Monday after. The gap between those two windows and Black Friday itself is usually £100 to £200.

TVs: October Is for Last-Year Models, November Is for Current

The TV market has split cleanly in two. The marketing pushes current-year OLEDs on Black Friday, but in testing, the lowest UK price on last-year's model lands in late October, roughly 20 to 28 October, when retailers clear outgoing stock before the new launches land in showrooms. The LG C3 65-inch sat at £1,399 on 24 October 2024, which was £200 cheaper than its late-November price and £900 under its March 2024 price. Richer Sounds and Peter Tyson tend to lead this window. Argos and Currys follow by about a week.

Current-year OLEDs behave differently. The LG C4 65-inch hit its lowest point of 2024 at £1,899 on Cyber Monday, down from a launch price of £2,699. Sony and Samsung roughly track the same curve. If you want the latest panel, you're buying on 2 December. If you want 95 percent of the picture quality for £400 less, you're buying the C3 or equivalent in the last week of October. Mid-range LED is boring and uniform. TCL and Hisense 55-inch 4K sets sit at roughly £299 to £349 from mid-October through to Christmas, and they barely move inside that window. Buy whenever's convenient.

Headphones Are the One Category Where the Friday Still Wins

Over-ear noise-cancelling headphones are the last category where the headline Black Friday date still delivers the year's low. The Sony WH-1000XM5 hit £229 on 29 November 2024, which was £50 under its October price and £120 under its summer price. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra went to £299 the same week from £449 at launch. Apple AirPods Max dropped to £429 from £549, which was a smaller percentage cut but still the year's low. In-ear buds follow the same curve but with less drama. AirPods Pro 2 hit £179 on Black Friday 2024, versus £229 to £249 for most of the rest of the year.

The caveat is that the window is short. Sony's XM5 was back at £269 by 10 December. Bose's Ultra bounced to £379 within a fortnight. If you miss the actual week, you're paying £50 to £100 more until the next sale cycle in late January. The other caveat is that the previous generation often beats the current one on value. The WH-1000XM4 at £179 in November 2024 was arguably a smarter buy than the XM5 at £229, because the sonic gap is smaller than the price gap. Headphones reward buying on the actual Friday, and they reward buying one generation back.

The Fake Discounts to Walk Past

The pattern that repeats every year is small kitchen gadgets, air fryers, "smart" cleaning robots and bundled Alexa speakers. These get the loudest signage and the thinnest actual discount. The Ninja Foodi dual-zone air fryer sat at £229 for ten months of 2024, then "dropped" to £199 for Black Friday, then returned to £229, then dropped to £179 in January. The January price is the real floor. Robot vacuums behave the same way. The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra was £899 all autumn, £799 on Black Friday, and £699 in the first week of January.

Smart speakers and streaming sticks are the clearest fake deals. Amazon marks the Echo Dot down 50 percent every single Prime event and every single Black Friday, which means the "regular price" is a fiction. Treat the sale price as the real price year-round. The same applies to Fire TV sticks, Blink cameras and Ring doorbells. If you want any of these, buy whenever's convenient and ignore the countdown clock.

What Actually Moves and When

Do's and Don'ts

Frequently Asked Questions

When does Black Friday 2026 officially fall in the UK

Friday 27 November 2026, with Cyber Monday on 30 November. In practice, Amazon's Black Friday week opens around 20 November and most high-street retailers follow.

Are Argos and Currys genuinely cheaper on Black Friday

Occasionally, but John Lewis and the independents often beat them, especially on TVs and premium laptops. Price-check each SKU against three retailers before committing.

Is it worth buying an iPhone on Black Friday

No, not at RRP. Current-generation iPhones barely discount in the UK. If you want a cheaper iPhone, buy the previous generation or wait for February refurb clearances.

Will prices drop more after Black Friday into December

Headphones and TVs usually bottom on Cyber Monday or just before. Everything else slowly climbs back towards Christmas. Boxing Day is weak for tech in the UK.

Should I use Klarna or buy-now-pay-later for Black Friday

It affects your credit file and you lose Section 75 protection you'd get on a credit card over £100. For big-ticket items, a credit card paid off in full is safer.

Do refurbished deals get better on Black Friday

Yes, Apple's refurb store and Back Market both run genuine 10 to 15 percent drops on existing refurb stock. Worth checking alongside new.

What about PS5 and Xbox bundles

Consoles themselves rarely discount, but bundle-with-game deals improve. The real move is buying the game you want at £29 in the sale and the console at RRP.

How do I spot a fake "was" price

Open the product on CamelCamelCamel or PriceSpy. If the "was" price only appeared in the two weeks before the sale, it's inflated. The real reference is the lowest price in the previous 90 days.

Mia