Sony announced Black Friday deals on its PlayStation consoles, controllers, accessories and game titles in India Friday. The company is offering a discount of Rs. 7,500 on both disc and digital editions of the PS5 slim variant; the same discount applies to the PS5 Fortnite Cobalt Star Bundle. In addition to the console, Sony’s Black Friday offers bring discounts to PlayStation VR2, DualSense controllers and several popular first-party games, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, God of War Ragnarök and more.

The Black Friday offers are now live across Sony Center, Amazon, Flipkart, Blinkit, Croma, Reliance, Vijay Sales and other participating retailers. The deals will be available till December 5 or until stocks last.

PS VR2 gets the biggest discount; PS VR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle has been slashed down from its retail price of Rs. 61,999 to 36,999, while the standalone unit of PS VR2 gets a Rs. 20,000 discount on its MRP of Rs. 57,999.

Additionally, the DualSense controller in black and white colourways is selling at Rs. 3,990 after a discount of Rs. 2,000. Other select colours of the controller get the same discount and are available for Rs. 4,390.

In addition to console and peripherals, a total of 20 Sony-published game titles have received Black Friday discounts, including first-party games like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, God of War Ragnarök, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal, Horizon Forbidden West and more. Here’s a full list of products and games that have received a price cut as part of PlayStation India’s Black Friday deals.

PlayStation Black Friday Offers on PS5, PS VR2, Peripherals

PlayStation Black Friday Offers on Game Titles

The PlayStation 5 Pro went on sale in select markets on Thursday. While customers in regions like US, UK, EU and Japan can pick up a PS5 Pro at a participating retailer or direct.playstation.com, the upgraded console is not currently available in India. The PS5 Pro has not made its way to the market here — and won’t be arriving anytime soon — owing to a telecom spectrum hurdle in the country, Sony confirmed Friday.

Why PS5 Pro Is Not Available in India

The PS5 Pro supports Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) that utilises the 6Ghz spectrum band, which has not yet been allocated in India. Sony has now provided an official update on the console’s availability in India.

“PS5 Pro will not be available in some countries (which presently includes India) where 6GHz wireless band used in IEEE 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) has not yet been allowed,” the company said in an official statement Friday.

The 6Ghz spectrum has been contested between technology firms and telecom operators in country, with the former seeking its allocation for Wi-Fi and the latter wanting the same for 5G and 6G services. According to a Financial Express report from last month, the Indian government is likely to reserve a portion of the 6Ghz spectrum for telecom companies to expand 5G and 6G services in the country. The 6 GHz band includes frequencies in the range of 5925-7125 MHz.

While this regulatory hurdle is preventing the PS5 from launching in India and is unlikely to be resolved soon, several countries have allocated the entire 6Ghz spectrum to Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance has urged the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to allocate the entire 6GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi use, according to a report in Capacity Media on Friday.

The PS5 Pro was announced in September and went on sale in select markets on November 7. The console comes with hardware upgrades over the PS5, packing improved RDNA graphics with 16.7 teraflops of GPU compute performance. The console also features double the storage of the PS5 and comes with advanced ray-tracing features and Sony’s new AI upscaling technology. The console is priced at an MSRP of $699.99 (roughly Rs. 58,750).

The PlayStation 5 Pro went on sale in select markets on Thursday. While customers in regions like US, UK, EU and Japan can pick up a PS5 Pro at a participating retailer or direct.playstation.com, the upgraded console is not currently available in India. The PS5 Pro has not made its way to the market here — and won’t be arriving anytime soon — owing to a telecom spectrum hurdle in the country, Sony confirmed Friday.

Why PS5 Pro Is Not Available in India

The PS5 Pro supports Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) that utilises the 6Ghz spectrum band, which has not yet been allocated in India. Sony has now provided an official update on the console’s availability in India.

“PS5 Pro will not be available in some countries (which presently includes India) where 6GHz wireless band used in IEEE 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) has not yet been allowed,” the company said in an official statement Friday.

