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Our Favorite Amazon Hub
Amazon Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen)
A Go-Anywhere Bluetooth Speaker With Boom
Soundcore by Anker Boom 2
Clean, Safe Water Anywhere
Lifestraw Personal Water Filter
Sony’s Best Budget Headphones
Sony WH-CH720N
Amazon Prime Day is a good time to score a deal on a big-ticket item you’ve had your eye on. But with a flurry of deals flying from every direction, it’s also a good time to impulse buy something you’ve been curious about or that it would be nice to have around. Something cheap-ish. Say, under a hundred bucks.
WIRED tests gear and tracks prices all year round. In addition to these best Prime Day deals under $100, we’ve got bell-to-bell Prime Day coverage on our liveblog, a complete guide to the very best Amazon Prime Day deals, and a handful of smaller stories highlighting deals on our favorite Amazon devices and coffee gadgets. Everything below is tested and verified to be good, but you should think of this more as a grab bag of stuff it never hurts to have.
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
Our Favorite Amazon Hub
Amazon Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen)
The Show 8 is Amazon’s middle-size smart display speakers and our smart-home writer’s favorite because it’s the right size to read recipes and the weather without taking up a ton of counter space, has a nice robust sound for its footprint, and can double as a security camera. This is a smart-home hub to connect devices if you’re building out a full Alexa-powered smart home. —Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Amazon
A Go-Anywhere Bluetooth Speaker With Boom
Soundcore by Anker Boom 2
Punchy sound, slick style, an easy-to-grip handle, and respectable water resistance make the Motion Boom speaker a popular tagalong for summer adventures. This thing even floats, so you can toss it between tubes while floating the river or strap it to the back of your Jetski and blast Simon and/or Garfunkel. —Ryan Waniata
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Photograph: Amazon
Clean, Safe Water Anywhere
Lifestraw Personal Water Filter
A perennial favorite Prime Day buy, the humble Lifestraw makes bad-tasting tap water taste better and good-tasting but possibly dangerous clear, cold mountain spring water safe. Each filter can clean up to 1,000 gallons of water before it needs to be replaced. Buy three, and stash them in your car and luggage for trips. —Adrienne So
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Photograph: Amazon
Sony’s Best Budget Headphones
Sony WH-CH720N
Sony’s popular budget headphones don’t have a name that exactly rolls off the tongue. What they do have is a refreshingly potent blend of features and performance chops for affordable cans from a premium brand. You’ll get good noise canceling for your dollars courtesy of Sony’s V1 processor, balanced yet burly sound, and a design that’s equal parts comfy and polished. We wish they folded down or came with a carrying case, but the 720N provide a sweet taste of Sony luxury at a price all of us can stomach. They’re an even better deal on sale, making them a consistent favorite when Prime Day rolls around. —Ryan Waniata
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Photograph: NOCO
Jumper Cables That Don’t Require a Second Car
Noco Boost Plus
I’ve been lugging around a car battery jumper battery for six months without getting to test it—which is great, actually, as who wants to have to jump their car? This NOCO is in our guide on how to stock your car emergency kit and was regarded positively by a former staffer. It also has 100,000 positive Amazon reviews. The idea here is that if you’re one of those people who frets needing a jump from your friends, you can replace those friends with this gadget and jump your car yourself. This is a very small price to pay for electrical independence.
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Photograph: Amazon
Classic Cold Brew
Oxo Cold Brew Maker
In 2015, when the iPhone 6S came out, spry young product reviewer Michael Calore told you to buy this cold-brew coffee maker. In 2024, we still think you should buy this Oxo cold-brew coffee maker, which may in fact be a record run for any WIRED product recommendation. Earth is getting hotter, but the cold brew stays the same temp.
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Photograph: Amazon
A Stylish Electric Toothbrush
Philips Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 5300
Our electric toothbrush reviewer Medea Giordano is a bigger fan of Oral-B, but I’ve been a loyal Sonicare user for pushing 30 years and love the company’s midrange line, which I’ve actually liked better than the high-end offerings. The 5300 is right in the middle of the line and is what I had until I left it at a hotel, then downgraded to a budget 4100. You don’t need all these settings, but you do need the travel case, charger, and extra brush heads. You may also be the type of person who really enjoys having a manly, murdered-out black toothbrush instead of a dainty white one.
