We're on the precipice of a protracted global trade war, which could reverse a trend most of us have long taken for granted: That, over time, mainstream tech gear tends to get cheaper. The onset of tariffs, or even the mere threat of them, could upend the steady price decreases of everything from jumbo OLED TVs to Wi-Fi 7 routers.
With tariff uncertainty ruling the day, savvy tech enthusiasts have little choice but to do what they've always done: Be ready to snap up hidden bargains on cool products. Of course, you must know where to look—and that's where we can help.
Behold our ultimate budget-tech shopping guide, backed by PCMag's world-beating corpus of reviews. Some of our favorite products and services—out of the more than 1,500 that we review every year—are completely free. Others do far more than you’d expect for their bargain-basement prices. We’re not talking about bandwidth-limited VPNs or $50 printers that require many times that in yearly ink costs (though we review those, too). We perk up when we find products that deliver both performance and value. Elegance and affordability. Features and frugality.
Below, check out our current favorite value buys across all the categories we test: from hardware to software, home entertainment to health, beefy desktop PCs to slim smartphones. Keep this list of the latest bargains on your radar. (On the flip side, if you're ready to splurge, also check out the absolute best products we've tested, regardless of cost, and our latest winners of PCMag's Editors' Choice award.)