Finding the best deals is a game of patience: Pre-order promotions and sales events like Black Friday rely heavily on advertising, but sometimes it’s best to wait. This week, we’ve found a lot of discounts on current devices that are just coming off the pre-order buzz. Use the links below to switch to your country:
UK
Samsung is launching a promotional “boost” deal in the UK for the Galaxy S23 series. When you trade in an old phone for the S23 or S23+, you can get £200 guaranteed Samsung credit using the S23BOOST code. If you don’t have an old device to swap, use the S23SAVE code instead to get £100 off. More details at Samsung.com.
For the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the codes are the same, but the discounts are slightly different. You can get £150 on top of the trade-in value of your old phone, or £150 off if you’re not trading in. More details at Samsung.com.
You should also consider buying the phone from Amazon. Right now the retailer has bundled the Galaxy S23 Ultra, S23+, and S23 with a pair of Galaxy Buds 2 (the vanilla S23 also comes in a clear case). Prices for these bundles are around £50 cheaper than the recommended price for the phone alone. So, if you have nothing to trade and need a pair of TWS buds, the Amazon deal might be the best option, otherwise go for the Samsung deals.
Next, a battle of two £300 phones. The Samsung Galaxy A33 is powered by an Exynos 1280 and has a microSD slot, plus it will receive further upgrades. It has a bigger 5,000mAh battery, but charges slowly at 25W. The A33 also has the best screen: a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED with Gorilla Glass 5. And it can record 4K video with its 5,000mAh main camera. 48 MP, while the Moto reaches 1080p. Also, this has a proper IP67 rating, the Moto is only listed as splash and dust resistant.
The Moto Edge 30 Neo is powered by the Snapdragon 695. Its 6.28″ P-OLED display is a bit smaller, but it runs at 120Hz. Both displays are FHD+, but only the Samsung has toughened glass. Although the Neo’s battery is smaller (4,020mAh), it achieved the exact same endurance score in our tests (both scored 104 hours), and this one has fast 68W wired charging, as well as basic 5W wireless charging. W (it’s slow, but it’s an option, unlike on the Galaxy).
Moving down the price ladder we find a pair of £250 phones, the Motorola Edge 20 and the Oppo Find X5 Lite. The Moto phone is larger with a 6.7-inch 144Hz OLED display, but has a smaller 4,000mAh battery with 30W charging. Battery capacity is this phone’s Achilles heel.
The camera is impressive for this price range: a 108MP main (1/1.52″, no OIS), there’s also an 8MP 3x telephoto (with OIS), plus a 16MP ultra wide angle ( 119th) Furthermore, the Moto is powered by the Snapdragon 778G, while the Oppo uses the less impressive Dimensity 900.
The Oppo Find X5 Lite is smaller with a 6.43-inch display (90Hz, also GG5), but its 4,500mAh battery achieved nearly 40 hours longer in our tests, moreover with a single charge. from 65 W you can fully recharge it in half an hour. The 64 MP main camera (1/2.0″, without OIS) and the 8 MP ultra wide angle (119°) are not that impressive.
Germany
The four Apple iPhone 14 models are cheaper on Amazon than on Apple.com. The iPhone 14 Pro Max has the biggest discount, but the 14 Pro and vanilla 14 discounts aren’t bad either. Really, only the iPhone 14 Plus stands out with just €100 off.
By the way, Amazon still doesn’t have the new yellow color option for the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus. You may have to pay full price if you want one of those.
Then there’s a trio of $270 Android phones: the Samsung Galaxy A33, Galaxy M23, and Moto Edge 30 Neo. The M23 has the better chipset of the three, a Snapdragon 750G, though here it’s paired with just 4GB of RAM. This one has the bigger screen, a 6.6-inch 120Hz LCD, so not the best quality.
The Galaxy A33 drops to an Exynos 1280, but gets 6GB of RAM. Both the A33 and M23 have 5,000mAh batteries with 25W wired-only charging. The A33 uses a 6.4″ Super AMOLED display with a lower refresh rate of 90Hz. The A33 also has a capable of IP67 dust and water resistance.
The Moto Edge 30 Neo has a smaller 6.28″ P-OLED display that runs at 120Hz. The Snapdragon 695 makes this the only phone not capable of 4K video recording. The battery is smaller at 4,020mAh, but its endurance matches that of the Galaxy A33’s 5,000mAh battery (both scored 104 hours in our tests), and it supports both 68W fast wired charging and basic 5W wireless charging. fully waterproof, but has basic water resistance.