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Photograph: Plugable
A Sturdy USB-C Dual Monitor Adapter for Your Laptop
Plugable USB-C Dual 4K HDMI Adapter
We’ve tried this dual-HDMI adapter from Plugable, and while it’s not quite as beefy as a full laptop docking station, it does its job well if you only need to connect a couple of monitors to your laptop. It’s dead-simple to use and is made of sturdy aluminum, so it’s not likely to get damaged in your laptop bag. You can also double up the adapters to support up to four monitors with less bulk than you would get from a single, more-traditional docking station. Just make sure your laptop can support that many outputs before you go stocking up on these adapters. —Eric Ravenscraft
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Photograph: Simon Hill
The Best Budget Security Camera
Blink Mini 2
Amazon’s Blink Mini 2 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is the newest and cheapest entry in its lineup of security camera. It’s compact, but still captures crisp 1080p HD video and reliably captures motion. The Blink Mini 2 is weather-resistant if you want to use it indoors or outdoors, but you will need to upgrade to the version with a weather-resistant adapter ($30 as a Prime Day deal) to safely use it outside. —Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Simon Hill
Our Favorite Indoor Security Camera
Google Nest Cam (Wired, Indoor)
Google’s Nest Cam is our favorite indoor security camera. This is a wired indoor security camera (no need to worry about charging it) that records clear 1080p video thanks to HDR and a relatively high frame rate (30 fps). There’s two-way audio so you can yell at the dog to get off the sofa and night vision that kicks on automatically when the lights go out so you can watch helplessly as the cat wakes up to scratch the sofa and ignore you. Most important, notifications come through swiftly and reliably. —Simon Hill
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Photograph: SanDisk
Our Favorite Flash Drive for Phones
SanDisk iXpand Luxe (128 GB)
This handy little flash drive is our favorite for backing up all your copious photos and videos from your phone. It has both a USB-C 3.1 and Apple Lightning connector, which you can alternate between by flipping the flash drive around inside its metal casing. For iOS devices, you have to install the iXpand Drive app to use it, but that minor nuisance aside, it’s an extremely handy way to offload huge amounts of data from the one device in your life where storage space comes at the highest premium. In our testing, it managed 35 MB/s write speeds, which isn’t the fastest, but it’s likely better than you’ll get trying to upload files to the cloud, so it’s still worth keeping on your keyring. —Eric Ravenscraft
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Photograph: TUSHY
A Lo-Fi, Low-Budget Bidet
Tushy Classic 3.0
The Tushy classic is is not among the top picks in my guide to the best bidets, because the water is not heated. However, any bidet is much better than no bidet, and reviewer Nena Farrell is a fan of the the Tushy Classic 3.0, which is easy to install and doesn’t require plug-in power. This is a good way to get your … feet … wet with a bidet and see if you might want to later upgrade to heated water and an adjustable stray. —Martin Cizmar
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Photograph: Martin Cizmar
Silent Nights
LectroFan Lectrofan
I have this sound machine, which looks like it was designed in the ’80s (this is a feature and not a bug in my decor) and reliably outputs colored noise to help you sleep. It won’t stop a shrieking siren, but it will make it so you don’t hear a drippy faucet or your neighbor’s apparent rave. —Martin Cizmar
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Photograph: PreSonus
Crisp, Clean Audio From One of Our Favorite Mics
Revelator USB Condenser Microphone
The PreSonus Revelator microphone might not be as instantly recognizable as some of its competitors, but it’s one of our favorites for getting nearly studio-quality audio without investing in a ton of expensive audio gear. If you’re starting a podcast or planning to livestream, this is an excellent option. Its large capsule picks up higher-quality audio than some other mics. PreSonus is well known for its audio interface gear, and the company brings its expertise to this mic’s onboard processing, which means you get even clearer audio from the source than many of its competitors. Normally this mic is a bit more expensive than some of our other picks, but at this price, it’s an upgrade without any significant extra cost. —Eric Ravenscraft
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Photograph: Amazon
A Cheap but Solid Pair of Earbuds
Echo Buds (3rd Gen, 2023)
The third-generation Echo Buds are already an affordable set of earbuds, but they’re extra cheap right now thanks to Prime Day. These wireless earbuds don’t have all the features of the more expensive, 2nd-Gen Echo Buds (8/10, WIRED Recommends) that we know and love—most notably, this model doesn’t have any active noise canceling—and we don’t like the form factor as much. But they’re super-affordable earbuds that have Alexa built in and an easy app experience if you’re already an Alexa user (and I assume you are, if you’re shopping for these), and maybe you’ll like the physical design better than we do. Plus, who wants to miss out on $25 earbuds? —Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Ulta
One of Our Favorite Hair Straighteners
Paul Mitchell Express Ion Style+ Ceramic Flat Iron
This ceramic flat iron changed reviewer Medea Giordano’s life in college as she’d never before used a good iron and always had so-so results. Giordano has gone on to test many, many straighteners, but the Style+ remains among her top picks for the best hair straighteners, especially now that it has a digital screen for setting the temperature, which works better than the old temperature dial.
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Photograph: Amazon
A Must-Have Alternative to Flossing
Waterpik Waterpik Aquarius Water Flosser
If you’re still running string between your teeth like a caveman it may be time to consider finally getting a Waterpik. Reviewer Louryn Strampe describes them (delightfully) as like little tiny pressure washers for your teeth. I’ve owned a number of them through the years, and all were far better than any floss, both cleaning better while being gentler.
