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

Samsung unveiled its 5th generation foldable phones this week and they went on pre-order. There are some great deals in some regions and not-so-great deals in other regions. We also look at possible alternatives to the Galaxy Z foldables.

USA
The UK
Germany
India

USA

Samsung US is offering some killer trade-in deals. For example, if you send in your old Galaxy Z Flip4, you can get the new Z Flip5 for just $100 (assuming it’s in a good condition, if your old Flip has screen damage you will have to pay $300 instead). $100 to get the new hinge and cover display, plus an updated chipset seems like a no-brainer.

But what if you don’t have a Z Flip4 to trade? A two-year old Galaxy S21 will fetch $400 trade-in credit, so you have to pay $600. Not a bad deal, but it’s not as good as the Z Flip swap.

If you don’t want to trade in an old device at all, check out the deals from Amazon and Best Buy. They give you a free storage upgrade (i.e. the 512GB version costs the same as the 256GB one). Note that Samsung US also offers a free storage upgrade.

Moving on to the Galaxy Tab S9 slates, they also come with a free storage upgrade from the base tier. Amazon also offers 50% off a matching Book Cover Keyboard Slim. As the name suggests, this adds a full QWERTY (note: no trackpad, though).

Finally, the Samsung Galaxy Watch6 pair. These don’t have exciting offers from either Amazon or Best Buy, the most you can score is a free wrist strap.

Now let’s have a look at alternatives. The Google Pixel Fold is now available and comes with a similar internal display and a more normal cover display (5.8” 17.4:9 vs. a slender 6.2” 23:9 on the Z Fold5). This one is equipped with a 5X periscope (vs. 3x lens) and despite being thinner (12.1mm vs. 13.4mm), it has a larger 4,821mAh battery (vs. 4,400mAh). Note that the Pixel is heavier (283g vs. 253g). Both phones have IPX8 water resistance.

The Motorola Razr+ boasts a slightly larger cover display and the two cameras (and LED flash) are in punch holes, rather than having the display shy away from them as it does on the Z Flip5. The inner display is a larger 6.9” 144Hz panel (vs. 6.7”, same aspect ratio). The Moto uses the older Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip and doesn’t have an advantage in the camera department like the Pixel Fold does (expect maybe for the 32MP selfie), the battery situation is only slightly better too (3,800mAh with 30W wired and 5W wireless charging vs. 3,700mAh 25/15W).

If you’re not into the whole foldable thing, the Motorola Edge+ packs a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and a 6.67” 165Hz display (FHD+), along with a 50MP main, 12MP portrait (2x) and 50MP ultra wide cameras, plus a 5,100mAh battery with 68W wired and 15W wireless charging. It’s a lot of hardware for Galaxy S23 money.

Moving on to regular mid-rangers. The Moto Edge from last year has a 6.6” 144Hz OLED display, compared to 6.4” 120Hz on a Galaxy A54 (both FHD+). The Dimensity 1050 is about on par with the Exynos 1380 (but the Samsung has a microSD slot), the 50+13MP and 50+12MP cameras are comparable too. Both phones have 5,000mAh batteries, but the Motorola has 30W wired charging (vs. 25W) and 15W wireless (vs. none). The Samsung has better resistance against the elements with an IP67 rating and a better software update story.

Since we looked at Galaxy tablets, let’s have a quick peek at Apple slates too. The 2022 iPad Pro is powered by the mighty Apple M2 chip and have Stage Manager, which gives them multitasking capabilities similar to DeX (with USB-C ports they support external monitors too).

The iPad Air and vanilla iPad from 2022 both have 10.9” 60Hz IPS displays (vs. 120Hz on the Pros) and use the Apple M1 and A14 chipsets, respectively. The Air does have Stage Manager too.

Finally, the iPad Mini fills a gap that Samsung barely bothers with anymore – small tablets. The Mini has an 8.3” 60Hz LCD and uses the Apple A15 chipset, making it slightly more powerful than the vanilla iPad.

UK

The trade-in deals in the UK are not nearly as good as in the US. A 256GB Galaxy Z Flip4 will only fetch £430, which means that you still need to pay £620 for a new Z Flip5.

