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Another Amazon Prime Day sale, you say? No, don’t call it Prime Day Part 2. This one has been dubbed the Prime Early Access Sale. Whatever the name, the game is the same, and the WIRED team has sifted through all the deals—the good, the bad, and the unmissable. We’re not into Day 2 of the PEAS (great acronym, right?) and the discounts are still rolling in. These are our top picks from the likes of Samsung, Microsoft, Razer, Google, and more.
The WIRED Gear team tests products year-round. We sorted through hundreds of thousands of deals by hand to make these picks. Crossed-out products are out of stock or no longer discounted. Our Amazon Prime Day coverage page and our Prime Day Shopping Tips will help you avoid bad deals. Check out our live blog to find the best Lightning Deals. You can also get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 here.
Updated October 11, 2022: We’ve added more deals, like the Insta360.
Table of Contents
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The Surface Laptop range may not be as stylish as some of the brand’s flashy, flexible, transforming sets, but most people just need a laptop. This is our pick for the best Surface for most people. Microsoft’s flagship laptop is now under $1,000 and offers 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD storage. It’s worth bearing in mind, though, that Microsoft has a Surface hardware event this week where we could see a successor.
This MacBook Pro model received a strong review (8/10, WIRED Recommends). We like it for its high-end performance, stunning display, premium build quality, and the welcome return of MagSafe. This isn’t a great deal, but you might be buying one anyway.
In our Best Macbooks guide, we recommend this larger Pro version for its big and bright display and boosted battery life. It’s a great on-the-go powerhouse that’s great for editing and 3D work. It’s pleasingly reduced to just over $2000 in this Prime sale.
The first M1 MacBook Air (9/10, WIRED Recommends) was a revelation. The new device brought Arm to Apple’s laptops and it offered up a fanless design while still managing strong productivity performance as well as top battery. It’s now under $800.
We really like the AMD version (8/10, WIRED Recommends) of this laptop, and the Intel model offers much the same. With an 11th-gen Intel Core i7 chip, 8 GB of RAM, 512-GB SSD, and Thunderbolt 4, it’s a great productivity combo for hybrid workers or students. The OLED display is bright and crisp too.
Many MacBooks still feature a limited number of ports, and this is a great add-on to expand your connectivity horizons. You’ll find 2x USB-C ports, 2x USB-A ports, 1x HDMI port, 1x SD card slot, 1x MicroSD slot, and a Lightning (audio) port here, all for just $50 at the moment.
You might not have thought about the idea of including an SSD in your dongle, but it’s a great way to kill two birds with one stone. The adapter itself only features 2x USB-A ports, 1x USB-C, and a 4K HDMI, but the main attraction is the ability to add an M.2 SATA SSD for easy on-the-go storage.
This is one of LG’s latest and greatest laptops, sporting a shiny new 12th-gen Intel chip. The 16-inch version of this device sits in our Best Laptops guide. The Gram range prides itself on being supremely light and, as it’s the smallest version, you’ll barely notice this machine in your bag. The rest of the specs include 16 GB of RAM and a 512-GB SSD, a strong combo for serious productivity.
The Acer Nitro 5 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has long been one of the best cheap gaming laptops around, offering a great screen and typing experience for a reasonable price. This model packs a punch in a simple build. There are plenty of ports too. At under $800, it’s hard to find a better performance-to-value ratio elsewhere.
If you got used to more than one display while WFH-bound during the pandemic but are now required to be on the go once again, a slim portable monitor is a great option. This model (featured in our Work From Home guide) is a bit plasticky and the display is a little weak. But its reasonably priced, super compact, and has a convenient kickstand.
This is one of our favorite laptop stands and it’s a versatile option, allowing you to work from a bed or couch. Our reviewer noted the ability to adjust part of the stand to a suitable angle while the offer section can stay nice and flat for note-taking or a hot morning coffee.
This laptop from Acer is delightfully sleek but manages to keep the price down. The Swift 3 comes with a high-end 11th Gen Core i7 chip, 8 GB of RAM, and a 256-GB SSD, a lot of horsepower at this low price. We were impressed by the battery life here too, as well as a good selection of ports.
With consoles like the Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam Deck around, gaming laptops can look pretty expensive. But if you want strong PC specs and a great display in a portable package, they remain the only option. This Dell G15 offers all of this at almost $300 off. It packs in one of Intel’s latest gaming chips alongside 16 GB of RAM, a 512-GB SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, which is an ideal combo for mid-tier PC gaming.
