Do you need to be a Prime subscriber to shop Prime Day deals?

By Nina Derwin June 16, 2022

Amazon customers everywhere better start making their lists and checking them twice … wishlists, that is. That’s right, the Amazon Prime Day date has been announced at long last, so on July 12 and July 13 Amazon customers will be able to take advantage of some of the most incredible deals of the year.

For two days only, Amazon will offer access to exclusive deals in every category across the site. While Amazon is already known for low, low prices, Prime Day blows their regular deals right out of the water. If you’re someone who has been building the cart of your dreams, Prime Day might just make that dream cart a little more attainable.

Prime Day is one of the biggest days of the year for Amazon Prime subscribers, but what does that mean for everyone else? It means that now might be the time to sign up for a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime. If you haven’t had a free trial of Amazon Prime in the last twelve months, all you have to do is head on over to Amazon’s site and sign up. For thirty days you will have access to all of the same benefits as Amazon Prime subscribers at zero cost to you.

This year, Amazon has gone the extra mile to make Prime Day Deals even sweeter. For Amazon Prime subscribers, Amazon is offering a chance to earn a $10 credit for spending on Prime Day. All members have to do is complete four of Amazon’s most noteworthy activities:

Stream an Amazon Prime Video
Listen to Amazon Prime Music
Borrow a book from Amazon Prime Reading or Kindle Unlimited
Make a Prime Shopping eligible purchase

For many Amazon Prime subscribers, these activities are practically standard, so there’s hardly any effort necessary to score your $10 Amazon credit.

Access to early Prime Day deals begins June 21, so for Amazon enthusiasts, the season is upon us. If you have yet to subscribe to Amazon Prime, there is no time like the present to take advantage of the 30-day free trial and take part in all of the activities necessary to get your $10 Amazon credit.

Topics

Deals

Best Prime Day deals: What to expect in 2024

Prime Day graphic with multiple products.

Prime Day is one of the biggest sales events of the year with Amazon throwing everything into its efforts each year. If you’ve been waiting to buy big ticket items or even simply a little treat for yourself, Prime Day is the sales event to watch for. However, before you dive right in, it’s important to know a bunch of things about it. We’re here to help on that front with a look at what Prime Day involves, when it occurs, what to expect from it, and even what other retailers get up to around the same time. Excited? You should be! Here’s all you need to know ahead of Prime Day deals emerging.
What is Prime Day?
Prime Day is Amazon’s annual sales event. Originally launched on 15th July 2015 to celebrate Amazon’s 20th birthday, the event has continued to grow by the year.

Crucially, Amazon Prime Day now covers two days of the year with that date typically falling around the early part of July. In 2023, the first day of Prime Day was Amazon’s biggest selling day in history with the two-day event bringing in over $12.90 billion in sales.

Computing

Best external hard drive deals: Portable SSDs, game drives & more

A man uses a WD My Passport external hard drive alongside his laptop.

Even though you can absolutely store a ton of your data online on cloud storage services, it's always important to have a local backup, especially since you never know if you'll lose access to it. Annoyingly, much like some of the best phones on the market, some laptop deals don't really give you access to the internals to do upgrades, which can often leave you with very little internal storage to work with. Luckily, there are a lot of great deals on external storage floating around, and we've collected some of our favorites below, including some that are on our list of best external hard drives. Of course, if you can access the internals of your device, then you may want to go for one of these SSD deals instead, and for those gamers out there, these PS5 SSD deals should fix any storage issues you might have.
Seagate FireCuda Gaming 2TB -- $60, was $100

If you have a gaming setup that's full of RGB and you want to add a little bit to it while still extending your hard drive space, then you should absolutely grab this 2TB Seagate FireCuda Gaming. It has a customizable LED under the bottom lip of the hard drive, and it even comes with the latest 3.2 gen USB standard, so you can game off of it directly on your PC or older console. While you hopefully won't need it, it also comes with 3-years of data recovery service, which is a nice plus at this price bracket.

Mobile

If you’ve ever wanted the Google Pixel Watch, this deal is your excuse

The Pixel Watch on a person's wrist.

With the arrival of its successor, those who have been interested in the Google Pixel Watch should be on the lookout for its appearance in smartwatch deals. Crutchfield is an excellent source for such offers, and it currently has the wearable device on sale for a very affordable $180 following a $100 discount on its original price of $280. We don't expect this bargain to last long though, so if you've been waiting for an excuse to buy this Google smartwatch, take advantage of the savings by making your purchase immediately.

Why you should buy the Google Pixel Watch
The Google Pixel Watch may have been overshadowed by the Google Pixel Watch 2, but it's still a worthwhile purchase because of everything that it provides at a relatively affordable price. Its colorful always-in display offer brightness of up to 1,000 nuts, and it's protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The Google Pixel Watch also comes with a comprehensive suite of health-focused features, including workout tracking, heart rate monitoring, ECG measurements, sleep tracking, fall detection, and much more. The smartwatch is water-resistant up to 50 meters so you can wear it while swimming, and its battery can last up to 24 hours on a single charge.