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Amazon Prime Day 2026: Our Top Picks

Amazon Prime Day is earlier than ever this year, with lots of deals to be had on our favorite gadgets. As you may have seen, we updated our MacStories Setups page last week, and as it turns out, some of that gear is deeply discounted for Prime Day. Below, you’ll find links to those items, as well as other gadgets we recommend, all on sale now.

For even more deals, join Club MacStories+ or Premier to become a part of our Discord community, where members are sharing their favorite finds, too.

Home Automation

It’s been over a year since I reviewed Aqara’s excellent G5 Pro Outdoor Camera Hub, but it’s still my all-time favorite outdoor HomeKit camera and has been a big hit with readers, too. The camera comes in Wi-Fi and PoE versions and works with HomeKit Secure Video. Before I tried the G5 Pro, my experience with outdoor HomeKit cameras was very spotty, but ever since I mounted the G5 Pro above my front door, it’s been a fixture of my Setups gear collection.

You can also get a great deal on the Aqara Smart Home Hub M3 during Prime Day. It’s not required to run the G5 Pro Outdoor Camera, which is a hub itself, but for anyone with other smart home gear, it’s an excellent addition because it handles Zigbee 3.0 devices and acts as both a Thread border router and a Matter controller, all in one compact unit. Plus, because automations are saved to the device, they continue to run even if your Internet service fails.

To round out the Aqara picks, it’s worth mentioning its UWB Smart Lock U400. This is Aqara’s most advanced smart lock, which uses an Ultra Wideband chip to allow you to unlock your door by simply approaching it from the outside of the door. The lock also works with Home Key, NFC cards, your fingerprint, its own app, a number pad, and more. This smart lock hasn’t been out long, and this is the first time I’ve seen it on sale anywhere.

The ecobee Smart Video Doorbell Camera that I’ve used since I moved into my place in North Carolina is also on sale during Prime Day. I used to have a doorbell camera that overheated in the sun, but the ecobee has stood up like a champ in the direct sunlight all afternoon even as summer temperatures approach 100° F.

If you’re deep into the Hue lighting scene, the Play HDMI Sync Box 8K is a great way to sync your lighting to your entertainment system or computer display for gaming. I reviewed the Sync Box last year along with the Play Wall Washer lights that are also on sale for Prime Day and still part of my gaming setup.

The Hue Festavia string lights.

The Hue Festavia string lights.

Another MacStories Setups mainstay on sale for Prime Day is Hue’s Festavia string lights, which I reviewed a couple of years ago. The color of the lights can be adjusted in the Home app, and the Hue app lets you add animations to simulate a flickering candle or twinkling stars. I love how they look on my balcony.

It’s hot where I live, so fans make a big difference. I’ve been using the SwitchBot Smart Desk Fan for about six months in my office and love it. It works with HomeKit and can be automated to turn on and off based on triggers like your room’s temperature. There’s even a cloud-based API that you can use to write your own scripts to control the fan. It and the newer Smart Pedestal Fan are both on sale for Prime Day.

Schlage’s Encode Plus smart lock is one of the few HomeKit-compatible locks that features Apple’s Home Key integration, which enables tap to unlock with an iPhone or Apple Watch. With new UWB locks coming out, this well-reviewed lock is a bargain at its Prime Day price.

Apple Gear

Amazon has a refurbished version of the M4 15-inch MacBook Air in Starlight with 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage on sale for Prime Day. The laptop is from the Amazon Renewed Store, which is generally reliable. And with rumors swirling that base prices of Apple hardware may increase later this month, this MacBook Air might look like an even better bargain in a few weeks, so it’s worth considering if you’re in the market for a new laptop. The 13-inch MacBook Air with an M3 chip, 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD is also deeply discounted for Prime Day.

I’m partial to the AirPods Pro 3, but Amazon has the AirPods 4 and AirPods Max 2 on sale, too. Either way, you’re getting great sound and noise cancellation. The Beats Studio Buds + are deeply discounted for Prime Day as well.

Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch SE 3 are also on sale. With summer in full swing, both offer a great way to track your outdoor activities and get notifications without having to pull out your iPhone.

Batteries and Chargers

Having a central hub to charge your gear is nice. I’ve had a 200W version of UGREEN’s hub for a few years now and plug things into it every day for overnight charging. For Prime Day, UGREEN’s even more powerful 300W charging hub is on sale. It features four USB-C ports and one USB-A port that can charge at up to 140W.

The Anker MagGo Slim Power Bank is about as slim as a 10,000mAh battery can get. It’s Qi2 certified, which means it will charge your iPhone at 15W, and it’s white, making it the perfect fit with an iPhone Air, too. If you’d prefer a similar battery but with a kickstand (and who doesn’t love a kickstand?), Anker has you covered with its MagGo Power Bank, also on sale for Prime Day.

To charge all your Apple devices overnight, I recommend the Belkin 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station that can handle an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods all at once. It’s Qi2 certified for 15W charging of your iPhone, and has everything charged up and ready to go as soon as you wake up in the morning.

Odds and Ends

I’m a fan of the Logitech MX Creative Console, a Stream Deck competitor with a nine-button programmable keypad and a separate pad with a dial, scroll wheel, and additional buttons. Both are perfect for automating workflows in specific apps or with macros and Shortcuts. I reviewed the MX Creative Console in 2024, and it’s still sitting on my desk.

The ASUS ProArt Display 32-inch 6K Professional Monitor is on sale for Prime Day, too. The display is bigger, significantly cheaper, and competitively spec’d compared to an Apple Studio Display.

I’ve tried lots of iPhone controllers over the years, and one of the most comfortable and versatile is GameSir’s G8, which can even accommodate an iPad mini. The G8 works with the iPhone 15 and above and is a great choice for summer vacations when you don’t want to bring along a dedicated gaming device.


That’s it for now. As we spot more deals, we’ll post them on the MacStories Deals Bluesky and Mastodon accounts, as well as in the Club MacStories+ Discord community.

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Apple Watch Series 11 Drops to $299, MacBook Pro Up to $500 Off in Latest Apple Deals

Some of the best Apple-related discounts this week include $100 off the Apple Watch Series 11, $150 off the M5 MacBook Air, and up to $500 off the 2026 MacBook Pro. You'll also find great deals on Anker accessories available on Amazon right now.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

MacBook Pro



  • What's the deal? Take up to $500 off MacBook Pro

  • Where can I get it? Amazon

  • Where can I find the original deal? Right here




Amazon's prices on the 2026 MacBook Pro have now joined in on Apple's recent price hikes, meaning we're no longer tracking pre-hike markdowns on these devices. However, there are still notable sales to be found if you're shopping for a MacBook Pro this month, with up to $500 off new prices available right now on Amazon.

Apple Watch Series 11



  • What's the deal? Take $100 off Apple Watch Series 11

  • Where can I get it? Amazon

  • Where can I find the original deal? Right here




Amazon this week has low prices on the Apple Watch Series 11, with $100 discounts across numerous models of the smartwatch. This sale includes a handful of 42mm and 46mm GPS aluminum models, but cellular devices are a bit more rare this time around.

MacBook Air



  • What's the deal? Take $150 off M5 MacBook Air

  • Where can I get it? Amazon

  • Where can I find the original deal? Right here



Amazon is taking $150 off multiple models of the M5 MacBook Air, focused mainly on 13-inch models this time around. These are some of the lowest prices we've seen on the notebooks in the wake of Apple's price hikes last month.

Anker



  • What's the deal? Save on Anker accessories

  • Where can I get it? Amazon

  • Where can I find the original deal? Right here




Anker's popular Prime 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station has dropped to $99.74 on Amazon, down from $149.99. This is one of Anker's newest accessories, and Amazon's sale today is a match of the all-time low price that we last tracked during Prime Day. There are plenty of other Anker accessories on sale this week, which you can find in our original post.

