Boxing Day sales 2022: OLED TVs, wireless headphones, Dolby Atmos soundbars and more
Time to bag a Boxing Day deal (or two), folks
Hello! And welcome to What Hi-Fi?'s Boxing Day sales live blog. Here we'll be keeping you up to date with all the latest and greatest deals available.
We're expecting savings on a huge range of TV and AV products, including 4K OLED flatscreens, Dolby Atmos soundbars, wireless speakers, headphones and even some hi-fi electronics. Five-star products like the Sony WH-1000XM5 and various sizes of LG C2 OLED will undoubtedly be high on people's lists, so be sure to bookmark this page and we'll be back with all the major price drops worth closer inspection on the day itself...
Merry Christmas, Boxing Day Bargain Hunters! Already there are some cracking prices on various sizes of our favourite TV range of 2022, the LG OLED C2.
The prices below on the 42-inch, 48-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch models are almost as good as the ones we saw over Black Friday, with just £100-£150 in it. Will they drop further? Who knows. But while not the very best prices we have seen, they are still very good indeed.
The LG C2 – successor to the five-star C1 from 2021 – was announced in January 2022. The new kid on the block boasts a brighter OLED 'Evo' panel that delivers an even better picture – it too earned five stars in our review and multiple sizes walked home with What Hi-Fi? Awards in October. The C2 is also the first OLED TV to be offered in a 42-inch size.
- 42-inch / OLED42C2 was £1399 now £899 at Amazon (save £500)
- 48-inch / OLED48C2 was £1399 now £949 at Hughes (save £450)
- 55-inch / OLED55C2 was £1899 now £1099 at Amazon (save £750)
- 65-inch / OLED65C2 was £2699 now £1599 at Amazon (save £1000)
Sony's premium WH-1000XM4 and WH-1000XM5 wireless headphones are bound to drop in the Boxing Day sales – but they will still be priced well over the £100 mark (most likely closer to £200). So if your budget is more modest than that, may we suggest you consider the Sony WH-CH710 at 44 per cent off?
We haven't reviewed this particular model, but we have reviewed their predecessors, the very similar Sony WH-CH700N, and liked them very much, awarding them four out of five stars for their musical sound and decent features offering.
They boast Sony's new noise-cancelling technology that automatically adjusts itself based on how noisy your surroundings are, and battery life is a very impressive 35 hours – an hour of which can be replenished with a 10-minute charge.
In case you didn't get Apple's latest noise-cancelling wireless buds that were clearly highlighted on your Christmas list, the excellent AirPods Pro 2 are now a tenner off at Amazon. Quick - this sale may not last for long!
Granted, it's not the best deal in the world, but considering these flagship buds are newly launched and discounts are rare and fleeting, this might be your best chance to get any money off the RRP in a long while.
The Boxing Day sales have officially started! If you're spending your post-Christmas merriment looking for a good way to spend your Christmas money on hi-fi, we're off to a good start: the brilliant Q Acoustics M20 HD powered speakers are now £60 off at Amazon and Richer Sounds. Use them as desktop speakers, your main music system, or even as a soundbar alternative to boost your TV's sound – their insightful, spacious sound will delight.
Another solid hi-fi deal: Marantz's PM6007 is one of the best budget stereo amplifiers in recent years, snapping up a What Hi-Fi? Award for three years in a row, and now it's on sale for its lowest price yet.
Let's break down this deal's actual saving, however: we originally tested this amp at £499, but we saw the price come down to £419 when we gave it the 2022 Best Buy Award in October this year. It's been listed at various prices at various retailers in the last few weeks, but the lowest price we've spotted today is at Sevenoaks: just £369 for this superb, talented stereo amplifier.
If you received some lovely new LPs on Christmas Day without anything to play them on (or worse, was gifted a cheap and record-destroying deck), then you'll need a proper turntable.
That doesn't mean you have to break the bank; there are some excellent budget decks that are worth your while. These five-star decks from Pro-Ject and Sony were on sale during Black Friday, but you can actually get them for even cheaper during today's Boxing Day sales.
You can get nab the Award-winning Pro-Ject Primary E now for just £149 at Richer Sounds. But that's not all: if you're a VIP Club member (sign up is free) you can get an additional £50 off when bought with any hi-fi products over £100, which means you get the Pro-Ject deck for just £99! A huge bargain, and a great way to make a saving if you also need to buy a speaker and amp to complete your vinyl set-up.
On the other hand, the feature-packed Sony PS-LX310BT Bluetooth turntable can be yours for £219 (a whole tenner lower than during Black Friday) at Amazon.
Ultimate Ears' ranges of small, colourful, easy-to-use and great-sounding portable Bluetooth speakers have been a hit with us for years now, with five-star reviews from the large Megablast to the petite Wonderboom 2.
But we've spotted a fantastic deal on an older five-star product. The UE Blast (from the past, 2017) was a £200 Alexa-powered Bluetooth speaker that impressed us with its sonic powers. The Blast’s cylindrical 360-degree design means it throws sound evenly around the room with a loud, clear and focused performance regardless of where the speaker is placed.
