After weeks of hype, Amazon Prime Day is here. Despite its singular name, the retailer's online sale actually runs across three days – with local deals today and tomorrow, and extra international deals on offer until 6pm Thursday 15 October AEDT.
Like many other blockbuster sales (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Click Frenzy et al), it promises big deals on a vast range of products while stocks last. To access the sale, you need to become an Amazon Prime member, which you can trial for 30 days free (after that it's $6.99 a month). Check our comprehensive look at membership pros and cons before you sign up.
And before your credit card goes into overdrive, it's important to ignore the hype. Always do your own research and price comparison.
Here are our recommendations for electronic items that rated highly in our product testing and are now on sale for Amazon Prime Day (with considerable discounts on recommended retail prices, based on our price checks). But be aware – we did find some other sites offered the same price, as noted below.
Best buy: Sennheiser PXC 550-II headphones.
Noise-cancelling headphones
Best buy: Sennheiser PXC 550-II
RRP: $549Amazon price: 25% off
These Sennheiser on-ear headphones are noise cancelling and wireless, with good passive noise reduction and a 28-hour battery life based on our measured testing. They are also foldable as the cups twist and fold in on themselves, which is handy for travelling. They can also be used to take calls and have a variety of controls.
Price comparison against other sites: We also found this price on other online stores such as Catch, Kogan and MobileCiti.
Buy now on AmazonSee our headphones reviews.
Power banks
Best buy: Anker Powercore 26800
RRP: $189 Amazon price: 58% off
Seemingly unable to be beaten in our power banks review, the Anker is a beast. Not small enough for a pocket, and at just over half a kilo it's no lightweight. We've tested it into the ground and it manages to charge 6.8 times compared to others. It does take a while to charge up at over 20 hours, but you get a heck of a kick out of it.
Price comparison: We couldn't find lower prices for this product online.
Buy now on AmazonSee our power bank reviews.
Best buy: Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker II
Wireless portable speakers
Best buy: Bose SoundLink Colour II
RRP: $188 Amazon price: 10% off
While a premium name in the audio business, Bose don't always make the best product. However the Soundlink series has been close to the top of our portable speaker ranking for a few years now, with good range, audio performance and a wide variety of colours (so don't worry about the Aqua blue). Their wireless signals manage to get through walls quite well, and they're splashproof as well, for enjoying music outdoors. The only downside is the lack of manual supplied and no USB/AC adaptor supplied.
Price comparison: We couldn't find lower prices for this product online.
Buy now on AmazonSee our wireless speaker reviews.
Simple mobile phones
Best buy: Alcatel 1X
RRP: $199 Amazon price: 10% off
If you're looking for an affordable, more basic phone, this one is one of the top performers in the category test. It can be used as a hotspot, and has good overall sound quality. It's only drawback being a quieter ring compared to others.
Price comparison: We also found this price at other online stores such as Harvey Norman when purchased on a plan.
Buy now on AmazonSee our simple mobile phone reviews.
Best buy: Nikon Z50
Digital cameras
Best buy: Nikon Z50
RRP: $1799
Amazon price: 25% off
This Amazon deal takes you through to a bit of a bonanza, with a twin lens kit, plus remote and an additional battery pack for $2299, but you can downgrade that to $1372 for a single lens kit. The Nikon Z50 ranks highly in our testing with a great in-built flash, very good image quality (in either auto or manual mode) and a monitor/viewfinder that has a vertical swivel as well.
The only downsides with this model are its poor performance with reflections and the memory card can be difficult to insert and remove.
Price comparison: We couldn't find lower prices online for this product.
Buy now on AmazonSee our digital camera reviews.
eBook readers
Best buy: Amazon Kindle Oasis (10th gen)
RRP: $449
Amazon price: 22% off
Well known for their Kindle readers, this model was recommended in our testing. The base model comes with 8GB of storage, which is enough for thousands of books. You can adjust that upwards if you want to store more, and while the base model comes with WiFi, you can also pay more for a 4G connection – but don't forget you'll be paying for that one ongoing.
It has a waterproof rating which is good for lazing in the bath, has a long battery life and the screen flips so you can use it left or right handed.
Price comparison: Since this is an Amazon-produced product, we couldn't find lower prices online for this product.
Buy now on AmazonSee our eBook reader reviews.
What about the new Amazon devices?
While we would have liked to include the latest Amazon devices and let you know which ones are worth the bargain pricing, we've been unable to test them since they've only just hit the market in Australia. We'll look to include them in future iterations of our smart speaker coverage.
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