Weekly deals: the best smartphone deals from the UK, Germany, the US and India

With Black Friday and the holidays over, there is a bit of a lull in shopping. But with some browsing we still managed to pick out several interesting offers. Each week we try to offer something new, though there are a few repeats this week due to notable price drops in the last few days.

Also, there are local deals, e.g. India’s Republic Day is coming next week and some retailers have slashed prices to celebrate. Use the links below to jump to the region that is relevant to you:

• The UK
• Germany
• USA
• India

UK

The iPhone 14 series was a bit of a disappointment for fans of the vanilla models – the mini was dropped and the iPhone 14 isn’t that much different from the 13. Apple still sells the older models at a lower price, though not quite this low.

The Apple iPhone 13 mini is down to £600 for a 128GB model on Amazon, it is £650 on Apple.com. The 6.1” iPhone 13 is the same, costing £50 less on Amazon than on Apple.com.

The iPhone 13 was an upgrade over the iPhone 12, though it wasn’t groundbreaking. Some iPhone 12 colorways were down to £600 with 128GB storage, but those are temporarily out of stock. Right now you can only find 64GB units for £600, still it is worth keeping an eye on the listing in case the 128GB units are restocked.

While we’re looking at Apple stuff, here are some watches. The Apple Watch Series 7 starts at £390 for a 41mm unit with LTE connectivity and an aluminum shell.

The Apple Watch Series 7 is also available in 45mm size, an aluminum unit with LTE connectivity goes for £460.

Android users might prefer Samsung smartwatches. The Galaxy Watch5 (40mm, Bluetooth) is down to £220. You can have a 40mm LTE version for £270 or a 44mm Bluetooth version for £240.

The Galaxy Wath5 Pro in a fancy titanium trim and LTE connectivity is £380. The Watch5 series offer advanced features like ECG and blood pressure monitoring despite their lower prices (compared to the Apple Watch).

We round the UK offers off with the Oppo Find X5 Lite – a mid-sized 5G mid-ranger on the cheap. It has a 6.43” 90Hz AMOLED display and is powered by the Dimensity 900. For this kind of price you only get a 64MP main camera and 8MP ultra wide, without the Hasselblad goodies that the pricier Find X5 models enjoy.

Germany

A month ago the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra was €830 for a model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB storage, now that same model is down to €800. As a reminder, this phone packs a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and a 200MP camera.

Similarly, the Edge 30 Pro was €580, now it is down to €555. This one uses the non-plus Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and features a dual 50MP camera (wide + ultra wide). Like the Ultra, this one has a 144Hz FHD+ AMOLED display.

Moving on to some cheaper offerings, the Moto G72 can be yours for €230. Note that despite its high model number this is a 4G only phone. Still, it has a 6.6” 120Hz P-OLED display, a 108MP main camera and a Helio G99 chipset, plus a 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging.

The Moto E22 is an entry-level offering – 4G only, of course – with a 6.5” 90Hz LCD (only HD+ resolution) and a Helio G37. It’s not much to write home about, but it is nearly half the price of the G72.

Carl Pei confirmed that the company’s second flagship isn’t on the horizon yet, so the focus is on the Nothing Phone (1). The 8/128GB base unit is down to €400, but you can get an 8/256GB unit for €450 or 12/256GB for €500.

USA

Google has slashed the price of the 128GB Pixel 7 down to $500, the 256GB one is $600. If you prefer, you can get the same prices from Best Buy.

The Google Pixel 7 Pro is also on offer, $750 for the 128GB unit, $850 for the 256GB one and $950 for the 512GB one. The same prices are available on Google’s on web store and through Best Buy.

Best Buy has dropped the price of the OnePlus 10T to $450, that’s pretty cheap for a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 phone in the US. To get this price you need to activate the phone today (it’s unlocked so you have your pick of carriers). Amazon US is offering this phone at $550 (same price as Best Buy if you skip the activation).

Let’s look at a couple of mid-range tablets before we wrap up. The latest iPad Air (2022) is down to $500. It’s cheaper than the iPad Pro 11 (2021) but has the same M1 chipset. The major difference between the two is the 60Hz screen on the Air (120Hz on the Pro). Of course, the 2022 Pros moved on to the newer M2 chip, but few people need that much power (and few apps on iPadOS can make use of it).

Alternatively, you can go with Android and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S7 FE. While the Snapdragon 778G is no match for the M1, One UI has a proper desktop mode, which you can use with and without an external display attached. The Tab S7 FE is slightly cheaper than the iPad but comes with a stylus included (the iPad Air supports a stylus too, but it’s a separate purchase).

India

A week ago Amazon India was offering a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G for ₹38,000 and many in the comments thought that was too high a price. How about ₹30,000, though? The 8/128GB model has fallen in price in the last few days and this is before you account for several credit card related discounts.

The iQOO 9 SE was ₹30,000 a week ago, now its price has dropped by ₹1,000. Again, some banks are offering discounts and there are no cost EMIs available. By the way, Amazon India accepts trade-ins so you can get rid of an old phone and get a discount.

Amazon India is running a Republic Day sale (January 15-20), so there are deals on just about everything, not just phones. But we’ll focus on the phones, especially ones that can connect you to the country’s new 5G networks on the cheap.

The iQOO Z6 Lite is available for ₹13,000 and a single click will net you a ₹750 coupon. This phone uses the new Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chipset and features a 6.58” 120Hz LCD (FHD+).

The Redmi 11 Prime 5G is ₹13,000 (no coupons, but look for offers by banks). It is powered by the slower Dimensity 700 and while its 6.58” LCD also has FHD+ resolution, it runs at only 90Hz.

The OnePlus Nord 2 CE 2 Lite 5G has a 6.59” 120Hz LCD (FHD+), similar to the iQOO. It has a very similar chipset too, the Snapdragon 695 served as a basis for the 4 Gen 1. The Nord gets you more memory (6/128GB, up from 4/64GB) and faster charging for the 5,000mAh battery (33W vs. 18W), and OxygenOS instead of MIUI, of course. Whether that is worth ₹19,000 is up to you.

Another mid-range option is the iQOO Z6 Pro. This one uses the more capable Snapdragon 778G, which has more big cores and supports 4K video recording unlike the 695 and 4 Gen 1. And this one has an ultra wide camera, just 8MP, but still. The display is a 6.44” 90Hz AMOLED panel (FHD+) and the slightly smaller 4,700mAh battery charges at 66W.

Amazon has gotten its hands on cheap iPhone 12 units – well, “cheap” in Apple terms. They all have 128GB storage and sell for ₹56,000, the official Apple.com price for this configuration is ₹65,000. The iPhone 12 is a couple of generations behind, but it still has a fast chipset and will probably get longer software support than any of the Android phones above.