This week brings discounts for Samsung and Apple flagships, and there are plenty of attractive deals in the mid-range as well. You can use the links below to jump to the region you are interested in:
UK
The Samsung Galaxy A34 is just a month old, but its price is falling significantly – the 8/256GB model is down to £300. For comparison, the 6/128GB model launches at £350 The phone is a solid mid-ranger with a 6.6-inch FHD+ 120Hz AMOLED display, IP67 rating, a Dimensity 1080 chipset, a 48+8+5MP camera setup, and a 5,000mAh battery with charging from 25W.
The Poco F4 GT is older, it turned one a few days ago. But this old dog still has it, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset driving the 6.67” FHD+ 120Hz AMOLED display (HDR10+). With pop-up magnetic shoulder triggers, this looks and feels like a gaming phone.The original 8 Gen 1 chip tends to run hot, but still offers plenty of GPU power for £450.
The next generation of Pixel phones is just around the corner and the 7a is shaping up to be an interesting offering. It may turn out to be better value for money, but it won’t be as good in terms of pure hardware. And time has helped bring the price of the Pixel 7 down, so it should be close to these two.
If you’re shopping for a Pixel, you might want to go all-in on the Google ecosystem with a Pixel Watch and some noise-canceling earphones like the Pixel Buds Pro.
If not, here are Samsung’s alternatives. The same Galaxy Watch5 and Watch5 Pro will soon be replaced by the next generation. However, these have gone through a year of price cuts. There are also the Galaxy Buds2 as a cheaper alternative to the Pixel Buds Pro.
United States of America
Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series has been holding its price tag for a while, but now you can pick up the Ultra for $1,000. It has one of the best cameras in the market, especially the US market. The Galaxy S23+ is $150 cheaper than the Ultra, though it doesn’t have its screen and S Pen capabilities, nor the 200MP camera.
As for the base Galaxy S23, it now makes more sense to get the 256GB model instead of the 128GB one since there’s only $60 between them, and Amazon’s offer is less than what Samsung.com charges: $800 for the 128GB drive, $860 for the 256GB drive one.
The new Galaxy A54 brings the much improved Exynos 1380 chipset. It features a 6.4″ FHD+ 120Hz display, an IP67-rated body, a 50+12+5MP camera, and a 5,000mAh battery with 25W charging.
You can pair Galaxy phones with a Galaxy Watch. The Watch5 and Watch5 Pro models are decreasing in price as the launch of the 6 series approaches.
We found some interesting game options this week. The Logitec G Cloud is $50 less than the MSRP. It’s a streaming-focused handheld with over 12 hours of battery life and a good quality 7″ 1080p display, as well as excellent hardware controls from Logitec. You can use services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now if you don’t have one. console or a gaming PC at home.If you do, you can stream from those as well.
Alternatively, you can take a Razer Kishi controller and put it on your phone for a similar setup. Depending on your phone, you can also run some AAA mobile games, which are beyond the capabilities of the G Cloud. Note that this is the original version of Kishi rather than v2, but it’s in clearance so it’s pretty cheap.
Germany
The Samsung Galaxy A34 costs more in Germany than in the UK, but UK imports aren’t as easy as they once were. However, a €40/€50 discount is nothing to sneeze at.
On the other hand, the Poco F4 GT is much cheaper than in UK shops. It may be a year old, but this phone’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has a powerful GPU, and there are built-in shoulder triggers for gaming.
The Realme C55 was launched a month ago and while the hardware isn’t stunning, it controls several important points. For €200 you can get a large 6.72-inch FHD+ IPS LCD (90Hz) and a large 5,000mAh battery with fairly fast 33W charging (0-50% in 29 minutes). The Helio G88 and single 64MP camera aren’t impressive enough.
The older Motorola Moto G82 and G42 are also worth considering. The G82 is a little more expensive than the Realme, but it has 5G connectivity (Snapdragon 695) and its 6.6″ FHD+ display is a 120Hz AMOLED panel. You also get an 8MP ultra wide-angle camera. The battery from 5,000 mAh with 30 W charging is quite similar.
