The biggest and best of the summer sales is Amazon’s Prime Day event, which runs on July 16 and 17 this year. But you don’t necessarily need to wait to bag a bargain, because Amazon always lets a few tasty discounts slip the net to whet your appetite ahead of the main event. We have been keeping a close eye on what’s available to help you find the best early Prime Day deals worth your time and money.
With decades of experience in product testing, a host of price tracking tools at our disposal, and a long history of bringing you the best bargains, you can rely on WIRED to sift the fast-moving waters of Amazon’s river of deals to extract the gold. This Prime Day, we cut to the chase, only including deals at their best price ever (some may match previous deal prices, but we have not seen them cheaper). It’s also worth noting that many of these products will likely remain at these prices through Prime Day.
Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore for just $2.50 $1 per month for 1 year. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.
Prime Perks
Read our explainer on all the Amazon Prime perks you should be taking advantage of.
It may not be the best music streaming service, but Amazon Music Unlimited earned an honorable mention in our guide. Five months of free service for Prime members (three months for non-Prime members) will be enough to tempt some folks to try it. Amazon Music Unlimited gives you ad-free access to more than 100 million tracks in 16-bit, 44.1-kHz quality (24 bit, 192 kHz where available).
Easily the best audiobook service, Amazon’s Audible Premium Plus gives you access to a library of Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts, one credit per month to use on any audiobook title you fancy, and regular exclusive deals and discounts. Prime members can have three months for free right now (one month for non-Prime members), after which it costs $15 per month. The beauty is that you get to keep titles purchased with credits, even after the subscription ends.
Deals on Amazon Tech
The discounts on Amazon’s growing stable of devices are so frequent you should never pay full price. But the deepest discounts are reserved for Prime Day events, and this year is no exception. Here are a few early Amazon device deals you can snag right now.
Our favorite Amazon Fire tablet is also the best tablet you can get for under $200, so a big discount makes it pretty irresistible. We like the large screen, decent performance, and support for Alexa with Show Mode, which enables this tablet to double up as an Echo Show smart display. On the downside, you need to pay an extra $15 to get rid of ads on the lock screen, and it won’t run Google apps without a workaround.
If you like a portable tablet in an easy-to-manage size, the Fire HD 8 is the most affordable option worth considering. It offers solid performance, hands-free Alexa, stereo sound, USB-C, and nearly 12 hours of battery life. The 8-inch screen is not as big or as good as the HD 10, but it’s fine for the money. This was already the best-value Fire tablet and has been frequently discounted, but we have never seen it this low before.
As the current top Eero mesh system available, this is the cheapest we have seen the Max 7 (7/10, WIRED Review). This Wi-Fi 7 mesh opens up the 6-GHz band, alongside the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands we are used to. Wi-Fi 7 promises dramatic improvements in speed and stability, with capable devices able to join on multiple bands simultaneously. A two-pack will easily cover most homes, Eeros are backward compatible with earlier systems, and they are our top recommendation for smart homes. That said, it is early days for Wi-Fi 7, and even with the discount, this is an expensive mesh.
It’s still a bit early for most folks to consider Wi-Fi 7, but because Wi-Fi 7 systems are hitting the market, we are seeing rapidly falling prices on Wi-Fi 6E routers. The tri-band Eero Pro 6E (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of the best mesh systems, offering super speedy performance, 6-GHz Wi-Fi (with relatively short range), handy smart home hub functionality, and compatibility with other Eero devices. The Eero Plus subscription is pricey at $10 a month or $100 a year, but it adds tons of value with security, parental controls, VPN service, and a password manager. This is the cheapest price we have ever seen for the three-pack, enough to cover up to 6,000 square feet.
If you want some cheap security cameras for your property, this is a tempting price for a Blink Outdoor 4 and a Blink Mini 2 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). We haven’t yet tested the Outdoor 4, but the Mini 2 is one of our favorite indoor security cameras, featuring a compact design, clear 1080p footage at 30 frames per second, and two-way audio. The catch is that Blink cameras require a subscription at $10 a month or $100 a year for unlimited cameras to unlock 60-day unlimited cloud video history and on-device person detection.
Tech Deals
The LG C3 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is a truly excellent OLED television with top-notch contrast and shadow detail, deep and natural color reproduction, good brightness and HDR punch, a reflection-resistant screen, and impressive motion handling. We think it is the best TV for gamers, but it is kind of pricey. The price has been slowly falling, but this discount on the 77-inch model makes it more tempting than ever for folks seeking a home cinema setup. There are also discounts on the 65-inch and 83-inch models.
Prime members can snag a decent discount on one of the best portable power stations for camping or road trips. EcoFlow’s River 2 Pro has a LiFeP04 battery inside, good for 768 watt-hours. It has all the ports you need to charge small gadgets, and the X-Boost surge allows you to power small appliances. You can charge it from an outlet or solar panels, though it takes more than an hour, and the fan can get noisy.
You can simply stick this power bank onto the back of your MagSafe iPhone to top off its battery. With a large capacity of 10,000 mAh, this is one of the best MagSafe power banks we have tested. It will provide at least one full charge for any MagSafe iPhone. It has a soft-touch finish, gentle curves, a USB-C port, a power button, and three LEDs on the bottom edge. This power bank is frequently discounted, but this is as low as we have seen it go.