The 6Ghz spectrum has been contested between technology firms and telecom operators in country, with the former seeking its allocation for Wi-Fi and the latter wanting the same for 5G and 6G services. According to a Financial Express report from last month, the Indian government is likely to reserve a portion of the 6Ghz spectrum for telecom companies to expand 5G and 6G services in the country. The 6 GHz band includes frequencies in the range of 5925-7125 MHz.

While this regulatory hurdle is preventing the PS5 from launching in India and is unlikely to be resolved soon, several countries have allocated the entire 6Ghz spectrum to Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance has urged the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to allocate the entire 6GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi use, according to a report in Capacity Media on Friday.

The PS5 Pro was announced in September and went on sale in select markets on November 7. The console comes with hardware upgrades over the PS5, packing improved RDNA graphics with 16.7 teraflops of GPU compute performance. The console also features double the storage of the PS5 and comes with advanced ray-tracing features and Sony’s new AI upscaling technology. The console is priced at an MSRP of $699.99 (roughly Rs. 58,750).

Sony has been testing PC games support for the PlayStation VR2 to expand the library of VR titles available on the headset this year. The PlayStation parent had announced last month that it would roll out PC support for PS VR2 on August 7. A PS VR2 application has now surfaced on Steam and will bring access to PC VR titles on the platform when it launches next month. The PlayStation VR2 Steam app, which will let players experience virtual reality titles and apps available on Valve’s storefront, is coming on August 6.

PS VR2 Steam app

According to the Steam page for the app, players will be able to set up their PS VR2 headset on their PCs and access the library of VR titles and apps on Steam. The app will also allow players to update the firmware for the PS VR2 headset and PS VR2 Sense controllers. Additionally, players will be able to adjust PS VR2 settings from the SteamVR dashboard, including defining the play area for the headset and adjusting screen brightness.

The access the PS VR2 Steam app, players will need the PS VR2 headset, PS VR2 Sense controllers and the PS VR2 PC adapter.

The PlayStation VR2 PC adapter will be available for an estimated retail price of $59.99 (roughly Rs. 5,000) at select retail stores and direct.playstation.com in supported regions. Additionally, players would also need a DisplayPort cable compatible with DisplayPort 1.4, an active Steam account and a PC that meets minimum requirements.

Last month, Sony had announced that it would be rolling out support for PC VR games for PS VR2 on August 7. The company had confirmed that players would be able to access Steam’s VR library, including games like Half-Life: Alyx, Fallout 4 VR and War Thunder.

PS VR2 cutbacks

The PS VR2 was launched in February 2023 and has since struggled to attract players with its limited games library and incompatibility with PS VR titles. While Sony has continued to release new VR titles for PS VR2, a report last month claimed that the company was making “deep cuts” to funding for VR titles.

Earlier this year in February, Sony shut down its London Studio, the developer behind PlayStation VR Worlds, and made cuts at Horizon: Call of the Mountain developer Firesprite.

India, as it gears up for the season of Diwali festivities, is set to see friends and families host each other for the celebrations. Ahead of these annual big fat reunions, e-commerce giant Amazon is offering great discounts on home appliances and day-to-day gadgets that can add more glimmer to home décor and festive gifting. The Amazon Great Indian Festival sale, kickstarted earlier this month, entered the third week with a new name, ‘Extra Happiness Day sale 2023′.

The ongoing Amazon Extra Happiness Day sale has slashed the prices of an array of products, including home appliances, smartphones, tablets, laptops, and earphones, among other items.

HDFC, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, and One Card are banks that are offering additional benefits for their respective customers looking to avail the benefits of this ongoing Amazon sale. The option of no-cost EMIs is also available for several products retailing on sale.

Televisions are another category that Amazon is offering large deals on. The Redmi 80 cm (32 inches) F Series HD Ready Smart LED Fire TV, for instance, is selling at a 58 percent discount. Likewise, Redmi 108 cm (43 inches) 4K Ultra HD Android Smart LED TV X43 is selling at a price 49 percent lower than the original cost.

