Prime Day 2022: jump to…
Amazon’s October Prime Day event is almost over, so you have just hours left to shop fantastic deals on everything from cheap TVs to vacuums. We’ve rounded up all our favorite bargains that are still available just below.
This huge two-day event, unofficially known as ‘Amazon Prime Day 2.0’, brings you an exclusive sneak peek preview of the retailer’s Black Friday 2022 sale. We’ve been busy sifting through literally thousands of offers, comparing them to the retailer’s first round of Prime Day deals back in July. The good news is that they’re just as good, if not even better, this time around.
So far, we’ve seen excellent deals on Vitamix Blenders (opens in new tab), Nespresso Machines (opens in new tab), and even some discount Christmas decorations (opens in new tab) (yes, we know it’s only October, but these are handy, you’ve got to admit). And that’s just a tiny selection. You’ll, of course, find hundreds of promotions on Black Friday tech staples like TVs, laptops, phones, and tablets, as well as Amazon’s own devices.
We’ve split everything out into easy-to-navigate sections, with 15 of the best deals at the very top. Simply use the jumper links to skip straight to the section most relevant to you. If you see a bargain you like, we recommend adding it to your cart now because Amazon’s two-day sale event ends today at Midnight.
As with all Amazon Prime Day events, most of the deals in the Prime Day Early Access sale are exclusive to Prime members. If you’re not a member, don’t worry – you can simply sign up for a free 30-day Prime trial (opens in new tab) and participate in the bargain hunting. Just note – don’t forget to cancel your trial before your month is up if you don’t want to be charged the $14.99 for a paid membership.
Prime Early Access Sale: quick links
The 15 best Prime Early Access deals
Prime Early Access sale: Amazon devices & Services
Services
Prime Early Access sale: laptops
Gaming laptops
Prime Early Access sale: TVs
Prime Early Access sale: headphones
Prime Early Access sale: Phones
Prime Early Access sale: Tablets
Prime Early Access sale: smartwatches
Prime Early Access sale: Health & beauty
Prime Early Access sale: home & kitchen
Prime Early Access sale: mattresses
Prime Early Access sale: gaming
Prime Early Access sale: toys
Amazon Prime Day 2022: all you need to know
What is the Prime Early Access Sale?
The Prime Early Access sale is an unofficial ‘Amazon Prime Day 2.0’. It’s a two-day mega-sale that’s ongoing right now (October 11 – 12) and offers early access to thousands of the retailer’s Black Friday deals.
Like with the first Amazon Prime Day (which happened in mid-July), the Prime Day Early Access sale is a Prime members-only event, meaning you’ll have to be signed up to the retailer’s premium membership service to take part. Note, even if you’re not an existing member, you can simply use the Amazon Prime 30-day free trial (opens in new tab) to get involved.
Here’s a quick overview of this year’s Prime Early Access sale:
When was the first Prime Day 2022?
Amazon Prime Day 2022 took place from Tuesday, July 12 – Wednesday, July 13 and featured a vast number of daily deals (opens in new tab). The retailer first confirmed the dates in a press release at 1am ET on Thursday, June 16.
Prime Day date history
Ninth: TBC 2023
Eighth: July 12-13, 2022
Seventh: June, 21-22, 2021
Sixth: Oct 13-14, 2020
Fifth: July 15-16, 2019
Fourth: July 16-17, 2018
Third: July 11-12, 2017
Second: July 12, 2016
First: July 15, 2015
We believed that Prime Day would return to July in 2022 – and we even predicted it would take place from Monday, July 11 – Tuesday, July 12 (so we were one day off). It was held earlier last year, in June, and pushed back to October during the pandemic in 2020.
Prior to this, Prime Day was always held in July and the retailer returned to that month again in 2022. It started as a 24-hour shopping event back in 2015, before growing to 30 hours in July 2017 and later expanding to a full two days.
What is Amazon Prime Day?
Prime Day is Amazon’s biggest sale of the year. The annual two-day deals event is regularly held in the summer months and is exclusively available to Amazon Prime members only. If you’re not a member when the next one rolls around, you can always sign up for a free 30-day trial (opens in new tab) to get access to that year’s Prime Day deals.
This year, the official summer Prime Day event has been followed by a second ‘Prime Early Access’ sale, which is essentially both a re-run of the previous event and a Black Friday deals preview from the retailer. You can follow both events all year round by simply bookmarking this page.
How to sign up for a free 30-day Amazon Prime trial
1. Go to Amazon Prime (opens in new tab)
2. Select: Start your free trial
3. Follow the instructions
4. Start browsing deals (opens in new tab)
If you can’t get the trial, a Prime membership is currently $14.99 per month, or $139 per year, after a price increase back in February. It used to be $12.99 per month or $119 per year.