The Moto G42 is smaller than its big brother with a 6.4″ FHD+ AMOLED display (60Hz) and is a 4G phone thanks to the Snapdragon 680 chipset. The 50 + 8 + 2 MP camera is similar (neither can record 4K video), while the 5,000mAh battery is capped at 18W of charging. However, this phone is 40% cheaper than the ht G82.
If you need a basic smartphone, the Xiaomi Redmi A2 is for you. It costs around €100 and offers a large 5,000mAh (10W) battery, has expandable memory and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The 2GB of RAM limits it to Android 12 Go edition, the 6.52-inch IPS LCD display has HD+ resolution. We’ve linked both the A2 and A2+ below, the only difference between them being that the plus has a fingerprint reader (whether it’s worth the premium is up to you).
Next, a couple of budget tablets from Lenovo. The Lenovo Tab M10 (3rd Generation) has a 10.1-inch IPS LCD with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 px. Compared to a similarly priced Amazon Fire HD 10, you get a better chipset and more standard Android version (instead of Amazon’s highly customized version).
There is also the Lenovo M10 Plus (3rd generation) board. This particular model has LTE connectivity on board, if that’s something you need. It also packs a much better chipset and a slightly better 10.61-inch IPS LCD (2,000 x 1,200 px), as well as a bigger 7,700mAh/20W battery (vs. 5,100mAh/10W) than its non plus.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch4 costs less than half what it did when it was new. That was 2 years ago, so it’s been a while. However, Samsung has committed to 4 years of OS updates, so Watch4 is only halfway through its lifecycle.
If you prefer the newer model, there is also the Galaxy Watch5, but the 44mm model costs almost 90 euros more. Also, the Watch5 won’t be the “new model” for long, the Watch6 series is coming in a couple of months.
India
We wanted to start with some premium deals, and we’ve spotted decent discounts for Apple phones. The older iPhone 13 in particular caught our eye, costing ₹10,000 less than the iPhone 14. Obviously, the new model is better, but the upgrades were pretty minimal – the same chipset, except for the additional GPU core and 2 extra gigs by La RAM are the only notable changes.
If you don’t count the vanilla ‘premium’ models, check out the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, which enjoy discounts of ₹10,000 and ₹12,000 respectively. The Max version costs ₹8,000 more than the regular Pro and offers a bigger display (6.7″ vs 6.1″) and bigger battery (4,323mAh vs 3,200mAh), but is otherwise identical.
Ok, let’s take a look at the phones in the ₹20,000-30,000 range. The iQOO Z6 Pro is equipped with the Snapdragon 778G chipset, which is still one of the most powerful mid-range options. It runs a 6.44-inch FHD+ 90Hz AMOLED display and runs on a 4,700mAh battery with 66W fast charging (1-50% in 18 minutes).
The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite uses the Snapdragon 695 whose GPU is almost twice as slow in some benchmarks as the 778G. You get a bigger display – a 6.72” IPS LCD with 120Hz refresh rate – and a slightly bigger 5,000mAh battery (67W charging) for ₹4,000 less.
Another member of the iQOO family, the Z6 Lite, brings the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 to the party. It is less powerful than the 695, but the gap is not as big as between the 695 and the 778G. This phone has a 6.58-inch IPS LCD (120Hz) and a 5,000mAh battery with 18W charging.
For practically the same price, you can get the Samsung Galaxy M14 instead. It has a similar display (6.6-inch 90Hz LCD) but carries a larger 6,000mAh battery (with 25W charging in India). It is powered by an Exynos 1330.
The new Realme Narzo N55 is a 4G phone just above the ₹10,000 mark. It features a 6.72-inch 90Hz IPS LCD with FHD+ resolution, a Helio G88, and a 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging (0-50% in 29 minutes).
If you want to go below ₹10,000, there’s the Lava Yuva 2 Pro. It upgrades to an HD+ display (6.52-inch IPS LCD) and Helio G37 chipset. Plus, its 5,000mAh battery only supports 10W of charging, not to mention that the camera has a 13MP sensor (up from 50MP on the Narzo).
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