Black Friday is loud in every direction. Every banner screams “lowest price ever,” every retailer claims the best AirPods or Mac deal, and it is very easy to spend a lot of money without actually improving your daily Apple life.

In this guide, I want to help you take a more focused, intentional approach. We will walk through a simple way to think about Apple Black Friday deals in 2025, and then I will show you two specific Amazon deals that line up nicely with that strategy.

You can treat this as a filter. Instead of trying to memorize every price, you get a short list of questions to ask, plus a couple of examples that show what a strong deal looks like for an Apple-focused setup.

How Apple Black Friday usually works in 2025

If you follow the Apple news sites, you probably saw the same pattern this year. The big headlines are all about Black Friday discounts on Apple gear, especially AirPods, Macs, and Apple TV hardware.

Apple’s own store tends to be the most conservative. You might see gift card promotions or modest discounts on certain models, but the deeper cuts usually come from retailers like Amazon and Best Buy. Amazon in particular has been aggressive with AirPods and Mac mini pricing this week, which is why it is such a central part of this guide.

There are three broad patterns that matter for you:

1. Accessories move the most.
   Headphones, chargers, and small accessories are where you see the biggest percentage discounts, especially on Amazon. Current-generation AirPods models are front and center in a lot of deal roundups, with price drops that are meaningful compared to their launch prices.
   
2. Base Macs and iPads see targeted cuts.
   Deals on Macs and iPads tend to focus on a few specific configurations. You will often see a couple of “hero” models discounted harder than the rest, usually the ones that are easiest to stock and promote.
   
3. Streaming and services get bundled.
   Some deals tie Apple TV hardware or other streaming boxes into offers where Apple TV+ or other services are effectively free for a few months. Even if you are not shopping for a new device, it is worth watching for offers that give you content for little or no extra money.

The point is not to chase every flash sale. The goal is to make a short list of things that actually improve your daily Apple life, then see if Black Friday pricing turns any of those into an easy yes.

A simple checklist before you buy anything

Before we zoom in on specific products, here is a quick checklist you can run through in your head for any Apple-related Black Friday deal:

1. Does this solve a problem you already feel?

Maybe your current earbuds feel uncomfortable, your Mac storage is cramped, or you are constantly juggling chargers in your bag. If a deal does not line up with a real friction point, it is just a shiny object.

2. Is this the right generation and spec, not just the right brand?

For Apple gear, it is common to see older models discounted heavily next to the latest generation. That is not automatically bad, but you want to understand what you are trading away. With AirPods, for instance, newer models bring features like Adaptive Audio and better noise cancellation that may matter to you more than a slightly lower price on an older pair.

3. Are you buying storage the smart way?

On the Mac side, internal storage upgrades are still expensive. A Black Friday discount on a portable SSD can sometimes give you more practical storage for the money than stepping up to a higher internal capacity Mac.

4. Is the seller trustworthy and the return window generous?

On Amazon, check that the listing is sold by Amazon or a clearly identified brand store, not a random third-party seller with no history. A good return window gives you room to change your mind if something does not fit your workflow or expectations.

5. Decide on a budget before you open the Amazon tab.

This sounds simple, but it stops a lot of impulse buys. Decide in advance whether this is the year you upgrade headphones, add external storage, or pick up a new streaming box. Once that decision is made, it becomes much easier to ignore deals that do not fit your plan.

With that lens in place, we can look at two deal picks that fit nicely into an Apple-heavy setup.

Deal pick 1: AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation

If you use an iPhone, iPad, or Mac every day, a solid pair of wireless earbuds is one of the easiest ways to make your whole Apple setup feel more flexible. AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation are a strong example of a Black Friday deal that lines up with real-world use, not just a headline.

These are the AirPods 4 that include ANC and Adaptive Audio, so they can reduce a lot of ambient noise and dynamically blend in the outside world when that makes more sense. The H2 chip handles audio processing, which helps with both sound quality and power efficiency.

On the lifestyle side, they are built for the way people actually use Apple devices now. You can go from a podcast on your iPhone to a FaceTime call on your Mac to a movie on your iPad without re-pairing every time, thanks to features like automatic device switching. Personalized Spatial Audio can make shows and music feel more anchored and immersive, especially when you are watching on an iPad or MacBook.

