Welcome to the weekend, friends! We’re still in a bit of a deals lull before the Presidents Day and V-Day sales begin, the bulk of which we anticipate kicking off the first week of February. However, for now, we’re still seeing some solid discounts on a few newer gadgets and some old, Verge-approved favorites. Anker’s Nano Travel Adapter has returned to its best price to date, for instance, as has Samsung’s last-gen Frame TV. You’ll also find discounts on microSD Express cards, budget-friendly robot vacuums, and more, so let’s get into it.

If you have plans to spend some time outside of the US this year, Anker’s versatile Nano Travel Adapter is on sale at Amazon in black and white — and directly from Anker with code WS7DV21AXQQZ — for $19.99 ($6 off), matching its lowest price to date.

Anker’s thin, foldable charger measures a mere 0.98 inches thick and sports a pair of USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, and a US-style Type A outlet on the front, in addition to four plug types (Type A, C, G, and I). The main drawback, aside from the lack of a voltage converter, is that the maximum power output is 20W (or 15W when sharing power across all four USB ports), meaning you’ll need to bring another adapter if you want to charge a laptop or any other power-hungry device.

It’s been nearly eight months since the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 — meaning, if you haven’t already purchased a microSD Express card to level up your storage capacity of your console, you’ll likely need to do so soon. Fortunately, Samsung’s P9 microSD Express card is currently on sale at Amazon and B&H Photo with 256GB of storage starting at $39.99 ($15 off), matching its second-best price to date.

As you might expect, P9 is built to handle the Switch 2’s faster storage speeds, with sequential read speeds of up to 800 MB/s, resulting in quicker load and launch times. The Switch 2 features 256GB of internal storage, meaning you’re doubling your storage capacity with a 256GB card, or tripling it in the case of Samsung’s 512GB variant. Most first-party Nintendo games aren’t massive, mind you, but third-party titles like Split Fiction (69GB) and Madden NFL 26 (59GB) can quickly devour dozens of gigabytes. That makes picking up a discounted microSD Express card a no-brainer, especially since they’re also compatible with cameras, drones, and any gadget with a microSD USH-I slot.

I hate to break it to you, but so-called “art TVs” are not exceptional TVs, at least not in a traditional sense. Still, Samsung’s 2025 Frame TV — which is on sale at Woot in its 43-inch configuration starting at $597.99 ($302 off) through January 31st — is likely to look far better in your living room when idle than your typical LCD or OLED TV.

Samsung’s last-gen 4K TV is vastly different than the company’s 2026 panels, either. The slim QLED display can cycle through a small selection of free art pieces when idle, all of which take on a more textured, canvas-like appearance thanks to an anti-glare matte coating that helps curb unwanted reflections. The Frame is plenty good enough for bingeing Slow Horses and Stranger Things, even if the refresh rate is capped at 60Hz, and you still get support for both HDR10 Plus and Dolby Atmos, along with access to all your favorite streaming apps.

DJI’s drones might have been banned in the United States, but you can still pick up some of the company’s other gear stateside (at least for now). Take DJI’s Mic Mini, for instance, which is currently on sale at Amazon with a single mic and two transmitters for $59.99 ($20 off), matching the record-low first set during this time last year.

If you want to capture audio that sounds more professional than your smartphone can deliver on the go, the Mic Mini is a commendable option. The compact, 10-gram wireless microphone plugs directly into your phone via USB-C, Lightning, or a standard 3.5mm audio cable, and it can be clipped to clothing or worn using a magnetic mount or lanyard. The receiver lasts up to 10.5 hours and includes an onboard dial, which lets you fine-tune gain settings and adjust your volume levels. The pair of included transmitters, meanwhile, can run for up to 11.5 hours on a single charge and capture audio from up to about 400 meters away, provided they’re connected simultaneously.

Just don’t expect built-in backup recording or the option to connect a smaller lav mic, neither of which is available on the Mic Mini.

More ways to save this weekend

A dishwasher is a luxury item some people can’t live without. It’s one of the first major kitchen devices I bought just as soon as I could afford one. And now that the kids are grown, it’s the appliance I thought I’d miss most in my nomadic vanlife pursuits.

Loch sent me its $459.99 / €459.99 countertop Capsule dishwasher to review in a tiny home on a remote beach and inside a van on a two-month roadtrip. It’s an excellent product that washes and dries two place settings quickly at bacteria-killing temperatures up to 75 degrees Celsius (167F) in as little as 20 minutes. It’ll even kill bacteria and neutralize viruses on your gadgets with a waterless blast of UV-C light. Hoozah!

What I learned during this review has less to do with the device’s limitations, and more my own. Turns out that I’m willing to do a lot of dishes by hand when faced with resource scarcity, be that space, energy, water, time, or money; and I’m unwilling to become a germaphobe despite claims that cellphones are 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat.

The Loch Capsule looks clean and minimalistic on a kitchen counter, in my opinion. And while the exterior is plastic, the tub is made of stainless steel, unlike most countertop dishwashers. This differentiator improves drying speed, durability, and hygiene, while helping to keep odors under control.

