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Want the best tech for quite a bit less? Amazon Prime Day allows the global retailer and logistics leviathan to divest itself of the excess that's been clogging its shelves for the past year while offering consumers some impressive tech discounts.
Thats right, Amazon Prime day is almost upon us to give us all those juicy deals.
These days, 'Prime' is about so much more than next-day delivery.
Membership of Amazon's premium service offers customers access to Prime Video, ad-free viewing on Twitch, early access to flash deals, discounts on video game pre-orders, and a host of other benefits.
What is Amazon Prime Day and how does it work?
Amazon Prime Day (note: it's actually longer than a day some years) is an annual sale bonanza, much like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, that comes around once a year.
It's a chance for Jeff Bezos's brand to coax you into annual membership by slashing prices on its electronics and thousands upon thousands of other items across Amazon's stock in tech, beauty, home, you name it.
Seriously, almost every product you can think of will be discounted for just a single day. This year, Amazon is claiming that over a million offers will run during Prime Day.
When is Amazon Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day? More like Amazon Prime *Days* this time around, because it's going to last for 48 hours. Proceedings kick off a minute past midnight on Monday, July 15 and continue on until midnight on Tuesday, July 16.
2019 will be the fifth Prime Day to take place – the first was in 2015 – and it's always in July. In 2018, it officially started at 12 noon on July 16 and ran till midnight on July 17, although some of the deals actually began on July 3.
The same will likely happen this year, with deals flying onto your screens at least a week ahead of the big sale. We expect price drops to start coming in the weekend before, so maybe check out this page or Amazon's website on Saturday, June 13 to see if the deals are up yet.
In fact, there are a few early ones that are worth mentioning now.
We already covered the deal that gets you three months of Kindle unlimited for free, which is great if you need a few new books to devour this Summer.
The music-lovers among you can get 4 months of Amazon Music Unlimited for 99p if you are already a Prime member too.
The sale happens across a host of countries including the UK, US, Spain, Singapore, Netherlands, Mexico, Luxembourg, Japan, Italy, India, Germany, France, China, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Australia and – for the first time in 2019 – United Arab Emirates.
Some of these deals will be available for the whole sale period, while others are typically only available for a short period of time in the form of "lightning deals". You'll have to be quick off the mark in order to pick up the latter, but don't worry, you'll get fair warning before they go live.
Of course, there's a catch: you've got to be a Prime member in order to see the best deals before anyone else.
Membership currently costs £79 per year for UK users, but you can also sign up for a free 30-day trial if you're not already a member.
What deals are currently active?
We'll let you know when you can expect 2019's set of Prime Day deals closer to the time, but some early offers are already running on this hub page at Amazon.
For example, Prime members can get £100 off the cost of a refurbished first-generation Echo Show, the company's smart home device with built-in screen.
The discount is activated at checkout after you've selected a delivery address, bringing the cost down from £179.99 to £79.
Until July 8, Prime members can buy an Echo Plus (1st Gen) with a Phillips Hue E27 screw-in light bulb for £69.99, instead of the usual £109.99.
Shop Now Echo Plus (1st Gen) and Phillips Hue bundle
And if you're a Prime member, you can rent movies including Mary Poppins Returns and Into the Spider-Verse for only £1.99. The full list is available here.
What's more, Amazon's regular daily deals can be found here.
We will be adding all the latest and greatest offers during the sale right here, so keep an eye on this page to stay ahead of the curve.
How can I find the best deals on the day?
The amount of deals on the day can be overwhelming and hard to keep track of, so it's good to try and keep organised. Thankfully, there are a few ways you can keep track of deals and make sure you don't miss out on the items you really want.
Bookmark this page
The easiest way is to keep your eye on Digital Spy Tech, which will be curating the best deals over the course of the Amazon Prime Day festivities right here.
Alerts via the Amazon app
Probably the most effective method for most people to keep abreast of deals when on-the-go. Simply turn on "Watched and Waitlisted Deals" in the app's settings, and then tap 'watch' on the specific item. When the deal starts, your smartphone will be sent a notification. Easy!
Ask Alexa via an Echo or Echo Dot
If you own an Echo or Echo Dot speaker then you can ask Alexa "what are your deals?" and she will provide more than 100 offers that are exclusive to Alexa users.
Once again, you'll have to be a Prime member in order take advantage of the special offers, but you can also ask Alexa to sign you up by saying "sign me up for Prime".
As mentioned, Digital Spy will be keeping up with all the best deals across the sale period, and you can interact with us on Twitter - the link of which you can find below - or on Instagram.
Some of our favourite deals from last year cut prices on an LG 4K TV in half, or slashed the cost of Amazon devices, like the Echo and the Fire TV stick to just a couple of quid.
If you were planning on getting a gift for a loved one or treating yourself to a new toy, Prime Day might just be the time to do so.
Owen Gough is an expert in all things tech, including top deals, phone upgrades, wearables, audio gear and gaming. You can get in touch with Owen on Twitter @OwenGough
