Prime Day – to buy or not to buy

Even though there are virtually always phone sales throughout the year, they are nothing compared to the doorbuster discounts we get around Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday. Before we drown in Android phone discounts of every brand, price, and style on October Prime Day, we need to address a straightforward but painfully complex question: should you purchase a phone during Prime Day Part 2? Should you wait until Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the holidays when the best deals are to be had?

On practically all of the top Android phones as well as the greatest budget phones, both sales will offer quite steep discounts. Prime Day is the ideal time to upgrade if your phone is completely unusable or if you’re looking for a phone at a specific price range if your current model is on its final legs.

Black Friday will provide cheaper prices on select phones, such as the brand-new Google Pixel 8 Pro. Although the free Pixel Watch 2 with preorder is a super-sweet Pixel 8 Pro 8 offer, the 8 Pro doesn’t even technically ship until October 12, the day after Prime Big offer Days ends, meaning the phone won’t be discounted until Black Friday. The new Samsung Galaxy S23 FE will cost $600 when it launches later this month, but it’s not clear if this will increase or decrease the likelihood that the infant Galaxy S23 will be available for less than Prime in November.

Most other phones, such as the Galaxy S23 Ultra and OnePlus 11, have been on the market for at least six months, so they are well-positioned (ha!) for their greatest discounts yet. This is especially true for last year’s models, such as the Galaxy S22, Pixel 7, and Galaxy A53, which should ideally dip below $300 this time around now that the Google Pixel 6a is completely sold out and there is no longer any possibility of its $250 offer from July being reinstated.

The Google Pixel 7a hasn’t received many discounts up to this point, and none have brought the price below $440, so Prime Day should mark the device’s first sizable markdown. These two are the best budget/mid-range Android phones currently available, and the Samsung Galaxy A54 has just somewhat outperformed them. They should be available for Prime at truly affordable pricing.

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And Prime Day is unquestionably the time to buy if you want to spend less than $300 on a phone. For phones like the OnePlus Nord N30 or N300, the Galaxy A14, and the Moto G line, now is the time to read the reviews and start choosing the case you’ll buy with your Prime Day savings because phones under $300 rarely see any significant deals outside carrier stores or Best Buy’s Activate Today carrier-reliant promotions.

Why would you wait after Prime Day?

Due to the fact that most Android phones will be $50 to $100 cheaper on Black Friday and that the Pixel 8 series will be two months older than the rest of the market, these devices will be more competitively priced. This is particularly true for the Galaxy S23 series, which is often updated at the end of January or the beginning of February.

Additionally, the Galaxy S24 series is expected to gain new, lighter titanium frames, and the S24 Ultra will finally switch back to a flat screen (but still have curved edges). Therefore, Prime Day and Black Friday are your last best opportunities to purchase an Ultra with curved glass at a fair price.

But if you opt to wait another six weeks for Black Friday, you’ll be playing a game of chicken with your currently damaged old phone. If you can wait until Thanksgiving, you might be able to save a few more dollars, but if your phone breaks in the interim, you’ll have to buy a new one at full price. Last year, this happened to a friend, and it was not pleasant to see them incur a $300 overage.

So if your screen is held together by film and prayers, if your USB-C port is getting harder and harder to jiggle the cable into that magic spot to charge your phone, don’t let the hope of a few extra bucks keep you from getting a new phone while the getting is good.