A slick 55-inch 4K Smart TV for $112? Could that even be a real thing? It might be for Amazon Prime members: Last Thursday, Amazon released some of the deals members can expect to find during its Prime Early Access Sale, a two-day sale intended to kick off the holiday shopping season. And at the top of that list is the Amazon Fire TV Omni Series 55-inch 4K Smart TV (with hands-free Alexa) that will be 80% off its $559.99 market price, for a grand total of $112. (As of this writing, it’s “on sale” for $509.99.)
With anything Amazon-related, a healthy dose of skepticism is both fair and good. They use tricks to encourage shoppers to impulse-buy things they don’t really need or even want, which can then hardly count as a true deal. As Lifehacker staff writer Stephen Johnson has previously said:
In spite of the many, many online guides about how to take advantage of the savings, there’s only one piece of advice you actually need for Prime Day if you want to save money: Don’t buy anything you weren’t planning to buy already. There’s also a corollary: if you do find a bargain on something you wanted anyway, make sure it’s
actually
a bargain.
Most of the time, the best deals that are worth the hype tend to be Amazon’s own products—as is this TV, which reinforces that idea. So if you were already in the market for a new TV, read the reviews for this specific model to see if it fits your needs. The sale begins Tuesday, Oct. 11. There is no mention of how many will be in stock, so if you’ve decided this deal is for you, add the TV to your cart now, and make sure your address and forms of payments are up to date. Once the sales become live, you’ll be ready to snatch one for yourself.