The crucial Black Friday season is in full swing, which means you’ll be able to find some amazing deals on portable monitors. They’re only going to get better as Black Friday 2021 approaches – this year it will fall on November 26.
This time of year is perfect for techy upgrades. Prices are never lower and all of the big manufacturers have released their latest products in time for the festive season, so you’ll get loads of choice.
Portable monitors might not be your first display choice, but they make loads of sense. With more people than ever using laptops for work and working remotely, a portable monitor provides the luxury of a second screen without the need for a desktop display. Plenty of people agree, too: the global market was worth $111 in 2019, and analysts predict it’ll be worth $568 million by 2027.
We’re going to keep our eyes on every portable monitor deal from every big retailer so you don’t have to. If you want a new portable monitor on Black Friday 2021, bookmark this page so you can stay up to date and be ready for the big day.
Bigger and better
Adobe is one of the world’s biggest creative software suppliers and the firm’s experts have analyzed more than 1 trillion visits to retail websites to find out just how big Black Friday has become.
The numbers are impressive. Adobe discovered that consumers spent more than $9 billion on Black Friday in 2020, which was an improvement of 21.6% from 2019 – and Adobe expects similar growth in 2021.
It’s not just about Black Friday, either. Customers spent more than $188 billion at retailers across the crucial November and December periods in 2020. The crucial Cyber Five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday – which includes Black Friday – accounted for 18% of spending across the fall season in 2020. Interestingly, that’s down from 20% in 2019, which suggests that more people are finding more deals across the entire period, not just on critical shopping days.
Electronics are still one of the biggest deal drivers on Black Friday and beyond, with brands like Acer, Samsung, HP, and Lenovo among the favorite options among consumers.
Combine this relentless growth with the increase in portable monitor popularity – analysts at Persistence reckon that US revenue will explode from $72 million in 2021 to more than $347 million by 2031 – and you’ve got a recipe for great products and tempting deals.
Today’s best portable monitor deals
It’s entirely understandable if you don’t want to wait for Black Friday or Cyber Monday before you take the plunge and buy a new portable monitor – especially if you need one immediately.
If that’s the case, you can already find plenty of great deals around. We’ve rounded up some of the best options right here, and head here to see our verdict on the best portable monitors of 2021 if you’d like some more inspiration.
When will the best Black Friday portable monitor deals start in 2021?
Black Friday falls on the first Friday after Thanksgiving in the US, which means that this year it’ll take place on November 26. That’s the key date for your diary.
You’ll undoubtedly find incredible portable monitor deals on Black Friday, but it’s not the only date that demands your attention. Those crucial Cyber Five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday will all see retailers unveil great offers, and Adobe found that Cyber Monday was bigger than Black Friday in sales terms in both 2019 and 2020.
It’s not just about those five days, either. We’ve noticed that the best deals tend to appear right from the start of Thanksgiving week, and you can even find good deals begin to appear from the middle of October if you look around carefully. If you want a new portable monitor but don’t want to wait until Black Friday itself, the expansion of the shopping season could be a boon. Alternatively, prices will remain low right up until Christmas and beyond. With staffing and supply issues still affecting most retailers, it’s no wonder that the shopping season has stretched.
The growth in working from home and portable monitor popularity means that we expect more portable monitor deals to be available this year than ever before, so it’s a wonderful time to buy. After all, regular home working has increased in popularity by 173% since 2005, and 98% of people would like to work remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of their careers.
Portable monitors are peripherals that are available at a wide range of mainstream prices. Given their growth in popularity and enthusiasm around electronics, you’ll be able to find portable monitor discounts from late October, all the way through the Cyber Five, and then up until the New Year.
Where will you find the best Black Friday portable monitor deals?
If you want to track the best portable monitor deals on Black Friday 2021, then we’ve got one simple solution for you: keep this page bookmarked and check back regularly.
We understand if you want to do your own deal-hunting, though, so we’ve compiled this list of our favorite retailers. Here you’ll find the best buying options in the US and the UK, and we’ve highlighted their strengths too.
US:
Amazon: the biggest range, and often at the best prices
Adorama: a broad range that includes creative, pro, and niche options
B&H Photo: the best site if you want creative products
Best Buy: broad range and good prices, especially if you’re a member
Newegg: a good option if you want a portable monitor for gaming
Walmart: a broad range with Amazon price-matching – but be aware of marketplace sellers
UK:
Amazon: great prices and an unbeatable range from the retail giant
Box: mainstream options at good prices, with frequent deals on offer
Ebuyer: a computing specialist with a good range of key products
Laptops Direct: a portable specialist that has monitors from every big brand
How can I find the best Black Friday portable monitor deals?
