Does Groupon have good deals on tech?

This Polaroid camera sells elsewhere for at least $50 more -- but are all Groupon tech deals this good?

(Credit: Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET)

I like Groupon. Oh, who am I kidding, I love Groupon. LivingSocial, too. And even DealChicken, despite it having the name DealChicken.

I've used these services to score some pretty fantastic deals on restaurants, vacations, fun family outings, and the like.

Recently, Groupon, Google Offers, and LivingSocial (among others) have started offering goods along with services, some of which are tech items.

Ah, but are those goods good deals? Given the often-substantial savings you get on three-course Italian dinners and gallery-wrapped photos canvases, you might just blindly assume that Groupon's tech discounts are equally substantial. (Call it the Costco effect: Shoppers instinctively believe the membership warehouse has the lowest prices on TVs, ink cartridges, laptops, etc. -- but that's rarely the case.)

Let's take a look at some of the current tech gadgets available from these sites and see how they rate.

First up, for the next two days, Groupon has the Sony Tablet S (16GB) for $299, plus $10 for shipping. Deal or no deal?

Verdict: average deal. J&R sel... [Read more]