Best time to buy phones?

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notmyhand
Posts: 496
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 7:43 pm

Best time to buy phones?

Post by notmyhand »

DH and I need to buy two new phones. Not tied to a specific phone but we generally get the newest phone by Apple, Google, Samsung etc and use them for 3-5 years. I was going to wait until Black Friday but I see that it's a month ship time to order a new IPhone. Does any one have any idea if there will be good phone deals coming up for the holidays or is it best to just order now?
bloom2708
Posts: 9855
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 2:08 pm

Re: Best time to buy phones?

Post by bloom2708 »

Last year Apple did a buy a product, get a gift card for a few products I think.

Buy an iPhone 13 get a $50 apple gift card, something like that. Not going to get you rich, but if you can wait it might be worth it.

Of course, 1 new iPhone in the hand today is better than 2 in the bush when everything is sold out.

iPhone 12 is $100 less ($699 or $729 unlocked) now that iPhone 13 has shipped. Not much difference really between 12 and 13. The 12 has 5G.

We all have iPhone 12s right now. But if you like the Pro models, then 13 is the way to go.

My guess is supply is going to be very tight once the Christmas buying starts in full. Maybe there is an opportunity to buy the phone unlocked and change carriers to save money? We moved from Cricket to Mint Mobile in 2020, got good referral bonuses and have better coverage. $15/month for 4GB of data. I do the 10GB plan for $20/month+tax.

Good luck with the shopping.
Gadget
Posts: 1023
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2017 1:38 pm

Re: Best time to buy phones?

Post by Gadget »

You can (I think) still pre-order a Google Pixel 6 or 6 Pro from the Google Store. You can get 10% off if you have the Google One 2 TB monthly $10/mo plan (and can cancel that later). You can also get $700 off for activating a new line on Verizon if you trade in almost any phone from the last 4 years, even broken. If you're just upgrading a Verizon phone on an existing line, you can get $350 off if you get the Verizon Pixel version, even if it's from Google Store. All you have to do is trade in any phone from the last 4 years, even if it's broken as long as the battery isn't swelling.

I will warn you that Verizon will be a pain to deal with on this one. I'm already having to fight them to honor the deal. Their store reps had no idea they partnered with Google store and don't know what to do. Their website is not yet working to support the $350 trade in upgrade deal, even if you meet all the fine print. So my $900 Pixel 6 Pro - $90 for Google One plan - $350 for Verizon upgrade - 1 broken screen Pixel 4a = $460 will also cost me a lot of time. So far 1 hour at a Verizon store before I could get the manager and customer service reps to agree that I'm eligible and meet all the requirements, and that their system isn't supporting the deal they offered yet.
alexrosier
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2021 4:10 pm

Re: Best time to buy phones?

Post by alexrosier »

Why buy new? I buy the 1 year old phones. The iPhone X was the last one I bought, the high end phones loose most of their value in the first year (new they were $1k, 1 year old they were $400). 2 years later and my wife and I's phones are still running almost as new.
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