The best Prime Day tech deals we could find ahead of Amazon’s sale tomorrow

Apple’s third-gen AirPods are on sale for $139. These buds came out in 2021 and massively improved upon their predecessors with better sound quality, a more comfortable design and a six-hour battery life.

Also on sale are the second-gen AirPods for $79. These are arguably only best for those who are on a tight budget and want to spend as little as possible to get a pair of AirPods.

Our choice of best MacBook overall is down to $899 from $1,099 — an 18 percent discount. This sale is available for the 256GB model with 8GB of RAM and no AppleCare+ included.

Apple’s 2024 MacBook Air has a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display that can support one billion different colors. We gave it a 90 in our review thanks to offers like a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, three mics and up to 18 hours of battery life.

The base 13-inch M2 MacBook Air has dropped to a record low of $799. This was already our favorite budget MacBook and now it’s an even better deal at this price.

While you can get the technically more powerful M3 MacBook Air now, most people won’t notice the performance differences between the two. If you’re coming from an older, Intel-based MacBook, any M-series machine will feel like a big upgrade. This M2 laptop excels thanks to its stellar performance, excellent screen and thin-and-light design.

Apple released the new iPad Air models with the M2 chip back in May and right now, the larger 13-inch model with 128GB of storage is available for a record-low price of $749, down from $799. The M2 iPad Air is our choice for 2024’s best overall iPad.

Apple’s new slate earned a 91 in our review because it’s powerful, capable and has a great-looking screen. It doesn’t have the top-of-the-line features and performance of the new iPad Pros — but the Air is nearly $500 cheaper.

Apple’s 9th-gen iPad is on sale for $249 right now, which is close to its record-low price. There’s a big caveat for this deal, though: Apple’s phasing this model out in favor of the 10th-gen iPad being its base tablet now. But if you’re comfortable snagging an older model, this is a good deal to consider. You’re getting a 10.2-inch display here, along with a physical Home Button with TouchID and an A13 Bionic chipset.

The latest stylus for iPads, the Apple Pencil Pro is currently on sale for $119 on Amazon. That’s just $10 lower than its original price, but does happen to be the first discount on the new accessory since it’s launch last month. The new Pencil Pro recognizes squeezes, which can trigger actions like bringing up app-specific tool palettes and shortcuts, and gives you haptic feedback as you use it. It can also detect rolling the barrel for more precision as you draw.

Amazon’s smallest smart speaker, the Echo Dot, has dropped to $25 for Prime Day. It’s one of the best smart speakers you can get right now thanks to its compact design, physical button controls that compliment voice commands and its solid sound quality for its size.

The revived Echo Spot is already on sale for Prime Day, down to just $45 for Prime members. The new model has improved audio quality and a sharper display, but notably absent is a built-in camera. That makes it better for more privacy-conscious folks; just not that you won’t be able to video chat with it like you can with other Amazon smart displays.

The Amazon Echo Show 5 is on sale for $50 right now. It’s one of our favorite smart displays thanks to its compact design, ambient light sensor and sunrise alarm feature, all of which make it an excellent smart alarm clock. Amazon improved the speaker quality on this latest model, which gives sound deeper bass and clearer vocals.

Amazon’s most powerful streaming dongle, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, has dropped to a record low of $35 for Prime Day. In addition to support for 4K HDR content, this streaming device also supports Dolby Vision and Atmos and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity. It also has more memory than less expensive Fire TV sticks and it comes with an Alexa Voice Remote.

The second-gen Ring Indoor Cam has dropped to a record-low price for Prime Day. The latest model of the camera allows you to get a live look at what’s going on in your home from wherever you are with 1080p HD video. There’s color night vision support as well.

This version isn’t battery powered, so you’ll still need to place it near an outlet. But it does come with a swivel mount, so you’ll have a little more flexibility when it comes to the camera’s point of view. 

You can get a two-pack of Blink Mini 2 security cameras for only $40 right now. They’re now better equipped to capture video outside, and they still support 1080p video, motion detection and two-way talk.

Amazon’s Fire TV Soundbar is $20 off and down to $100, which is the best price we’ve seen all year. It’s best paired with a Fire TV device or a standalone Fire TV, and it supports surround sound with DTS Virtual:X, and Dolby Audio.

The 43-inch and 55-inch Amazon Fire Omni QLED smart TVs are up to 25 percent off right now. The 43-inch model is the most affordable, down 20 percent with a final price of $360 for Prime members. These TVs support 4K HDR10+ content with Dolby Vision IQ, hands-free Alexa, Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity and the Fire TV ambient experience.

