Amazon Prime Day, one of the biggest shopping events of the year, starts today and will run for four days – twice as long as previous years. So many things are on sale right now, but we’ve picked out the best offers and grouped them into several articles.
Here we will focus on smartphones, but keep in mind that there is an article with foldable phones incoming, plus a look at renewed iPhones. It goes without saying that you need an active Prime subscription to get the deals below (but a free 1-month trial will work just fine).
We start off with Samsung whose entire S-series is discounted. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is still the best phone in the family, unless you want something thin and light – here’s how the S25 Ultra compares with the S25 Edge. Of course, the main reason to pick the Ultra is the advanced camera setup – here’s our S25 Ultra vs. Google Pixel 9 Pro XL comparison for more on two of the best camera phones in the US market. If you’re interested in the Pixels, scroll down a bit.
One of the main complaints that we saw about the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge was the price – at $300 off, it’s almost palatable. Of course, you can have an S25+ for $100 less. Here are our thoughts on the Galaxy S25 Edge vs. S25+ debate to help you decide.
Speaking of the Samsung Galaxy S25+, it’s not glamorous, but it’s a sturdy workhorse. While it doesn’t have the cameras of the Ultra, it has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy and DeX capabilities and it’s a good deal cheaper.
Of course, you can also go for the vanilla Samsung Galaxy S25. It’s pretty cheap right now and it is one of the smallest flagships that you can buy.
As promised, here come the Pixels. Starting with the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, which doesn’t have the fastest chipset around (the Tensor G4 is more of a mid-range chip), but it has stellar cameras.
Those same cameras are also available on the smaller Google Pixel 9 Pro, which is surprisingly competitive with its Pro XL sibling.
Moving over to the mid-range, the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE offers a good balance between price, performance and features. It’s powered by the Exynos 2400e and has a 6.7” 1080p+ display, plus a 50+8+12MP camera with a 3x/75mm telephoto. It has DeX too, thanks to the USB-C 3.2 port.
The Samsung Galaxy A36 is about the same size, but you lose on performance (Snapdragon 6 Gen 3) and DeX (the USB-C port is 2.0). There’s no telephoto lens on this one either and it’s an overall less premium model with a plastic frame (instead of aluminum) and an IP67 rating (vs. IP68 on the S24 FE).
Samsung doesn’t really have a small mid-ranger this year, but Google does, the Pixel 9. It has the same chipset as the Pixel 9 Pro along with the same main and ultra-wide cameras – but it misses out on the periscope and a few other features. Here is a detailed Pixel 9 vs. 9 Pro comparison.
It’s not small but it’s quite powerful – the OnePlus 13R boasts a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and a 6.78” LTPO display, while costing less than the Pixel 9. It has a dedicated tele lens too, a 50MP 2x/47mm camera to go with the 50MP main and 8MP ultra-wide. There’s no wireless charging like on the S24 FE or Pixel 9, but the large 6,000mAh battery supports 80W wired charging.
We will wrap up with an all-out gaming phone, the RedMagic 10S Pro. It has an air-cooled Snapdragon 8 Elite Leading Version (similar to “for Galaxy”) and even though the fan doesn’t do much, this is still one of the fastest phones around. And it is specced with tons of memory, 24GB LPDDR5T RAM and 1TB UFS 4.1 Pro storage. Plus, the 6.85” 144Hz OLED display has an under-display camera and no rounded corners that would eat into the game graphics. The massive 7,050mAh battery with 80W charging is worth mentioning too.
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