India
The Xiaomi 13 Pro was launched in India a couple of weeks ago and its price is quite high. However, with the vivo X90 Pro not yet available in the country, you don’t have many options if you want a 1″ camera sensor or the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset that has enough oomph for image processing.
The Samsung Galaxy M53 is a year old, but offers a 108MP main camera at ₹26,000 (it also has an 8MP ultra wide camera, but that’s far less impressive). This phone features a large 6.7-inch 120Hz Super AMOLED display and a large 5,000mAh battery (25W charging). The Dimensity 900 chipset isn’t the best in 2023, but you do get a microSD slot.
The iQOO Z6 Pro is ₹3,000 cheaper and uses the more powerful Snapdragon 778G. The display isn’t good as it’s smaller and sluggish (6.44″ and 90Hz) and the 64+8+2MP rear camera is nothing to write home about. The iQOO wins the battery charging race, however, i its 4,700mAh can deliver 66W over a cable.
Next, three phones at ₹20,000 or less: Redmi Note 12, OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite and Samsung Galaxy M33. All three have fairly large displays of around 6.6 inches, all three have FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate.
However, the more expensive Redmi uses a Super AMOLED, the Nord has an IPS LCD, the Galaxy a simple LCD. The Redmi is also the only one with an IP53 degree of protection. The first two have 5,000mAh batteries with 33W charging, the Galaxy M33 gets a 6,000mAh power supply in India (25W). Note that the Nord is the only one without an ultra-wide-angle camera, the Redmi has an 8MP module, the Galaxy a 5MP module.
Finally, the chipsets. The Redmi Note 12 uses the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1, the Nord CE 2 Lite a Snapdragon 695. This means that the Galaxy M33 with its Exynos 1280 is the only one capable of 4K video. All three have 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, as well as microSD slots and 3.5mm jacks.
Finally, another trio, although this one is centered around the ₹10,000 brand: Samsung Galaxy M13, Galaxy M04 and Realme Narzo 50A Prime. All three run full-blown Android, by the way, no Go Editions here.
You might want to skip the Galaxy M04 because it’s the only one with an HD+ display, the other two have 6.6-inch FHD+ LCDs (60Hz). Furthermore, the Helio P35 is slower than both the Exynos 850 in the M13 and the Unisoc T612 in the Narzo. And the M04 is the only one without a fingerprint reader and with a basic 13MP main camera.
The Galaxy M13 and the Narzo 50A Prime both have a 50MP main camera, but the Samsung also stands out with the 5MP ultra-wide angle. The Samsung also has the larger battery, a 6,000mAh unit compared to 5,000mAh for the other two. All three have microSD slots and 3.5mm jacks.
United States of America
The MacBook Air with the new Apple M2 chip launched at $1,200 in mid-2022, now Best Buy is offering it for $1,050 (for an 8/256GB unit, 8/512GB is $1,350). There is talk of a 15.5-inch Air arriving later this year, but that could use the M3 and will certainly be more expensive.
Last year’s iPhone SE is $430 brand new from Apple.com (64GB). Amazon lists the refurbished units for $285, which saves you $145, or a 33% discount. This model uses the same Apple A15 chip as the new iPhone 14 (albeit with less RAM, 4GB versus 6GB), so it’s plenty powerful, even if the 60Hz 750 x 1,334px display isn’t the sharpest (in the case you were wondering, analysts doubt the vanilla iPhone 15 will have a display above 60Hz).
We’ve spotted a couple of Apple Watch deals that might be useful for exercise. Best Buy paired the Apple Watch Series 8 with Beats Fit Pro TWS buds and knocked $50 off the mix for the 41mm and 45mm watches.
If that combination is too expensive, here’s the budget version: the 2022 Apple Watch SE with a pair of Beats Flex (this is a neckband-style headset). The discount for this combo is just $20, but it’s still $150 less than the option above.
We will conclude with an affordable 5G phone, the OnePlus Nord N200. It’s $100 cheaper than the refurbished iPhone SE and has a larger FHD+ 90Hz display with modern-looking bezels, plus the 5,000mAh battery has two and a half times the capacity of the SE battery. And you get things like a microSD slot and a 3.5mm jack. However, this is the US market we are talking about and many may still prefer the iPhone.
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