If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.




Deals Newsletter


Interested in hearing more about the best deals you can find in 2026? Sign up for our Deals Newsletter and we'll keep you updated so you don't miss the biggest deals of the season!




Related Roundup: Apple Deals

This article, "Apple Watch Series 11 Drops to $299, MacBook Pro Up to $500 Off in Latest Apple Deals" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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HP’s OLED-equipped 2-in-1 laptop is a solid back-to-school deal

HP’s convertible OmniBook has a great feature set for the price. | Image: HP

With storage and memory prices still at an all-time high, we’re happy to tell you about a solid deal on a good laptop when we find one, rare as they are. Best Buy is selling the HP OmniBook X Flip 2 in 1 for $999.99 (usually $1,649.99) with an Intel Core 7 Ultra CPU, 16GB of LPDDR5X memory, and a 1TB SSD. The star of the show is the 1920 x 1200 OLED touchscreen, an uncommon perk at this price point. It will display deeper black levels and have faster response times than screens in other similarly-priced models. Also, it has a 360-degree hinge that lets the screen flip so you can use it like a tablet instead, or tent it if you need some portable entertainment.

HP OmniBook X Flip 2 in 1

Where to Buy:

This model, like other OmniBooks in this year’s lineup, is a Copilot Plus machine, meaning it has a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) to assist with specialized tasks like helping you quickly find files or live transcribing videos. Whether you use Copilot or not, there’s plenty else to like about this model. For connectivity, the HP includes a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI 2.1, two USB-A ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6.0. One other perk is that the OLED screen has a 16:10 aspect ratio, so you’ll be able to see more content at once.

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21 Prime Day deals Verge readers are buying right now

The new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition compared to the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft.
A lot of readers are buying all kinds of Kindles. | Photo by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge

There are an overwhelming number of Prime Day deals to sort through, which is why we spend so much time highlighting products we’ve already tested and can stand behind. But our recommendations are only one way to identify a worthwhile deal: another is seeing which products fellow Verge readers actually buy.

Below, we’ve rounded up the deals that have resonated most with readers who spend as much time thinking about tech as we do. It’s a great way to see what people actually think is a great deal — and what products everyone has been waiting for a price drop on.

Some of the favorites are exactly what you’d expect, like AirPods and Kindles. Others, like Birdbuddy’s camera-equipped smart bird feeder, were a more surprising. If you’re looking for some shopping inspiration, or are simply curious what your fellow readers have been adding to their carts, here are the products that have proven most popular so far during Prime Day.

Hoto 3.6V Electric Screwdriver Kit Pro

Hoto’s rechargeable screwdriver is ideal for small repairs. It offers three torque modes, a rotational speed of up to 220RPM, and a helpful circular LED to illuminate dark spaces. The durable case also holds all 25 steel bits and an extension bar for getting into hard-to-reach places.

Where to Buy:

AirPods Max 2

Apple’s over-ears retain the premium design of the original while delivering improved sound quality and better noise cancellation. They also sport Apple’s H2 chip, which enables newer features like live translation. Read our review.

Where to Buy:

Birdbuddy Pro (solar)

Birdbuddy’s charming, camera-equipped feeder identifies and snaps shots of each bird that stops by, supplementing its 5-megapixel stills with insightful facts via an app. The solar roof helps keep the camera’s battery topped up even when it’s cloudy outside.

Where to Buy:

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Essentials Bundle

Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition offers 32GB of storage, supports wireless charging, and has an auto-adjusting front light. The bundle includes a leather cover, and a wireless charging dock. Read our review.
A photo of a person holding a Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition.

Where to Buy:

Apple Watch SE 3

The Apple Watch SE 3 is a major glow-up, adding an always-on display, wrist-temperature sensor, a more powerful processor, and fast charging. Read our review.

Where to Buy:

SwitchBot Smart Switch Button Pusher

If you’ve ever wished you had a robot that could push a button for you, that’s precisely what SwitchBot’s Smart Switch does. It’s simple, smart, and works on anything with a button. Stick it on the device you want to turn on or off, and you’re set.