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Photograph: Home Depot
A Favorite Power Drill for Heavy-Duty Tasks
DeWalt 20V Max 1/2-Inch Cordless Drill
This is the very best power drill and one we think everyone should have at home. Twenty volts gets you the extra torque you might need for heavy-duty tasks like drilling into wall studs. The kit includes two batteries and a charger, which is very fair value even when the drill is full price. Snagging it on sale makes it even more worthwhile. Consider pairing your purchase with some extra drill bits. —Louryn Strampe
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Photograph: Amazon
A Four-Pack of Airtags
Apple AirTags (4-pack)
If you’re a person who needs Airtags to track their stuff (me), the proximity of Prime Day deals to summer vacation season is especially welcome. Save yourself the anxiety of losing your keys in Moline, Illinois, by attaching one of these.
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Photograph: JBL
Earbuds You Can Bike Safely With Then Block the World With
JBL Reflect Aero
You probably don’t want full noise canceling while running or cycling, but you may once you get to the coffee shop you’re biking to. Check out the JBL Reflect Aero, which are counted among our best workout headphones. The JBL app allows you to select how much noise canceling (or added outside noise) you want inside the svelte white earbuds. The battery lasts eight hours if you’re running raw, or six with adaptive noise canceling engaged. —Parker Hall
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Photograph: SteelSeries
A Keyboard With Its Own Notification System
SteelSeries Apex 7 TKL
Our team of testers loves most SteelSeries gear, including their mechanical keyboards which have bright, colorful LEDs and satisfying switch types. The Apex 7 TKL has a unique built-in OLED display that can show notification info and system alerts, and monitor things like CPU usage or temperature. —Eric Ravenscraft
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Photograph: Amazon
Fresh Air, and Lots of It
Vornado 660 and 660 AE
Sure, there are less expensive, similar-looking table fans on the market, but Vornados are popular for a reason, and out of the company’s lineup, it’s hard to beat the 660 air circulator and its Alexa-enabled smart sibling, the 660AE. The slightly larger, more powerful version of Vornado’s popular 630, the 660 pulls a respectable 1,638 CFM (cubic feet of air per minute) in a compact, 15-inch-tall plastic body. The 660 may not be the most stylish fan you’ll ever see, or feature many—if any—bells and whistles, but given Vornado’s proprietary vortex action and generous five-year warranty, it’s undoubtedly a solid buy on sale, especially when you’ve had it with cheaper fans’ subpar performance. My household keeps a 660AE at the bottom of our stairs to push air conditioning up to the second floor, a feat that few other fans have been able to accomplish as effectively. —Kat Merck
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Photograph: MSR
A Small-But-Mighty Stove
MSR PocketRocket 2 Stove
The MSR PocketRocket 2 is a modern marvel. It’s one of my favorite pieces of gear to take to a camping festival. It’s super small—about the length of my palm—and beyond easy to use. Twist the stove onto a standard fuel canister, turn the key to start the flow of gas, and click the Piezo ignitor. You’ll have a ripping-hot, itty-bitty flame. I’ve used this to heat up cans of Chef Boyardee after a long night out, or to boil water for morning coffee in approximately 30 seconds. (Okay, more like two minutes, but still.) Just be aware that the thing is so tiny, it can be hard to find between camping trips, so make sure you don’t misplace it. —Louryn Strampe
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Photograph: Simon Hill
Lots of Light
Govee Neon Rope Light Strip 2
Govee’s Neon Rope Light Strip 2 is one of our favorite lights from Govee. It’s gorgeous enough to use as both art and light on just about any wall, without needing to tuck it behind a TV or console of some kind. Use it to create fun shapes and designs with the help of adhesive-backed metal brackets (or use the included screws) and bendable clips, and it’s more flexible than the original version to make it easier to make your cool wall designs. The Neon Rope Light 2 works with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Matter, allowing you to connect it with Apple HomeKit and Samsung SmartThings via Matter. —Nena Farrell
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Photograph: Amazon
A Kid-Friendly Echo Dot
Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition (5th Gen)
The Echo Dot is small but mighty. The pint-sized speaker fits just about anywhere thanks to its small size, but still has clear sound and good microphones built into it to pick up your voice, play music, and answer your various questions for Alexa. (Do I ask for the weather twice in a row because I wasn’t listening the first time? Yes, I do.) The Echo Dots have been popular for years thanks to the small size and cheaper price tag, but the 5th generation is the best one yet, and half off is hard to beat. There’s also the slightly more expensive Echo Dot with Clock that’s great for bedside tables. —Nena Farrell
Martin Cizmar is the tech category director for the WIRED Reviews team. He specializes in testing mattresses, grills, terrestrial TV antennas, and other large, cumbersome items. Previously he was the editor in chief of Kansas City magazine, a senior editor at Raw Story, an editor at alternative weeklies in Portland… Read more