These are the worst Prime Day deals I've seen so far — here's what to buy instead

LG Gram (2022): was $1,355.00, now $1,249.99 at Amazon, but still way overpriced
On the surface, this actually looks like a fairly decent creative professionals' laptop. It has a good processor, decent RAM and storage, and a discrete Nvidia RTX GPU, so what's the problem? It's GPU is actually way underpowered (RTX 2050) for what you can get at this price (as much as an RTX 3060 or better), and that is a big deal for creative pros. These laptops need to last years, not be obselete out of the box, especially at this price.

Asus Zenbook Pro 15 OLED: was $1,499.99 now $1,049.99 at Amazon
Save a whopping $400 on this premium laptop from Asus this Prime Day, featuring a beautiful 1080p OLED touch display and a high-end Ryzen 9 5900HX processor - plus a dedicated Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti GPU for all your graphical needs. The discrete graphics card makes this Zenbook more adept at demanding tasks like photo and video editing - and means you can squeeze in some casual gaming after the workday is over, too! 

Dell Inspiron 16: was $1,399.99 now $1,174.99 at Amazon
The Dell Inspiron 16 comes with a very powerful Intel Core i7-13700H processor, Nvidia RTX 3050 GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and a brilliant 2.5K resolution, 16:10 display that will power your content creation for years to come.

Asus Vivobook Pro 14 OLED: was $1,199.99 now $959 at Amazon
Sleek, lightweight, powerful - and now under a thousand bucks! The Vivobook Pro 14 OLED excels in almost every area, from its vivid display to its speedy Ryzen 7 6800H processor. A dedicated Nvidia RTX 3050 GPU means this laptop is no slouch when it comes to more graphically-intensive workloads too, such as video editing or 3D rendering tasks.

Asus Vivobook 15 F1500EA Slim: was $379.99 now $279.99 at Amazon, but only barely functional
This is the kind of Windows laptop that can fool a lot of people into thinking they've got a bargain, only to find they hate their new computer and never use it again. This is a Windows 11 laptop that runs in S-mode, which means that you are restricted to only running apps that are downloaded from the Microsoft store. There are just a lot of apps that you might think you'll be able to run, but which simply won't install. Ever. And it's probably for the best, since the 4GB RAM is a major red flag on any Windows laptop. Even in S-mode, Windows 11 takes up a lot of RAM right out the gate, leaving you next to nothing for anything else, so whatever you do install will run incredibly slow, assuming it doesn't freeze up entirely.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M2, 2023): was £1,399 now £1,279.97 at Amazon
It's been barely a month since Apple launched the 15-inch model of the M2 MacBook Air, yet it's already more than a hundred pounds off at Amazon. We're happy to see it, in any case; our only real criticism in our review was that it's essentially the same 13-inch 2022 MacBook Air, just bigger. So if a larger screen is what you want, then snap this up.

Asus Chromebook C425: was $329.99 now $233.80 at Amazon
Save nearly a hundred bucks on this budget laptop from Asus this Prime Day. Packing an Intel Core CPU and a 1080p touchscreen, the C425 is an excellent pick for a younger user thanks to ChromeOS, which is easy to use and comes loaded with safety and security features so parents can rest easy knowing their child is protected online.

Acer Aspire 3 (Ryzen 3): was $329.99 now $279 at Amazon
A more affordable version of the Aspire 3, this model uses a quad-core AMD Ryzen 3 processor - not a chip that will be playing all the latest games or powering through 4K video editing, but perfectly sufficient for everyday tasks. At just over $280, this laptop is a steal for office workers or students.

Acer Aspire 3 (Ryzen 5): was $439.99 now $379.99 at Amazon
If you're looking for a well-built but sensibly-priced laptop for office or school work this Prime Day, the Aspire 3 is a sound choice. A next-gen AMD Ryzen 5 CPU means that this laptop also has speedy DDR5 memory, while a 512GB SSD means you'll have plenty of space to store all your files.

