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For the latest tech discounts check out our edit of the best Prime Day deals in 2021 - Amazon’s big sale is on now until Tuesday.
Amazon Prime Day is just around the corner, kicking off on Monday 21 June at 00.01 and running through to midnight on Tuesday 22 June. The sale will bring a whole bunch of deals, particularly on Amazon products, to the fore, getting you some of the best tech prices outside of Black Friday week sales. Not all of these deals are especially good though, and we’re here to help you with that. There's already some decent price cuts live on Amazon – and we’ve collated the actually good ones.
When Prime Day itself arrives, it might be a bit overwhelming. That’s why the WIRED Gear team will be checking every offer to see if it brings a true discount – not just a slightly discounted rate it has been before – so you actually get a deal.
Get a Prime membership: The first and most essential Prime Day tip is get an Amazon Prime membership. You’ll need one to access Prime Day deals and Amazon is, of course, offering up a 30-day free trial right now.
Check WIRED Recommends: Aside from that requirement, we'd say to go into Prime Day with a clear idea of what category or device you'd like to save money on. Check out our fully tested WIRED Recommends guides if you know what specs, features or price point you want but you're less set on the brand.
It's not just Amazon: Finally, you should bear in mind that Prime Day is an Amazon event but the discounts aren’t limited to its site. Many retailers, like Currys, John Lewis and Argos take the opportunity to offer their own discounts around Amazon Prime Day too – so keep an eye out on these too.
Not everyone wants, or needs, the wide range of features you get from an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy smartwatch – and most cost upwards of £200 too. Fitbit offers a ton of fitness tracking tech in a simple band and for under £100. You simply connect the Charge 4 to your phone via Bluetooth and you’re off to the races. The Fitbit will last up to 7 days and will track everything from your heart rate, GPS location to your sleep. While it may not be as complex as some rivals, you can still view notifications, the weather and set timers on this smart tracker too.
There’s a ton of options for decent wireless earbuds right now but Amazon’s own Echo Buds stand out for their low price and Alexa integration. Expectedly, you can use Alexa to control all your compatible devices, from music to making calls and setting reminders. There’s Bose Active Noise Reduction Technology on board too, for helping block out any pesky disturbances. You get a decent 5 hours of music playback, with a boost of up to 20 hours from popping them in the included charging case.
Laptops priced between £400 and £800 continues to get better and better – with plenty of plaudits owed to AMD Ryzen processors. The Asus VivoBook 15 comes equipped with AMD’s latest Ryzen 5000 series chips – with this model offering a Ryzrn 7 5700U processor alongside 512GB SSD and a whopping 16GB RAM. That’s a whole lot of power for such a low price. If you fancy something smaller and a bit cheaper, the excellent VivoBook 14 (£550) – offering the, still speedy, Ryzen 7 4700U chip and 8GB RAM – is discounted right now as well.
For many years, the Echo Dot has been one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get started with your smart home. The 4th generation is no different – enabling Alexa voice control for calls, music and podcasts to smart lighting, heating and more. This bundle offers £10 off on the total price if you’d buy these products separately – with the additional product being an Amazon Smart Plug, letting you turn products off and on through voice or on the Alexa app on your phone.
Steelseries is a good name in the gaming peripheral world and the Arctis Pro is its top-tier headset offering. This model will work with the PS5, PS4 or PC and offers Hi-Res Audio with a full frequency range. You also get a GameDAC to get you an uninhibited audio experience – with 112db of dynamic range. The headset had a sleek and luxurious look too, using polished steel and aluminium alloy. There’s comfort for hours on end with an elastic and velcro headband to help you get a snug fit.
Alexa voice commands are pretty useful but some things offer that extra bit of detail when presented on a screen – from the weather, setting multiple alarms, watching quick video clips to calendars and to-do lists. The small 5.5-inch display on the Echo Show 5 (1st gen) lets you do just that, with voice commands still built in too. While you won’t want to be watching three-hour-long epics like The Irishman, the screen does also give you the ability to watch some quick videos – think recipes or your favourite morning news show. Amazon has aimed to address some privacy concerns here as well, with a mic and camera off button along with a built-in camera cover. If you don’t mind spending a little extra, you can get the new 2nd gen Show 5 (£75) now too.
If you’ve ever thought about picking up an indoor security camera, the Blink Mini is a compact, cheap and simple device that’s worth a try: Blink is our WIRED Recommends top-rated budget security camera system. The Mini is 1080p, offers motion detection, Alexa integration and quickly connects to your Wi-Fi for a swift setup. You can view the goings-on in your home through the camera via the Blink app, which also lets you hear and speak from the Blink Mini. A Blink Subscription Plan lets you store video clips in the cloud, with a free trial up until September 2021 currently on offer.
iPads are great and all but not everyone wants to pay upwards of £300 on a tablet. This is where Amazon comes in with its cheap and cheerful Fire HD tablet range. The Fire HD 10 is Amazon’s 1080p 10.1-inch device – offering a simple to use and sturdy tablet for a more than reasonable price. It may not have the Google Play Store but you can get apps like BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Disney+ and more from the Fire HD 10.
Luxury televisions are ten a penny these days and the mid-range is even quite populated. However, finding a decent TV for under £300 can still be quite difficult. This Toshiba brings 4K, smart features and Freeview Play to a reasonably-sized 43-inch display. If you fancy going a bit bigger, you can opt for a discounted 50-inch model (£353) instead.
And, of course, there’s the Kindle app for reading all your favourite books – which is even easier to get into right now with a 30-day Kindle Unlimited free trial on offer (be sure to cancel before the end of the trial if you aren’t sticking around, to avoid paying £7.99 a month after the fact.) Audible, another Amazon-owned product, is also available on the Fire HD 10 and offers audiobooks, podcasts and more – it’s also available on a 30-day free trial right now.
🔊 All the early deals in the Amazon Prime Day sale 🔊
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
