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Get a 39-inch LED HDTV for $199.99

It's Black Tuesday! How else to explain such an impossibly good deal on such a spacious TV?

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
2 min read

sceptre-x409bv-fhdr-angled.jpg
Sceptre

Is it Black Friday already? Oh, right, every day is Black Friday. If you need proof, look no further than this amazing deal, which comes to us on a Tuesday. In October.

For a limited time, and while supplies last, Amazon has the Sceptre X409BV-FHDR 39-inch LED HDTV for $199.99, shipped. This model normally sells for at least $40 more, and shipping (for any TV) will often bump the price even higher. (The less said about sales tax, which most Amazon customers won't need to pay, the better.)

Is it superslim? No. Is it Internet-enabled and stocked with apps? No. Does it have a sky-high refresh rate? No, and thank goodness for that: Any TV that ventures above 60Hz invariably produces that horrendous soap-opera effect.

What you have here, then, is a 39-inch 60Hz display with LED backlighting, 1080p resolution, and three HDMI ports. In other words, the basics, at a price that used to get you a mere 32-inch screen.

There's not much more I can tell you, except to point you toward the mostly favorable user reviews -- not just here, but also at Newegg and Walmart. One common gripe: the speakers, which appear to be terrible. Point of order: All HDTV speakers are terrible. Fortunately, there's a cheap and easy fix for that.

I don't know how long these will last at this price (if Amazon runs out, don't be surprised to suddenly see a higher price from a third-party seller). But if you're looking for a decent-size TV and don't want to wait for

(and stand in line for hours), consider taking action.

Bonus deal: Anker's five-port USB charger is a permanent fixture on my kitchen counter. Not the old one, but the newer model with "PowerIQ," which automatically identifies each connected device and adjusts its power output accordingly. For a limited time, and while supplies last, Newegg has the Anker 40W five-port desktop USB charger for $19.99, shipped. That's after applying coupon code EMCWPHW27 at checkout. Having perused the user reviews, I do have concerns about the failure rate -- but my unit has been humming along fine since January. YMMV. (A safer bet might be this Orico desktop charger for $23.99, which has much better reviews.)