Temperatures are rising, and the school year is coming to an end, which means summer is just around the corner. It also means that Amazon’s Prime Day is quickly approaching.
The retailer has announced that it will be hosting its 10th Prime Day sales event during the month of July. The details are a bit light at the moment, but having already covered 9 of these events, we feel like we have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Below you’ll find the latest information on Prime Day, how you can participate, and what types of deals and promotions you can plan on.
What is Amazon Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day is an online sales event that typically takes place in the summer. You’ve heard of Christmas in July? Well, this is Christmas in July’s Black Friday. Everything from TVs to tablets, laptops, phones and accessories receive deep discounts on Amazon.com, and to avoid missing out on the buzz, other retailers will often follow suit. It’s usually a multi-day affair with various types of deals and promotions, including flash (very limited-time) sales and invite-only deals.
When is Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day will be held in July, but that’s all we know thus far. As of mid-May, the company has yet to disclose the specific days, but the moment we learn that information, we will be sure to pass it on to you. If you really cornered us for a guess, we would say it’s most likely to happen during the second week of July. Amazon seems to like those early-mid-month days of 10, 11, 12.
What to expect from Prime Day deals
What are Prime invite-only deals?
Prime invite-only deals are deals that require an invite for purchase. Typically, the way this works is that if you see one of these deals you’d like to take advantage of, you would request an invitation, and then, if chosen, you would receive a purchase link within the next 12-24 hours. Supplies on these deals are usually limited, so not everyone who requests an invite will get one. This is a newer type of promotion from Amazon, likely introduced to help stop bot and bulk (scalper) purchasers from raiding the best discounts.
Do you need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber?
Yes, most Prime Day deals are exclusive to Amazon Prime subscribers—particularly those with the biggest discounts. Amazon Prime’s annual membership is $139, and the monthly subscription is slightly more expensive at $15 a month ($180 over a year). College kids can get Amazon Prime Student for $69 a year or $7.50 a month ($90 over a year), and people on certain government programs (EBT, Medicaid, etc) can pay $7 a month for Prime Access after their eligibility is verified. If you don’t want to pay for Amazon Prime, you can opt for a free 30-day trial. Just be sure to time it correctly so that it’s available during July.
Amazon Prime
If you want to take advantage of the tens of thousands of deals today you’ll have to subscribe to Amazon Prime. Prime offers much more than discounts, with an included music service, streaming library, Twitch subscription, and a plethora of smaller features.
Phone deals
If you’re in the market for a new smartphone, you can certainly count on Prime Day discounts. We fully expect to see some solid deals on Samsung’s new S24 lineup, including the flagship Galaxy S24 Ultra, which can use all the price help it can get. We should also see some Pixel promotions, which will hopefully include the newly-announced Pixel 8a handset. It’s already budget-friendly at $500, but if we could get a $50 or $100 discount like we saw on the Pixel 7a during the last Prime event, we’d obviously take it.
Best Android phone deals: Save big on the Pixel 8 Pro, Galaxy S24 Ultra, and more
Or pick up the Pixel 7a for just $350
Tablet deals
Expect to see this tablet deals section absolutely popping when Prime Day hits, as Amazon will surely offer massive discounts on its line of Fire tablets. We’re actually big fans of some of the Fire HD models due to the value they offer at their normal prices, so as you can imagine, we really love them when they go on sale. We anticipate seeing some of these models drop to $100 or less for Prime Day. If you’re not really feeling the Fire tablets, don’t fret, we suspect Samsung and Google will join in on the festivities, and since Apple just released new iPads, we should see some deals on their older models as well.
Best Android tablet deals: Save up to $400 on Samsung’s top tablets
Prices starting at just $100
Earbuds deals
Prime Day is a great time to buy new earbuds, headphones, and really any type of accessory. Due to the sheer nature of how they are priced, and how often they are purchased with other, larger-ticket items, retailers love to offer big discounts on these types of things during sales events. Our favorite wireless earbuds right now are the Sony WF-1000XM5, so we’d obviously love to see them get big price drops, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled for deals on Samsung, Jabra, and EarFun buds as well.
Wearables deals
The wearables category is another where you typically see significant discounts on Prime Day, so if you are in the market for a new smartwatch or fitness tracker, it could be worth the wait. We’re hoping to see at least a $50 discount on the Google Pixel Watch 2, as well as $50+ discounts on Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 line. We will also be on the lookout for big price drops on Fitbit bands and watches, as well as more athletic offerings from Garmin.
Best Android smartwatch deals: Save big on Galaxy Watch 6, Pixel Watch, and more
Discounts on our favorite smartwatches, with prices starting at just $130
Chromebook deals
This Prime Day we will be specifically on the lookout for deals on Chromebook Plus models — laptops that have been certified by Google to meet certain performance and hardware criteria to gain access to exclusive features. But whether you are shopping for a budget-friendly option for a young student, or a high-performance gaming model for a graduate, chances are you will find a deal during the sales event.
Best Chromebook deals: Save up to $400 on top Acer, Samsung, and HP models
Gaming, mid-range, and budget options starting at just $160
Smart home deals
This should be another popular section during Prime Day, as Amazon is a major player in this space with its Ring, Blink, and of course, Echo brands. You can expect to see massive discounts on smart speakers, displays, doorbells, and security cameras, and really every subsequent category as well. In the past we’ve seen some great Hue smart lighting discounts and bundle promotions, so that’s something to look forward to as well.
Best smart home deals: Save up to $180 on some of our favorite smart devices
Smart plugs, TVs, lights, and thermostats starting at just $21
