PSA: Amazon Prime Day is a great time to shop back to school essentials

Back to school themed image with stationary and notepad on yellow desktop
(Image credit: Getty)

Busy parent? Just a quick PSA from us - the upcoming Amazon Prime Day (opens in new tab) event will likely be a fantastic time to be pick up back to school essentials.

Yes, yes, we know, it's really early to be thinking about the kids' heading back to school right now. It is, however, well worth considering checking out this huge retail event if you're looking to save some cash and beat out inflation this year.

As of writing, we're just three weeks away from Prime Day and it's likely this will be the biggest event yet from the retailer. Considering previous sales have offered up everything from record-low iPad prices to cheap stationary, we'd say it's worth getting that shopping list ready.

This is doubly so because Amazon has actually already launched off to college and back to school deals (opens in new tab) sections on its site. It's early days yet but we think a big tie-in for Prime Day is all but a forgone conclusion at this point.

Beating inflation to the punch

This Prime Day, more so than any Prime Day, we think Amazon will shift its focus to cost of living and essentials. Everyone's feeling the pinch right now, and we'd be surprised if the biggest retailer didn't respond somehow. Will back to school essentials fit into this trend? More than likely.

The back to school sales (opens in new tab) are huge opportunity for retailers - especially those who sell consumer electronics. It's less of a thing in the UK, but over in the US, it's not uncommon to see back to school banners plastered on nearly every retailer site. Between now and September, Prime Day is the biggest sale, so it's easily the best chance to shop for those deals and secure cheap prices early.

What to expect

Amazon Prime Day 2022 banner image with various related products

(Image credit: Amazon)

Laptops - lots of laptops. Everything from super cheap Chromebooks to MacBooks are likely to feature in the laptop deals (opens in new tab) over Prime Day and the back to school sales. By association, tablets and iPads are also another favorite. Other popular tech items include things like cheap TVs for dorm rooms, headphones, and printers.

We mostly cover consumer electronics here at TechRadar but you'll also find tons of stationary, clothing, and backpacks. Furniture and storage items are also likely to feature pretty heavily during this year's back to school sales. 

If you're interested, just below we've preserved a couple of last year's best Prime Day deals to check out. They aren't specific to back to school, but they'll give you a quick idea of what to expect. We'd also recommend heading on over to Amazon's off to college (opens in new tab) and back to school (opens in new tab) pages, which already list hundreds of deals. Just remember, though, it's probably better to wait for Prime Day since it's just around the corner.

Examples from last year's Amazon Prime Day

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Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones: $348 $237 at Amazon
Save $111 -
These wireless headphones deliver excellent noise-cancellation and surprisingly great sound quality all in a lightweight, comfortable design. We think they're amazing and they can proudly claim their place at the top of our best headphones of 2021 list. At $237 they beat their previous record low of $278 by a considerable margin as well.

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iPad 8th generation (32GB): $329 $299 at Amazon
Save $30 -
Amazon returned to this wildly popular $299 price tag on the 8th generation iPad over Prime Day, but we had been seeing this price for a few months beforehand. Still, with $30 off you were getting a record low price here and stock seemed to hold out well on all colors throughout the event.

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AirPods Pro: $249 $189.99 at Amazon
Save $60 -
We hadn't seen the AirPods Pro drop down to this $189.99 position for a long time - they've been stuck at $199 for a few months now. However, you did have another chance to grab these premium ANC earbuds for an extra $10 off over Prime Day, before they quickly sold out.

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Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020): $999 $899 at Amazon
Save $100 -
The M1 MacBook Air dropped back down to its record low $899 price in this year's Prime Day deals, after weeks of being stuck at $949. This offer came courtesy of an additional $49 discount at checkout.

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Asus Vivobook 14-inch laptop: £249.99 £199.99 at Amazon
Save £50 -
We had never seen this 14-inch laptop drop below £199.99 at Amazon before Prime Day. If you're after an everyday browsing machine the 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage would be perfectly fine and you were even getting a year of Office for free as well.

Microsoft Surface Laptop Go (Core i5, 128GB): £699.99 £589 at Amazon
Save £110 -  Microsoft's affordable Surface Laptop Go combines decent specs and a stylish, and premium, design. For Prime Day, it received a decent £110 price cut to just £589, £20 cheaper than the previous £609 record low, which was great value for what you're getting, even if the storage is a little low. (opens in new tab)

Microsoft Surface Laptop Go (Core i5, 128GB): £699.99 £589 at Amazon
Save £110 -  
Microsoft's affordable Surface Laptop Go combines decent specs and a stylish, and premium, design. For Prime Day, it received a decent £110 price cut to just £589, £20 cheaper than the previous £609 record low, which was great value for what you're getting, even if the storage is a little low.

Alex Whitelock
Deals Editor

Alex is deals editor at Future PLC and an all-around expert at one thing - saving readers as much cash as possible while scoring them the best products for their needs. With content that's always packed full of helpful information, no-nonsense expertise, and of course deals, Alex has also written for other leading sites such as T3 and GamesRadar. At work, you'll find him mostly covering computing, gaming, and advising people on how to save on their cell phone plans. Outside of work, you'll find him playing guitar, indulging his love for music, or down at the local climbing gym mostly hanging off boulders far too difficult for his abilities.