Weekly deals: the best smartphone deals from the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and India
This week we found some big discounts on current flagships, as well as deals on mid-ranger and some entry-level phones. Use the links below to jump to your region:
The Google Pixel 7 is down to $450, which is a surprisingly low price for a still-current flagship, even if it’s not the best with a 90Hz display, no telephoto camera, and 20W charger. Still, you get the pure Google experience with every update, complete with interesting software features.
For almost the same price, you can instead have the OnePlus 10 Pro with a QHD+ 120Hz LTPO display, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and a 3.3x telephoto camera, as well as 65W wired and 50W wireless charging.
Or how about a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G instead? This one falls to an FHD+ non-LTPO 120Hz display and the legacy Snapdragon 888 chipset. It does have a 3x telephoto camera, but it only charges at 25W wired and 15W wireless.
Next, some Apple tablets. Last year’s iPad Air is powered by the Apple M1 chip found in some iPad Pros and older Macs. It features a 10.9-inch display (60Hz, as opposed to the Pro slates) that supports 2nd generation Apple Pencils.
The base 2022 iPad is cheaper but uses the less powerful Apple A14 chipset. Its 10.9-inch display is the same as the Air, except for using the older 1st Gen pens.
There is also the 2021 iPad, which is significantly cheaper with an A13 chip and not much less powerful.
Finally something for gamers – the Samsung Odyssey G65B, a 27-inch curved monitor with QHD resolution and up to 240 Hz refresh rate (1 ms grey-to-grey response time). This is DisplayHDR 600 certified, meaning it can hit 600 nits in HDR scenes. The stand is height and tilt adjustable and can be rotated 90°. This is basically a Tizen Smart TV too, by the way, so you can use it for gaming and video streaming too (without a PC connected).
As a reminder, the Discover Samsung promo ends this Sunday.
The Google Pixel 7 Pro is down to £685 for a device with 128GB of storage. You can have the smaller Pixel 7 with double the storage (256GB) for £600 instead. Note that both phones come with a £125 trade-in boost, which is money on top of the value of your old phone, so even a cheap old phone can bring the Pixel’s prices down significantly.
There’s also the Pixel 6a under £300, but there are no trade-in deals here. For the same amount of money there is a Pixel Watch (LTE) instead.
The Nokia X30 and Nokia G60 come with what HMD calls the “3-3-3 promise” – 3 operating system updates, 3 years of security patches and a 3-year warranty. The two phones launched last year with Android 12, so one of those updates will only be used to catch up. Still, it’s nice to know you’re fully covered until 2025.
Samsung offers “gadget cases” for the Galaxy S23 series. They’re so named because they have an attachment point on the back that allows various devices to be attached with a simple twist – devices like the camera grip and slim tripod. The case itself comes with a simple kickstand gadget.
You know the drill — Amazon Germany has the current-gen iPhone 14 at a lower price than Apple.com. The iPhone 14 Pro Max has a massive €200 discount (well, massive in terms of iPhones), but the other deals are pretty good too (all over €100 discount).
The Pixel 6a costs €333 in the Google online store. For the same price, however, you can get it bundled with a Chromecast TV. Note that this is the 1080p version, so we wouldn’t plug it into a big TV, but it can breathe new life into an older set. The Chromecast TV alone is worth around 40 euros.
There is also the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G for less money. It’s not as good as the brand new A34, but it’s 30% cheaper.
The Dutch branch of Amazon has a very similar offer for models of the iPhone 14 series as the German one. The iPhone 14 Pro is €50 more expensive, so maybe scroll up and see the German deal – shipping should be less. The Pro, Plus, and Vanilla deals are basically the same, so you can easily get them at your local store.
Other interesting deals include the OnePlus 10T for €540, not bad for a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 phone. It also has a 6.7-inch 120Hz display (FHD+ only and not LTPO) and a 4,800mAh battery with super-fast 150W charging. The camera isn’t anything special, but this is a fine gaming phone (without the “gaming phone” look).
The Nokia X30 comes with what HMD calls the “3-3-3 promise” – 3 operating system updates, 3 years of security patches and a 3-year warranty. It launched with Android 12 last year, so one of those updates will only be used to catch up. Still, it’s nice to know you’re fully covered until 2025.
But wouldn’t you rather spend less and get the Sony Xperia 10 IV instead? It uses the same Snapdragon 695 chipset, its display might only run at 60Hz (90Hz on the Nokia), but it’s a 10-bit HDR panel. And you get niceties like a microSD slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Galaxy A54 and A34 started shipping in India this week. It’s too early to talk about discounts, but Amazon is offering a trade-in deal that can be up to £25,000 cheaper.
The old OnePlus 10 Pro is now just £56,000, it’s a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 powered device with a 6.7-inch 120Hz LTPO display (QHD+ resolution), boasts a capable set of branded cameras Hasselblad and a fast-charging 5,000mAh battery (80W wired, 50W wireless).
There’s also the OnePlus 10R, which costs a lot less at £32,000 but is also less capable with a 6.7-inch 120Hz FHD+ display (not LTPO), a Dimensity 8100 Max chipset and no telephoto camera . The 5,000mAh battery matches the Pro with 80W wired charging, but lacks the wireless option.
Samsung’s flagship of the last generation of the S series has dropped significantly in price. The Galaxy S22 in particular is down to £53,000, slightly less than the OnePlus. India got Snapdragon flavored phones last year so check out the 8 Gen 1. The vanilla S22 doesn’t have a QHD+ LTPO panel like the OnePlus, nor does it have fast charging. Still, One UI comes with DeX and great support for Microsoft’s Phone Link, not to mention 4 OS updates (there was already one).
The S22 Ultra costs more than double compared to the vanilla phone and just isn’t worth it. If you’re paying that much, you might as well get the new S23 Ultra instead. Speaking of which, here are the prices for the S23 generation for reference.
Here is a unique looking phone, the Tecno Camon 19 Pro Mondrian. It is so named because its rear design is inspired by the famous abstract painter. It’s also interesting that Tecno used light-sensitive paint – the colors are quite pale in the dark, but come alive when the sun shines on them.
The phone itself offers a large 6.8-inch FHD+ 120Hz LCD and a large 5,000mAh battery with 33W wired charging. The Helio G96 chipset is nothing special, but this phone has pretty good cameras for its class – a 64-megapixel main sensor (1/1.7-inch, with OIS) and a 50-megapixel 50mm zoom camera as well as one 32 megapixel selfie camera.
As the name suggests, Lava Blaze 5G can connect to India’s next-generation network. And it costs just over £10,000. This phone comes with a fairly generous 128GB of storage (plus a microSD slot) and a 5,000mAh battery. The Blaze suffers from the flaws typical of this price point – HD+ display (90Hz albeit) and 10W charging, no ultra-wide camera and certainly no telephoto.
For £3,000 more you get the iQOO Z5 5G. While the Lava uses a Dimensity 700, this one has a fairly powerful Snapdragon 765G. It features an FHD+ display and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, as well as support for 44W fast charging (5,000mAh battery).
Launched a few days ago, the Amazfit GTR Mini is a 42mm watch that costs a lot less than the 46mm GTR 4 (£11,000 vs £17,000) but has many of the same cool features. It features a 1.28-inch AMOLED display, up to 14 days of battery life, runs third-party apps (ZeppOS 2.0), and has the core suite of health and sports tracking hardware.