A number of big 55-inch and 65-inch televisions are also selling at notably discounted prices. These include the Sony Bravia 164 cm (65 inches) 4K Ultra HD Smart LED Google TV and the Samsung 163 cm (65 inches) Crystal iSmart 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV. Other options being offered under this discount are from brands like TCL, Vu, and LG.

In this article, we list some of the best offers on televisions currently being offered on Amazon.

Deals on 32-Inch Smart TVs

Deals on 43-Inch Smart TVs

Deals on 55-Inch Smart TVs

Deals on 65-Inch Smart TVs

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India’s smart TV shipments recorded double-digit growth of 28 percent in 2022, which was led primarily by the festive season in the third quarter of multiple new launches, discount events, and promotions, said a Counterpoint Research report.

Moreover, demand for bigger screen-size TVs in the lower price tier also fueled the growth, it said.

While in the December quarter, after the festival sales, smart TV shipments were almost flat at 2 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) due to a slowdown in demand.

Smart device maker Xiaomi continued to lead India’s smart TV market in 2022 with an 11 percent share.

This was followed by Samsung, LG, OnePlus and TCL, respectively in the fast-growing Indian smart TV market.

OnePlus and TCL were among the fastest-growing smart TV brands in 2022, said the Counterpoint Research report.

While Sony was among the preferred brands in the premium segment.

In 2022, over 99 percent of the TVs were assembled locally, while only some high-end TV sets were imported by the brands, it said.

Moreover, 96 percent of the market is being driven by LED TVs, and MediaTek chips had around a three-fifths share of the total TV market during the year.

In the December quarter, top five brands MI, Samsung, LG, One Plus and TCL controlled 42.6 percent of the market share.

Senior Research Analyst Anshika Jain said, “OnePlus, Vu, and TCL were among the fastest-growing brands in the smart TV segment in 2022. Xiaomi led the overall smart TV market with an 11 percent share, followed by Samsung and LG.” Smart TV shipments in Rs. 20,000-Rs 30,000 price band grew 40 percent YoY to reach a 29 percent share. The average selling price (ASP) declined 8 percent YoY to around Rs. 30,650, Jain added.

“Smart TV contribution to overall shipments reached its highest-ever of 90 percent during the year. It is expected to go up further due to more launches in the sub-Rs. 20,000 price range and non-smart-TV-to-smart-TV migration. Non-smart TV shipments declined 24 percent YoY in 2022. Online channels increased their contribution to the total shipments to 33 percent during the year,” he said. 

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A good smart speaker plays an important role in today’s connected homes, giving access to music and other audio content, information, tools and utilities that are useful around the home. You also gain the ability to voice-control any smart appliances and IoT products you may have, such as air purifiers, robot vacuum cleaners, and smart bulbs. Naturally, the more a smart speaker can do, the better it is. However, with audio content usually being the primary use case of a smart speaker, you also want to make sure you’ve got a device that sounds good.

The reliance on a good voice assistant system means that smart speakers are still largely limited to just a handful of brands. However, with Google and Amazon opening up access to their respective voice assistants to other brands, many more options are available today across price segments. Before we get to our recommendations, let’s first cover the basics of smart speakers, particular what it is that makes a speaker ‘smart’.

What is a smart speaker?

Defining a speaker isn’t really necessary, but it’s important to elaborate on what a ‘smart’ speaker is, and how it’s different from the typical wired or wireless speaker or speaker system. Apart from the ability to output audio loud enough to be heard in a small area such as a living room, a smart speaker is always connected to the Internet (usually through a Wi-Fi connection), and relies on this to access audio content, weather information, and more.

It can also use this Internet access for a variety of other functions, including providing basic information, controlling smart appliances in the home such as light bulbs, air purifiers, and cleaning robots, to even household tools and utilities such as alarms, timers, and reminders. Many smart speakers also have Bluetooth connectivity, so they can be used as traditional Bluetooth speakers.

