If you're a deals savvy tech buyer, Amazon Prime Day deals imminent arrival in mid July, probably has you eyeing up any deal you see right now with large degree of suspicion and doubt. That little voice whispering 'should I wait for Prime Day for a better deal?' is getting louder and louder as the sales event of the summer approaches.
And if you're looking to buy a cheap TV, grab a discounted laptop deal, get a discounted gaming console or bag an Amazon device, we'd certainly consider waiting to see what Amazon Prime Day has to offer. But mobile phones? They're a little different.
While Amazon Prime Day is undeniably going to be the biggest sales event of the year so far, it's not necessarily something mobile phone retailers get behind with as much vigour as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or the general October-December seasonal shopping frenzy.
Mobile phone contracts on Amazon Prime Day
It all depends on what sort of mobile phone deal you're after in all honesty. Contract or an unlocked SIM-free handset deal? If you're looking for a new contract, there probably won't be anything to look forward to on Prime Day in particular. Amazon don't do contracts for a start, but we've not traditionally seen mobile contract sellers' websites (both the networks or stores like Mobiles.co.uk) run any special promotions to cash-in on Prime Day in the same way retailers like Argos and Walmart do in the UK and US respectively.
On the bright side, this doesn't actually mean you have to wait for Black Friday as we're actually seeing some extremely competitive contract prices right now on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S9 (and some outrageously cheap prices on the older S8 too), the brand new Huawei P20 and P20 Pro, and the Google Pixel 2 and the XL also. Prices have been so good lately on these models, we've been happy to recommend them over waiting for Black Friday.
It's been a different story for the iPhone X deals and even the iPhone 8 where prices have been stubbornly high all year. In their case we would advise waiting for a better contract offer around November time. Don't forget, if your contract is running out soon, but you're not ready to sign a new one you could always get a rolling 30-day SIM only deal to tide you over - it's what we do while waiting for that perfect deal.
SIM-free mobile phones on Amazon Prime Day
If you're keeping things simple and would prefer to buy a phone outright with a SIM-free unlocked handset, there's a better chance Amazon Prime Day will have something for you, although we don't expect a huge selection.
Last year, Amazon knocked a big chunk off the price of a few of its Wileyfox budget smartphones. And we recall some of the Moto G phones getting discounts at Amazon in recent times too.
With a larger amount of third-party retailers set to unleash discounts on Amazon Prime Day 2018, we're cautiously optimistic a few more premium flagship handsets will be available at a discounted price. We regularly see Amazon sellers have the cheapest prices for unlocked versions of the Galaxy S9, Note 8 and even the iPhone X, so if you're thinking of buying any of those models outright, you might as well wait just-in-case a better deal is waiting in the wings for the sale.
In all honesty though, we think it's the slightly older generations of those lines that are more likely to get a promotional price for Prime Day. That and newer entries like the mid-tier Moto G6 are solid candidates for a discount.
So that's our two cents on mobile phone buying advice for Amazon Prime Day. To sum up again, if you're after a contract, you might not need to wait as the deals on many phones (Apple aside) are strong right now. If you want to buy an unlocked phone, you might have better luck by waiting for something on Prime Day.
We'll all be keeping our fingers crossed for certain items in the sale as per usual. If you want to stay updated on the latest deals you might want to slap a bookmark on some our suggested pages below.