If you want a cheap laptop with some added flexibility, this 14-inch Pavilion machine from HP is an appealing option. With this sale’s discount, you get a strong 11th-Gen Intel Core i5, 8 GB of RAM, and a 256-GB SSD. It’s a good combo for productivity users, such as students. The 360-hinge makes watching videos on this laptop a bit more comfortable too.
Many gaming laptops, even those you’d classify as entry-level, can creep over the $1,000 mark. Thankfully, this HP Victus is well under that. This model gets you an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H chip, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050Ti, 16 GB of RAM, and a 512-GB SSD. And it’s all in an understated package that doesn’t scream “gamer.”
If you’re after a large Fire tablet, this is the one. This 10-inch machine (7/10, WIRED Recommends) comes with a 1080p display and can be made more smart home-friendly with Show Mode. There is also the Fire HD 10 Plus for $105 ($75 off) if you’re after the most powerful Amazon tablet.
Chromebooks may be slated as devices for light web work, but there are plenty of folks who’ll want to push them hard. For that, the IdeaPad Flex 5i is our top choice for a ChromeOS powerhouse in our Best Chromebooks guide. The Intel Core i3 and 8 GB of RAM are more than enough to get a lot of performance from a Chromebook, with options for lower-powered Celeron chips and often 4 GB of RAM. The display also offers an anti-glare finish to dodge any pesky reflections.
The Combo Touch from Logitech is compatible with a variety of 11-inch iPad Pro generations. It’s one of our favorite ways to get some light work done because it adds a keyboard and a trackpad. Not only is the case slim and the keys pleasing to type on, but the keyboard can also be removed when you don’t need it, keeping the iPad Pro’s supreme portability intact.
The 2022 iPad Air (8/10, WIRED Recommends) now packs an M1 processor, the very same one powering the iPad Pro and the MacBook Air, making this hands down the most powerful tablet for the money. This is the lowest price we’ve seen yet.
This is a good deal on our current favorite iPad for most people. In fact, it’s the lowest price we’ve seen. That said, Apple has updated the iPad around this time of year for the past three years. There could be a new model out soon, one that could be on sale for Black Friday.
Amazon recently debuted a new Fire HD 8 that is available for preorder. But if you’re in the market for a cheap tablet, this 2020 model is still a good deal. The travel-friendly size, reasonably powerful processor, and USB-C make the Fire HD 8 series nearly as capable as their larger siblings. The Fire HD 8 is portable enough to take with you anywhere, and its screen won’t torture your eyes when you watch Netflix. You can even use our guide to install the Google Play Store, which makes it much more capable than it is out of the box.
The revamped iPad Mini (8/10, WIRED Recommends) brought slim bezels and boosted performance to Apple’s small tablet. There’s also convenient Touch ID, USB-C charging, a front camera with Apple’s Center Stage, and support for the second-gen Apple Pencil.
Photograph: Google
The Google Pixel 6A (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is our favorite Android phone, and it also earned our top pick as the Best Cheap Phone. This deal is the lowest we’ve seen. Even when it’s not on sale, the Pixel 6A offers incredible value, with great performance, excellent cameras, impressive battery life, and a nice display. If you’re in the market for a new smartphone, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better deal than this. The Pixel 6 Pro is also discounted to $649 ($250 off) if you want a bigger device and better cameras.
This is the lowest price we’ve ever seen on the S22 Ultra (9/10, WIRED Recommends). This device has an S Pen built in, so it’s great for doodling or writing notes. It also has a 10x optical zoom camera, so you can take stunningly sharp pictures from far away.
This charger is the runner-up for our favorite Apple 3-in-1 wireless chargers. It’s a compact and convenient design for topping up your devices overnight (or anytime, to be honest). It’s got a stylish look too.
It costs a fortune. But it folds! And believe it or not, that extra screen real estate really is nice. Android 12L also makes life on a bigger screen easier, thanks to its improved multitasking. The battery life is good, and you get a bright, smooth screen—no crease on the fold.
The smaller of Samsung’s folding phones, the Z Flip4 feels like a “normal” phone when it’s unfolded, but fold it up and it’ll slip into some small pockets. It’s almost like a StarTak, but with a real screen. The battery will get you through the day, but not much longer. Still, if you’ve been wanting a folding phone, this deal is the cheapest we’ve seen.