Instead check out the Amazon deals. The Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5 are both £100 cheaper than on Samsung.com, thanks to a voucher you can collect with a single click. Amazon is giving you a free storage upgrade to 512GB, just like Samsung. So, if you want to trade-in an old device, head over to Samsung.com. If not, Amazon may have the better deal for you.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 series also has £100 vouchers that you can collect for any of the three models (both Wi-Fi and 5G versions are available). They come with a free storage upgrade, but since these have microSD slots you can forgo the extra storage in favor of a free Slim Book Cover Keyboard (full QWERTY, no trackpad).

The Samsung Galaxy Watch6 pair comes with a gift card code for Google Play (£50 for the vanilla watch and £75 for the Classic), plus a free sport band. Note that we’ve linked the Bluetooth versions below, if you want 4G, that will be £50/60 more on top of the size option you’ve picked.

Now let’s have a look at alternatives. The Google Pixel Fold is currently on pre-order. It comes with a similar internal display and a more normal cover display (5.8” 17.4:9 vs. a slender 6.2” 23:9 on the Z Fold5). This one is equipped with a 5X periscope (vs. 3x lens) and despite being thinner (12.1mm vs. 13.4mm), it has a larger 4,821mAh battery (vs. 4,400mAh). Note that the Pixel is heavier (283g vs. 253g). Both phones have IPX8 water resistance. Note that for a limited time you can score a free Pixel Watch to go with the Fold.

The Motorola Razr 40 Ultra boasts a slightly larger cover display and the two cameras (and LED flash) are in punch holes, rather than having the display shy away from them as it does on the Z Flip5. The inner display is a larger 6.9” 144Hz panel (vs. 6.7”, same aspect ratio). The Moto uses the older Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip and doesn’t have an advantage in the camera department like the Pixel Fold does (expect maybe for the 32MP selfie), the battery situation is only slightly better too (3,800mAh with 30W wired and 5W wireless charging vs. 3,700mAh 25/15W).

If you don’t want a foldable, how about an Honor Magic5 Pro? This is a proper camera flagship with three 50MP sensors – the one in the main measures 1/1.12” (1.4µm pixels), the one in the telephoto cam sits behind a 3.5x lens, finally the one in the ultra wide is behind a 122° lens. The phone runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and a 5,100mAh battery (66W wired, 50W wireless charging). It has a huge 6.81” 120Hz LTPO display (1,312 x 2,848px resolution, so not quite QHD+).

The Realme GT2 Pro price has been declining steadily and is now under £500. This buys you a 6.7” QHD+ LTPO display, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, a 5,000mAh battery with 65W charging and a 50+50MP camera with an impressive 150° UW lens.

However, for a bit less cash you could grab the Poco F5 Pro instead. This one has a 12-bit 6.67” 120Hz display (not LTPO, though) and the improved Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip. The battery is bigger at 5,160mAh capacity and supports both 67W wired and 30W wireless charging. The 64MP camera with a small 1/2” sensor has OIS, but neither it nor the 8MP ultra wide (120°) are particularly impressive.

Finally, some PlayStation 5 offers. The disc version of the console is available with a small discount and is now just over £400. You can also pick up an additional DualSense controller for some local multiplayer or grab the Media Remote if you want to use the PS5 as a streaming machine.

Germany

A 256GB Galaxy Z Flip4 is valued at only €400 for trade-in purposes, so you will need €800 on top of that to grab a new Z Flip5, which has an MSRP of €1,200. You can pick it up for €100 less than that thanks to a coupon on Amazon. Like Samsung, Amazon offers a free storage upgrade to 512GB.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 also has a coupon available, worth €150 this time, so if you’re not going to be trading in an old device (e.g. a 256GB Z Fold4 is valued at €600), you may be better off going through Amazon than Samsung.

The three Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 slates are available in both Wi-Fi and 5G configurations. There is a free storage upgrade in it for you, but unlike in the UK, giving up the extra storage doesn’t net you a free keyboard cover.

The two Samsung Galaxy Watch6 models get a small perk, a nylon wrist strap. Note that we’ve linked the Bluetooth versions below, the 4G versions are €50 on top.

Now let’s have a look at alternatives. The Google Pixel Fold is currently on pre-order (it’s coming next month). It comes with a similar internal display and a more normal cover display (5.8” 17.4:9 vs. a slender 6.2” 23:9 on the Z Fold5). This one is equipped with a 5X periscope (vs. 3x lens) and despite being thinner (12.1mm vs. 13.4mm), it has a larger 4,821mAh battery (vs. 4,400mAh). Note that the Pixel is heavier (283g vs. 253g). Both phones have IPX8 water resistance. Note that for a limited time you can score a free Pixel Watch to go with the Fold.