Similar to the Amazon Music Unlimited deal above, Prime members who’ve never subscribed to Audible Premium Plus can get three months of the audiobook service for free. A membership normally costs $14.95 per month after a one-month free trial, so this is a roughly $30 discount. As a refresher, Audible Premium Plus gives access to a big library of on-demand audiobooks, podcasts and other content, plus a monthly credit you can use to permanently buy a title in the Audible store.

The service will be most worthwhile if you tend to burn through audiobooks quickly; if you’re on the fence, this extended trial should make it easier to see if you’d get any use out of it. Remember that your service will auto-renew at the standard price after the trial period ends until you cancel.

If you’re an Amazon Prime member who has never subscribed to Amazon Music Unlimited, you can now get five months of the music streaming service for no cost as any early Prime Day deal. If you’re a new user who doesn’t have Prime, you can get a three-month free trial. The service normally gives a one-month free trial then costs $10 per month for those who subscribe to Prime and $11 per month for those who don’t.

Music Unlimited isn’t a formal recommendation in our guide to the best music streaming apps: Its interface isn’t as tidy or smartly curated as that of Apple Music, our top pick, and we’ve found it to be a bit aggressive about promoting podcasts you may not care about.

That said, it’s hard to beat free, and the service has more or less the same giant music library as its peers. It also supports lossless streaming, unlike Spotify, which is a nice plus for audiophiles with high-quality wired headphones. If you just want to save a bit of cash on your music streaming for a few months, it should do the job. Just remember to cancel when the free trial ends, as your subscription will be set to auto-renew by default.

Amazon Prime members can get three months of Kindle Unlimited for free in this Prime Day deal. With this subscription, you get access to a library of millions of books, comics and magazines to read for free. There are also some audiobooks included as well; just make sure to cancel before the free trial is up if you don’t want to get charged full price on the fourth month.

The Anker Soundcore Space A40 earbuds have returned to a low of $59, that’s a savings of $21 over the full price. We named these our top pick for a budget-friendly set of buds because they provide features like EQ adjustment, splash-resistance, active noise cancellation and a decent transparency mode. Plus the sound itself is pleasant and warm. 

You can snag an Amazon-exclusive bundle of the Dyson Airwrap for $125 off thanks to Prime Day deals. Normally priced at $675, this bundle is now on sale for $550 for Prime Day.

In addition to the Airwrap and its storage case, the bundle includes six attachments: two long barrels, three brushes and the Coanda smoothing dryer, plus a filter cleaning brush, a detangling comb and another storage bag. That’s enough to achieve a bunch of different hairstyles with one tool, and you get a couple of ways to store the machine when you’re not using it or when you need to travel with it.

The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is $100 off right now and down to $300. It’s got a larger footprint than the other top picks on our best air fryers list, but for some that will be a perk. If you cook often, entertain frequently or have a big family to make meals for, this multi-purpose air fryer will come in handy.

In addition to being able to fit an entire, 14-pounds turkey, the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro has space for a five-quart dutch oven and a 9×13-inch pan. It supports a number of other cooking modes other than air fry, like bake, broil, toast, dehydrate and more, and you can download its companion app to follow along with guided recipes.

The Ninja Creami ice cream maker has dropped to $150 for Prime Day, which is close to the best price we’ve seen. This model includes seven programs including ice cream, gelato and sorbet, and it comes with one pint container for you to make and store your creations.

In our Ninja Creami review, we gave the machine a score of 90 for its ease of use and the fact that it’s parts are mostly machine-washable. There’s also just a plethora of treats you can make with this device, so it will likely be a mainstay on your countertop if you love frozen desserts.

The Roomba Essentials Combo machine is on sale for $190 for Prime Day. This model ups the ante a bit by adding in mopping capabilities to the usual robot-vacuum formula. It’s the most affordable vac-and-mop machine that iRobot makes, and it’s an even better buy at this sale price.

Admittedly, not everyone will need (or want) mopping capabilities in their robovac. But it’s a convenient feature to have, especially if you have a mix of hard and carpeted floors in your home.

This Shark AI Ultra robot vacuum is half off and down to only $300 right now. A version of one of our top picks for the best robot vacuums, it supports cleaning schedules and home mapping, plus it comes with a self-emptying base that can hold up to 60 days worth of debris. The base is also bagless, so you don’t have to buy and replace proprietary garbage bags in it over time.

The Hatch Restore 2 smart sleep clock is on sale for a record low of $145. It’s a smart alarm clock of sorts that has various sleep sounds to help lull you to bed and a sunrise light effect that will gradually wake you up in the morning. It has on-device buttons for easy control, but you can also use its companion app to customize routines and fine-tune settings further.

These Bose true wireless earbuds are down to $189 right now. That’s $90 off their usual price. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds are a bit newer, but these are still solid buds with excellent noise cancellation for the price.