Anker’s MagGo range is tremendously convenient for iPhone owners and this charger is not different. It’s one of our top MagSafe accessories. Not only does the stand charge your AirPods and iPhone, but the power bank can be detached and taken with you. It has a larger top up than Apple’s own MagSafe pack and at a cheaper price.
This OnePlus phone (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is speedy, and it has a bright 120-Hz screen refresh rate and a pretty good software support window. Its cameras are not as good as the likes of the Pixel 6 or Galaxy S22. It’s worth noting that this is still more expensive than the newly announced Google Pixel 7.
TVs of this high caliber (8/10, WIRED Recommends) don’t come cheap, but this is a pretty significant discount for one of the best TVs you can buy for bright rooms. If you’ve got a big family and a home with plenty of windows, this might be the move. It also has a 120-Hz refresh rate for gamers looking to get the most out of their consoles.
The A80J is an OLED variation of one of our best TV picks, the X80J. Sony’s TV offers Google TV, Dolby Vision HDR, and Alexa compatibility. For PS5 owners, there’s HDMI 2.1 onboard, letting you get the best out of your console.
Amazon’s most powerful streaming stick boasts a speedy user interface, improved Wi-Fi 6, as well as support for Dolby Vision, HDR, and HDR10+. Expectedly, you can control Alexa supported devices right from this remote as well as featuring your favorite apps like Netflix, Disney+, and more.
This TCL model is a bigger and newer version of our favorite entry-level device. It offers AMD FreeSync, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and Roku TV OS. We like the smaller model for its surprisingly deep contrast and easy-to-use remote.
This Dolby Atmos-enabled soundbar allows you to get pretty immersive sound from a single unit, thanks to speakers that bounce sound off your walls and ceiling. This speaker previously cost upwards of $300, and the reduced price from one of our top-rated audio brands is an intriguing proposition.
If you’re looking to upgrade your TV setup, one of our favorite soundbars is now under $200. The Signa S4 is our top package if you want to grab both a soundbar and a subwoofer. The combo offers Dolby Atmos and HDMI ARC, as well as customization modes to get the right vibe. The addition of a subwoofer makes this ideal for when you want big sound, whether it’s a house party or your fave action flick.
This is a top pick in our Best Noise-Canceling Headphones guide. The digital signal processing and advanced microphone array do a stellar job of blocking out noise and homing in on your voice. They’re also extremely comfortable and offer strong battery life. Like many top wireless noise-cancelers, they don’t come cheap, so getting more than $100 off is a great deal.
The recently released AirPods Pro 2nd Gen (9/10, WIRED Recommends) are already discounted. We gave them a top review for the comfortable design, enhanced noise cancelation, improved charging case, and a strong overall sound.
These are our best noise-canceling headphones under $100, with strong hybrid NC and up to 40-hour playtime. The sound is delivered via 40-mm silk diaphragm drivers. At this low price, they are admittedly a little fragile, so you’ll have to treat them carefully.
The new AirPods Pro may have changed the game a bit but, upon the release of the Beats Fit Pro (9/10, WIRED Recommends), our review called them “Apple’s best earbuds ever.” They received this acclaim for their excellent battery life, impressive sound, useful physical controls, and great range of colors.
If you’re after the best overall headphones, stick with Sony. The WH-1000XM5 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) sound amazing, have great noise cancellation, and are just plain comfortable to wear.
Google’s latest wireless earbuds got a stellar review from WIRED associate editor Parker Hall (9/10, WIRED Recommends), with the Buds Pro getting props for comfort, great sound, seven hours of battery life with active noise cancellation (ANC), and pricing that’s now even further below that of the Apple AirPods Pro (9/10, WIRED Recommends). There’s room for improvement with the microphones and the mid-tones, though.
Samsung’s 980-series M.2 solid-state drives are some of our favorites for any PC build. They’re quick, super small, and usually offer a substantial amount of storage space. The Pro version (also on sale) is a bit quicker, and a bit more spacious, one of our top picks for gaming PC builds.
The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is officially a previous-generation graphics card now, but it’s still a good pick for mid-range gaming PC builds. They’ll have some trouble handling 4K content with all the settings cranked up, but as long as you keep your resolution between 1080p and 1440p, you should be good. It’s a great all-around graphics card.