This speaker – in the bright yellow version – is now on a fabulous deal: just £75 at OnBuy.com. That's a whopping £125 off the original price. You can get the same yellow Blast for £99.50 at Amazon, but the OnBuy deal is much, much better.
In the Rega System One, Rega helpfully gives you all the components you need for a turntable-based system (even the cables!) in a neat package that saves you considerable money than if you were building the same set-up individually with separates.
This system consists of the Award-winning Rega Planar 1 turntable, the five-star Rega io amplifier and Rega Kyte speakers – AND all the cables you'll need to connect this system up and get it playing your favourite vinyl. It's all very convenient and, despite its rather basic looks, it sounds great too. We gave this system five stars in our review, particularly highlighting its zealous musical presentation and simple set up.
And you can make an even bigger saving now, with £200 off the retail price at Sevenoaks and Amazon. If you're after a turntable system and want someone else to do all the hard work in choosing the products for you, this Rega is worth your consideration.
Sony WH-1000XM5 are down to their lowest price ever!
We genuinely weren't expecting really big, good deals in today's Boxing Day sales, but we've just spotted that the Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM5 is now on sale for just £276 at Amazon – that beats the lowest-ever prices we saw during Black Friday and Cyber Monday last month!
Now at a genuinely lowest-ever-price (you'll be saving over £100 here), the five-star Sony headphones are the best wireless, noise-cancelling pairs you can get your hands on – they've been redesigned, feel more premium, are great to use and deliver a hugely musical and entertaining sound with greater clarity and openness. We keep saying we won't see this Sony pair on a better deal... but this might really be the best one of the year. If you've held out for this long, it might be time to reward yourself.
If there's one big brand people will be looking to save money on during the Boxing Day sales, it's Sonos. And boy, have we found a bargain for you! Across multiple retailers, including Sevenoaks and Peter Tyson, the brilliant Sonos Beam (Gen 2) price has been slashed from £449 down to just £329.
That's a massive £120 saving and takes the Beam (Gen2) price lower than what we saw during black Friday. This is one deal not to be sniffed at!
Looking to pick up a smart speaker this Holiday season? Then we'd thoroughly recommend you take advantage of Amazon's latest festive saving. The firm's knocked a massive 51% off its latest generation smart speaker, the Echo Dot (5th Gen).
This means you can get the dinky Echo Dot 5th Gen for a modest 26.99 - that’s a huge discount on its regular £54.99 price. We may not of have reviewed the 5th Gen model yet, which only came out in October 2022, but considering how much we liked the previous Echo Dot 4th Gen, we're still happy to recommend checking out this deal.
For your cash you get a compact speaker that'll let you quick Alexa about the weather, shop on Amazon and play music hands-free using voice commands. On top of that, thanks to its mesh network support, it can also help boost your wi-fi signal, if you have a compatible router.
If you're on the hunt for a streaming stick to upgrade your home cinema setup then we'd thoroughly recommend Amazon's latest Fire TV deal.
This Boxing Day the retail giant's slashed a massive 26% off the price of its Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote. This means you can get the device for just £36.99, a huge £13 saving on its regular £49.99 retail price.
Having been seriously impressed with the Fire TV Stick 4K when we reviewed it, we'd thoroughly recommend jumping on the deal while stocks last. We gave the stick a perfect 5/5 score when we tested it, with it offering fantastic value for money, an easy setup process and excellent app support.
Trust us when we say you won't find a better streaming stick at this price this Boxing Day.
Sony WF-1000XM4 was £250 now £159 at Amazon
Sony's WF-1000XM4 true wireless earbuds are legendary in these parts. They're also still at their lowest ever price at Amazon – just £159! That's a seriously-good 36% saving on the £250 RRP.
Our WF-1000XM4 review provides an in-depth look at these What Hi-Fi? Awards 2022 winners. But if you're in a hurry, just know that Sony's entertaining, musical buds deliver clear bass, superior comfort, excellent battery life and some of the best noise-cancelling we've had the pleasure of testing.
Black Friday discounts are still going live, but this gem-of-a-deal could turn out to be the pick of the bunch.
AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt was £299 now £199 at Sevenoaks and Richer Sounds
Wireless headphones might be all the rage, but if you still use a good pair of wired headphones and spend a lot of hours working at a desk or surfing the web while listening to music, we've might have found just the deal for you.
Investing in a great DAC/headphone amp like the AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt can make a huge difference to your music, whether it's digital files stored on a network or streamed through a service such as Apple Music or Tidal. It takes the form of a USB stick that simply plugs into your laptop or desktop computer. And the best part? It's now available with £100 off for Boxing Day. Bargain.
Samsung QE55S95B 2022 QD-OLED TV was 2399 now £1199 at Amazon (save £1300)
Samsung's S95B QD-OLED is hugely popular and has been admirably heavily discounted since launch. In fact, its price has been fluctuating so wildly that it's been extremely hard to keep up.
The 55-inch model, while not currently at its very cheapest (which was £1059 back in November), is still a great deal at £1199 at Amazon.
