Last year was the inaugural Amazon Prime Day and the good news is that the company has brought it back for a second time and it's today! Once again there are thousands of deals on offer in the UK across a huge range of items - although we'll be concentrating on tech, electrical goods and home appliances. We show you how the deals work, how to get them and to check if they are really great deals, if you know all that then just skip to the deals.
How do I get the deals?
All the deals are only available to Amazon Prime members - but if you can offset the cost of the service with a great bargain then it's a great way to sign up. As well as exclusive deals like these, Amazon Prime also includes free next-day delivery, Amazon Prime Video which is now rivalling Netflix for quality and variety and will also be the only place you can watch Jeremy Clarkson's new motoring show later this year. If that sounds great then you can sign up for Amazon Prime right now. If none of that appeals then non-members can still get in on the action by signing up for a free 30-day trial. Although this won't be available if you've previously had a trial of the service on your account.
All of the Prime Day deals are subject to stock limitation, though some more than others. On the day there will be Lightning Deals that will become available at set times throughout the day, while other deals will run all day. Using the Amazon shopping app you can find Lightning Deals before they start and set up notifications for when they begin.
What deals are available?
The deals are divided into two categories. There are Deals of the Day, which should run all day and be well-stocked, so you shouldn't have to rush like that a mad person to grab them first thing (though I would hurry if you're keen). Then there are Lightning Deals, which only last for a maximum of four hours and often a lot less if all the stock sells out.
Getting a good Prime Day deal
Hyped-up deals event like Prime Day are great opportunities to shift old stock quickly. While the discounts are hard to argue with, it's worth digging a little deeper to find out exactly how much of a discount you're getting. Amazon will always make its discounts look as big as possible, typically showing the saving they're offering against the RRP of a product. As a result, some of the 'savings' you're getting aren't as big as you think, with prices perhaps only slightly lower than they were the day before.
For Amazon, CamelCamelCamel is a great tool for finding out exactly what savings you're getting. Type any product name into the search bar and you'll be able to find its price history. In the example below, Amazon had a Philips iron as its Deal of the day on October 28th, selling it for £31.50. It promotes this as a £33.50 saving, against the iron's RRP of £65.
That seems like quite a decent saving. However, on the days leading up to this sale, CamelCamelCamel shows that it was consistently available for around £40. It's still a good saving, but not quite the half-price deal it might appear to be.
Check the reviews
It might seem obvious, but with the hype and excitement of Lightning Deals, checking the specifics of the product you're buying can go by the wayside. Checking customer reviews and Expert Reviews will not only let you know whether the product is any good, it'll also tell you how old the product is, as old products may not be very good any more: for example, budget laptops do not age well; if it was £200 in 2011 and it's £150 now, you can get a much better deal on a new budget laptop. See our Best Budget Laptops article, for more information. Regardless of the type of product, it's worth reading reviews and seeing if there are modern, cheaper, alternatives out there before you snap up what you think is a great deal.
And here are the daily deals!
We've been through all the daily deals and picked out the ones that we think offer significant savings on products from good manufacturers. We've all picked out our top three daily deals and placed them here at the top, so you don't miss them. The rest of our selected deals are divided into categories for ease of browsing.
Please note that the product cards will not show the deal price, you'll need to click-through to Amazon to see the current Prime Day price.
