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

This week Samsung starts shipping its Galaxy S23 smartphone flagships and the new Galaxy Book3 series of laptops, both series feature heavily in this week’s deals. Meanwhile, the prices of the Pixel 7 duo has fallen to well below what the S23 cost so the Pixel experience is alluringly cheaper.

Use the links below to jump straight to your region:

• Germany
• The UK
• USA
• Canada
• The Netherlands

UK

Amazon has bundled Samsung’s new S23 phones with a free pair of Galaxy Buds2 and a free Clear Slim Case. Also, the phones come with three years warranty. Like Samsung, the retailer is offering a free memory upgrade to the next tier. It also offers enhanced trade-in value credit, £150 in the case of the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

The Galaxy S23 and S23+ are slightly more expensive than their prices on Samsung.com, however, the freebies offset the cost somewhat. Also, the S23 and S23+ have £100 enhanced trade-in credit (i.e. extra credit on top of what your old device is worth).

Don’t rush to get the S23 – Samsung is also launching its Galaxy Book3 series of laptops this week and both the Galaxy Book3 and Book3 360 come bundled with a Galaxy S23 (256GB) in the Amazon offers below.

Samsung’s flagships are quite pricey, if you can’t afford them you should consider the Google phones. The Pixel 7 Pro is under £700 right now for the 12/128GB unit. The Pixel 7 is under £500 for an 8/128GB unit. Their Tensor 2 chipsets aren’t as fast, though all the extra AI hardware helps keep the camera competitive.

You can also pick up a pair of TWS buds too, the Pixel Buds Pro, for £130.

Finally, the Realme GT2 is a year old at this point and even when it was new it used the older Snapdragon 888 chipset. It has a 6.62” 120Hz AMOLED display, 50+8+2MP camera and a 5,000mAh battery with 65W charging. Is this better than the small Pixel 7? It depends on whether you value camera quality or battery life/charge speed more. As a reminder, the small Pixel runs its display at 90Hz, not 120Hz.

Germany

The Samsung Galaxy S23 series is shipping this week. Amazon offers a free memory upgrade like Samsung, though unlike the deals in the UK you don’t get a free pair of Buds2 or a case. Enhanced trade-in credit is available, though, €150 extra for the Ultra and €100 for the other two. The retailer also throws in 90 days of Amazon Music Unlimited for free and you can grab a free Ledger Nano X NFT if you’re into that sort of thing.

The Galaxy Book3 Pro and Book3 360 will start shipping on February 17. You can pick between Intel Core i5 and i7 (13th generation) processors and 8 and 16GB of RAM, storage is 512GB in either case.

If the S23 series is out of reach, you can get the still fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 inside the Poco F4 GT. This also comes with a 6.67 120Hz display (FHD+) and a super fast charging 4,700mAh battery – 120W.

The regular Poco F4 is €100 less, but it drops down to the much older Snapdragon 870. Also, the battery is down to 4,500mAh capacity and 67W charging, the display is still a 6.67” 120Hz (FHD+) panel, though.

The Poco X4 GT is a bit cheaper still and brings a Dimensity 8100 plus a 6.6” IPS LCD with 144Hz refresh rate. It has a larger battery than the F4, 5,080mAh, and charges at the same 67W.

Finally, three Xiaomi phones in the €250-300 range. The Poco X5 Pro has the best chipset of the bunch, a Snapdragon 778G with a flagship-class GPU, plus a 6.67” 120Hz AMOLED display, 108MP camera and a 5,000mAh battery with 67W fast charging.

The vanilla Poco X5 drops down to a Snapdragon 695 and 33W charging for the 5,000mAh battery, plus it loses the high-resolution camera, replaced by a basic 48MP shooter. Not worth the €50 savings if you ask us, but you may not have the €50 to spare.

There’s also the Redmi Note 11 at €300, the same price as the Poco X5 Pro. However, it is a 4G-only phone (due to the Helio G96 chipset) and while it does have a 108MP camera and 67W charging (unlike the X5), we’d still go for the X5 Pro.

USA

Amazon has matched the prices of the Samsung Galaxy S23 series (for unlocked units without trade-in), but it also includes an Amazon Gift Cart - $50 for the small S23, $100 for the S23+ and S23 Ultra. You can spend that on accessories or anything else that the retailer offers.

As we mentioned for the other regions, Google’s phones are cheaper than Samsung’s. For example, the Pixel 7 Pro is $750, $50 less than the S23 (well, same price if you count the gift card). Their chipsets are not on the level of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, but their cameras and Pixel UI have their fans prefer them over the One UI package.

And Google has a cheap offering, the Pixel 6a, which uses the original Tensor and the old dual 12MP camera setup. Still, it’s a small-ish, relatively capable phone for $300.

Another cheaper alternative is the OnePlus 10T with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and 50+8+2MP Hasselblad cameras.

Canada

There is a wide variety of Google Pixel phones available at different price levels. We’ll start with the current Pixel 7 and 7 Pro models, which have solved most of the complaints that people had about the 6-series.

Still, the Pixel 6 is C$100 cheaper than the Pixel 7. If you can afford the C$100, we’d recommend getting the new Pixel 7 over the 6. If not, the 6a is probably the better pick as it brings more significant savings.

If you dread the green bubble in chat, one of the cheapest way to avoid it is a refurbished iPhone SE (2020). It’s not the new 2022 model, but Apple’s long term support and the relative lack of upgrades means you are not missing out on much (the 2022 model has a faster chipset and slightly better battery life).

Pre-orders for the PlayStation VR2 have been live for a while now, shipping is set to start in the middle of next week (February 22). You can pick up the PSVR2 + Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle for C$820. Besides the VR exclusive Horizon game, Sony has lined up over 30 titles that you will be able to enjoy after the second-gen VR headset launches.

Of course, you need a PS5 for that. If you want the stand-alone, untethered experience, check out the Meta Quest 2, which goes for C$530. This offer includes two free games.

And while we’re on a gaming topic, here is non-VR option, the Nintendo Switch. This is the original LCD model with 32GB storage.

The Netherlands

The Xiaomi 12T is just over €500 and features a Dimensity 8100-Ultra chipset, plus a 108MP main camera and fast 120W charging for the 5,000mAh battery. It also has a 1,220 x 2,712px display (120Hz 12-bit AMOLED), a resolution you may have heard described as “1.5K” (it’s half way between FHD and QHD).

Similar hardware is available for €150 less with the older Xiaomi 11T. This one drops back to the older Dimensity 1200, which isn’t as fast, though the difference is offset a bit by the lower resolution display – FHD+ (a 120Hz 10-bit AMOLED panel). Also, the charging system is down to 67W (but the battery capacity remains at 5,000mAh)

The Realme GT Neo2 is slightly more than the 11T. It also has a 6.62” 120Hz AMOLED display, but it switches over to the Snapdragon 870, which beats both Dimensity chips in most benchmarks. The battery is similar, 5,000mAh with 65W charging.

Finally, would you still get the OnePlus 10 Pro even though the OnePlus is already on pre-order? The older 10 Pro is €130 cheaper at the base 8/128GB memory configuration. The new model uses the faster Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip (up from 8 Gen 1), but loses the fast wireless charging and only has a 2x tele lens (down from 3.3x). The rest is similar enough, though that’s not a compliment for the pricier phone.