Prime Day, Amazon’s fourth annual members-only sale, is officially underway. The massive online retailer is yet again running a mind-boggling number of deals throughout the month of July, with the bulk of the discounts and flash sales starting at 3pm ET on July 16 and continuing through July 17 — the official Prime Day. The Polygon Deals team will be sorting through the frankly daunting amount of Prime Day discounts both here and on our Twitter feed. We’ll update this post throughout the day on Monday and Tuesday with the best deals in gaming and pop culture, from consoles and PCs to physical and digital games. You can also check out our friends over at the Verge for more general tech deals. We’re separately rounding up the best Nintendo, Xbox and PS4 deals as well, plus our favorite digital comics you can get for free with Prime Reading. Remember that these discounts are only available to Amazon Prime members, but if you’re not yet t you can sign up for a 30-day free trial. Additional perks include free two-day shipping on all Amazon purchases, Prime Video and Prime Music. Plus, connect your Twitch account for access to Twitch Prime which grants access to ad-free viewing, a monthly channel subscription, and free PC game downloads. Consoles and Accessories PCs and Hardware TVs and Monitors Games Books, TV, Movies Toys and Board Games Last updated July 18, 11:36 a.m. ET. Thanks for following along!<doc-sep>Amazon Prime Day 2018 has arrived, bringing a host of deals on items from smartphones to TVs and everything in between. I’ve been browsing the hundreds of gadgets on sale to give you, dear reader, the best chance of saving your hard-earned cash — and definitely not because I was shopping during work hours. In previous years Amazon (AMZN) took some heat for touting Prime Day as Christmas in July, but then offering deals on items that made it look more like a cut-rate garage sale. But so far, 2018’s Prime Day looks like it’s mostly living up to the hype. It’s not exactly Santa sauntering in through the front door in Bermuda shorts levels of awesome, but this year’s sale has at least some offerings that are worth your attention. Smartphones No, you’re not going to get an iPhone X on the cheap during Prime Day, but you will be able to snag a few handsets at great prices this year. The Essential Phone, made by the man who brought you the Android operating system, is down from $499 to just $249. The handset has a beautiful design and simple interface that makes it the antithesis of the bloated look of Samsung’s offerings. The Android-powered Essential Phone is on sale for $249. If you’re not scared off by the government’s warnings against using Huawei phones, then the Mate 10 Pro is for you. The smartphone, which has been knocked down from $799 to $499, packs a dual-camera setup and excellent display, making it Huawei’s best phone yet. Huawei’s Mate Pro 10 brings two cameras and a gorgeous display to Prime Day. Finally, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8, one of my favorite phones, is marked down from $949 to $649. The handset, which sports a massive 6.3-inch display and includes the S Pen stylus, is an impressive deal. However, it will soon be replaced by the Note 9 — so shop wisely. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 is on sale for $649. Gaming Gamers might be getting the best deals of anyone this Prime Day. From VR to consoles, there’s plenty to get excited about. First up, Facebook’s (FB) Oculus Rift with touch controllers is marked down from $399 to $349. VR hasn’t quite taken off yet, due to a lack of compelling titles and requirement that you have a beefy PC to power such systems. But if you’re thinking about jumping in, this should be your starting point. Story continues Thinking about getting into VR? Then the Oculus Rift is a good place to start. There’s not much I can say about “Persona 5” other than simply telling you to buy it. Marked down from $41 to $29, this Playstation exclusive lets you become a high school student who has to battle demons alongside his friends while working part-time and acing his finals. It’s wonderful. If you can play ‘Persona 5’ and not fall in love with its music, you’re not human. Fans of the the long-running Dragon Ball series would be doing themselves a disservice by missing out on this deal on “Dragon Ball FighterZ.” Spike your hair and blow past your limits as your recreate some of the most iconic scenes from the quintessential anime. ‘Dragon Ball FighterZ’ will let you live out every battle from the long-running series with plenty of spiky hair to go around. The best racing game you can buy is “Forza Motorsport 7,” and on Prime Day you can get this Xbox One exclusive for $30 off. Speaking of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox One, you can snag the Xbox One S for $229 down from $299. With an extra $70 to spare, you can even buy a new game, too. The Xbox One S starter bundle is marked down to $229. Not to be left out of the Prime Day madness, Nintendo’s (NTDOY) own New 3DS XL is also on sale. The go-to mobile game system, the New 3DS XL is my personal cure for the morning commute blues. And for $149 down from $199, it’s not a bad deal. The New 3DS XL is just the handheld you need to get through your daily commute. Computers Don’t expect to find many practical laptops or desktops on sale during Prime Day; those deals will come around during back-to-school season. For now, enjoy the fact that you can save a few bucks on some seriously powerful gaming rigs. The 17-inch MSI GV72 laptop, marked down from $1,499 to $1,399, features a high-powered Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and an Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics chip. It’s gaming nirvana on the go. MSI’s laptop will give you plenty of power to handle today’s hottest games. But don’t expect to play on the highest settings. Need a little more oomph for your machine? Then CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme is the beast to check out. Packing an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and an Nvidia GTX 1080 graphics card with 8GB of RAM, this thing will rock your world. And with a price marked down from $1,799 to $1,649, it’ll save you some cash, too. CyberpowerPC’s Xtreme Gamer desktop is the setup I want in my home. Smart home It’s Prime Day, so you know Amazon is going all out with deals on its smart home devices. The company’s second-generation Echo can bring Alexa voice capabilities into your home for $69, down from $99. That’s a deal worth checking out. The second-generation Echo is perfect for the person looking to start their own smart home system. If you’re in the market for a new streaming device, look no further than Amazon’s Fire TV. With 4K, HDR compatibility and a price that’s marked down to $34 from $69, it’s the best deal in streaming right now. The First TV is so cheap, it’s hard to pass up even if you’ve already got one. Better still is the Fire TV Cube, which marries a Fire TV streaming device with the power of an Echo in one piece of hardware that connects directly to your TV. It’s your best bet if you’re trying to decide between a new Fire TV or an Echo. And for $89 down from $119, it’s a great price. Want a Fire TV and an Echo? The Fire TV Cube is what you’re looking for. Televisions I love buying a new TV. It’s the screen I look at the most. When I can get the one I’ve wanted at a steal of a price, I love it even more. There are a number of low-priced TVs on sale for Prime Day. But if you’re shopping for the main television in your home, I suggest spending the extra cash on something you’ll enjoy for years to come. The 55-inch LG C7 OLED features an OLED panel, which provides deeper blacks and brighter whites than traditional LED screens. That means images will look more realistic and colors more vibrant. At $1,696 it’s not cheap. But considering it’s down from $1,996, you should definitely consider it. This LG OLED TV is still pretty expensive, but the technology is worth it. Sony’s X850F doesn’t use an OLED panel, but at 65 inches and down from $1,798 to $1,498, this big-screen TV could make a great fit for your home. Provided you have the room, that is. Sony’s TV doesn’t offer OLED technology, but it’s sure to impress. Happy shopping! More Prime Day coverage: Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@oath.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley. Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn<doc-sep>
For those lucky enough to not have Amazon’s website crash during the early hours of Prime Day 2018, then there are some good deals to take advantage of. In particular, gamers with a Prime membership will have several solid choices of quality games once the site becomes more stable. Amazon Prime Day 2018 will have deals on all kinds of products for 36 hours beginning Monday, July 16, and throughout Tuesday, July 17. The online retailer stated there will be more than a million deals during the event. Gamers have a slew of deals to pick from now, but many of the deals are only available for a limited time so don’t delay. Game on Sale In the first few hours of going live, Amazon Prime Day 2018 has quite a few discounted games, but these are the best ones on sale so far: Persona 5 (PS4) - $29.99 Overwatch (PS4, PC, Xbox One) - $29.99 Injustice 2: Legendary Edition (PS4, Xbox One) - $29.99 Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4) - $29.99 Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Gold Edition (Xbox One) - $29.99 Dragon Ball FighterZ (Xbox One, PS4) - $34.99 South Park: The Fractured but Whole (Xbox One) - $19.99 Consoles In order to play some of the games above, gamers will need consoles. Amazon has a few different deals on hardware in this year’s Prime Day: Nintendo Switch with 64GB SanDisk Micro SD card and $20 eCash - $299 Xbox One S 1TB Starter Bundle - $229 Nintendo New 3DS XL Super NES Edition with Super Mario Kart for SNES - $149 Accessories To cap things off, there are a couple of accessories gamers may want to pick up to complete their Prime Day shopping: Redragon LED Backlit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - $23.99 SanDisk 128GB Micro SD Card - $26 These deals are for a limited time and many will sell out quickly before Amazon Prime Day 2018 ends, but there are more deals going live soon.