Our top 3 Daily Deals
Sony PlayStation 4 Console 500 GB Edition with Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
List price: £299.99 Deal price: £249.99
Fire TV Stick Streaming Media Player
List price: £34.99 Deal price: £19.99
Lenovo N22 11.6-Inch HD Chromebook Laptop (Black) - (Intel Celeron N3060, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB EMMC, Chrome OS)
List price: £159.99 Deal price: £99.99
Home and miscellaneous
Motorola MBP36S Digital Video Monitor
List price: £129.99 Deal price: £64.99
Flymo Lithium-ion Robotic Lawnmower 1200R
List price: £998.40 Deal price: £379.99
Philips AquaTouch S5420/06, Wet and Dry Men's Electric Shaver with SmartClick Precision Trimmer
List price: £160.00 Deal price: £48.99
Adobe Photoshop Elements 14 (PC/Mac)
List price: £79.10 Deal price: £29.99
Exploding Kittens: A Card Game About Kittens and Explosions and Sometimes Goats
List price: £15.99 Deal price: £10.39
Amazon Fire products
Amazon Fire TV Streaming Media Player Gamers Bundle
List price: £119.99 Deal price: £94.99
Amazon Fire TV Streaming Media Player with 4K Ultra HD
List price: £79.99 Deal price: £54.99
Fire TV Stick Streaming Media Player with Voice Remote
List price: £44.99 Deal price: £29.99
Electronics
Bose SoundSport In-Ear Headphones Audio Only - Charcoal Black
List price: £79.95 Deal price: £39.99
B&O PLAY by Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H2 On-Ear Headphones - Green
List price: £169.00 Deal price: £79.00
Epson EB-U04 Portable Home Cinema/Gaming Projector (Full HD, 3LCD, 1080p, 3000 Lumens, 10,000 Hour Lamp Life)
List price: £549.99 Deal price: £349.99
PC and laptop
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3-Inch Tablet with Pen (Silver) - (Intel Core i5-6300U 2.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Integrated Graphics, Windows 10 Pro) + Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Type Keyboard- Teal
List price: £959.94 Deal price: £749.99
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3-Inch Tablet with Pen (Silver) - (Intel Core i5-6300U 2.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Integrated Graphics, Windows 10 Pro) + Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Type Keyboard - Blue
List price: £959.94 Deal price: £749.99
Lenovo Ideapad 100 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) - (Intel Core i5-5200U, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB Storage, Windows 10 Home)
List price: £419.99 Deal price: £329.99
NVIDIA Shield from £99.99
List price: £149.99 Deal price: £99.99
Microsoft Surface 3 10.8-Inch Tablet (Black/Silver) - (Intel Atom Z8700 1.6 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Integrated Graphics, Windows 10) + Microsoft Surface 3 Type Cover - Red
List price: £628.97 Deal price: £449.99
Microsoft Surface 3 10.8-Inch Tablet (Black/Silver) - (Intel Atom Z8700 1.6 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Integrated Graphics, Windows 10) + Microsoft Surface 3 Type Cover - Black
List price: £644.01 Deal price: £449.99
Microsoft Surface 3 10.8-Inch Tablet (Black/Silver) - (Intel Atom Z8700 1.6 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Integrated Graphics, Windows 10) + Microsoft Surface 3 Type Cover - Black
List price: £644.17 Deal price: £449.99
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3-Inch Tablet with Pen (Silver) - (Intel Core i5-6300U 2.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Integrated Graphics, Windows 10 Pro) + Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Type Keyboard- Black
List price: £937.99 Deal price: £749.99
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3-Inch Tablet with Pen (Silver) - (Intel Core i5-6300U 2.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Integrated Graphics, Windows 10 Pro) + Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Type Keyboard- Red
List price: £929.98 Deal price: £749.99
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3-Inch Tablet with Pen (Silver) - (Intel Core i5-6300U 2.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Integrated Graphics, Windows 10 Pro) + Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Type Keyboard- Bright Blue
List price: £959.94 Deal price: £749.99
SanDisk Ultra Android 128 GB MicroSDXC Class 10 Memory Card and SD Adapter up to 80 Mbps (Frustration Free Packaging)
List price: £59.99 Deal price: £25.99
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3-Inch Tablet with Pen (Silver) - (Intel Core i5-6300U 2.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Integrated Graphics, Windows 10 Pro) + Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Type Keyboard- Black
List price: £943.68 Deal price: £749.99
Gaming
Xbox One 500GB Console with Kinect - 3 Game Value Bundle & Guitar Hero Live with Guitar Controller
List price: £339.00 Deal price: £239.00
Xbox One 500GB Console with Kinect - 3 Game Value Bundle & Wireless Controller
List price: £326.00 Deal price: £249.00
Xbox One 500GB Console with Kinect - 3 Game Value Bundle with Trackmania Turbo
List price: £313.99 Deal price: £229.00
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4)
List price: £39.85 Deal price: £31.99
Xbox One 500GB Console with Kinect - 3 Game Value Bundle (Kinect Sports Rivals, Zoo Tycoon and Dance Central), Forza Motorsport 6 and Official Xbox One Wireless Controller With 3.5mm Stereo Headset Jack
List price: £349.01 Deal price: £245.00
Xbox One 500GB Console with Kinect - 3 Game Value Bundle with Overwatch (standard edition)
List price: £331.85 Deal price: £229.00