So many tech products! It can help if you take a breath, a step back, and think about what you really need. We’re here to help you do just that!
There are plenty of tech products out there. Some are great buys offering excellent value, but others aren’t. Most fall somewhere in the middle.
We can’t make those decisions for you, but we can tell you what we think and maybe where you should start your decision-making process.
Sales, like Amazon’s Prime Day events or any of the Black Friday deals days, are a great time to buy a new phone. They are also a time when regular pricing trends go out the window.
Normally, last year’s model gets a healthy price cut when the new one launches, and buying one is a good way to get a great phone while saving a nice chink of money. Big sales can change this, though.
We saw it during the last one with the Google Pixel. Normally, the Pixel 9 Pro is a good bit cheaper now that the Pixel 10 Pro is here. But if you were shopping in early October, you might have noticed that prices were almost the same.
Now the Pixel 9 Pro is a good phone if the Pixel offers what you want. Saving a bunch of money and buying it over the newer Pixel 10 Pro isn’t a bad idea, and there wasn’t a big enough difference to justify spending a lot more money for a lot of us.
When to buy an older phone
I never recommend buying a model that’s more than two years old. However, there are some good reasons to buy a relatively new model versus a brand new one, though.
You will save some money. Once stock of a new model arrives, retailers want to move out all the existing stock, meaning they need to catch your eye, and the very best way to do that is to cut the price.
It’s still new. When you buy a 2024 phone in 2025, it’s probably still going to be brand new. That means you’ll get the full warranty, and the battery won’t have a year’s worth of wear and tear. If it lasts 3 years when you bought it in 2024, it will last three years when you buy it in 2025.
No big improvements. Moore’s law isn’t dead, but it’s on life support. Before we’ll gigantic shift with much faster or more efficient hardware, science has to figure out where to put it and how to do it. It will, but for now, the newer stuff is only incrementally better than the older stuff.
You don’t care about the new features. You know that a newer model Pixel is going to come with special Gemini AI tricks that older Pixels don’t have. Some will never come to last year’s model. If you don’t care about them, don’t pay extra for them.
When to buy a new model
Unless there is a serious manufacturing flaw, you can’t go wrong buying the newest model. You’ll pay for the privilege, though. Here’s when you should buy the newest, and why.
The price. Normally, you’ll pay more, but big sales events can change that. Decide on a number you’re okay with; let’s say $150. When the new model is less than $150 more than the older one, go for it.
Support lifetime. Every good company now offers multiple years of software support and updates for a new phone. A phone built in 2024 that comes with five years of support reaches end-of-life in 2029. One from 2025 lasts until 2030. If you plan on keeping it around for a while, this matters.
Manufacturer incentives. Often, a new model will come with things like a better trade-in policy, a discount on headphones, or even a great deal on other brand-new products like a smartwatch. Consider what else you’ll be buying, what you have to trade in, and what the total price will be once it’s all tallied up.
New features. Those Gemini AI tricks I mentioned above? You might really want one or more of them. If the only way you’ll ever get them is to buy a new phone, well, you’re going to have to do it.
You’re winning either way
There is no right or wrong answer for this one, because each of us wants something different. All I can do is tell you what I think and why, using that same Pixel as my example
Today, I would buy a Pixel 9 Pro over a Pixel 10 Pro. There are no real differences that matter to me, and I like saving money. That all changes if they are only $100 apart. I’d take the 10 Pro in a minute. Maybe something new will come along that requires the small hardware bump, and I’ll have it, and I’ll probably be able to find a coupon that saves me money on a charger or something.
I buy a phone for myself every two years, and I usually buy a model from the year before. This time, I didn’t because of a big sale: I got my 2024 Moto Razr for a few dollars more than the 2023 would have cost me.
Shopping wisely and doing a bit of research saved me money. It can save you money, too.
A well-rounded flagship
Google’s Pixel 10 Pro takes the same design from the Pixel 9 Pro and overhauls the internals. There’s a faster Tensor G5 chip with a custom ISP, a bigger battery with magnetic Qi2 charging, and Bluetooth 6 support. Overall, this just might be the Android flagship to beat in 2025.