The Huawei Mate X3 has a 5x periscope too and a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, rather than that Tensor G2 on the Google foldable. The phone is rated IPX8 and closes down to just 11.8mm, thinner than even the Pixel. Still, the price right now is too high for the X3 to compete.

The Motorola Razr 40 is €300 less than the Ultra and the Z Flip5. It cuts costs by switching to a 1.5” line display on the outside, but the internal 6.9” display is almost the same – the only difference is that it runs at 144Hz. This may be a limitation of the chipset, which is a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. This one has a 64MP camera instead of 12MP (still with OIS) and a larger 4,200mAh battery (500mAh more than the Z Flip5) with 30W wired and 5W wireless charging.

India

Unlike in the US and Europe, Samsung isn’t offering a free storage upgrade in India – you get what you pay for. You can trade in an old device to lower the final price of the new Galaxy gadgets, but that’s about it.

Amazon doesn’t have particularly interesting deals on the Galaxy Z Flip5 and Z Fold5, they cost the same as they do on Samsung.com. We’ll move past these offers quickly to get to the alternatives.

Same with the Galaxy Tab S9 tablets, not much to look at. The Tab S9 Ultra comes in Wi-Fi and 5G flavors, the Tab S9 is available only in Wi-Fi form for now.

For around half the price of a Galaxy Z Fold5, you can pick up a Tecno Phantom V Fold. This one features a larger 7.85” 120Hz LTPO inner display and a 6.42” 120Hz LTPO cover display (with a normal-ish 21.25:9 aspect ratio). The Dimensity 9000+ isn’t on par with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (especially the “for Galaxy” flavor), but in addition to a 50MP main cam with larger pixels (1.2µm vs. 1.0µm), you get a 50MP sensor behind a 2x lens (vs. 10MP 3x). And the 5,000mAh battery is bigger and faster to charge (40% in 15 minutes at 45W).

The Motorola Razr 40 Ultra is ₹10,000 less than the Z Flip5 and there is a ₹7,000 discount from select banks. The boasts a slightly larger cover display and the two cameras (and LED flash) are in punch holes, rather than having the display shy away from them as it does on the Z Flip5. The inner display is a larger 6.9” 144Hz panel (vs. 6.7”, same aspect ratio). The Moto uses the older Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip and doesn’t have an advantage in the camera department like the Pixel Fold does (expect maybe for the 32MP selfie), the battery situation is only slightly better too (3,800mAh with 30W wired and 5W wireless charging vs. 3,700mAh 25/15W).

The Motorola Razr 40 is ₹40,000 less than the Z Flip5 and there is a ₹5,000 bank discount to boot. It cuts costs by switching to a 1.5” line display on the outside, but the internal 6.9” display is almost the same – the only difference is that it runs at 144Hz. This may be a limitation of the chipset, which is a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. This one has a 64MP camera instead of 12MP (still with IOS) and a larger 4,200mAh battery (500mAh more than the Z Flip5) with 30W wired and 5W wireless charging.

Moving on to regular phones, the Motorola Edge 40 combines a 6.55” 144Hz OLED display (FHD+) with a Dimensity 8020. The phone has a 50MP main camera (1/1.55”, OIS) and 13MP ultra wide (120°), plus a fast charging 4,400mAh battery (68W wired, 15W wireless).

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite is 33% cheaper than the Moto and has an expansive 6.72″ 120Hz IPS LCD, this time paired with a Snapdragon 695 chip. The main camera has a 108MP sensor (1/1.67”, no OIS), but it is capped at 1080p/30fps video capture due to the chipset and there is no ultra wide module. The 5,000mAh battery supports 67W wired-only charging.

These last tow are similar in price, but the Samsung Galaxy M14 is a 5G phone (Exynos 1330), while the Redmi Note 12 is a 4G phone (Snapdragon 685). The Samsung has a 6.6” 90Hz LCD, while the Redmi offers a 6.67” 120Hz AMOLED (both FHD+, 20:9). Both have 50MP main cameras and 13MP selfies, but only the Redmi has an ultra wide (8MP). The Samsung has a bigger battery at 6,000mAh capacity (vs. 5,000mAh) with similar charging speed (25W vs. 33W).