Black Friday 2023 is finally here and we’re seeing some fiery deals on the top products from laptops to phones. But also, if you're someone looking to get into streaming or content creation in general, the best time to shop is Black Friday.
We've gathered a shortlist of all the starting tools you need to get that stream up and going and, more importantly, looking professional. Not everything here is essential, per se, but pick and choose wisely to create the brand you want to start.
Here are 5 Black Friday streaming deals you can get right now.
Gaming laptop: Lenovo Legion 5i Pro
First things first, if you don't have a gaming machine, you're going to have a hard time getting any serious streaming done. Professional streamers have two fully fleshed-out desktops -- one for playing and one for streaming, so we're gonna try to consolidate that into one machine for now. If you already have a gaming desktop or a gaming laptop, then you could potentially pick the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro up as an assist.
In our Lenovo Legion Pro 5i review, we gave the laptop 4 out of 5 stars. It had stellar performance for the price, and that was just an RTX 4060. For a similar price, you can get this deal with an Intel Core i7-13700HX processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. That'll be more than enough to crack through most modern AAA games.
We also complimented the Legion Pro 5i for its immersive 16-inch (2560 x 1600) 240Hz display and its great keyboard.
The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i won't make your streams pixel perfect, but it'll be just clean clean enough to bypass the "early days" phase that most content creators have to suffer through.
Microphone: Blue Yeti X
We're not going to throw you into the gauntlet with a $500 microphone -- we're not there just yet. For now, let's stick to USB microphones. Our favorite happens to be the Blue Yeti X.
The Blue Yeti X is an excellent USB microphone. It rocks a sleek design outfitted with colorful and customizable LEDs. The mic itself features a solid, four-capsule-condenser array backed by great audio software.
For a discount, it is worth the amount of improvements you get over its predecessor or other USB microphones in its class. The next upgrade from USB microphones are XLR microphones, and I'd avoid those for now unless you're comfortable spending triple the price. And that's not including the XLR cable and the mixer.
Camera: Razer Kiyo Pro Webcam
Again, cameras can get hella expensive, so instead of throwing $500 monstrosities at you, we recommend going with something simpler. My favorite 1080p pick is the Razer Kiyo Pro. You might've heard me complain about 1080p webcams before, but that's for laptops, I promise. I mean, do you see how big this thing is?
In my Razer Kiyo Pro review, you'll notice that I gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars. It might be lower than you'd expect for the avid recommendation I'm providing. It scored lower than it should have because at the time the Razer Kiyo Pro was $200. Now we're at a point where its so reasonably priced, it may as well be theft.
The Kiyo Pro has an adaptive light sensor that helps determine how bright or dark the image should be. There are also Wide, Medium and Narrow field-of-view options for the lens. Overall, the picture quality balances color and contrast very well.
Capture card: Elgato HD60 X
While you can stream PC games exclusively, there's a whole console ecosystem you'd be missing out on if you do. If you have your heart set on console streaming, we recommend picking up a capture card like the Elgato HD60 X.
Two HDMIs and a USB Type-C cable are all you need to start recording your PS5 or Xbox Series X gameplay. The Elgato HD60 X doesn't offer the highest next-gen frame rates, as it's capped at 60 fps/1080p or 30 fps/4K. However, with a high passthrough of 120 fps at 1080p and 60 fps at 4K, you won't lose out on your own quality while playing.
Besides, 60 fps/1080p and 30 fps/4K are more than enough to get you started. Twitch actually recommends users to stream at 720p. Most people don't watch streams at high resolutions because it takes a lot of bandwidth to sustain, which most people don't have.
Light: Razer Ring Light
A good camera can only get you so far. In fact, the poorest cameras can always be enhanced by great lighting. And since we're going with the Razer Kiyo Pro, let's keep it in the family with the Razer Ring Light (which is Digital Camera World's best ring light).
The Razer Ring Light is perfectly designed for the Razer Kiyo Pro, so you don't have to worry about compatibility. But it can also hold up phones as well as any camera that takes a 1/4-inch mount.
The LED bulb produces 500 lumens of brightness and its color can be adjusted to 3000K, 4500K, 6500K (Warm White, Balanced White, Cool White). It's also dimmable from 10 to 100%, so you don't have to blind yourself while recording. And since the tripod height ranges from 15.8 to 53.2 inches, there's plenty of room to work with.
