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

30 April 2023

This week brings discounts for Samsung and Apple flagships and there are many interesting offerings in the mid-range too. You can use the links below to jump to the region that’s relevant to you:

• The UK
• USA
• Germany
• India

UK

The Samsung Galaxy A34 is barely a month old, but its price is falling significantly – the 8/256GB model is down to £300. For comparison, the 6/128GB model launched at £350. The phone is a solid mid-ranger with a 6.6” 120Hz FHD+ AMOLED display, IP67 rating, a Dimensity 1080 chipset, a 48+8+5MP camera setup and a 5,000mAh battery with 25W charging.

The Poco F4 GT is older, it turned one year old a few days ago. But this old dog still has it, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset driving the 6.67” 120Hz FHD+ 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 it still brings a lot of GPU power for £450.

The next generation of Pixel phones is around the corner and the 7a is shaping up to be an interesting offering. It may prove to be better value for money, but it won’t be as good in terms of pure hardware. And time has helped reduce the Pixel 7 price so it should be close between those two.

If you’re getting a Pixel, you may want to go all-in on the Google ecosystem with a Pixel Watch and some noise canceling buds like the Pixel Buds Pro.

If not, here are the alternatives from Samsung. The Galaxy Watch5 and Watch5 Pro themselves will soon be replaced by the next generation. However, these have been through a year of price cuts. There are also the Galaxy Buds2 as a cheaper alternative to the Pixel Buds Pro.

USA

Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series held its price for a while, but now you can grab the Ultra for $1,000. It has one of the best cameras on the market, especially the US market. The Galaxy S23+ is $150 less than the Ultra, though it doesn’t have its screen and S Pen capabilities, not the 200MP camera either.

As for the base Galaxy S23, it now makes more sense to get the 256GB model instead of the 128GB one as there is only $60 between them and Amazon’s offer is below what Samsung.com charges - $800 for the 128GB unit, $860 for the 256GB one.

The new Galaxy A54 brings the much-improved Exynos 1380 chipset. It features a 6.4” 120Hz FHD+ display, an IP67 rated body, a 50+12+5MP camera and a 5,000mAh battery with 25W charging.

You can pair the Galaxy phones with a Galaxy Watch. The Watch5 and Watch5 Pro models are trending down in price as the launch of the 6-series grows near.

We found some interesting gaming options this week. The Logitec G Cloud is $50 down from its MSRP. This is a streaming-focused handheld with over 12 hours of battery life and a good quality 7” 1080p display, plus excellent hardware controls from Logitec. You can use it services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now if you don’t have a console or gaming PC at home. If you do, you can stream from those too.

Alternatively, you can grab a Razer Kishi controller and put it on your phone for a similar setup. Depending on your phone, you can do some AAA mobile gaming too, which is outside the capabilities of the G Cloud. Note that this is the original version of the Kishi rather than v2, but it’s on clearance, so it’s pretty cheap.

Germany

The Samsung Galaxy A34 costs more in Germany than it does in the UK, but imports from the UK are not as easy as they once were. Still, a €40/€50 discount is nothing to sneeze at.

On the other hand, the Poco F4 GT is a beat cheaper than it is in British stores. It may be a year old, but this phone’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has a powerful GPU and there are on-board shoulder triggers for gaming.

The Realme C55 launched a month ago and while the hardware isn’t jaw-dropping, it checks several important points. For €200 you can have a large 6.72” FHD+ IPS LCD (90Hz) and a large 5,000mAh battery with decently fast 33W charging (0-50% in 29 minutes). The Helio G88 and single 64MP camera are not quite impressive.

The older Motorola Moto G82 and G42 are worth considering too. The G82 is a bit pricier than the Realme, but it has 5G connectivity (Snapdragon 695) and its 6.6” FHD+ display is a 120Hz AMOLED panel. Plus, you gen an 8MP ultra wide camera. The 5,000mAh battery with 30W charging is quite similar.

The Moto G42 is smaller than its sibling with a 6.4” FHD+ AMOLED display (60Hz) and is a 4G phone due to the Snapdragon 680 chipset. The 50+8+2MP camera is similar (neither can record 4K video), while the 5,000mAh battery is knocked down to 18W charging. Still, this phone is 40% cheaper than ht G82.

If you need a basic smartphone, the Xiaomi Redmi A2 fits the bill. It’s around €100 and offers a large 5,000mAh battery (10W), has expandable storage and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The 2GB of RAM limit it to Android 12 Go edition, the 6.52” IPS LCD has HD+ resolution. We’ve linked both the A2 and A2+ below, the only difference between them is that the plus has a fingerprint reader (whether that’s worth the premium is up to you).

Next up, a couple of cheap tablets from Lenovo. The Lenovo Tab M10 (3rd gen) has a 10.1” IPS LCD with 1,920 x 1,200px resolution. Compared to a similarly priced Amazon Fire HD 10, you’re getting a better chipset and a more standard Android version (instead of Amazon’s highly customized version).

There is also the Lenovo tab M10 Plus (3rd gen). This particular model has LTE connectivity on board, if that’s something you need. It also packs a much better chipset and slightly better 10.61” IPS LCD (2,000 x 1,200px), plus a larger 7,700mAh/20W battery (compared to 5,100mAh/10W) than its non-plus sibling.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch4 costs less than half what it did when it was new. That was 2 years ago, so it has been a while. Still, Samsung has committed to 4 years of OS updates, so the Watch4 is only halfway through its life cycle.

If you prefer the newer model, there is also the Galaxy Watch5, but the 44mm model is nearly €90 more expensive. 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 off with some premium offerings and spotted decent discounts for Apple phones. The older iPhone 13 in particular caught our eye, it’s ₹10,000 less than the iPhone 14. Of course, the new model is better, but the upgrades were quite minimal – same chipset, except for the extra GPU core, and 2 extra gigs of RAM are the only changes worth mentioning.

If you don’t consider the vanilla models “premium”, check out the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, which enjoy discounts of ₹10,000 and ₹12,000, respectively. The Max version is ₹8,000 more than the regular Pro and gets you a larger display (6.7” vs. 6.1”) and larger battery (4,323mAh vs. 3,200mAh), but is otherwise identical.

Okay, let’s have a look at 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 more powerful mid-range options. It drives a 6.44” FHD+ 90Hz AMOLED display and runs on a 4,700mAh battery with fast 66W charging (1-50% in 18 minutes).

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite uses the Snapdragon 695 whose GPU is almost twice as slow in certain benchmarks compared to the 778G. You do get a larger display – a 6.72” IPS LCD with 120Hz refresh rate – and a slightly larger 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’s less powerful than the 695, but the gap isn’t as big as the one between the 695 and the 778G. This phone has a 6.58” IPS LCD (120Hz) and a 5,000mAh battery with 18W charging.

For basically the same price, you can get the Samsung Galaxy M14 instead. It has a similar display (6.6” 90Hz LCD) but brings 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 that’s just above the ₹10,000 mark. It features a 6.72” 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 under ₹10,000, there’s the Lava Yuva 2 Pro. It does drop to an HD+ display (6.52” IPS LCD) and a Helio G37 chipset. Also, its 5,000mAh battery supports only 10W charging, not to mention that the camera has a 13MP sensor (vs. 50MP on the Narzo).

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