Darks days are coming. Like a gathering storm of coupon clippings and swinging elbows, Black Friday savings are almost upon us. Lucky for you we've braved the mountains of ads from retailers like Costco, Best Buy, Office Depot, Sears and more to find the best deals available. Read along below for the best finds in tablets, e-readers, and more electronics like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Amazon Kindle Fire HD, and Nook.
Top 9 Black Friday Deals on Samsung Galaxy SIII, HTC One X, LG Optimus, More Smartphones Costco
Costco is offering the highly-rated Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1-inch tablet with Android 4.0, dual cameras, built-in IR blaster, 16GB, and 1GHz for $100 off, and the 7-inch version for $70 off.
Costco's sales runs three days, but unlike many of the others we have seen, it's not running from Thanksgiving Day through Saturday, but instead from Black Friday, Nov. 23 through Sunday, Nov. 25.
Costco's Black Friday sale begins at the modest time of 9 a.m. Nov. 23.
Sears
Sears is offering some of the longest store hours of any retailer during Black Friday weekend. Sears will be open all-night Thanksgiving starting at 8 p.m., which is also when its first set of Door Buster deals start. Friday's Door Buster deals start at 4 a.m.
Some of the best Door Buster deals Sears is offering on Thanksgiving include a 6-inch 2GB Nook Simple Touch with WI-Fi for $39.99, or the X-Treme Tab 7-inch tablet with 2GB Micro SD, Android 4.0 $39.99.
Some of the best Door Buster deals for Friday are the Mach Speech Trio Stealth 7-inch multi-touch tablet with 4GB, 1.2GHz, Micro-SD slot for expandable memory for $69.99, the 4Sight 9-inch multi-touch tablet with Android 4.0, 4GB, 1.1GHz for $89.99, or the Mach Speed Trio Stealth 9.7-inch multi-touch tablet with Android 4.0, 8GB, 1.2GHz, and Micro-SD expandable memory for $119.99.
All three days of Sears's Black Friday madness you can buy the Samsung Galaxy 7-inch tablet with Android 4.0, dual cameras, built-in IR blaster, 8GB, and 1GHz for $177.99. and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1-inch tablet with Android 4.0, dual cameras, built-in IR blaster, 16GB, and 1GHz for $297.99.
Kmart
Kmart will kick-off their Black Friday deals with the first round of doorbusters starting at 8:00 pm Thursday night, lasting until 3:00 am Friday morning. Then they will re-open at 5:00 am, featuring another round of doorbusters, and will remain open until 11:00 pm on Black Friday.
There will be some great sales going on during both rounds of doorbusters and throughout the weekend, but it looks like the steepest discounts reside in the 8:00 pm - 3:00 am timeslot.
Friday, 3 a.m. Door Buster pick: Mach Speech Trio Stealth 7-inch multi-touch tablet with 4GB, 1.2GHz, Micro-SD slot for expandable memory for $69.99.
11 a.m. Door Buster pick: Mach Speed Trio Stealth 9.7-inch multi-touch tablet with Android 4.0, 8GB, 1.2GHz, and Micro-SD expandable memory for $119.99.
Kmart will is offering up to 50 percent off select Craftsman tools, and up to 80 percent off all fine jewelry all three days as well as the Samsung Galaxy 7-inch tablet with Android 4.0, dual cameras, built-in IR blaster, 8GB, and 1GHz for $177.99. Kmart also has great deals on kids tablets. All LeapFrog LeapPad Ultra eBooks are buy one get one free, LeapPad 2 is $99.99, and the green or pink LeapPad1 is priced at $64.99.
Kohls
Black Friday deals will be available at Kohls from Midnight Nov. 22 to Midnight Nov. 24. Kohls is offering $15 Kohls Cash for every $50 you spend in store (except on gift card purchases) between Wednesday Nov. 21 and Sunday Nov. 25, which you can redeem from Nov. 26 to Dec. 3.
20-50 percent off electronics during Early Bird deals.
7-inch Polaroid Android tablet with front-facing camera and 4GB of memory for $89.99 (after $30 mail-in rebate).
10.1-inch Polaroid Android Tablet for $149.99 with Android 4.0 and front and rear-facing cameras
Sam's Club
Sam's Club is the membership-only chain owned and operated by Walmart. Sam's Club will open their doors at 7:00 a.m. on Black Friday. However, users can shop SamsClub.com starting the day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday Nov. 21, at 11:00 p.m. EST. Starbucks will be also be offering free coffee and treats to Sam's Club early bird shoppers.
Best tablet pick: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, 10-inch 16GB tablet for $249. Costing about $100 off the normal selling price, this is pretty great deal for a lower-end, full-sized tablet. The Galaxy Tab 2, 7-inch will be on sale for $179.99.
Office Max
OfficeMax isn't offering much in the way of tablet deals (unless you want to buy a third-tier Azpen Android 7-inch tablet with 4GB of storage for $69.99), but as with other retailers, it's trying to supplement its lack of deals with free gift cards. If you purchase an Amazon Kindle Fire HD between the hours of 6 a.m. and Noon on Black Friday you can get a $25 store gift card.
Office Depot
While other stores are also selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 tablet for $179.99, Office Depot has unique twist: In addition to the Galaxy Tab, you can also get a Samsung Series 3 laptop in a $469.98 bundle. The notebook features a 15.6-inch screen, dual-core Intel Pentium processor, 4GB of RAM, and 500GB hard drive. (It's also being offered by itself for $329.99.)
If you're more concerned with size, you can pay roughly the ssame price for a 9-inch tablet as for the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0; the Lenovo IdeaTab A2 with 16GB of storage will be $199.99. Or you can spend another $100 and grab the 10.1-inch Asus Transformer Pad TF300 with 32GB of storage for $299.99.
Office Depot is forced to sell Amazon Kindle Fire tablets at the same price as competing physical stores, so the company is also dangling an incentive to purchase at its locations: Office Depot is offering a $25 Visa gift card with the purchase of the second-generation Kindle Fire (non-HD version) for $159.99.
Best Buy
Best Buy's 22-page preview includes deals on everything from big-screen TVs and laptops to smartphones and tablets.
Doorbusters will be available once Best Buy stores open at midnight Thanksgiving night, to get the deals and in-store discounts, customers will need tickets, which will be handed out up to two hours before a store's midnight opening.
Tablet doorbusters include the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 with 8GB of storage in an exclusive white color for $179.99, or $70 off its normal price. The nabi 2 8GB Android tablet for kids will be available for $169.99, a $30 discount from its regular price.
Other tablet deals include Acer's Iconia Android with 16GB of storage for $249.99, while Asus has a similar model for $279.99. Best Buy has the same price on the Amazon Kindle Fire ($159.99) and Kindle Fire HD ($199.99) as everyone else, but is trying to sweeten the deal by offering $30 Best Buy gift cards if you buy from one of its stores.
Best Buy is offering a few Apple deals, although, as several sites have noted, these appear to be the usual 10-percent off deals Apple always offers on Black Friday. The best Apple tablet deal the retailer is offering is $40-$60 of savings off full-sized iPads, both the iPad 2 and the new iPad with Retina Display.