{"id":327310,"date":"2025-12-21T00:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T00:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/327310\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T00:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T00:40:09","slug":"sonys-xm5-headphones-and-the-latest-kindle-round-out-this-weeks-best-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/327310\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony\u2019s XM5 headphones and the latest Kindle round out this week\u2019s best deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re feeling the stress of having procrastinated on your holiday shopping \u2014 and you missed out during Black Friday and Cyber Monday \u2014 we\u2019ve got you. We\u2019ve found a variety of gadgets on sale that make for great gifts, many of which will ship in time for the holidays. One of the standouts is the current promo on Sony\u2019s noise-canceling WH-1000XM5 headphones<\/a>, which are on sale with a free pair of wireless earbuds. Other deals you may have missed include steep discounts on Amazon\u2019s latest entry-level Kindle<\/a> and the new Echo Dot Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sony\u2019s last-gen WH-1000XM5 have consistently impressed us with their audio quality, active noise cancellation, and comfort. And right now, Amazon<\/a> is offering them with a free pair of Sony\u2019s WF-C700N earbuds for $248 ($152 off). The headphones have an updated design that includes a thinner headband, more memory foam in the ear pads, and repositioned mics that reduce wind noise when taking calls. These changes didn\u2019t add much weight, and the headphones still get 30 hours of playtime with ANC enabled.<\/p>\n

The XM5 sounded \u201cmore refined, detailed, and spacious\u201d in our tests, but we noticed less oomph when listening to EDM or hip-hop tracks with a lot of bass. The headphones have eight microphones, four of which are for voice, and their excellent noise reduction on calls was immediately noticeable, even in louder environments. The $89.99 WF-C700N, meanwhile, are a midrange pair of noise-canceling earbuds with an IPX4 rating, up to seven and a half hours of battery life (with ANC enabled), and a slim design.<\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s 11th-gen Kindle is our favorite budget-friendly e-reader<\/a>, and you can pick up the ad-supported version for $89.99 ($20 off) at Amazon<\/a>, Best Buy<\/a>, and Target<\/a>. The entry-level ebook reader features a six-inch 300ppi E Ink display that won\u2019t show glare from the sun like your phone or tablet. It has enough storage space to hold thousands of books, or dozens of audiobooks from Audible, the latter of which you can play via Bluetooth headphones or speakers.<\/p>\n

The Kindle\u2019s built-in battery lasts up to six weeks, depending on how long you read per day and how reliant you are on its backlight, and recharges over USB-C. It has the same screen resolution and storage as the step-up Kindle Paperwhite<\/a>, but it\u2019s not waterproof, which may matter if you like to read at the beach or in the bath.<\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s last-minute \u201cSuper Saturday\u201d sale<\/a> is underway, though, we\u2019d argue some of the better deals are actually some the lingering discounts we\u2019re seeing on Amazon\u2019s own devices, many of which have been effect for several weeks. Right now, for instance, you can grab the new Echo Dot Max at Amazon<\/a>, Best Buy<\/a>, and Target<\/a> for $79.99 ($20 off), which is the best price we\u2019ve seen on the smart speaker since it launched.<\/p>\n

Despite the name, the Dot Max is less of a follow up to the Echo Dot as it is the fourth-gen Echo<\/a> from 2020. It\u2019s got a compact knit fabric design, simpler controls, a better processor, and more smart home sensors and radios than prior models (it offers support for Matter, Thread, and Zigbee protocols). It still sounds great for its size, though, and like prior models, it can function as an Wi-Fi extender if you\u2019re looking buoy a Eero mesh network. It\u2019s also one of the first devices to offer Amazon\u2019s AI-powered Alexa Plus out of the box, which, while still very much a work in progress<\/a>, is a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re feeling the stress of having procrastinated on your holiday shopping \u2014 and you missed out during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[979,786,59,1014,622,227,86,56,54,55,104804],"class_list":{"0":"post-327310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-deals","9":"tag-gadgets","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-headphones","12":"tag-sony","13":"tag-tech","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom","18":"tag-verge-shopping"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}