Whether you want to buy a portable monitor or another bit of tech on Black Friday, there are some simple and effective rules that you can follow to ensure you get the best deals.
The first thing you should do? Plenty of research. There are loads of intriguing and effective portable monitor products around, but you’ll need to know what you want to buy in advance so you can jump on deals as soon as they appear. If you want a portable monitor, that means you’ll need to consider their screen sizes, connectivity options and attributes.
You’ve got to do your research on the various retailers out there, too. Positively, all the big retailers watch each other’s prices and match as often as they can, so you’re likely to get a good deal no matter where you shop. But plenty of retailers also offer free gifts, discounted delivery, and product bundles to get an edge over the competition. Discover this information before you sit down to shop, and you can get even better value.
As we’ve mentioned, be prepared to look for great deals from the end of October right through November and December. The Cyber Five days may usually hold the best prices, but the discount season lasts for weeks. And, as ever, keep this page bookmarked for the latest information on all the best portable monitor discounts.
There are plenty of other tips to bear in mind when you head online. It’s worth using sites like PriceRunner to see if products are genuinely available with good discounts, and you can also create alerts for discounts on many sites, so you’ll get an email if prices plummet.
Create your online shopping accounts in advance so you’ll be ready to buy as quickly as possible, and consider leaving your new hardware in the box after you buy – you could find it cheaper later in the shopping season and return the original product for a refund.
What kind of portable monitor should I buy on Black Friday?
Portable monitors have loads of different uses, so they’re extremely versatile, but they have many key attributes that you’ll need to know about before deciding which one to buy.
A portable monitor is the perfect option for adding a second display while you work on the move – if you work remotely, for instance, or if you hot-desk at the office. They can even add full-screen functionality to mobile devices like smartphones or tablets, and they’re handy if you want a second display but don’t have the room for a full-size monitor. The extra screen can dramatically improve your productivity and make your computing life easier, so it pays to get the right hardware.
First, consider the size of screen you need. You can find portable monitors that range in size from 11.6in and 13.3in right up to 15.6in and 17.3in options. Portable panels generally mirror the size options you’ll find on modern laptops, and you need to think about how and where you’ll be using the display. You may have the space for something bigger than your notebook’s screen, but you might need something smaller and more portable too.
Increased size will lead to increased weight and dimensions, too, so that’s worth considering if you want something that’s particularly portable.
The level of quality on offer from the display could be crucial. If you only plan to use the portable monitor for web-browsing, communication tools and running Office apps then you can afford to buy a cheaper display that doesn’t have great color or contrast performance. But if you want to run creative and color-sensitive tasks on your portable panel, you’ll need to spend more for a display that can produce a broader range of accurate colors.
Similarly, examine the display’s resolution: a 1080p screen is fine for everyday work and mainstream creative tasks, but a 4K panel will always supply a crisper and more spacious experience. Also consider if you need a touchscreen or not.
Beyond the screen, consider how the product will connect to your laptop or mobile device. Some have USB-C, others have HDMI or DisplayPort, but you’ll need them to match up.
You should also consider if a portable display can work in portrait mode if you’ll find that useful, and bear in mind which displays come with the best ergonomic stand options – the ability to adjust the panel’s position and angle is a huge boon. Others can attach to the back of your laptop screen with magnets, so you’ll only have to carry one device around.
What Black Friday portable monitor deals do we expect to see in 2021?
Electronics are some of the most in-demand products on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and beyond, and portable monitors are a fast-growing part of the industry. That means you should expect to see a huge array of portable monitor discounts at this crucial period of the year.
Happily, you’ll be able to find almost all kinds of portable monitors with discounts. The best new mainstream portable displays from big-name companies should all be available at reduced prices, and you’ll be able to make savings on more affordable products too, albeit with smaller reductions due to their lower original prices.
Indeed, the only portable monitors that won’t have Black Friday discounts are likely to be any high-end and brand-new products from the bigger brands. We also don’t expect big reductions on specialist displays for high-end creative work.
One thing to bear in mind: portable monitors are currently affected by component shortages like most other electronics, so don’t be surprised if you find that your favored portable monitors quickly go out of stock once prices start to fall.