Samsung UE43AU7100 2021 43-inch TV was £499 now £349 at John Lewis (save £150)
This is our favourite cheap TV of last year and it's still great. In fact, we used it as the benchmark for our Awards testing this year and it beat all of the newer models, including the Samsung BU sets we got in for consideration.
This isn't the very cheapest that the 43-inch AU7100 has been – it went as low as £269 in July this year and was £329 on Black Friday. It was £449 when we gave it five stars in our review, so at £349 it's a Boxing Day bargain.
JBL Flip 5: was £100 now £78 at Amazon
This JBL Bluetooth speaker earned five stars from us in the official What Hi-Fi? review, getting points for strong bass and timing, excellent acoustics, and PartyBoost stereo pairing. While the newer Flip 6 might be better, the Flip 5 now can be had for even cheaper thanks to the newer version's release, and it's still an excellent speaker.
Coming packed with Bluetooth 4.2, up to 12hrs of battery life, and IPX7 waterproofing, the Flip 5 makes for a full-featured Bluetooth speaker that's also excellent in terms of portability, thanks to its lightweight build and wrist strap. If you're in the market for a Bluetooth speaker, check out the Flip 5.
Bose QuietComfort 45: was £320 now £215 at Amazon
Bose's QuietComfort 45 headphones are some of the hottest out right now, and thanks to Amazon's Boxing Day deals, you can get yourself a pair for just £215, the lowest price we've seen for these cans yet. Cheaper than on Black Friday, even!
In our official review of the QC45, we gave these headphones four-stars and appreciated their effective ANC, awesome 24-hour battery life, and comfortable build. Put simply, these are well-made pair of headphones with some serious ANC chops, so if you're in the market for a pair, the QC45 is worth a look.
Boxing Day is in its final hours, but it isn't too late to grab an Award-winning 55-inch Sony OLED TV for under £1000.
The Sony XR-55A80J from 2021 is one of the cheapest OLEDs at this price around thanks to its 23 per cent Boxing Day discount, which sees it drop to just £998.
This fantastic five-star performer, which started life at £1899, is very much at the end of its shelf life now, so this could be one of your last opportunities to bag this super-sharp, detailed and well-featured set. And you won't be sorry you did.
Dali Spektor 1 compact, affordable speakers now £50 off
Dali's range of compact, affordable speakers - such as the Zensor, Lektor and Spektor ranges – have always delivered the goods over the years, especially with the five-star speakers from the Spektor range. The five-star Spektor 1s might be an old pair, but they deliver such a winning combination of size (petite) and sound (nuanced, entertaining and dynamic) that they're easy to recommend.
These are ideal for small spaces and tight budgets, and with £50 off the retail price at Richer Sounds and Peter Tyson, are an even better budget buy.
Save £500 on JBL L52 Classic speakers!
If you've loved the retro designs of the revived JBL Classic series of speakers, you're in luck: you can grab the JBL L52 speakers for just £499 – that's a whopping great £500 off the original price.
It's one of the biggest hi-fi savings we've come across during this Boxing Day sales, and it's worth considering. These four-star speakers are the younger sibling to the excellent, five-star L100 Classic, but the retro charms remain. Each speaker is barely bigger than a shoebox, but the presentation is full-bodied and enthusiastic, with plenty of punch and attack – if not the last word in refinement.
But with £500 off, they're well worth considering at this new £499 price – which is specifically for the finish with the black foam grilles.
The same £499 deal is also available at Peter Tysonon all foam grille colours, although those wanting the distinctive orange grilles will have to wait – it's available to order, although the stock date is TBC.
LG C2 OLED 48-inch: £1399 £899 at Amazon
If you're looking for a new TV, an LG C2 OLED is just about the best TV to spend your money on. What's more is that the 48-inch C2 OLED is now on sale at Amazon for just £899, down 36% from its original retail price of £1399.
We gave the C2 five-stars in our review, complementing its fantastic image quality, unbeatable gaming performance, and impressive audio. Put simply, whether you're watching a movie, playing a game, or listening to a YouTube video, you just can't go wrong with a C2 OLED, especially when it's on deep discount.
Sony 55-inch A95K QD-OLED down to lowest-ever price!
2022 was the year that a brand new TV technology arrived on the scene. QD-OLED has been created by Samsung to combine the perfect blacks and pixel-level contrast of OLED with the additional vibrancy and punch of quantum dots. It is, in a word, brilliant, and the very best example is the Sony A95K (which uses Samsung's QD-OLED panel).
In our review, which was conducted when the TV was priced at £2699, we declared the 55-inch A95K to be the new gold standard, and we still stand by that now. There are better performance-per-pound TVs out there, but if you want the very best picture performance regardless of price, the A95K is the TV to get. And the great news here is that it's just hit its lowest-ever price of £1999 (at Sevenoaks).
Sure, that's still a lot more than you'll pay for a 55-inch LG G2 OLED (currently £1299 at Sevenoaks) or Samsung S95B QD-OLED (£1199 at Amazon), but for the most demanding AV aficionado, the extra expense might just be worth it.
