How to find the best Prime Day deals

how to find the best Prime Day deals
(Image credit: Future)

Amazon Prime Day deals are nearly upon us, but before the crowds descend on Amazon's lofty shelves, we're showing you how to make the most of this year's 48 hour sale. Prime Day will kick off on Monday June 21, at 00:00 PT / 03:00 ET / 00:00 BST, and if you're after the best offers we'd recommend staying up to catch this first wave. 

We've been tracking Amazon Prime Day for years now and have developed a few tips and tricks to finding all the best offers straight away. There are a number of tactics you can employ to get to the front of the line - from making sure you know exactly what you want to get out of Prime Day to price checking and double checking you're actually getting a good deal.

Put simply, getting the best offers all comes down to speed and research. You'll want to be up late to be the first to check out the offers as soon as they land, but keep checking back to make sure you're getting the best product for you. Getting some homework done on features and pricing will help you ensure you're picking the best deal, but you'll also need to remain flexible enough to be able to spot a higher value offer if one does appear.

You'll find all our top tips on how to find the best Prime Day deals just below, as well as some early offers that are already providing some high quality discounts.

Amazon deals already available now

How to find the best Prime Day deals

1. Find an Amazon Prime free trial

Amazon Prime Day rewards Prime members with exclusive deals on a range of tech and home items. However, if you're not already subscribed you don't need to miss out on all the fun. Amazon is offering a free 30 day trial of its Prime service right now, which means you'll be able to take advantage of all the best discounts with free shipping and a range of other perks as well. 

Image

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=8428&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2Famazonprime%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"">Amazon Prime 30 day free trial
Amazon is offering a free 30 day trial of Prime right now, so that everyone can get involved in the sales extravaganza. You will have access to all of this month's upcoming Prime Day deals as well as all the usual perks as well. Just be aware that this will auto-renew at $12.99 / £7.99 per month once your trial is up.

2. Spread your search

Amazon Prime Day is certainly centred around Amazon, but in recent years other retailers have been joining the fray, offering up competing discounts that may well be worth a look. 

It's worth price matching with retailers like Best Buy and Walmart in the US, and Currys and Very in the UK, just to make sure you can't get a better deal elsewhere. In fact, certain categories, like laptops, are far more lucrative at other retailers due to Amazon's limited range. Plus, even when another retailer simply price matches Amazon's Prime Day deals we tend to see stock holding out a lot longer as well. 

This year we're seeing competing sales events from Best Buy in the US and Currys in the UK, which means you'll want to keep your search wide just in case there's a better price elsewhere, or stock of your favorite colorway still available. 

3. Know what you want from Prime Day deals

If you already know you want to pick up a new TV, laptop, smartwatch or other device in this year's Prime Day deals, you'll want to get some homework done first. That means checking out the prices available before the event and making sure you know exactly which features you can afford to drop if you spot another enticing price. 

This research will become invaluable in the heat of the moment, as you'll quickly be able to judge if a lightning deal ticks all your boxes or if you should hold out for more discounts elsewhere. Once Amazon Prime Day fully kicks off things can get pretty chaotic, so the more information you arm yourself with going into the sales, the more likely you are to pick up the best deal for you. 

4. Stay flexible

It is, however, unwise to be stubborn over Prime Day. Fixing your attention on one particular model or brand may leave you blind to other excellent deals that potentially offer better value for money. You can waste a lot of time trying to find a discount on the perfect TV if there simply isn't one going, time that could be spent securing a fast-selling lightning deal. 

While it's great to go in with a brand or model in mind, it's worth stepping back and figuring out exactly what about that device appeals to you. Keeping a list of features or specs that you absolutely need and matching those up to the available offers on the day will be far more useful than searching high and low for a deal that might not even exist. 

Similarly, you'll want to build some flexibility into your budget. While it's never a good idea to get caught up in the moment and break the bank, it's worth shopping around similarly specced models to see if you can't pick up far better value just by springing an extra $10 or $20. 

5. Start your search early

Prime Day itself doesn't officially begin until Monday, but we're already seeing a range of early offers and even just great deals that happen to be at Amazon. Just because a product is discounted on Amazon Prime Day doesn't mean it's the best deal that device has ever seen - we've even witnessed sets of headphones costing more on Prime Day than they did the week before. 

That's why early discounts shouldn't be ignored. If a product has dropped to its lowest price ever, it's unlikely it will drop again when the official sales do begin and when those floodgates do open you're going to have a lot more competition from other deal hunters on your hands. 

6. Check back throughout the event

Once you've found the best deal for you, it's worth sticking around. Amazon drops new offers throughout the entire 48 hour sale period, so it's well worth keeping an eye on future price drops in case something better comes up that's worth cancelling your original order for. 

