Fast approaching, this year’s Black Friday falls on November 27th. The day after Thanksgiving, of course, but for shoppers, they’ll have their eye on prices the whole week leading up to it.
A new-in-box flagship may get discounted for one weekend and restocked, but a refurbished marketplace moves unit by unit. It’s best to be tracking prices since yesterday, so you know what’s a good deal on the day.
The good thing with Samsung is that their flagships tend to get announced at the end of winter, around 9 to 10 months before Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In other words, the perfect amount of time for refurbished phones to increase in supply, prices to drop, yet batteries are intact. Though if you use a platform like Back Market, the battery is always intact because it’s tested rigorously, regardless of condition.
Best Black Friday phone deals: Galaxy S25 Ultra Walmart
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is certainly leading the charge on marketplaces, being around a year and a half old right now. The 2025 flagship has a 200-megapixel main camera and a 5x periscope telephoto lens, yet Back Market currently lists refurbished units from $689 against Samsung's $1,299 retail price. That’s almost half price, yet it has a 1-year warranty and free 30-day returns.
Back Market's Samsung Black Friday page does have all the models, including the latest S26 Ultra flagship, which at the moment starts from $950. But these are pre-Black Friday deals - we will have to wait and see what they get lowered to on the day.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Samsung
Generally, the higher the price tag, the greater the potential discount. That’s because flagships often have strong margins, and the high price means they can drop $100 or more while remaining profitable.
But when considering trade-ins and value, both paint a compelling picture to look out for older models, not new. Going back to the S24 Ultra, specs are not that different. It still has a 5x optical zoom, and it has the same size battery as the S26 Ultra.
What actually decides the deal is the math on trade-ins regarding the phone it's replacing. Trading in your old phone can yield surprising prices considering the shoddy condition, and every little helps. When buying a two-year-old flagship, which has both depreciated and is refurbished, and it’s Black Friday, the actual amount it will cost you can be very little.
Keep an eye on tablets too, as the supply of 2023 to 2025 tablets will be strong heading into Black Friday. It’s where the value is.
Black Friday is a reminder of the good and bad bits of modern day capitalism. Aggressive competition and technological advancements have led to incredible, life-changing devices that almost any American can get hold of. In South Asia, it’s a key driver to lifting people out of poverty.
But it’s also a reminder that these companies release a flagship (along with other models) every year. Rarely do they have a break. And refurbished is the antidote to this, as it leads to much less e-waste, fewer raw materials used, and lower carbon emissions. Back Market itself puts the cumulative effect at 2 billion kilograms of carbon emissions avoided since 2014.
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