Do read our Amazon Prime review for full coverage of what you get as part of a membership, including free shipping, access to Prime Video and so much more. That can help you decide if you want to cancel Amazon Prime if you don’t intend to remain signed up after the sale.
Prime Day originally started in 2015 as a celebration of Amazon’s 20th anniversary. Designed to encourage people to spend outside of the October-December holiday season, the online retailer says its only goal was to “offer a volume of deals greater than Black Friday”.
Since then, it’s ballooned into one of the biggest sales in the global retail calendar, with many other large retailers launching promotions of their own to take advantage of the huge online audiences around Prime Day.
We’ve seen spending figures of around $11 billion during previous years, which is more than what was spent online during the last two Cyber Monday sales (that’s $10.7 billion and $10.9 billion, specifically). Of course, it’s important to point out that Prime Day does last 48 hours rather than just a single day, but the numbers are still astounding for what is effectively a single retailer event.
What were this year’s best Prime Day deals?
Every year, without question, the best Prime Day deals are on Amazon’s own-brand devices. This year there were savings of up to 55% on the Kindle Paperwhite, Echo Show 5, Fire 7 Tablet, and Echo Dot – to name just a few. The retailer has also had a huge selection of budget-friendly Fire TVs, with prices starting at just $89.
5 key stats from Amazon Prime Day 2022
Total items bought worldwide:
More than 300million globally
Best-selling items worldwide:
Apple Watch Series 7; Fire TV, Echo, and Blink devices; Pampers; Le Creuset; VTech and LeapFrog toys; Levi’s; Chemical Guys car wash products
Best-selling categories worldwide:
Amazon devices, consumer electronics, and homewares
Small businesses:
Generated more than $3 billion in sales
Busiest shopping times:
9am – 10am PT on Tuesday, July 12
Source: Amazon
One of the most popular Prime Day deals was on the Echo Dot (4th Gen). The budget smart speaker dropped to just $19.99 this year. Not only does that beat the previous record by a whole $5, but we know it was bound to be popular with our readers. Our data from last year showed this handy gadget was a real crowd favorite across TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, T3, and other Future websites.
The Fire TV Stick 4K was another favorite from last year and – as if on cue – it returned to its lowest price ever during this year’s Prime Day and was one of the most purchased items over the 48-hour sale.
Away from Amazon’s own products, deals on major brands such as Samsung, Apple Sony, Bose and SharkNinja were also featured once again. Amazon promised up to 50% off as well as some products from these manufacturers down to their lowest prices ever. While there was some exaggeration, there were big savings to be found on TVs, laptops, headphones and vacuum cleaners from these big brands.
And then, outside of the bigger brands, Amazon continued to make an effort to boost its marketplace sellers in this year’s sale. The result was over $3 billion spent on more than 100 million small and medium-sized business products across both days – another new record.
We also saw an early start to this year’s back to school sales, as lots of most-wanted tech and essentials for the year ahead were reduced during Prime Day. It was a good time to buy a new laptop or Chromebook, with many devices down to their lowest prices of the year. We also saw big savings on other items such as headphones, portable speakers, clothing and more.
Amazon Prime Day 2022: our predictions
We’re a bit too far away from next year’s Prime Day to offer any valid predictions just yet. However, with a second Prime Day 2022 rumoured for this fall, we’ve put a few thoughts together on how that sale may look – if it does indeed go ahead.
The simple answer is to expect a re-run of what we saw back in July. Of course, it’s unlikely Amazon will simply copy every deal once again. However, if the event does take place then it would be wise to assume that a lot of the popular offers on Amazon devices such as the Fire TV Stick 4K, Echo Dot and Kindle will pop up again.
As for other products, this entirely depends on how it fits into each manufacturer’s plans for Black Friday. We’ve already seen that the end-of-year sales event starts earlier all the time, so there’s a reasonable chance that a few big brands get involved ahead of time with Amazon’s exclusive Prime member event in the fall. Based on that, expect laptops, TVs, headphones and more popular electronics to feature.
If you’ve got a new Apple device in mind, though, it could be a good time to save big on last-generation hardware and some of the latest models for 2022. We’ll have a close eye on the iPad 10.2 as well as the previous MacBook Air (M1, 2020). This could be the time when the cheapest ever prices appear and previous record-lows are broken.
If we hear any more news over the coming months, we’ll be sure to share it right here and update our predictions with the latest information.
