Whether it's worth less than 200 euros or more than 1,000 euros, a new smartphone is always a good investment. To avoid breaking the bank on the big day, here are some tips for paying for the Holy Grail at a lower cost.
What's more annoying than saving euro after euro to buy a state-of-the-art smartphone, only to find it a day or two later for 100, 200, or 300 euros cheaper on a competitor's site? Bad luck, perhaps. And yet, it's quite easy to find good deals on the web. To help you find the real deals, we've listed a whole series of tips that should help you save big on your future phone purchases.
1. Pre-order offers
If you want a brand new device, it's during the pre-order phase that you have every chance of getting a good deal. When a new smartphone appears, it's customary for its manufacturer to significantly reduce its price, even before it's released on the market. And the reduction doesn't stop there. Initially, it's possible to take advantage of a discount of several hundred euros on the final price (depending on the model, of course). But there are also ways to get another device from the same manufacturer. To which we can also add a trade-in offer on the old smartphone.
An example? When the Samsung Galaxy S25 is released in January 2025, Samsung officially sells its new phone at a price of 899 euros for the 128 GB version. Except that... during the pre-order period, it is possible to get the 256 GB edition for the same price (normally sold for 959 €) as the 128 GB version! The same goes for the 512 GB edition, sold for 959 euros instead of 1079 euros. But the promotion doesn't stop there. A discount code allows you to benefit from a 5% discount, and an additional 10% by going through the Samsung Shop app (rather than using the South Korean brand's website). Finally, thanks to an offer to trade in an old smartphone, there is a way to benefit from a €100 reduction, an amount to which the trade-in value of the phone is added. And to round off this reduction, Samsung is even allowing itself the luxury of offering the Galaxy Buds 3 earphones, worth €160, to future buyers.
Let's do the math:
- 959 – 60 = €899
- 899 – 5% = €854.05
- 854.05 – 10% = €768.65
- 768.65 – €160 = €708.65
[and with the trade-in offer] - €708.65 – €100 = €608.65, not including the price of the trade-in smartphone
In the end, the pre-order offer allows you to save nearly €400 on Samsung's new flagship. And this is just one example among many. Almost all competing brands, like Xiaomi or Honor to name a few, are rarely stingy in this area: reductions on the generally observed price, additional goodies and trade-in offers are commonplace.
2. End of Stock
When a new smartphone model is announced, its manufacturer has no choice but to lower the prices of the older version in order to clear its stocks. For example, as soon as the Xiaomi 15 Ultra was released, the 14 Ultra saw its price drop by around 33% (from €1,499.90 to just €1,000).
Are you looking for an iPhone instead? No worries, Apple's smartphone, which doesn't generally benefit from the same promotions as Android models, is still getting a discount. This is 20% off for the iPhone 15, at the same time as the iPhone 16 is being released.
3. Sales
During the sales period, there's plenty to enjoy. Some discounts aren't really discounts, with unscrupulous retailers artificially inflating prices a few weeks before the sales start. But there are still some real bargains to be had during this markdown period. The biggest sales are generally during these different periods:
- The Winter Sales, which take place in January;
- The Summer Sales, which take place between June and July;
- Amazon's Prime Day, which takes place over a few days in July;
- Black Friday, which normally takes place on the last Friday in November, and is immediately followed by Cyber Monday. But in 2024, Black Friday has extended to the entire month of November.
Here again, you should be able to save a few hundred euros on the price of a premium smartphone. And even entry-level and mid-range models are getting discounts. These are generally models a few months earlier, but which do not yet have successors and which therefore remain perennial.
Note in passing that, to help you find your way around, our team of editors dedicated to good deals is here to list the best opportunities and help you take advantage of them.
4. Foreign sites
Here again, there are some really good deals to be had. They are called Aliexpress, Gearbest or even Banggood and allow you to acquire a new smartphone with sometimes 10, 15 or 20% off. Although they come from China, the United States or other European countries, the delivery costs are ridiculously low, or even included in the sale price.
There are a few warnings to be aware of, however. Some smartphones are equipped with a Chinese ROM. It is complicated to use the smartphone in such conditions, and migrating to an international ROM is not always possible. Also, be careful with the power adapter (when provided). It may not meet European standards. Finally, some Chinese smartphone models are not always compatible with the 4G/5G frequency bands used by French operators, even if the situation has tended to improve in recent years.
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