Immediately following the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday this week in the U.S. is another type of “holiday” that many people look forward to all year: Black Friday. Black Friday is the name of the day that unofficially starts the holiday shopping season, where retail stores by and large majorly slash prices of popular products for a few days. Included in the price slashing fun would be what we’re all here to read and learn about: smartphones.
Smartphones can get pretty expensive. Even with a 2-year contract you could be spending upwards of $300 for certain devices - that’s a big chunk of money! As a person who is a total sucker for sales, I like to scour the Black Friday and Cyber Monday ad deals for anything good. This year, I’ll be providing a quick rundown of some of the best deals I’ve found through the ads. Are you ready? Here we go!
Updated 11/27
Free Samsung Galaxy S5: The Samsung Galaxy S5 is free with a 2-year agreement from Verizon Wireless on Thanksgiving and Black Friday only. This is a killer deal.
$100 Off All Android Smartphones: Verizon is offering $100 Off All Android Smartphones! New 2yr activation req’d. Plus, Free Overnight Shipping! Offer valid until November 30th.
$150 Bill Credit for Switching to Verizon: Get $150 credit for each smartphone line you switch to Verizon. Bill credit applied within 2-3 cycles. Limited time offer.
Free Ellipsis 8 Tablet: Free Ellipsis 8 Tablet with new 2yr activation req’d. Plus, Free Overnight Shipping!
T-Mobile is always doing a good job of letting their customers know that they’re appreciated. They even recently gave away free tablets to their customers (which you can still ask for in a T-Mobile store!). However, they also have a couple of neat Black Friday deals for their customers as well:
Samsung Galaxy S5: $150 off
Samsung Galaxy Note 3: $100 off
It’s not much, but this is one of the better Note 3 deals out there.
$48 off Sony Xperia Z3: Waterproof Sony Xperia Z3 $0 down + $26x24/mo. (If you cancel wireless service, remaining balance on phone becomes due.) Qual'g service plan required. Total $630, 0% APR O.A.C. for well qualified buyers. Free shipping where available. 4G not available everywhere. Limited time.
The nice thing about these Amazon deals is that you don’t have to deal directly with the crazies that go Black Friday shopping - you know, the ones that will push your mama down for 60% off of a throw rug? But since Amazon is online shopping only, the only problems you might run into are web traffic. Here are some of the best deals I’ve found through Amazon:
LG G3 & HTC One (M8): $0.01 with a 2-year contract
BlackBerry Passport: $499
Amazon also has lightning deals going on all throughout the week, so you might find a surprise or two there, but these are the two biggest finds that I could come across when it comes to planned sales - especially the BlackBerry Passport. That’s slashing the price by $200, and the phone gets such rave reviews that it’s a very tempting purchase.
Speaking of BlackBerry, you can also find the same $499 deal on BlackBerry’s own store - along with another great deal for the BlackBerry Z30. At BlackBerry, you can find:
BlackBerry Passport: $499
BlackBerry Z30: $225
These deals aren’t too shabby at all, considering these are what the full price of the phones will cost you. No 2-year contract necessary here.
Wal-Mart has some pretty good deals, especially if you’re looking for a new iPhone:
Apple iPhone 5s (16GB): $0 down (qualified buyers) or $79
Apple iPhone 6 (16GB): $0 down (qualified buyers) or $179
AT&T Tribute GoPhone: $39.99
Both of the iPhone deals come with a $75 Wal-Mart gift card. You can also get up to an additional $200 Wal-Mart gift card if you trade in your current smartphone.
Wal-Mart has many electronic deals, but these were definitely the ones that stood out to me the most. The iPhone deals are probably some of the best that you’ll find, as it’s hard to come across really good discounts on Apple products.
Best Buy has some iPhone discounts of their own, but it has a catch: although the ad claims that you can pick up a 16GB iPhone 6 for $99, you’ll need to have an old iPhone to trade in in order to get that price. Still, if you have an old iPhone to trade in, then Best Buy might not be a bad idea. Best Buy also has a fantastic deal on the Virgin Mobile HTC Desire 510.
Apple iPhone 6: $99 (with qualifying iPhone trade-in)
Virgin Mobile HTC Desire 510: $29.99
Target had a couple of notable sales that they’ll be hosting on Black Friday, most notably one of the Samsung Galaxy S5:
Samsung Galaxy S5: $0.01 (2-year contract) for Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T customers
Virgin Mobile Kyocera Hydro Vibe: $29.99
K-Mart has some of the best prepaid smartphone deals going on during Black Friday weekend, and since not everybody needs or wants to be on the big four, I feel that they’re important to include as well:
TracPhone LG Fuel: $9.99
Net10 LG Optimus Dynamic II: $19.99
Boost Mobile LG Volt: $39.99
Well, we’ve pretty much had discounts for everybody - except for Windows Phone users - but you haven’t been forgotten! There’s actually a really great deal going on at the Microsoft Store starting on 11/24 for the Lumia 635:
Lumia 635: $39
Aaaaaaand that about wraps it up. There are a ton of deals still out there that have yet to surface. I’m still keeping my eye out for any discounts on the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, and anything Sony related - but until then, these are some of the great deals you can expect to see after Thanksgiving this year!
Apple Apps for (RED) campaign offering special in-app content, donations to fight AIDS
NVIDIA Black Friday deals include SHIELD tablet with free controller and more
T-Mobile Music Freedom adds 14 more services, including Google Play Music and SoundCloud
Samsung Galaxy S5 launch sales said to have fallen short of Galaxy S4