How to prepare for Prime Day 2022: our pro tips
Want to know how to make the most out of next year’s sale – or be sure you’re in the best shape in case Prime Day fall becomes a reality? We’ve collected together some buyer’s tips and advice just below based on our own experience having covered this event for 8 years now. Some of these tips may seem pretty basic and straightforward to some, but they’re definitely not to be overlooked if you’re getting a shopping list ready.
1. Find an Amazon Prime free trial…
Amazon Prime Day is reserved for Prime members only. However, if you’ve not subscribed in the past, Amazon offers a free trial that you can activate in the lead-up to the event. Just be careful that you time your membership to run over the period of Prime Day. Once Amazon confirms when that is, you can work back to decide when to start your free trial
2. …but don’t rely on it
Last year we saw more retailers participating in similar Prime Day sales in order to steal a little of Amazon’s pie. We expect stores like Walmart and Best Buy will run their own discounts over the same period this year, which means you can shop around to find the best Prime Day deals possible. Ultimately, you could find a big saving on exactly what you want outside of Amazon where membership isn’t required.
3. Know what you want to buy…
Going into big sales events such as Amazon Prime Day with an idea of what you want to buy is a great place to start. Sure, we all like to do a bit of digital window shopping, but knowing what you’re after means you can filter out all that noise, dodge the lightning deals and get straight to the good stuff right away. Take the time now to research the price history of your chosen product, as well as the prices of its competitors over the last year – both cheaper and more expensive versions. With that in mind, you can go into Prime Day knowing for yourself what is a good deal.
4. …but stay flexible
Even if you know everything about the one product you really want, it’s unwise to assume that the particular TV, tablet or whatever it is you’re after will be on sale. Your heart may be set on a product but the big day can roll around and no savings are found on it. Does that mean you should give up? No way.
Take all that research you did in the days beforehand to look at similar products. Is there an equivalent cheaper item that’s even less for Prime Day, or perhaps that slightly more expensive model is now reduced to a price more in line with your original item? Either way, you could get an even bigger saving or come away with a better product that you would have otherwise missed out on.
5. Get in there early…
When Prime Day begins, you want to be one of the first to check which offers have gone live at midnight – or at least first thing in the morning when you wake up. We don’t think that anything is going to sell out in a matter of hours in this early window, but there’s definitely a risk that the hottest deals will sell out as the first day goes on. If you see something you really want to buy, get it in your basket right away – you can always cancel the order if you change your mind.
6. …but check back throughout the event
Just because you’ve managed to secure your dream deal straight out the gate doesn’t mean Amazon is done. New Prime Day deals are released throughout the entire sales window and there are often limited-time lightning deals that may grab your attention. And sold-out products may come back at a later time if you missed out on something big.
How to find the best Prime Day deals
Amazon doesn’t always do a great job of promoting the best Prime Day deals. Sure, it will shout about many of its own devices and other well-known products that are on sale, but it’s often worth looking beyond these highlighted deals for some even better savings. We do a lot of that searching for you and share our favorite offers right here, but here’s some more advice on how to find the best Prime Day deals.
Before the sale begins is a good place to start. In the run-up, Amazon usually has a few offers live that are a tease for the big event. These aren’t usually some of the biggest products, but can still be tempting bargains. We sometimes see reductions on its own subscription services such as Audible, Music Unlimited and Kindle Unlimited during this window, making it a good time to sign up.
We also strongly encourage you to keep an eye on Amazon Warehouse (opens in new tab). We often see store-wide discounts of up to 20% across this selection of second-hand, used and open-box products. All items are checked, tested and Amazon-approved before they go back on sale, plus they are covered by the standard returns policy, so you don’t have to worry if you run into any issues. Generally, it’s an excellent option to bag an even bigger bargain.
Prime Day vs Black Friday – should you wait?
Both Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday generally offer discounts on the same kinds of devices, but there are a few differences between the sales events.
Prime Day deals are largely focused on Amazon itself, while other stores like Best Buy and Walmart compete against them with a few of their own discounts. Competition among shoppers is also significantly reduced on Prime Day, which means that deals are generally easier to find, easier to price check and won’t run out of stock so quickly.
Black Friday, on the other hand, is set across a much larger range of retailers, with prices that tend to be a little cheaper across a wider variety of brands. That does mean putting in a lot more work to make sure you get the best offer possible and keeping a close eye out for limited-time flash sales that make up for most of those lowest recorded prices. With more competition between retailers, though, we do tend to see slightly heavier discounts in November.
Of course, you may also simply want your tech sooner. If so, we wouldn’t recommend waiting five months for the chance of a better discount. There’s no guarantee that prices will be any different come Black Friday, especially on Amazon products. You may find some older tech for even less, but then you also run the risk of missing out on the best deals due to the increase in competition.