If you need a 3-in-1 charger for your iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch, this is one of the best MagSafe chargers you can buy. It’s perfect for travel because it folds to a very compact size. It can charge your iPhone or Qi2-certified phone at up to 15 watts on a magnetic pad that can adjust to your preferred angle. A second pad charges AirPods or other wireless earbuds, and there is a fold-out Apple Watch charger. A USB-C cable (around 5-foot) and a wall adapter are included.
Clip the on-page coupon to get the maximum deal price. This affordable security camera records decent-quality footage, has a starlight sensor that offers color night vision, microSD card support that goes up to 512 GB, and an IP66 rating, meaning it can be used outdoors. It also has smart detection (people, pets, and vehicles), offers 2K resolution, supports slightly laggy two-way audio, and has the optional Tapo Care subscription for 30 days of cloud storage from $3.50 per month. The more basic Tapo C110 is the best budget camera in our Best Indoor Security Vameras guide, but with the discount, you should pick the slightly superior C120 instead.
The original Sony LinkBuds (8/10, WIRED Recommends) featured a unique hole-in-the-middle design, making it easy to hear outside sounds like approaching cars or supermarket announcements. The newer S version has the same design, but they are a touch heavier, and Sony added active noise cancellation and better battery life. These are great for folks who prefer smaller earbuds, and they come with four different tips to help you get a good fit. The original version made our Best Wireless Earbuds guide.
If you hate having to charge your wireless gaming headset, the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless (10/10, WIRED Recommends) is for you. This headset can last a staggering 300 hours between charges. It also delivers rich, booming sound, comfortable ear cups, and intuitive controls. All that’s missing is a headphone jack. This headset has been discounted to around this price before but usually hovers around $170.
These teeny tiny trackers might be the best way to keep tabs on your keys or luggage if you are an iPhone owner. They are some of the best trackers around, if a little overpriced. Roughly the size of a quarter, they use Bluetooth and Apple’s special U1 location-finding chip to pinpoint locations in the Find My app.
This 11-inch AMOLED Android tablet (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is a powerful, slim slate with top-of-the-line specs, from the flagship-grade Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset to long-lasting battery life. It comes with the S Pen stylus, so you can sketch on it, and Android has improved enough that you can use it to get some light work done. Read our Best Tablets guide for more recommendations.
Home Deals
Lightweight and powerful, this cordless vacuum picked up everything from cereal to litter with one pass on its medium setting. It can also stand up on its own, which few cordless vacs can do. Hoover’s device topped our Best Cordless Vacuums guide for a while and is still there as a good midrange alternative. The battery life is a little disappointing, though you can always buy a spare to switch in. This is the lowest price we’ve ever seen for this vacuum.
Stylish and relatively compact, this is one of our favorite beard trimmers. It sports a digital display that shows the battery level as a percentage, boasts a long 120-minute battery life, and recharges in just one hour. WIRED contributor Andrew Williams found it excellent for sharp lines and a razor-like close shave across the neck. Philips recommends replacing the heads every four months, though you probably don’t have to. It’s not a huge discount, but we’ve only seen it slightly cheaper.
One of our favorite blenders, Breville’s the Super Q (8/10, WIRED Recommends), combines style and power, with handy presets, and a smoothie cup. Make soup, and you can heat it to an eating temperature with just the friction of the blades. It also works well as a spice mill or for making sauces. Whatever your blending needs, the Super Q has you covered. This blender is our pick if money is no object, but this is the deepest discount we have seen. If you’re tempted, now is the time to bite.
Ceramic hot plate pioneer GHD has turned out one of our favorite hair straighteners in the Chronos. It features 1-inch plates, a power button on the inside, and one temperature option—365 degrees Fahrenheit. GHD’s HD Motion-Responsive technology delivers even heat distribution based on your styling motion. WIRED reviewer Brenda Stolyar finished in under 10 minutes and said it left her hair feeling extremely healthy, frizz-free, and super shiny. We have not seen this discounted before.
If you need a new grill for the backyard this summer, this Weber model is our favorite gas grill because of its simplicity, build quality, even cooking temperatures, and easy-to-adjust burners. There is plenty of room for all your plates and platters, with side trays, and there are handy hooks for tongs and tools. It boasts solid porcelain-coated cast-iron grill grates, making clean-up relatively easy with a little soap and water. WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson’s favorite feature is the massive turn radius of the burner knobs, which makes it easy to dial in the perfect flame.
Capable of generating a range of white noise or fan sounds to help you slumber, the LectroFan Classic currently tops our Best Sound Machines guide. With a compact design (4 inches across and 2 inches tall), it is small enough to fit on the most crowded nightstand. You can switch easily between white noise and fan sounds with physical buttons, there’s a 60-minute timer, and you can crank it up to 85 decibels or keep the volume low. This sound machine sees frequent discounts, but $35 is a good price.
This is our top budget chair recommendation in our Best Office Chairs guide. It dips to this price fairly often but doesn’t go lower. It has a breathable mesh fabric on the back and the seat, plus it’s sturdy and has held up for several years of use.
More Amazon Prime Day Stories
Source link