It may have just been supplanted by the RTX 4090, but the RTX 3090 Ti is still a super-powerful card. It’ll handle most of what you can throw at it, running games in 4K, hitting those silky-smooth 120 FPS framerates. With the 40-series announced and on its way, it’s a great time to buy high-end cards from the 30-series.
The Asus ROG Strix lineup of motherboards has been on the list of our favorite gaming PC components for a while now. They’re user-friendly, packed with all the right ports, and even feature some subtle lighting.
The Asus Prime Z590 is the slightly cheaper version of the Strix Z590-E above. It has almost all the same features, except the M.2 slots don’t feature the same level of high-end cooling materials you get on the Strix. Otherwise, this one is just as good a pick.
While the LaCie Rugged SSD ($496) is our top pick for a rugged drive in our Best Portable SSD guide, the T7 Shield is our favorite alternative, and it’s far cheaper right now. It’ll bat away dust and water with an IP65 rating and is rated to survive drops up to 9.8 feet. There are other sizes available too if you’d like to spend more or less.
Out of all the Amazon smart displays, the Echo Show 8 is our top pick, slipping into the Goldilocks “just right” size bracket. Along with making video calls, this screen is ideal for recipes and watching videos. It’s the perfect size to sit on any counter top and not require you get too close to read it.
The size of the screen here isn’t ideal, but if you have limited space or you want a device to act as a smart alarm clock, it’s still pretty good. Of course, you get Alexa support, allowing for speedy control of your smart tech. It’s also really cheap.
This is our favourite portable SSD for speed. The SanDisk is super swift and also offers top protection with an IP22 dust and water resistance casing. This 2TB model brings a whole lot of storage with you on-the-go.
This 15-inch screen is basically a blown-up smart display you can mount on your wall like a picture frame. It comes with a 5-MP camera for video-calling friends and family. You also get full access to Alexa to control your smart home devices.
We didn’t love the Fire TV Cube in our review (6/10, WIRED Recommends) but a lot of the criticisms were software-based, and if you are fully in the Alexa ecosystem, it’s the most powerful streamer you can get. It’s a pretty machine, with Alexa built in, and there are sensible parental controls.
The recently released Apple Watch Series 8 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is our favorite Apple Watch, and it’s already on sale. (The 41-mm version is also on sale for $349.) Most people will be fine with the new second-generation Watch SE, but this model includes an electrocardiogram, an always-on display, a skin temperature sensor for better period tracking, a more accurate heart-rate monitor, and the ability to measure blood oxygen levels. Check our Best Apple Watch Accessories guide for additional recommendations.
We rated Insta360’s One RS (8/10, WIRED Recommends) highly in our review. The GoPro Hero series is still our top pick as the Best Action Camera, but this one brings interchangeable modifications to the party, including—you guessed it—a dual-lens 360-degree camera.
All the functionality of Amazon’s Echo Dot and it looks like a panda, what more could you want? This is a kid-friendly take on the 4th generation, coming with typical Alexa functionality, one year of Amazon Kids+, and a range of parental controls.
TicWatch isn’t a well-known wearable brand, but we’re fans of this model’s top battery life (it’s in our Best Smartwatch guide). It employs Wear OS and is slated to get the Wear OS 3 update later this year. It’s responsive, delivers notifications, counts steps, and features 24/7 heart-rate monitoring, all with an AMOLED display and two-day battery life. There’s a new TicWatch Ultra on the way with Qualcomm’s new wearables chipset.
The Arctis Prime Wired Headset got great marks in our review (8/10, WIRED Recommends). It’s one of our favorites, due to its comfortable ear cups, sleek look, and quality sound. Essential for gaming, it also has a crystal-clear microphone.
This useful label printer is featured in our all-encompassing work-from-home guide and is a great way to save a couple of dollars on your shipping. The printer avoids the regular hassle of having to use ink, using heat instead. You’ll find useful instructions to get the sizing of your label just right.
This Blink video doorbell received an honorable mention in our Best Video Doorbell Cameras guide. It’s one of the cheaper options around and has Alexa compatibility. The bundle also comes with an outdoor camera system for expanding your home network.
It’s a cheap and cheerful smart plug, and that’s about the long and short of it. It integrates with your Alexa app, letting you add timers and schedules as you please. There’s also Alexa Guard to provide the illusion that you’re home when you’re traveling or on vacation.
Retailer Sale Pages
Other stores have started offering competing deals that don’t require an Amazon Prime membership (and more likely will). Here’s a list of merchants that may be getting in on the action.
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