While Black Friday is the best time to buy a phone, many folks tend to worry about whether waiting for Cyber Monday is a better idea. This fear of missing out is pretty typical around these two shopping events, so let’s take a look at that and some great Black Friday phone deals you can pick up.
Should you buy a phone on Black Friday?
The short answer is yes, you should buy a phone on Black Friday. While it’s true we’re likely to see many great deals on Cyber Monday, especially since they tend to mirror Black Friday deals, you can never guarantee that. As such, it’s better to grab Black Friday phone deals as soon as you see one you like rather than waiting. Plus, even if you find a better deal on Cyber Monday, you can still refund your earlier purchase from Black Friday and pick up the newer and better deal.
Our 5 favorite Black Friday phone deals
Straight Talk Apple iPhone SE (2020) — $99, was $149
The Apple iPhone SE (2020) was a big surprise when it was released a couple of years ago since Apple always maintained a more premium product category. Even at a lower price, the SE is still a surprisingly powerful machine that uses the A13 Bionic chip. Granted, it’s a bit dated at this point, but you can still get some great performance when playing games and using apps; at the very least, it’s still quite snappy. Picture quality is, of course, excellent as ever, given that Apple has some of the best cameras in the industry. As for the screen, it’s a 4.7-inch beauty with a resolution of 1,334 x 750 with True Tone, so it adjusts to your environment, which we love to see for a budget Apple phone. Of course, the most impressive part is that you can grab all of this through Straight Talk for less than $100, and while it is the older SE, it’s still an excellent phone, but if you want to see the comparison, we have taken a look at the Apple iPhone SE (2022) vs. iPhone SE (2020).
Google Pixel 7 (Unlocked) — $499, was $599
The Google Pixel 7 is a gorgeous phone, given its minimalist design. At 8.7mm thick, it’s still a relatively thin phone, although you might not feel that way given its 6.3-inch AMOLED screen on the larger side. Even so, it does give you 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate, and is even HDR10+ certified, which is impressive. On the back are two cameras: a 50-megapixel f/1.9 aperture main camera and a 12MP f/2.2 wide-angle camera, giving you a lot of versatility and creating some genuinely vibrant pictures. As for performance, the Pixel 7 has the Tensor G2 processor and 8GM of RAM, which is more than enough for a fast and fluid experience on the phone, although gaming does sometimes warm the phone up, so that’s something to be aware of.
Google Pixel 7 Pro (Unlocked) — $749, was $899
While the Pixel 7 is a great phone, the Pixel 7 Pro is the standout of this generation for Google phones. The screen is bigger, at 6.7 inches, and has a higher resolution of 3120 x 1440 and an impressive 120Hz refresh rate, which is what we’d expect for flagship phones at this point. It also has 1,500 nits of brightness, which is a lot, to say the least, and is OLED, so it’s also gorgeous. As for the cameras, they’re roughly the same as the Pixel 7, which isn’t a problem since those cameras are pretty great. Performance is also similar since both phones rock a Tensor G2 processor, so it’s smooth sailing here. As for the battery, it’s a little bit disappointing, and even though it can last for a day with full usage, it really should be able to manage more with a 5,000mAh battery.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra — $975, was $1,200
If you need a phone that will last you several years at the top of the game, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra will do it. Probably one of the biggest features you don’t see in other flagship phones is the S Pen, which may look just like a gimmick at the start, but is a useful little device, especially once you get used to the different ways you can use it. This, of course, leads us to the screen, a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen with a crispy 120Hz refresh rate and support for HDR10+ and a whopping 1,750 nits of peak brightness, so it’s a pleasure to watch stuff on. In terms of performance, the US version has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor and 8GB with the cheapest model, which, even at that, has smooth performance and doesn’t seem to have any issue hitting any task out of the ballpark. As for battery life, you’ll probably get a full day of use out of it, maybe less if you have very little help, but that’s to be expected, given the quality of the screen and size of the battery.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 — $1,470, was $1,920
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is at the forefront of foldable technology and is one of the best iterations we’ve seen, although most of the changes from the Fold3 to the Fold4 are quality-of-life changes. For starters, the outside screen is a 6.2-inch AMOLED screen with a 2316 x 904 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, making it on par with some other flagship phones and very much usable on its own. On the inside, there’s a larger 7.6-inch AMOLED with a similar 120Hz refresh rate and a 2176 x 1812 resolution, which isn’t exactly tablet-sized, but it does provide a similar experience. Performance is pretty snappy as it uses the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor as the Samsung 22 Ultra, and it even comes with more RAM of 12GB, which makes sense given the added functionality of the inner screen. As for battery life, you sadly won’t get a full day out of it, but that’s the compromise you must make when buying a flagship foldable.
