Thirty-nine inches of streaming-TV goodness for only $150.
Best Buy
The TV deals are coming fast and furious. Just yesterday I posted about a 43-inch Toshiba with built-in Fire TV for $200. (You might actually be able to get that for even less; click through to find out how.) A Toshiba!
And don’t forget the current crop of big-TV deals, screens that should make your upcoming playoff and big game viewing mighty nice.
Want something a little smaller, a little more den- or bedroom-friendly? For a limited time, Best Buy has the Insignia 39-inch 1080p Fire TV Edition for $149.99. That’s the lowest price to date, and a full $20 below the Black Friday price. It wasn’t long ago that finding a 32-inch non-smart TV for this price was a big deal.
See it at Best Buy
As noted, this is a 1080p screen, not a 4K. Guess what: That’s absolutely fine for a TV of this size, because the human eye can’t make out all the extra pixels anyway — not at standard viewing distance.
Read more: TV resolution confusion resolved
What you really need to know is that the Insignia comes with built-in Fire TV and a voice-controllable remote — meaning you can say things like, “Alexa, Watch Travelers on Netflix,” and the TV will run the app and start the show.
If you’re planning to add things like a cable box and game console to the mix, you’ll be glad to know there are three HDMI inputs available.
And you know my stance on TV speakers: They’re typically terrible. But this model has a pair of 5-watt Onkyo speakers built in, so maybe they’re okay? Onkyo’s a pretty big name in the audio biz.
Finally, the Insignia has a 4.7-star rating from over 300 buyers. That’s pretty impressive, and it means there’s a high chance you’ll be a happy viewer.
Watch this:
The best TVs at CES 2019
13:20
Bonus deal: Speaking of TV, I love a good documentary. Super Size Me, Man on Wire, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, pretty much anything narrated by David Attenborough… pure gold.
If you feel the same way, here’s a cheap option for indulging yourself: ZDNet Academy has a two-year subscription to documentary-streaming service CuriosityStream for $21 with promo code CNETCS30. The service normally charges $20 per year, and ZDNet’s deal price is normally $30. With this code, you’re more or less buying one year and getting a second free.
See it at ZDNet
CuriosityStream is home to over 2,000 documentary features and series. Although the catalog isn’t listed anywhere, a peek at the blog reveals a smattering of the available titles: Age of Big Cats, Scanning the Pyramids, Shark Dive, Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places and David Attenborough’s Light on Earth. The latter two are CuriosityStream originals.
You can access the service in all the usual places: your web browser, Android or iOS devices, Roku or Fire TV streamers and so on.
We never will, little buddies. We never will.
Daily Steals
Bonus deal No. 2: I know it can be a little aggravating to have to shop via Facebook Marketplace. But if you’re willing, Daily Steals has three great T-shirts there, each priced at just $10.
I love silly shirts like these, especially that third one. They’re all available in a variety of colors, and at time of writing it seems most sizes are available.
For 10 bucks apiece, shipping included? Yes, please.
CNET’s Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Note that CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured on this page. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and follow the Cheapskate on Facebook and Twitter!