Asus Vivobook 15: was £449.99 now £354.44 at Amazon
If you're looking for a sensibly-priced Windows laptop this Prime Day, perhaps for office or school use, the Asus Vivobook 15 is a sound pick. It's not the most powerful laptop on the market, but at less than four hundred pounds, you get plenty for your cash. The 15.6-inch 1080p display is great for multitasking or video calls, and the whole laptop weighs under 2kg, making it easy to take with you on the go.

Asus Chromebook CX1500 (2022): was $249.99 now $179.99 at Amazon, which is a lot for a paperweight
Chromebooks can be hard to judge from their specs alone, since most have older components to keep costs down, so you might not think twice about the Celeron processor in this laptop. That's why it's really important to read reviews of products you plan to buy. When I wrote my Asus Chromebook CX1500 review last year, the performance was dreadful, even for a Chromebook. The Intel processor in this model was a budget Celeron chip in 2016. It was underpowered from the start and it hasn't gotten better with time. If you see any Chromebook deals and they have an Intel Celeron N3350 processor (scroll down, the processor is listed in the specs section), just close the tab. Seriously. Not even if they are giving it away.

Asus Chromebook C425: was $329.99 now $233.80 at Amazon
Save nearly a hundred bucks on this budget laptop from Asus this Prime Day. Packing an Intel Core CPU and a 1080p touchscreen, the C425 is an excellent pick for a younger user thanks to ChromeOS, which is easy to use and comes loaded with safety and security features so parents can rest easy knowing their child is protected online.

HP Chromebook 14 (2022): was $289.99 now $179.99 at Amazon
This HP Chromebook sports a 14-inch display with a more powerful Intel processor than you typically find at this price point. The 4GB RAM and the 64GB storage aren't anything to write home about, but this will get the job done for basic computing tasks at nearly 24% off its MSRP.

Asus Chromebook 14: was £249.99 now £139.99 at Amazon
Lightweight, straightforward, and above all else cheap, the Asus Chromebook 14 brings you the easy versatility of ChromeOS in a conventional and affordable 14-inch laptop chassis. It's not the flashiest laptop around, but at this price, it's hard to argue that this isn't incredible value. The user-friendly interface and child safety features of ChromeOS make this perfect for younger users.

HP 22-inch All-in-One desktop PC: was $499.99 now $388.88 at Amazon, which is where it should stay
For a family all-in-one PC that you might have set up in the living room, you often don't need a whole lot of high-performance specs. Some basic hardware that lets you video conference with family, watch some YouTube clips, and maybe send email is really all you need. But you still need enough computing power to actually run the PC, and the specs on this HP AIO aren't just comical, they're downright insulting. The AMD Athlon Gold 3150U dual-core processor in this desktop is actually a mobile chip meant for low-end laptops like Chromebooks or Windows S-mode devices, so don't expect much from it, and 4GB RAM isn't even enough to effectively run Windows 11 in S-mode, so there's no universe where it can run the full Windows 11 OS properly. Just turning the PC on will eat up 100% of your entire memory pool out of the box, so you can pretty much forget about running any program on this PC without substantial upgrades (if that's even possible), making this "deal" one of the worst computer offers I've ever seen. Not even if they were giving it away.

HP 21.5-inch All-in-One (2022): was $569 now $499 at Amazon
This HP All-in-One isn't the most powerful PC by any means, owing to the limitations of the Intel Celeron J4025 processor, but it will be good enough for a family PC where you only really need it for web browsing or school work, and maybe watching some video online. It has enough RAM that things won't slow to a crawl the moment you open up an app like Google Chrome, but don't expect to do much photo editing or gaming on this PC. For a $500 family PC though, this is a pretty decent deal if you keep your expectations in line with its specs.

ASUS Vivo V222FAK 21.5-inch AIO desktop PC: was £529.99 now £389.99 at Amazon
This AIO desktop won't win any performance awards, but it can still run circles around similarly priced PCs running less than 8GB RAM and a budget Intel processor. And for 26% off, this PC will make the perfect shared computer for the family.

HP Victus 15L: was $1,369.99 now $943.94 at Amazon (and a classic case of sellers refusing to eat a loss)
This gaming desktop was actually a fantastic PC not that long ago, but tech can move fast, and the 31% discount on its list price is clearly as much of a loss on this PC as the seller is willing to take. With a graphics card that is a few years old at this point (and it was a less powerful GPU to begin with), this PC is going to seriously struggle to play the latest games at acceptable frame rates. But it can be hard to tell that if you're buying this PC as a gift or you're new to PC gaming and you're not as well-versed in the current state of the graphics card market and what modern games requre. The sellers are ultimately relying on this unfamiliarity to stem the losses they're getting from having ordered more PCs than they can actually sell.

HP Victus 15L: $999 at Amazon
So this HP Victus isn't even on sale, and it's already a better value than the one above. It has the same processor, a Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card, 200% more storage capacity — which you'll need if you're going to be playing the latest PC games — and it is only $64 more. 

Asus ROG G15: was $1,429.99 now $999.99 at Amazon
This gaming PC might have been overpriced to start, but thanks to this Amazon Prime Day deal, it's now one of the better options if you're looking to get into PC gaming. The Nvidia RTX 3060 might be a last-gen card, but it's still more than capable of playing the latest PC games very well at full HD on high settings. And it's roomy enough that if you want to upgrade the graphics card, you can easily swap it out for something more powerful like the Nvidia RTX 4060.

Sony Bravia XR A90K Series (48-inch): was $1,499.99 now $1,398 at Amazon, which is really awful
On paper, there's not anything particularly bad about this Prime Day TV deal—who wouldn't want 7% off a 48-inch 4K TV? Don't be fooled though, this deal if bad, bad, bad, according to TechRadar's Managing Editor for Entertainment, Matthew Bolton: "The A90K Series was released at the same time as, and uses the exact same panel as, the 48-Inch LG C2 Series, and the LG has better connectivity. Amazon has now sold out of the 48-inch LG C2, but just go get it from Best Buy instead and save yourself enough to buy a PS5."

LG Class C2 Series (48-inch): was $1,099.99 now $899.99 at Best Buy
Not only are you getting a fantastic TV with great connectivity and beautiful, crisp visuals with this LG C2 TV, you're also saving $200 on top of the already much cheaper list price of the LG C2 compared to the Sony Bravia XR A90K Series at the same size. 

Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II: was $299, now $249 at Amazon, which is what they'll probably sell for next week too
Our Senior Editor for Home Entertainment, Al Griffin, had this to say about these earbuds: "The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II are being touted as a Prime Day deal by Amazon, with a whopping 17% off the $299 list price. But back in December 2022 these same buds were $20 cheaper than the current $249 sale price, and they have sold for $249 throughout much of 2023. Bad deal! Savvy shoppers should instead look at the Sony WF-1000XM4, a similarly featured model that’s on sale for $198 – a near-lowest-ever price for Sony’s top noise-cancelling earbuds, which have been priced much higher through most of 2023.

Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds: was $279.99 now $198 at Amazon
Prime Day offers like this one are good – but they can be beaten if we wait… perhaps. The thing is, we have seen the excellent XM4 earbuds briefly drop to $178 before now, during Black Friday last year. The deal was over in a flash, (leaving some of the TechRadar team disappointed) so if you need them now, we'll leave this still-significant saving here. Sony's immersive LDAC, excellent ANC, eight hours on battery life from just the earbuds and stunning sound quality? Yes please – check out our detailed review for more info. 

Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro: was $229.99 now $179.99 at Amazon
The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro arrived in stores on August 26 last year, and although we've seen them discounted as low as $155 very briefly, this is still a tidy $50 saving. They're small, they're comfortable, the two-way speaker design provides impressive and detailed 24-bit audio and the ANC is seriously good for this level. The one downside is the battery life, at only 5 hours from the buds and up to 18 in the case. Our advice? Consult our review first – that's how good they are. Then decide.