Most smart speakers need to be connected to a wall power socket to work, due to the lack of a built-in battery. There are some smart speakers that have a built-in battery and are able to work wirelessly, but this isn’t too common in the segment.

Should you buy a smart speaker?

A very important requirement for a smart speaker is reliable internet connectivity, since most smart speakers can’t do much without a good Wi-Fi connection. You’ll also need access to audio streaming services; while there are free options, the best results come when you use a premium streaming service such as Spotify or YouTube Music with a smart speaker. Of course, you also need the right accounts set up to use your smart speaker to the best possible extent. In the absence of these, you’re probably better off using a traditional Bluetooth speaker instead.

If you have smart appliances or other IoT devices in your home, a smart speaker will help you control these using just voice commands to the default voice assistant. Even being able to play particular music tracks, playlists or genres with only your voice is a very useful feature that will make your listening sessions a lot more seamless. Finally, streaming music and other audio content over Wi-Fi allows for higher bandwidth compared to Bluetooth, so you’ll get better sound quality while still enjoying the benefits of wireless streaming and connectivity.

The best smart speaker: Google Nest Audio

It’s not often that you come across a product with no significant drawbacks, and the Google Nest Audio is one such smart speaker. Although similar to the Google Home smart speaker range, the Rs. 7,999 Google Nest Audio is a huge step-up in terms of looks, sound quality, and the ability to pick up voice commands even from across a room. You simply won’t find a better smart speaker for under Rs. 10,000 today.

Available in two colours – Chalk (white) and Charcoal (black) – the Google Nest Audio stands upright on a tabletop, and looks great with its fabric-wrapped exterior. There’s just one physical switch at the back to mute the microphone, while the top of the speaker has a touch sensitive area to control playback, volume, and basic functions. All of this makes for an efficient design that encourages you to rely on your voice to control the speaker, and voice commands do work very well on the Google Nest Audio.

Apart from the fact that the microphones are able to pick up sounds from across a room, Google Assistant is also constantly improving and works very well on the Google Nest Audio. It’s easy to set up Google Assistant to control smart appliances, and basic commands and queries usually register perfectly with just one attempt. Apart from linking a streaming service and requesting audio tracks, playlists, artistes, and genres, there’s also Bluetooth connectivity and Chromecast Audio support, giving you plenty of options for how to stream music on the device.

Sound quality is a big factor that makes the Google Nest Audio one of our favourite picks among smart speakers. The sound is loud, detailed, and refined, matching the kind of sound quality you could expect from a wired speaker system around the same price. Of course, the sound quality is best when using Wi-Fi to stream, but it sounds decent enough over Bluetooth as well. All of this makes the Google Nest Audio our top pick among smart speakers.

Runner-up – for premium sound quality: Amazon Echo Studio

Although there are many devices in the Echo smart speaker range, none quite matches up to the Amazon Echo Studio. Priced at Rs. 22,999, The Amazon Echo Studio is among the best, biggest, and most expensive smart speakers you can buy in India right now.

With an impressive five-driver setup that includes three mid-range drivers, one tweeter, and one subwoofer, the Amazon Echo Studio offers loud, clean, and engaging sound, significantly better compared to everything else in the segment. Combine this with the benefits of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, and you have a smart speaker that does practically everything you want, and sounds great while doing it. You can even link the Amazon Echo Studio to a Fire TV device wirelessly, letting you use it as a sound system for your television, although we did face occasional lag in the sound with this setup.

Perhaps the only real drawback is the price; you can buy a pretty decent soundbar or speaker system for the same price, and despite all of its good qualities, the Echo Studio is just a single speaker after all. However, it’s the absolute loudest and best-sounding single-box smart solution you can buy right now, and deserves a place in our top picks for this reason.

