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Dealmaster: The best Prime Day tech deals from retailers besides Amazon

Including deals on Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon, a Switch bundle, and more.

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Dealmaster: The best Prime Day tech deals from retailers besides Amazon
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Ars Technica

Greetings, Arsians! Tuesday marks day two of Amazon Prime Day 2019, and the Dealmaster is still highlighting and compiling the better offers from that sales event in a separate jumbo-sized roundup. Today, though, we wanted to cater to those who want nothing to do with Amazon, the cost of a Prime membership, or made-up holidays, but would still like to get a good price on some gear before the holidays.

Further Reading

Dealmaster: All the best Amazon Prime Day 2019 tech deals we can find
To that end, the Dealmaster has done his usual thing and rounded up the best tech deals of the day from non-Amazon retailers. Walmart, Best Buy, Newegg, Lenovo, and various other shops have all put out their own sales promotions to stem the tide of shoppers heading toward Amazon.

While the collective selection isn't quite as robust what's out there for Prime Day, to be frank, there's still a fair amount of noteworthy discounts to be had, including new lows for Google devices, Instant Pots, Samsung Galaxy phones, and the like. In some cases, the offers match the offers running on Amazon, meaning you can get the same discount without having to sign up for a month of Prime. You can take a look at our full list on "non-Prime Day" deals below.

Note: Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

Table of Contents

Top 10 non-Amazon deals of the day

  • Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (6th gen) laptop - Intel Core i5-8250U, 14-inch 1080p, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD for $999.99 at Lenovo (use code: THINKCM2 - normally $1,399).

Ars has approved various members of Lenovo's ThinkPad family in the past, but one of our favorites is the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It has Lenovo's distinct professional design—with one of the most comfortable laptop keyboards you can get—in addition to specs that will serve you will when you're working, streaming video, or doing any number of other activities. Lenovo recently launched a 7th-gen model, but the 6th-gen model is still good value at this price.

Nintendo Switch deals are fairly rare, but this bundle gets you the base console, which costs $299 regularly, and the choice of one of four different Switch games, including Super Mario Party, Legend of Zelda: Breadth of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Splatoon 2. A choice of a portable battery station or (admittedly kiddy) carrying case is included as well. Even if you don't plan on using the accessory, the bundle effectively takes $15-20 off the usual price of each game you can choose.

  • Instant Pot Duo 60 6-Qt 7-in-1 electric pressure cooker for $49.99 at Walmart (normally $74.99).
  • God of War (PS4) for $19.99 at Walmart (normally $24.99).
  • Scythe board game for $39.99 at Walmart (normally $54.99).

Scythe was the board game enthusiast's game of note in 2016, and it still remains a deep and compelling Eurogame today. It's not necessarily for newbies—a typical game takes close to two hours—but as we noted in our ultimate board game buyer's guide last year: "Playing a game of Scythe feels like An Event, even though it won't take you the entire day to get through. Highly recommended." It's down to $40 at Walmart today, about $10-15 off where we normally see it.

Laptop and desktop PC deals

  • Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (6th gen) laptop - Intel Core i5-8250U, 14-inch 1080p, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD for $999.99 at Lenovo (use code: THINKCM2 - normally $1,399).
  • Lenovo Yoga C930 laptop - Intel Core i5-8250U, 13.3-inch 1080p, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD for $929.99 at Lenovo (use code: JULYBFCF14 - normally $1,099.99).
  • Lenovo C330 Chromebook - MediaTek MT8173c, 11.6-inch 1366x768, 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMC for $199 at Google Express (normally $239.99).
  • Lenovo Ideapad S340 Laptop - Intel Core i3-8145U, 15.6-inch 1080p, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD for $299 at Walmart (normally $329.99).
  • Dell G5 15 Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i5-8300H, 15.6-inch 1080p, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD, GTX 1060 for $779 at Walmart (normally $999.99).
  • Dell Inspiron Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i5-9400, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD, 6GB GTX 1660 Ti for $899.99 at Dell (normally $1,179.99).
  • Dell Alienware m15 gaming laptop - Intel Core i7, 15.6-inch 1080p 144Hz, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD, 8GB RTX 2070 for $1,699.99 at Dell (normally $2,409.99).
  • Asus ROG Strix Hero II gaming laptop - Intel Core i7-8750H, 15.6-inch 1080p 144Hz, 16GB RAM, 1TB HDD, GTX 1060 for $989.99 at Google Express (use code: 2019SUMMER10 - normally $1,539).
  • Acer Chromebook Spin 11 CP311 - Intel Celeron N3350, 11.6-inch 1366x768, 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMC for $229 at Walmart (normally $299).
  • Microsoft Surface Pro 6 laptop - Intel Core i5-8250U,12.3-inch 1824p, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD + Black Type Cover + Office 365 1-year subscription for $755.99 at Google Express (use code: 2019SUMMER10 - normally $945)
  • Education price only: Apple MacBook Air (2019) - Intel Core i5-8210Y, 13.3-inch 2560x1660, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD + Beats Studio 3 Wireless Bluetooth Noise-Cancelling Headphones for $999 at Apple (normally $1,349.99).
  • Education price only: Apple MacBook Pro (2019) - Intel Core i5, 13.3-inch 2560x1600, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD + Beats Studio 3 Wireless Bluetooth Noise-Cancelling Headphones for $1,199 at Apple (normally $1,549.99).
  • AMD Ryzen 7 2700 8-core desktop processor + 3-month Xbox Game Pass subscription for $149.99 at Newegg (normally $219.99).

Video game deals

Gaming deals

TV and home entertainment deals

Electronics deals

Audio deals

Channel Ars Technica

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