We’re near the end of 2025, and the holiday shopping season is nearly upon us. If you need a new smartphone, are you better off buying a discounted model soon or waiting a bit longer for the next big thing? New tech always offers something new just over the horizon, but we’re at the end of the year, and new phones often launch in January, and sometimes even before the end of December.
Whether you should wait depends on two factors. First, what phone are you hoping to buy, and will that phone go on sale? Some phones, like the Google Pixel, go on sale every year around the holiday season. Other phones, like the Apple iPhone, don’t ever get much of a discount. I’ll walk you through the best deals you can expect.
The second question is how badly you need a new phone, and why you’re replacing your current handset. Do you really need a new phone, or are you just bored with what you have and yearning for something new? I can help in both cases.
Is your phone broken? It may be worth more when you trade it in, even with a broken screen, than it would be if you fix the screen and trade it in later in working condition.
Even when there aren’t significant discounts to be found on new models, some phone makers and mobile carriers offer deals by boosting the trade-in value of your existing phone – and sometimes those deals ignore defects like a little broken glass. It’s worth checking your favorite retailer to see what they offer for your current trade, regardless of condition.
If you want an iPhone deal, don’t hold your breath – BUY NOW
Apple doesn’t drop the price on its iPhone… like, ever. You can find deals on Apple computers like the MacBook Pro or Mac Mini, but you’ll rarely see the iPhone drop in price, even at third-party retailers like Amazon and Best Buy.
What you find instead are long-term offers from mobile carriers to give you a phone for free (or at a very low monthly cost) if you sign a two- or three-year agreement. Those aren’t bad deals, as long as you were planning on signing a carrier contract anyway.
Even when Apple launches a new iPhone, like the recent iPhone 17, the older iPhone models hardly drop in price at all. An iPhone 16 is only $100 / £100 / AU$150 cheaper now than it was last year when it was brand new.
You can find bigger price drops on Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel phones quite often, so if you really want to save money, you should see what the competition is offering.
Google Pixel phones are the best bargain during sales seasons – BUY NOW
Like clockwork, the price of Google’s Pixel family drops every year around the holiday shopping season. I’m guessing that Pixel fans will be able to save hundreds on the new Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro if they wait until late November to buy.
The Pixel 9 family and Pixel 8 family both dropped in price around that time, even though the Pixel 8 had just launched as a brand new phone just over a month before the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Google Pixel 10 launched in August, so the phone is very new, and there were a few changes from last year’s model. I reviewed all of this year’s Pixel phones, and they are all worth buying, especially with the Black Friday deals I’m anticipating.
Samsung’s Galaxy S26 might be delayed, but it’s coming sooner than later – WAIT, maybe…
If you want a Samsung phone, there are frequent deals and price drops to be found, and Samsung can also be more aggressive about its trade-in bonus offers (as I mentioned above), so check the value of your trade to see how much of a deal you’re really getting.
Samsung has launched its new phones in January for the past few years, but this year, we’re hearing rumors that the Galaxy S26 phones may be delayed and could launch a month or two later than usual.
We haven’t heard much more about new features that make the phones worth waiting for, aside from the usual claims that everything – from the processor to the cameras to the design and materials – will be a little better than last year.
In my experience, phones often drop in price the most around two to three months before the new model shows up. We could see very low prices on Samsung’s Galaxy S25 during this holiday season, or we may see another sales event happen in January, as retailers anticipate the S26 launch.
The bottom line is, if you’re shopping for a Pixel or Galaxy phone, buy your new handset if you spot a good Black Friday deal this month. Don’t worry about waiting for what’s next, today’s phones are great devices and you won’t be able to get them for a better price, if history is our guide.
Want the fastest phone possible (maybe with maybe the biggest battery ever?), definitely WAIT
In September, Qualcomm flew me to Maui to see the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, and we already know the OnePlus 15 will be the first handset most of us can buy with that new platform inside.
In my benchmark tests of a reference unit with the new Snapdragon inside, it’s hands down the fastest chipset you’ll find in any phone. I tested it against my iPhone 17 Pro Max, and it won every benchmark competition.
The OnePlus 15 launches first in China, but it will be in the US, UK, and hopefully Australia before the end of the year if OnePlus sticks to its normal schedule. We don’t know what else that phone will be able to do, but OnePlus traditionally offers incredible performance and battery life for the price of a base model flagship phone or cheaper.
The OnePlus 13 won’t see the same discounts as the Google Pixel 10 or Samsung Galaxy S25 because OnePlus doesn’t have the sales volume or retail partnerships to cut its price much further. Still, you can always get around $100 off if you have any phone (even a broken old flip phone) to trade. Still, I’d wait for the OnePlus 15 if you’re a fan of the brand. OnePlus hasn’t released a dud in years, so the next model will surely be worth a look.
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philip.berne@futurenet.com (Philip Berne)