 

Runner-up – for Apple fans: Apple HomePod mini

Apple isn’t as strong in the smart speaker segment as Google and Amazon, but the HomePod range did receive a big update recently. Priced at Rs. 9,900, the Apple HomePod mini is smaller and much more affordable than the HomePod, making it much more accessible and easy to use. It’s also ideal for users who are heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, since you’ll need an iOS device and an Apple Music subscription to make the most of the smart speaker.

The smart speaker uses Apple’s Siri voice assistant, and just like other similar assistants , this can be invoked hands-free using the ‘Hey Siri’ command. To play specific tracks, you’ll need a paid subscription to Apple Music, since the smart speaker does not support any other streaming services such as Spotify or YouTube Music. Apple has notably stated that its Lossless Audio tier will be supported on the HomePod mini with a future firmware update.

You can also use two HomePod mini speakers as a stereo pair. We did face some issues with connectivity when using stereo pairing, and smart capabilities are basic at best because of the limited support for IoT appliances and devices. However, sound quality is excellent for the size and form factor, and the HomePod mini works very well within the Apple ecosystem, making this a good pick if you already have Apple devices at home.

The best completely wireless smart speaker – Sony SRS-XB402M

Most smart speakers don’t have batteries built-in, and need to be plugged into a wall socket to work. However, there are a few options that can be used as smart speakers with full functionality, completely off the wire. The best of these options, in our opinion, is the Sony SRS-XB402M, which is priced at Rs. 19,990.

This is an impressive smart speaker for a number of reasons, including access to Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant directly through Wi-Fi connectivity, the ability to use Spotify’s Connect feature to stream over Wi-Fi, IP67 dust and water resistance, and good sound quality. The built-in battery means that you don’t need to keep the Sony SRS-XB402M plugged in all the time, making this a good option for outdoor use.

There is, of course, traditional Bluetooth connectivity apart from the Wi-Fi-based functions. However, the high price of the Sony SRS-XB402M, and the fact that Alexa’s communication features don’t work on non-Amazon devices do hold this completely wireless smart speaker back a bit.

 

The best affordable smart speaker – Mi Smart Speaker

Smart speakers come in all sizes and shapes, but most options priced at under Rs. 5,000 are small and only really capable enough for desktop or bedside use. The Mi Smart Speaker is an exception to that trend, offering loud, capable sound that rivals the Google Nest Audio, but is priced competitively at Rs. 3,999. It’s a full-fledged smart speaker with access to Google Assistant, and 12W of rated sound output.

While the sound occasionally lacked refinement and the design is a bit dull as compared to the better looking fabric-wrapped options from Google and Amazon, the Mi Smart Speaker is a value-for-money option with loud, enjoyable sound, and useful smart functionality. It’s the one to go for if your budget is tight.

Also consider

Amazon Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen): The Echo Show range is better classified as a smart screen, but naturally has a decent sound system built in for smart functionality using Alexa. It’s expensive, but is the most impressive smart device you can buy right now.

Amazon Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen): This isn’t exactly a smart speaker; it’s a streaming device with some smart speaker capabilities including hands-free access to Alexa. However, it serves the purpose quite well once connected to a TV or home entertainment setup, and does practically everything you want including TV controls for Rs. 12,999.

Google Nest Hub: The Rs. 6,999 Google Nest Hub is a smart display with Google Assistant capabilities. Although sound quality isn’t great, the visual cues for Google Assistant might make it worth considering.

Google Nest Mini: Among the smallest smart speakers you can buy right now, the Rs. 3,999 Google Nest Mini is the right size for desktop or bedside use. However, sound quality is quite ordinary, even for the price and form factor.

Apple HomePod: Apple’s larger smart speaker is bigger than the HomePod mini, and appropriately louder as well. However, at Rs. 19,900, the HomePod is expensive for a speaker that is inextricably tied to the Apple ecosystem. Keep in mind that it’s been officially discontinued, so finding one will be a bit difficult.

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Is HomePod mini the best smart speaker under Rs. 10,000? We discussed this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.