The unit is tall and deep enough to accommodate large dinner plates and pans that won’t typically fit inside a short and stout countertop machine. It measures 46.5 x 26.2 x 51.5cm (18.3 x 10.3 x 20.3 inches) giving it a narrow footprint and internal volume of about 30 liters. The integrated handle makes carrying the 12kg (26.4lb) dishwasher relatively easy.

If you’re making all your meals at home then you’ll probably only need to run it once per day for a single-person household, or twice for two persons based upon my experience. It comes with an external clean water tank so it can be used anywhere you have access to power and H₂O. No plumbing’s required, but a hook-up is available should you tire of refilling the tank.

Setting it up is pretty straightforward. In most scenarios, you’ll plug into the wall for power, attach and fill the fresh water tank, and run a second hose from the dishwasher to the sink to dispose of the wastewater. In my van, where I had limited space for the Capsule, I had to install it in my “garage” connected to the optional waste water tank since the 1.2m/3.94ft hose was too short to reach my sink.

The glowing white display is covered in capacitive buttons that still respond to touches when my fingers are wet. The look is warm and friendly, but operation is loud, like most countertop dishwashers, something you’ll have to consider for a device meant to be used in small spaces. I measured about 56dB max from one meter. That’s much louder than my own built-in dishwasher, which operates at 38dB. The sound intensity also varies as the water whooshes and the pump vibrates. In other words, it won’t double as a white noise machine while you sleep, if that’s what you’re hoping for.

The Capsule can also wash gadgets and fruit. The basket fits about seven apples, which take eight minutes to wash, or 12 in total if you add UV cleaning. A waterless UV mode can be used to kill surface bacteria on baby bottles and personal devices like phones and earbuds using medical-grade UV-C light.

Loading dishes into the Capsule can feel like playing expert-level Tetris. The first time I tried, it took me about five minutes to load 18 items into that small cavity. Now it takes about a minute or two, while filling and emptying the clean and dirty water containers takes another few minutes. An optional $19 “dual tray” shelf can be placed at the bottom to make space for a large pot, or at the top where it can fill any available free space to wash silverware or other small, flat items.

Several cleaning modes are available, from a 15-minute Meal Wash all the way up to a 152-minute Intensive Clean. I found the 15-minute mode to work so well that I didn’t need to resort to the longer cycles, so long as I didn’t burn anything or wait until the next day to start a wash.

To test, I loaded the Capsule with all the mess produced at breakfast and lunch by two people, including two 10.5-inch plates covered in bacon grease, silverware covered in peanut butter, a milky yogurt bowl, espresso cups, a juice glass, a chef’s knife, tongs, and a sport bottle. And while the diameter of my 12-inch pan does fit inside the Capsule, its handle does not, contrary to Loch’s claim, so I had to handwash it. (My 10-inch pan with 8-inch handle just fits, but the angle doesn’t leave room for much else.)

Everything came out clean, hot to the touch, and mostly dry in the 15-minute Meal Wash mode, on par with my much larger built-in machine. I was impressed. The cycle used 2.5 liters (0.66 gallons) of water and consumed between 220Wh and 300Wh in my repeated tests, with power usage peaking at around 900W. The 15 minute wash cycle actually takes between 20 and 25 minutes to complete. The most intensive wash mode ran for 2 hours and 28 minutes, and consumed 420Wh and almost 4 liters of water.

For comparison, when applying my hippie-approved vanlife dishwashing technique to the same dishes with the same mess, I was able to wash and dry everything – including the 12-inch pan – in just six minutes from one liter of water and zero power consumed. This approach involves wiping everything off with a used paper towel or discarded food packaging, filling a bowl with unheated tap water, dipping in a soapy sponge and getting to work. Mind you, vanlife is less clean than regular life, but we haven’t died yet.

If I installed the Loch Capsule in my van I’d have to run the 15-minute mode twice each day to clean all the dishes my wife and I typically use. That’s about 500Wh and 5 liters of water a day — a 33.3 percent increase on my average daily energy usage and 100 percent increase in water consumption. I can’t justify that. This dishwasher is for rigs carrying a lot more water and battery power than I do, or anyone willing to frequently dock at serviced campsites.

Importantly, vanlifers don’t usually travel with full-sized dishes and pans. So, a more compact countertop dishwasher from companies like Comfee or Farberware that costs around $300 or below might be a better option. Loch does sell a Capsule Solo for $399.99 without the UV stuff and plumbing hookup. It’s otherwise the same dishwasher and currently on sale for $339.99.

Even inside a tiny house I find it hard to justify the $459.99 price tag of the Capsule, even at its sale price of $390.99, despite the surf shack’s ample supply of hot water and electricity. For one or two people, it’s just faster to wash the dishes myself and I don’t lose any precious space on top of the counter, or below it. And my freshly washed hands leave me little use for a UV blaster that kills bacteria that doesn’t pose a real threat anyway.

To justify buying a Loch Capsule dishwasher you, and at most one other household member, must really hate washing dishes, have ready access to water and power, and have almost no space but still use large pans and dishes. That’s a niche, but one that the Loch Capsule dishwasher fills admirably.

The Loch Capsule is an excellent countertop dishwasher with minor flaws – it’s just not for me.

Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge