We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Prime Day 2025 is here from Tuesday, July 8 to Friday, July 11, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools. 

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Browse our editor’s picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more. 

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. 

Amazon Prime Day 2025 sales haven’t officially begun yet, but early Prime Day deals are well and truly underway. One of the best deals you can get right now is on an Apple AirTags (4-Pack), which is going for $68. According to price trackers, the lowest ever price on a four-pack of AirTags was $64.49, so today’s early Prime Day deal on AirTags is far from a ripoff. Still, while the list price on these is $99, keep in mind that you can usually find them for around $80. The discount here is good, but it’s not as steep as it seems.

That’s why, if you don’t need a four-pack of AirTags, you might want to pick up just one or two AirTags on their own. The deals on those aren’t as good as on a four-pack, but they’ll still save you a small chunk of change. At time of writing, a single AirTag is going for $23, down from the list price of $29.

AirTags are worth buying, especially for tracking luggage

I bought a 4-pack of AirTags sometime in 2024, and they have served me quite well. I have a couple in the suitcases I use when I’m taking flights, and two others in backpacks. When I’m out and about, I no longer worry much about losing my luggage or backpacks, as my AirTags immediately alert me if I leave something behind. It takes barely any time to set up an AirTag, and my experience with them has been fairly good overall. It’s also easy to track your AirTags using the Find My app. The only tweak I made was to ensure that my trackers don’t ping me when I leave my backpack or luggage at home, which is easily done by going to the Find My app and navigating to Items > AirTag > Notify When Left Behind.

The battery on an AirTag is supposed to last around a year, but so far I haven’t had to change the batteries on any of my AirTags. You can use any standard 3V CR2032 battery if your AirTag runs out of charge, so topping them up is convenient. And while luggage tracking is the most common use case, you can also use AirTags to track your car, your pets, or even your wallet. It’s worth having a couple around, and now you can get yours for pretty cheap.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale begins at midnight on July 8 and will include deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+. 

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Home Depot extended their 4th of July sale through at least July 9, competing with some amazing deals of their own. It’s an especially good option if you’re looking for power tools, appliances, or outdoor equipment. 

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Prime Day 2025 is here from Tuesday, July 8 to Friday, July 11, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools. 

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. 

Robot vacuums are incredibly useful, but tend to be expensive. Fortunately, I found some deep discounts for Prime Day, running from July 8 to 11 this year.

A budget robot goes on a deeper discount

Yeedi, as a brand, tends to garner good ratings on Amazon and Reddit, and the C12 Pro Plus has two robot features I like: a vibrating mop pad and a bagless dust container. It’s usually a good buy at $499.99, and right now it’s going for $299.97.

A Roborock under $300

Roborocks are consistently high performers when I test them. The Roborock Q7 M5+ is going to give you a self-emptying tower and 10,000Pa suction power—even at the normal price point of $429.99, that’s impressive. This 35% off sale makes this Roborock well worth the (much smaller) investment.

This Dreame with premium features is half off

When I tested the Dreame L10S, I found that it felt premium, despite the mid-range price. In particular, I appreciated its high-performing vacuum—I was less hot on the mop, though. The L10S Pro Ultra is the next generation of that model, and ratings suggest that the mop is greatly improved. Normally $899.99, it’s now almost half off.

A flagship robot vacuum on deep discount

The Dreame X40 Ultra actually is a premium model, which means you’re getting a self-emptying tower, with a mop that cleans itself (it even auto dispenses detergent) and improved robot performance on both vacuuming and mopping. The app will also include some more flexible features around scheduling and obstacle avoidance. That usually comes at a premium price of $1499, but with the listed discount and a coupon available on the listing page, the price comes down to $949.99.

One of my favorite robot vacuums is $300 off

I think the Roborock Curv is, simply put, a fabulous robot vacuum and mop (here’s my review). It has spectacular suction, mopping and vacuum power, and the tower is gorgeously designed. I recommend this model over and over again. It’s well worth the full price of $1599.99, but on sale, I’d grab it.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale begins at midnight on July 8 and will include deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+. 

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

Home Depot extended their 4th of July sale through at least July 9, competing with some amazing deals of their own. It’s an especially good option if you’re looking for power tools, appliances, or outdoor equipment.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Prime Day 2025 is here from Tuesday, July 8 to Friday, July 11, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools. 

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. 

Walmart announced that it’s prepping to launch Walmart Deals, a sale meant to compete with Prime Day. Last year, Walmart had the same sale around last year’s Prime Day as well, so it’s no surprise it’s happening again. Here is what you can expect from Walmart Deals.

What is Walmart Deals?

Walmart Deals is meant to be the answer to Amazon’s Prime Day. It is both an in-store and online sale with deals on most things that Walmart sells (food being arguably the biggest omission). The sale happens every year around these early summer dates, revolving around Prime Day.

When does Walmart Deals start?

Walmart Deals kicks off online at 12 a.m. ET on Tuesday, July 8, and in stores at local opening times, and it will run through Sunday, July 13. This is the first time the sale will run for six days, likely having to do with Amazon also extending its sale.

Do you need to be a Walmart+ member to shop during Walmart Deals?

No. But, if you are a Walmart+ member, you’ll get early access to the sales beginning Tuesday, July 7 at 7 p.m. ET, a full night before the event opens to the public. You can sign up for a free 30-day Walmart+ subscription or get the annual plan for $98 ($8.17/month).

What you can expect from Walmart Deals

Walmart says its sale will include many different categories, including deals on electronics, home, toys, travel, back-to-school materials, and many other categories—similar to the deals we found last year. The sale will be on Walmart.com, the Walmart app, and in stores. You can already see the landing page, even though the sale hasn’t started. Here are some deals Walmart says will be available:

• 32-Inch Samsung Smart Monitor for $199 (was $299.99)

• 50-Inch Vizio QLED Smart TV for $238 (was $298)

• Dyson V7 Advanced Cordless Vacuum Cleaner for $229.99 (was $399.99)

• HART 40-Volt 21-inch Supercharge 3-in-1 Self-Propelled Mower Kit for $374 (was $548)

• Ozark Trail 20×10 Foot Straight Leg Pop Up Canopy Tent for $139.77 (was $199.67)

• Seiko Automatic Blue Dial Stainless Steel Men’s Watch for $125 (was $196.20)

• Timex Women’s Dress Crystal 30mm Watch for $32.25 (was $79)

• Skylight 15 inch All in one Family Calendar for $269.99 (was $319.99)

• 75-Inch DIY Nutcracker for $159 (special buy, pre-order)

• 55-Inch DIY Gingerbread House for $100 (special buy, pre-order)

You can choose between in-store pickup and different delivery options, including early-morning delivery, late-night express delivery, and next- and two-day shipping.

Here are all of the other competing sales

You can always expect major retailers to have their own competitive sales, the big ones being Best Buy, Target, and, of course, Amazon. Like in previous years, the dates for these sales will start earlier, overlap, and run longer than Prime Day. There are usually a couple of deals that are better than Amazon’s Prime Day from each of the retailers, but the majority of the good deals will be on Amazon. I will be updating this post with details on those offerings as soon as they’ve been announced.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Best Buy and Home Depot also have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale begins at midnight on July 8 and will include deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+. 

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Home Depot extended their 4th of July sale through at least July 9, competing with some amazing deals of their own. It’s an especially good option if you’re looking for power tools, appliances, or outdoor equipment. 

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Prime Day 2025 is here from Tuesday, July 8 to Friday, July 11, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools. 

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. 

While Target, Walmart, and Best Buy are starting their competing sales this weekend, Prime Day 2025 won’t officially kick off until tomorrow, but you can already find early deals on Amazon devices, like this 75-inch QLED TV going nearly 50% off. But if you’re looking to spend a bit less but still score a bargain, consider these early Prime Day tech deals under $25.

Earbuds

Wired earbuds are very early 2000’s, but on the other hand, they never run out of batteries. If you’re still rocking an iPhone 14 Plus or below (or an iPhone SE 3rd generation), you’ll be able to pick up some official Apple EarPods Headphones with a Lightning connector for $15.96 (originally $19), or one with USB-C connector for a few cents more.

If you prefer wireless earbuds but don’t want to overpay for something you might end up losing, the Soundcore by Anker P20i are a solid pair with some impressive features for their $19.99 price (originally $39.99). You get Bluetooth 5.3, 3o hours of battery, water resistance, and a full EQ with its companion app.

AirTags

You don’t need to be a spy to have tracking devices. As an Apple user, you can let AirTags use Find My to track anything that you can put these devices on. Right now, Amazon has single AirTags for $22.99 (originally $29).

Amazon devices

If you have a TV that isn’t smart, or you don’t like its OS, you can get the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K for $24.99 (originally $49.99). It supports Dolby Atmos audio, almost all the HDR formats, Amazon Luna and Xbox Game Pass cloud gaming, Wi-Fi 6, and you can install Kodi to virtually watch anything for free.

The Amazon Echo Pop is Amazon’s most budget-friendly smart speaker. You can use the multi-room music feature if you have multiple speakers in different rooms, so grab a few: You can get one for $21.99 right now (originally $39.99).

Portable phone chargers

I recently lost my INIU Portable Charger while traveling in Europe. Luckily, it was at the end of my trip and it had served its purpose well, saving my phone’s battery (and therefore my life) multiple times. You can get one now for $15.98 (originally $21.99).

All iPhone users, in my opinion, should own a Magsafe portable charger. The cool thing about this one is that it’s magnetic and sticks to the back of your iPhone. You can get the Ugreen Magnetic Power Bank for $22.99 (originally $34.99).

Outdoor speakers

If you’re looking for a cheap portable outdoor speaker that can get wet, consider the BolaButty Portable Speaker, currently going for $19.99 (originally $34.99). It’s waterproof with an IPX5 rating and will last 20 hours before running out of juice.

Surge protectors

I use surge protector power strips on most nightstands or table tops around my home, but I always look for the ones with the flat head so I can have my furniture rest against the wall without damaging the cable. This Tessan 12-in-one Tower Surge Protector Power Strip has eight outlets and four USB ports currently going for $23.79 (originally $29.74).

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale begins at midnight on July 8 and will include deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+. 

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Home Depot extended their 4th of July sale through at least July 9, competing with some amazing deals of their own. It’s an especially good option if you’re looking for power tools, appliances, or outdoor equipment. 

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Prime Day 2025 is here from Tuesday, July 8 to Friday, July 11, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools. 

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. 

Amazon’s Prime Day is here again. The shopping holiday has been a capitalist tradition since 2015, and this year the mega-retailer will be offering four days of discounts on thousands of products of all kinds to Amazon Prime members, rather than the usual two. The sale officially runs from July 8 to July 11, but early Prime Day deals are already live—just check out our Prime Day live blog for proof.

While listicles and online guides about how to take advantage of Prime Day savings can be helpful, the best piece of advice if you want to save money on Prime Day is dead simple: Don’t buy anything you weren’t already planning to buy just because it’s on sale. And there’s a corollary: If you find a Prime Day “bargain” on something you wanted anyway, make sure it’s actually a bargain.

Only buy things on Prime Day that you were planning to buy anyway

The reason you should only buy what you are already planning to on Prime Day is because Amazon wants you to do the opposite. The entire sales promotion is designed to encourage you to purchase things you don’t really want or need, and to get you to sign up for an Amazon Prime membership.

Amazon’s sales (like all sales) are an attempt to drive numbers upwards by creating a “ticking clock” and a false sense of scarcity—that’s why “lightning deals” have limited time windows and limited supplies. They’re taking advantage of people’s fear of missing out on bargains. Yelling “act now!” and “only available while supplies last!” is an old sales trick, but you’re not likely to “miss out.” Amazon’s prices fluctuate constantly. Also: With the exception of hot toys around Christmas and other special cases, supplies usually don’t “run out.” So the trick is to take a long view of Amazon’s pricing.

Amazon Prime Day “bargains” can be misleading

In the chart above (which I made with Keepa, a browser extension that compares Amazon prices over time) you can see the volatility of the price of Amazon’s 5th Gen Echo Dot over the last year. It’s not the same for every product, of course, but there’s nothing special about the Dot either.

We tend to think that the price of a thing remains fixed until there’s a special sale. But that’s not the case at Amazon. That “list price” of $49.99 is very flexible; the product is offered for less regularly. For instance, the October Prime Day price was $22.99. The price was raised immediately when Prime Day ended, which might have made you think you “missed out,” but it was lowered again around Thanksgiving, so really, there was not a need to rush.

Here’s a look at price changes over a longer period of time:

As you can see, there was never really a need to rush to Amazon to buy an Echo Dot, lest you miss your chance at a bargain. It was even offered as a “lightning deal” during 2023’s summer Prime Days, and the much hyped “lighting price”of $24.99 was higher than both the October Prime Day price and the “Christmas shopping” price. In short, don’t be fooled into thinking you need to act now to get a deal—and if you only buy what you were planning to, you won’t feel so burned by a later price drop.

How to avoid overspending on Amazon Prime Day

If you are going into this Prime Day with open eyes and a steely heart, determined to resist attempts to make foolish purchases, below are steps you should take to maximize your chance of success and keep yourself from impulse-buying.

Take advantage of an Amazon Prime free trial

You won’t be able to take advantage of any Prime Day offers without signing up for a membership to Amazon Prime. The service costs $14.99 per month or $139 per year, but they offer a 30-day free trial for first time users, so you can sign up, get your Instant Pot, and then cancel it for nothing. (Just set an alarm so you don’t forget.)

Amazon offers a six-month Amazon Prime trial period for students, and it’s half price, $7.49 a month, after that. If you’re on EBT or Medicaid, Prime costs $6.99 through Amazon Access and offers all the benefits of a traditional Prime membership and a one-month free trial for new users.

Use Amazon’s wishlist to your advantage

You can use Amazon’s wish list feature as a way of maintaining buyer discipline—just go to Amazon’s list page, create a new list called “Things I was going to buy anyway,” and add the items you hope will go on sale. Tell yourself you’ll only buy these items, no matter how big the discount is on LED lightbulbs.

Capitalize on Amazon’s promotional offers

During Prime Days past, Amazon offered a variety of promotions to get free credits to buy Amazon products. Customers could earn credits by choosing slower shipping, attending certain movies, using different Amazon services, and jumping through other hoops. Research and take advantage of these deals to shave even more off Amazon Prime Day prices. These can sometimes be a pain, but if you want to save a few more bucks, it might be worth it to you. I’ll update with this Prime Day’s promotional offers when they’re live.

Set your own prices

Retail comparison tools can be used to make sure your Amazon bargain is actually a bargain. There are apps and extensions that provides price histories of every item on Amazon and will send you an email when your selected products fall to a specific price. Some allow you to import your wishlist, then set the maximum price you’ll pay for your goods—here’s how to do that. That’ll give you the freedom to ignore Amazon entirely during Prime Day unless you get the “buy” signal in your inbox.

Compare against other retailers

Even if the thing you were planning to buy already shows up as a sale item on Amazon at a price you like, don’t rush to click “buy.” It still might not be the best deal possible. Because of the popularity of Prime Day, other retailers (including Walmart, Best Buy, and Target) usually have their own sales promotions to compete with Amazon Prime Day, so check the prices at those retailers before pulling the trigger.

Wait until November

If you can handle waiting, you might get a better deal in November. As much hype as Prime Day always gets, the biggest retail savings and markdowns almost always come during the Christmas shopping season. Black Friday savings are likely to be bigger than Prime Day savings overall, unless you’re buying things like school supplies and outdoor furniture that usually aren’t put on sale in November.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale begins at midnight on July 8 and will include deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+. 

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Home Depot extended their 4th of July sale through at least July 9, competing with some amazing deals of their own. It’s an especially good option if you’re looking for power tools, appliances, or outdoor equipment. 

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Prime Day 2025 is here from Tuesday, July 8 to Friday, July 11, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools. 

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. 

Summer is DIY season, and if you have some projects planned, you might have noticed that the price of tools can add up quickly. Luckily, whether you’re working on a vehicle or a rain collection system, there are some good deals from Amazon on tools ahead of Prime Day.

Cordless tools

A good cordless tool set will make DIY projects easier to accomplish and save you some time as well. If you already have a set and are looking to expand, or you want to start a tool set, these will keep your DIY momentum going through the summer.

• The DeWalt 20-volt cordless drill set is on sale for $99, 38% off its regular price. This set comes with a drill, a 2-amp-hour battery, a charger, and a tool bag. This is a perfect starter set, as this tool can be used for drilling holes as well as driving hardware, and it comes with a battery so it’s ready to use straight out of the box.

• The DeWalt 20-volt cordless impact driver set is on sale for $99, 38% off its usual price. This set comes with a quarter-inch impact driver, a 2-amp-hour battery, a charger, and a tool bag. This is a good addition to your cordless set if you already have a driver, as it allows you to drive fasteners into tougher material with less effort because of the impact assistance. You can also use this tool as a drill with a bit designed for a quarter-inch impact chuck, making it a versatile tool for a home DIY kit.

• The Makita 12-volt material cutter is on sale for $98, 58% off its typical price. The set comes with a material-cutting multitool, a 12-volt, 2-amp-hour battery, a charger, and a tool bag. This tool can be used to cut rubber, vinyl, and carpet, making it great for flooring, heavy-duty upholstery, and arts and crafts projects.

• The Milwaukee cordless 18-volt random orbital sander is on sale for $102.20, 37% off its regular price. This is a “bare tool” deal, so it doesn’t come with a battery or charger, but it does have a dust collection attachment and a couple of medium-grit sanding discs to get you started. This is a good tool for finishing woodworking projects.

• The DeWalt 20-volt cordless tire inflator/compressor is on sale for $109.94, 39% off its typical price. It’s a tool-only deal, so it doesn’t come with a battery. This is a good addition to a home garage shop or roadside emergency kit, and can be used to inflate car and bike tires.

Bits, wrenches, and drivers

You never truly appreciate the power of having the right-sized wrench or socket until you’ve gotten 90% of the way through removing a panel on your HVAC system to perform some maintenance, only to discover that you can’t undo the last three nuts. A good socket set can help you get through most common home and vehicle maintenance, and is indispensable if you want to save money on handyman costs by tackling chores yourself.

• The Craftsman 159-piece mechanics tool set is on sale for $99, 41% off its regular price. It comes with three ratchet handles, a set of metric sockets and wrenches, a set of SAE sockets and wrenches, a hand driver with an assortment of bit types, a set of bit extensions and adapters, and a toolbox. This is a good set to start out with for most DIY auto maintenance, as well as for projects around the house like changing filters or assembling furniture.

• The Craftsman 230-piece mechanics tool set is on sale for $99, 50% off its regular price. This set comes with a range of both metric and SAE sockets, a set of metric and SAE wrenches, three ratchet handles, a hand driver with an assortment of bits, ratchet extensions and adapters, a set of socket-drive fastener bits for screws, a set of hex wrenches, and a three-drawer tool box. This is a good set to build a top-notch DIY tool kit for your home shop, and can work for driving most types of fasteners.

• The Craftsman two-driver set is on sale for $4.98, 50% off its typical price. This set is just one Philips head and a flat head screwdriver. This is a basic set, good for building a home maintenance kit or a go bag for when you want to DIY on the road.

• The Makita 100-piece impact driver bit set is on sale for $24.99, 55% off its regular price. The set comes with a variety of driver bit types, including Phillips, flat head, and star tip, as well as a bit extension for reaching into tight spaces. This is a good set to cover most common hardware types and sizes you will come across for woodworking, repair, and maintenance projects.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale begins at midnight on July 8 and will include deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+. 

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Home Depot extended their 4th of July sale through at least July 9, competing with some amazing deals of their own. It’s an especially good option if you’re looking for power tools, appliances, or outdoor equipment. 

The Photos app has been getting a lot of Apple’s attention as of late. Most notably, in last year’s iOS 18, it got a polarizing redesign that made the Edit button harder to find. The app was still usable, but you really had to customize your Photos app to make the most of it. Even then, the bottom tab bar was removed and replaced with a unified view, and I’ve still not gotten used to this change. In iOS 26, Apple has tried to course-correct a little, and that’s made Photos a better app for most people I’ve shown it off to. Here are all the new features in the iOS 26 Photos app on your iPhone.

The bottom tab bar is back (sort of)

Two years ago, when iOS 17 was going strong, Photos had a simple bottom tab bar with four buttons: Library, For You, Albums, and Search. Apple removed this entirely in iOS 18, but it decided to bring some of it back in iOS 26. You can now see three buttons towards the bottom of the screen in Photos: Library, Collections, and Search. This is yet another example of UI design that prioritizes one-handed use on large phones, and I’m happy to see it.

With these buttons, I can easily switch from my photo library to curated albums, and even look for photos much faster.

Convert your photos into Spatial Scenes

Borrowing a feature from visionOS, Apple now lets you convert any iPhone photo into a Spatial Scene. This adds depth to your photo, and you’ll be able to see the difference when you pan around. The effect is much more natural and pronounced when you’re viewing photos on an Apple Vision Pro, but it’s evident even on your iPhone. Open any photo in the Photos app, and tap the small hexagon icon in the top-right corner. This will turn the picture into a Spatial Scene. I really only notice this effect when I set Spatial Scene photos as my lock screen wallpaper. You can do that by hitting the Share button on any photo, setting it as a wallpaper, and tapping the Spatial Scene (hexagon) button in the wallpaper preview page. When you move your phone around, the preview will show your wallpaper moving.

Filters to help you zero in on the right picture

The Library tab in iOS 26’s Photos app has a three-dots button up top. Tap this and you’ll see a lot of useful search filters that will help you find the photos you’re looking for. My library has thousands of photos, and it’s become a task to wade through all of them when I am looking for something specific, since the default Library view shows photos, videos, and screenshots. As a tech journalist, I am guilty of taking more screenshots than most people, which also means that quickly scrolling through my library rarely gets me to the photos I need to see. 

With the new search filters, I can simply tap the View Options button under the three-dots menu, then hide screenshots and photos other people have shared with me. This reduces the number of photos I see to a much more manageable amount. Next, I recommend tapping the Filter button and using the available filters to narrow it down further. iOS 26 has the following photos search filters: All Items, Favorites, Edited, Photos, Videos, and Not in an Album. You can select one or more of these to quickly find the things you’re looking for while you’re searching through the Library tab.

An improved layout in the Collections tab

You can also use the Collections tab to quickly organize your photo layout to your liking. Hit the three-dots button up top, then tap one of the three layout icons to change the layout. I like the compact view (middle icon) the most, but you can choose larger thumbnails, or a mix of large and small thumbnails, too. You can also scroll down to the bottom and tap Reorder to rearrange this page to your liking, but this feature was around in iOS 18 as well.

The Photos app isn’t alone in these improvements, too. While the Photos app got a few necessary UI tweaks, the Camera app also got many substantial improvements in iOS 26. 

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Prime Day 2025 is here from Tuesday, July 8 to Friday, July 11, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools. 

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.

• Browse our editor’s picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more. 

• Subscribe to our shopping newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox.

• New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. 

I love a good sale on cooking appliances, but there’s only one piece of kitchen gear that’s changed the way my kitchen feels—and I don’t cook with it. Barring emergency kitchen purchases (like if your microwave quit), if you’re going to buy one thing off of Amazon’s Prime Day, I highly suggest you buy a kitchen vacuum. The Shark Wandvac is one of my most-used kitchen appliances, and it’s 50% off right now. 

This shouldn’t shock you, but I cook every day. Obviously my profession has a lot to do with it (I never report on recipes I haven’t tried first): I do a lot of recipe development and tests in my kitchen, and that’s along with food my boyfriend and I cook ourselves on the daily. Aside from that, I have two cats shedding like the dickens this summer, and they like to hang around the kitchen looking for cheese. This Brooklyn apartment’s kitchen has dealt with a lot. And it ain’t pretty.

That is, until I got my Shark WandVac. It turns out that most of what makes my kitchen looking dingy is the collection of crumbs, hair, and coffee grounds that seem to gather along in corners, cracks, and edges. Big cleanups, like wiping down the stove and clearing the sink are easy to identify, but I hated how long it took to detail all the tiny corners of the room. (Why are there crumbs in my silverware organizer?) The Shark takes care of that.

The first, and possibly most important, reason I love this tool is it’s cordless. I will undoubtedly knock over jars and cups or topple the pepper grinder if I have a wire to worry about. The Shark comes with a charging station for when the battery runs out, which only happens once every few weeks. I’ve had it for over a year now, I use it for one- or two-minute stints every few days, and a full charge gives me vacuuming power for up to a month. 

Its narrow design allows me to navigate weird spots in the cabinets and reach around appliances. It’s small enough that I can keep it stashed on an easy-to-access low shelf so when I need it, I can just grab it and do a quick run of the countertops. Then I stash it again. It has great suction, it’s not too noisy, and it comes with multiple ends: a precision nozzle that I use every day, an optional brush, and the built-in wider nozzle. 

This vacuum retails for $179.99, but right now it’s 50% off for 89.99. It makes cleaning the counters and that annoying lip around my stove much easier and a heck of a lot faster. And where cleaning is concerned, ease and speed are a recipe for success.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale begins at midnight on July 8 and will include deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+. 

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Home Depot extended their 4th of July sale through at least July 9, competing with some amazing deals of their own. It’s an especially good option if you’re looking for power tools, appliances, or outdoor equipment. 

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Prime Day 2025 is here from Tuesday, July 8 to Friday, July 11, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools. 

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New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know.

Midrange TVs have been getting so good over the last few years that it’s getting hard to justify spending two to three times the price for an OLED TV. That has been TCL’s goal: to master the QLED tech at a relatively low price, and its QM7 is a great example of that. I personally got to review it and put it to the test, and right now, the massive 85-inch model is $1,239.93 (originally $1,999.99), a record low price, according to price-tracking tools.

Yes, Prime Day technically starts tomorrow, but early deals are already rolling in at full force. When I see products drop to a record-low price before Prime Day, I often see that price sustained during the sale (if it doesn’t go back up). In other words, this is likely the best price you’ll see.

When it comes to midrange TVs right now, QLED technology is the best before crossing over to the much more expensive OLED side. QLED might never reach the picture quality that OLEDs can get to, but for most people, it can get pretty close and be much cheaper.

The keyword most QLED shoppers are looking for is “dimming zones”—the more you have, the better deep blacks will look next to bright highlights. The QM7 has up to 1,240 local dimming zones, which is surprising for its price. It can also get very bright, with up to 2,400 nits at peak brightness. Of course, you get 4K resolution and HDR support (HDR ULTRA with Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, HDR10, and HLG). As a gamer, I enjoyed the 120Hz refresh rate and 6 millisecond input lag with Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, making my Halo matches run smoothly.

The Google TV OS is icing on the cake, since I love casting to the TV seamlessly from my phone. The QM7 has been my favorite non-OLED TV I’ve ever tried, and for its current price, it’s the best non-OLED TV you can get.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale begins at midnight on July 8 and will include deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+. 

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Home Depot extended their 4th of July sale through at least July 9, competing with some amazing deals of their own. It’s an especially good option if you’re looking for power tools, appliances, or outdoor equipment.