Happy Sunday everyone
So Google just released the new pixel 8 few days ago, and I’m thinking of upgrading my 6 year old phone to it. Problem is, it’s much more expensive than what I expected. (Probably because of the weak yen right now)
So I’m asking if anyone know when’s the best time to buy one. I heard in us, google always have aggresive promotion and the closest would be during black friday. Do google japan also have this kind of promotion and how much can I expect the price cut would be?
On a side note, is it possible to get a sim free samsung flagship? (I think the latest is s23). I can buy one from amazon but it might not work with felica
11 comments
If you preorder it, you get 50k in Google credits by the way. So basically you can get the pixel watch for (almost free). I don’t think you can get a better discount than this. On the other hand if you are not interested in buying other Google products, yeah you can wait for black Friday. But it’s not guaranteed they will discount it. I preordered mine.
They also pay 70k to trade in your Pixel 7 Pro which is a fair price to avoid the hussle of selling it on Mercari or elsewhere.
They do sale during golden week. No clue if that’s the *best* offer out there though.
You can buy the Pixels in Japan with no-interest payments over a year.
The 7a is under Â¥50,000 new now if you don’t mind a previous model
I bought the Pixel 6a at launch & just pre-ordered the Pixel 8 Pro. I don’t remember the deals after launch being better for the 6a. I got a discount & free Pixel buds at launch.
The Pixel 8 is 30,000 yen credit this time & Pixel 8 Pro is 50,000 yen credit. I initially was going to get 8 but I really want to use the video AI features. Plus for the launch they are giving away a pouch. Looking at the US site this seems to be Japan only (I think).
Black Friday is currently big in Japan for companies so you could wait but like someone else said there’s no guarantee it will be as good of a deal.
In Japan they do spring sales and golden week sales. I don’t recall anything for Black Friday. Maybe something on New year but preorder is usually the best you’ll get for another 6 months until the spring sale starts.
The only way to buy unlocked s23 is through a carrier via lump sum payment. Or buy a used one from a second hand shop
don’t expect any sale on Pixel 8 so soon after launch. If my memory serves me right, its probably after a year after launch they start discounts for pixel 6/7 during the golden week/new year sales.
I usually buy new phones from https://iosys.co.jp if I am after SIM free phones. Always in great condition and they can tell you if it can be used for Suica and such.
In the past, they’ve done deals in the store credit structure for new phones around Black Friday in Japan. The credit lasts for one year.
It’s less common to see significant discounts on the cash price. They just had a 25% off everything promo this summer, and that was remarkable.
Their goal is to get you locked into the ecosystem, rolling over year after year. Between the trade in value of last year’s phone and the Â¥50,000 store credit, if you upgrade every year around launch, you end up effectively paying like Â¥40,000 each year, but you’re out more cash and you’re holding credit year over year.
Don’t this thing sucks. I have the 7 pro and the whole system sucks. I miss my galaxy. I’m not a crazy loyalist but damn it Galaxy has always been there for me lol. It seems like everytime I branch out and try a new phone there’s some crazy stupid bug that drives me crazy. I started with galaxy when the 6 came out. I’ve tried the LG V series (v20 &v30) I loved the phones but they had the worst problem with not receiving messages and I had to use a 3rd party app and it was a whole mess, ads and other stupid shit. And also they wouldn’t receive calls.
After these I tried a windows phone but they didn’t last long. Went back to my Galaxy S9, note 9, note 10. And now I decided to try the pixel. I’m not getting notifications from messenger and some other apps despite having them on. Researched the problem did some things nothing works for longer than a day of that. The OS is annoying and had limited customization (that’s more of a personal preference but still) I did find a work around for that but things are still annoying.
Samsung Galaxys have just always worked for me, but alas my current Carrier doesn’t offer Galaxies and I wanted an upgrade, so here we are lol.
End rant. 😂😂😂
Samsung Japan actually sells their most expensive S23 Ultra 1TB model on their online store:
https://www.samsung.com/jp/smartphones/galaxy-s23-ultra/buy/