The best Prime Day deals already live

While we're still days away from the official Prime Day deals, we're seeing plenty of early offers already going live. These are focused on Amazon's own Echo devices and other smart home brands, but these are some of the most popular deals on the day itself and quickly run out of stock. You'll find all our top picks just below.

Amazon Echo Dot 4th gen (two pack): $99.98 $49.98 for two with code PDDOT2PACK
Save $50 - code PDDOT2PACK

Amazon Echo Dot 4th gen (two pack): <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=8428&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2Fall-new-Echo-Dot%2Fdp%2FB07XJ8C8F5%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" target="_blank">$99.98 $49.98 for two with code PDDOT2PACK
Save $50 -
Amazon Prime members can get two 4th generation Echo Dots for the price of one when you apply code PDDOT2PACK at checkout. That means you're getting each speaker for just $24.99 - $4 less than the lowest price we've ever seen on this model. Considering this is a newer release, we wouldn't expect that price to be beaten next week.

Amazon Echo 4th Gen (two pack): $199.98 $119.98 at Amazon
Save $80 - ECHOPRIME

Amazon Echo 4th Gen (two pack): <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=8428&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FAll-New-Echo-4th-Gen%2Fdp%2FB07XKF5RM3%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" target="_blank">$199.98 $119.98 at Amazon
Save $80 -
Prime members looking for a more powerful speaker can save $80 when they buy two Echo devices and use code ECHOPRIME at checkout. That's the lowest price we've seen on this device, which makes it a fantastic early offer.

Amazon Echo Show 5: $89.99 $44.99 at Amazon
Save $45 -

Amazon Echo Show 5: <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=8428&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FIntroducing-Echo-Show-Compact-Charcoal%2Fdp%2FB07HZLHPKP%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" target="_blank">$89.99 $44.99 at Amazon
Save $45 -
For a limited time, you can snag the previous generation Amazon Echo Show 5 smart display on sale for just $44.99. That's an impressive $45 discount that matches the all-time record low price.

All-new Echo Buds: $119.99 $79.99 at Amazon
Save $50 -

All-new Echo Buds: <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=8428&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2Fdp%2FB085WTYQ4X%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"" target="_blank">$119.99 $79.99 at Amazon
Save $50 -
Amazon has the all-new Echo Buds on sale for $79.99 -  $20 less than the record-low price. Amazon's wireless earbuds feature active noise cancellation and work with Alexa to stream music, make calls, get directions, and more. Considering these are a fairly new release and haven't yet seen discounts of this quality, we expect this is going to be the best price we'll see for a while yet.

Insignia 50-inch 4K UHD Smart Fire TV: $379.99 $299.99 at Amazon
Save $80 -

Insignia 50-inch 4K UHD Smart Fire TV: <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=8428&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FAll-New-Insignia-NS-50DF710NA21-50-inch-Smart%2Fdp%2FB086VRR9K9%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"">$379.99 $299.99 at Amazon
Save $80 -
Amazon is once again leading with early Prime Day deals on its Fire-enabled TVs. Last year we didn't see prices drop any further than these early offers, and stock quickly ran out once competition heated up. That means we'd recommend jumping on this excellent price sooner rather than later.

Save up to 50% on movies and more at Prime Video

Save up to 50% on movies and more <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=8428&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2Fgp%2Fvideo%2Fstorefront%2Fref%3Ddvm_us_eg_cs_sh_pr_PDH5%3FcontentType%3Dmerch%26merchId%3Ddeals%26pf_rd_r%3D04EYCVCSEWVPD8MGYC64%26pf_rd_p%3Df2f720f8-6212-49b3-a17d-579038a14146%26tag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"">at Prime Video
Amazon has slashed prices on a range of movies and box sets to rent or buy on Prime Video this week. That's excellent news if you've just picked up your free trial and you're looking to make the most of the streaming service while you can.

Save 53% on your first 4 months of Audible Premium Plus: $14.95 $6.95 per month at Amazon

Save 53% on your first 4 months of Audible Premium Plus: <a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=8428&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2Fhz%2Faudible%2Fmlp%2Fmembership%2Fpremiumplus%2Fmonthly%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-20" data-link-merchant="Amazon US"">$14.95 $6.95 per month at Amazon
You can now save 53% on your first fourth months of Amazon's Audible Premium Plus service, dropping that monthly rate down to $6.95. You'll get one audiobook of your choice each month, as well as a healthy supply of original content as well.

We're also rounding up the best Prime Day laptop deals and Prime Day TV deals this week, with plenty of early offers already available.

Tabitha Baker
Deals Editor

Tabs is a Deals Editor at TechRadar, bringing you all the latest savings on the tech everyone's talking about and covering deals on gaming, laptops, tablets and more in the US and UK. Happiest with a DualSense controller in her hand, she's also contributed to GamesRadar, Tom's Guide and T3 and specializes in gaming hardware and computing.