Amazon Prime Day October 2022 - The Best Tech Deals Under $50
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Amazon's Early Access sale — "Prime Day 2" as some people are calling it — is well underway. While huge discounts are available, the products with hundreds of dollars knocked off their sticker price may still cost you the best part of a paycheck. But if you look deep enough, some extreme bargains can be grabbed on any budget. We've trawled through the sales to find some of the best tech deals you can snag for under $50. That's enough money to get a smart home started, greatly improve the one you have, boost your home's security, bulk up your PC gaming arsenal, and you can even snag yourself a Wi-Fi 6 router.
And if you want that $50 to go even further, you can bump it up to $60 if you're willing to earmark some funds specifically for Amazon purchases. According to Amazon, this new sale is a way to give its customers access to holiday deals weeks before more established events like Black Friday. As with Prime Day, buyers can snag discounts of over 70% on Amazon products, technology, fashion, subscription services, auto parts and accessories, household items, and more. The event itself is already well underway and only lasts two days, with the conclusion scheduled for October 12 at 11:59 p.m.
Best smart assistant deals
A smart speaker along with the AI that lives inside of it is at the core of every smart home build. Saying something is obviously easier than fishing out a phone and navigating through a variety of apps to find the one particular bulb you'd like to dim slightly. While Amazon's Alexa has its faults, it is still one of the bigger names in the world of voice assistants — and during Amazon's sale periods, the company practically gives Echo devices away. With Early Access, there are two standout Echo deals. They both come with a smart plug, too, so you can get one of your non-IoT devices involved right off the bat.
The Third Gen Echo Dot (the last hockey puck-shaped one) is available with a smart plug for just $17.99. This is far cheaper than the list price of $64.98, and the same price as the deeply discounted Echo Dot on its own without the smart plug. If you're not fussed about the plug, you can get the Echo Dot for only $9.98 when bundled with a month of Amazon Music Unlimited. Arguably more useful than the smart plug is the Echo Dot bundle that comes with two GE direct connect smart bulbs, which is also priced at $17.99.
If you want something with a screen, you can still grab a bundle for well under $50. The 2021 version of the Echo Show is available in both a smart plug and a smart bulb bundle for $34.99. The Echo Show has all of the Echo Dot's features, along with a small screen and a webcam. For that reason, you can display things like the weather, family photos, or make video calls to other people who have Echo Shows or the Alexa app on their phones.
Other smart home essentials
If you're already happy with the number of smart assistants in your home or just worried Alexa will spy on you, there may still be a few deals you'll be interested in. There are plenty of bulbs and plugs on the market, and quality varies greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer. You can't go too wrong with the bigger brands like budget-tier Wyze, Kasa (one of TP-Link's lines), and GE. They're often not much more expensive than obscure brands that tend to be less reliable. A few of the big names are on sale during the Early Access event, with a four-pack of Kasa smart plugs available at $22.99 and single Wyze color smart bulbs available for $10.99 each.
Security is also central to the smart home. While decent alarm systems and smart locks do have discounts, they are outside the $50 limit we're focusing on. Where you do get a bit of choice is with camera systems. Imou has a motion-sensing 2K camera on sale for $37.99, for example, which might be what you need if you want to keep your eye on your pets as well as your property. If you want more coverage and a brand name backing the product, a two-pack of Amazon's Blink Mini cameras is available for $29.99, which is more than 50% off its MSRP. The cameras are 1080p, work natively with Alexa, and can be paired with other products like smart doorbells.
PC and gaming accessories
Gaming mice tend to be expensive, so it's hard to find one for under $50, but not impossible. Logitech has knocked around 50% off its G604 LIGHTSPEED Wireless Gaming Mouse, which the company claims was designed for battle royale and MOBA players, among others. If you need more than a mouse, Logitech's G213 Prodigy Gaming Keyboard is also on sale for $39.99. Logitech isn't the only game in town, and ASUS also has a few gaming mice on discount. Both the ROG Chakram Core optical gaming mouse and the Gladius III Wired Gaming Mouse can be snagged for a tad less than $50 right now.
ASUS also has a number of gaming headsets on sale, and among them is the ROG Strix Go Gaming Headphones which have been discounted by 55%. The headphones come with a built-in microphone, noise canceling technology, a lightweight design, and what ASUS has deemed "hi-red headphone audio." If a lack of USB ports is causing you issues, consider Anker's 7-port data hub, which is on offer for $39.99. If your Wi-Fi coverage isn't great in all areas of your house, NetGear has 63% off a line of its Wi-Fi range extenders. At $12.99 each, you can buy several without breaking the bank and relay your Wi-Fi signal throughout the house. There is also a Wi-Fi 6 Router from D-Link available for just $29.99 — though it is important to note that Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6e are two different things and this particular router can not send out a signal on the 6GHz band.