This AirPods 4 model also includes a USB-C charging case, which simplifies cables if you already live in the USB-C world with a recent Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Battery life can reach up to around 30 hours with the case in the mix, depending on how you balance ANC and listening volume, which is plenty for flights, commutes, and long calls.

As Black Friday 2025 rolls through, Amazon is pushing notable price cuts on these earbuds compared to their normal street price. That kind of discount on a current-generation Apple audio product is exactly the sort of thing worth prioritizing if you were already thinking about upgrading earbuds this year.

Use this link to get the Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DGJ7HYG1?tag=nextlevelmac-20&gbOpenExternal=1

Deal pick 2: Samsung T9 Portable SSD 2TB for your Mac

Storage is not glamorous, but it does a lot to shape how your Mac actually feels day to day. If your internal SSD is constantly near its limit, apps slow down, file management gets stressful, and you end up offloading things to cloud services that may or may not be convenient when you are offline.

A good portable SSD fixes a lot of that in one shot. The Samsung T9 Portable SSD 2TB is a compact drive that hits a sweet spot for many Mac users during Black Friday 2025. It is small enough to slip into a pocket or bag without adding much weight, but it gives you a large amount of fast external storage in one unit.

On the technical side, the T9 supports USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 and is rated for sequential read speeds up to 2,000 MB per second, which is more than fast enough for things like editing large photo libraries, keeping a chunk of your games off your internal drive, or carrying a separate work archive.

It is also built with drop resistance in mind and is designed to work across platforms, so you can use it with macOS, Windows, and some tablets. For many people, that means one small drive that covers a home Mac, a work PC, and maybe even a USB-C iPad when you are traveling.

Compared to paying for a higher-capacity internal SSD in a new Mac, grabbing a portable drive like this during Black Friday often gives you more flexibility for less total money. If you are already seeing “disk almost full” warnings on your Mac, this kind of upgrade is usually a better first step than replacing the whole machine.

Where you can purchase the Samsung T9 Portable SSD 2TB for your Mac and other devices: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHFS9K14?tag=nextlevelmac-20&gbOpenExternal=1

How to sanity-check any Apple Black Friday deal on Amazon

Even if neither of those specific products is on your personal list, you can use the same approach for whatever you are eyeing. Here is a quick way to sanity-check any Apple-related deal you see on Amazon this week.

1. Look past the percentage and focus on the final number.

“40 percent off” sounds impressive, but what matters is the actual price you pay relative to normal street pricing. If a “deal” only brings the price back to where it was a few months ago, you can treat it as a normal sale, not a once-a-year opportunity.

2. Check the configuration, not just the product family.

For Macs and iPads, the full name matters. An M-series Mac mini with 512 GB of storage is a very different purchase than a base configuration model with half that space, even if they are both labeled “Mac mini” in the Black Friday banner. Make sure the RAM and storage numbers match your needs before you get excited about any discount.

3. Make sure the product fits the rest of your Apple setup.

With AirPods, you want USB-C charging if your other gear has moved to USB-C. With portable SSDs, you want a USB-C cable that is long enough to sit where you want it when your Mac is on a stand or dock. With Apple TV hardware, you want to be sure your TV supports the features you care about, like 4K HDR.

Taking a moment to visualize where the product sits in your daily setup will often reveal whether you are solving a real problem or just chasing a headline.

4. Pay attention to warranty and support.

For Apple hardware sold on Amazon, check that you are getting full Apple warranty coverage and that the seller is either Amazon itself or an official Apple storefront. For third-party accessories, look for a clear warranty statement from the manufacturer. Saving a little money is not worth it if support is a question mark.

Bringing it all together

If you strip away the chaos of Black Friday, the logic for Apple fans is straightforward.

You start with the parts of your Apple life that feel cramped or annoying right now. You keep an eye on current-generation gear that solves those problems without awkward compromises. Then you watch for moments, like this Black Friday, when Amazon and other retailers temporarily push those products to prices that make sense.

AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation are a good example of that in the audio world. The Samsung T9 Portable SSD 2TB is a good example on the storage side. They both solve clear problems, they both fit neatly into an Apple-heavy setup, and they both benefit from the kind of Black Friday discounting that makes them easier to justify.

If you use that same lens on the rest of the Black Friday flood of deals, you end up with a much shorter list of things to consider and a much smaller chance of buyer’s remorse when the sales banners disappear.