Where to Buy:

Aqara Smart Lock U400

This innovative new smart lock uses the U1 ultra-wideband (UWB) chip in many iPhones and Apple Watches to automatically unlock your door as you approach. It will also work with the new Aliro standard and be compatible with Android phones for hands-free unlocking.

Where to Buy:

Belkin Charging Case for Nintendo Switch 2

The case features an integrated power bank and a small pocket to stow an AirTag (or other similarly sized Bluetooth tracker).

Where to Buy:

Fitbit Ace LTE

The Fitbit Ace LTE is a fitness tracker designed specifically for kids, one loaded with movement-based games that encourage physical activity. It also supports GPS location tracking, as well as the ability to send messages and place calls to a limited number of contacts. However, keep in mind that a Fitbit Ace Pass subscription ($9.99 per month / $119.99 per year) is required for location tracking, messaging, and access to the Fitbit Arcade. Read our hands-on impressions.
The Fitbit Ace LTE worn on a wrist.

Where to Buy:

Apple AirTags (second-generation)

Apple’s latest AirTag features an upgraded ultra-wideband chip for more precise location tracking, a noticeably louder speaker, and an expanded Bluetooth range. Read our review.

Where to Buy:

AirPods Pro 3

The AirPods Pro 3 have a new design that improves their fit, superior noise cancellation, better bass, and fairly accurate heart rate sensors. Read our review.
Hands holding the open case for the AirPods Pro 3 above multi-colored books on a wooden table.

Where to Buy:

Glocusent Book Light

Glocusent’s bendable neck light supports three color temperatures and six levels of brightness. It’s rechargeable via USB-C and can last up to 80 hours per charge.

Where to Buy:

Belkin BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Stand with Qi2 15W

Belkin’s triple charging stand achieves 15W MagSafe wireless iPhone charging speeds and keeps your phone and Apple Watch elevated for easy reading.

Where to Buy:

Anker Laptop Power Bank

Anker’s 25,000mAh power bank sports two built-in USB-C cables (one of which is retractable), plus one USB-C and USB-A port. It tops out at 165W when charging two devices simultaneously, or 130W when charging three or four.

Where to Buy:

Kindle Paperwhite (12th-gen)

Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite — aka our favorite ebook reader — is waterproof, has a seven-inch display, and lasts weeks per charge. Read our review.
The 2024 Kindle Paperwhite.

Where to Buy:

Google Nest Wifi Pro

The Nest Wifi Pro is an upgraded version of the standard model, and it’s equipped with Matter and Thread support in addition to Wi-Fi 6E connectivity. 
White Google Nest Wifi Pro router on a white table in front of a window.

Where to Buy:

Google TV Streamer (4K)

Google’s terrific TV Streamer (4K) is the company’s best attempt at a streaming device yet, with built-in ethernet, an excellent interface, and smart home compatibility with both Matter and Thread. Read our review.
A marketing image of the Google TV Streamer.

Where to Buy:

Google Nest Wifi Pro

The Nest Wifi Pro is an upgraded version of the standard model, and it’s equipped with Matter and Thread support in addition to Wi-Fi 6E connectivity. 
White Google Nest Wifi Pro router on a white table in front of a window.

Where to Buy:

Ninja Creami Deluxe 11-in-1 Ice Cream Maker

It’s time to fill that freezer with ice cream, but not just any ice cream will do. Make the flavors you want, complete with experimental mix-ins, with Ninja’s Creami Deluxe.

Where to Buy:

Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition

The premium Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition offers the same design and performance as the standard model but with more storage and support for wireless charging.
The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (2024) displaying a page of text sitting on an open book.

Where to Buy:

SwitchBot Standing Circulator Fan

A quiet, battery-powered fan that moves a lot of air despite its small size, the Switchbot Standing Circulator is a surprisingly versatile smart home addition.

Where to Buy:

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