Weekly deals: The best smartphone deals from the US, Germany and the UK

We’re back with another round of offers from around the world. This week we’ve selected deals in the US, UK and Germany. Use the links below to access a specific country:

UNITED STATES

The Motorola Edge 30 Pro is one controller away from being a fast yet fairly affordable gaming phone. The version with 512GB of storage sells for $500, giving you room for plenty of games. Games that will run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and a 6.7-inch OLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate (and HDR10+ support). The 4,800mAh battery is quite large and the phone supports 68W wired charging (0-100% in 35 minutes) and 15W wireless charging.

Another 144Hz phone from Motorola is the Edge (2021). This one has a 6.8-inch LCD screen instead (FHD+ resolution again, with HDR10) and is powered by the Snapdragon 778G, which features a flagship-class Adreno 642L GPU. The 256GB phone is down to $300.

The Nokia G400 is a cheap 5G phone powered by the Snapdragon 480+ chipset. At $200, it’s not that far off the Motorola, though. Yet $100 is $100. Note that in addition to the slower chipset, this one only has 64 GB of storage (it is however expandable via microSD).

Then some cheap Amazon tablets. The 2022 Fire HD 8 is down to just $60 – cheap enough that you can make it a dedicated streaming device or something to use for Zoom calls. Note that there’s a Plus version, which adds an extra GB of RAM (this one only has 2GB), includes a faster charger (9W vs. 5W), and supports wireless charging.

The larger, higher-resolution screen of the 2021 Fire HD 10 may be more suitable for your Netflix, Prime Video or Disney streaming. This larger slate still comes with a 9W charger, but the Plus model has more RAM (4GB versus 3GB) and wireless charging.

If you just want a tablet for a young child, the kids editions are a better choice. For one thing, they come with a very thick casing that can withstand a few knocks. Also, these come with a parent dashboard and curated content (aimed at ages 3-7). It’s also worth mentioning that the tablets above come with lock screen ads that cost $15 to remove. Kids tablets do not have ads.

Finally, additional storage in the form of microSD cards. Most phones no longer have a memory card slot, but some do, including the Nokia G400. Kindle tablets also have expandable storage.

The 256GB Samsung EVO Select costs just under $20, the 512GB costs $48. These cards offer speeds of up to 130MB/s and are UHS-I and A2 rated, so you can move some apps to them. If you need a card for a dash cam or action camera, the Samsung Pro Endurance handles the wear and tear of prolonged writing better.

Germany

The price of the upcoming Galaxy S23 series is the subject of much speculation, but you can avoid high prices by getting the Galaxy S21 FE instead. It has the Snapdragon 888 chip, unlike other European S21 models. It’s a year old at this point, but it costs a lot less than the S22/S22+ (even more than the S23/S23+).

A cheaper but less capable option is the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G. It has a comparable 6.5-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED 120Hz display, but loses out in chipset performance (Exynos 1280) and cameras (64+12+5+5MP). Still, as Samsung’s newest A-series, it will have excellent software support.

Samsung’s next-gen foldables are six months away, so here’s a great deal – a bespoke edition of the Galaxy Z Flip4 for the price of the regular Z Flip4. Now, Amazon doesn’t let you customize the look, so you’ll have to choose from a few preset color schemes. However, the 8/256GB version costs the same as the regular 8/128GB edition, which is a bargain in our eyes.

The recent Bose QuietComfort SE, which has specs quite similar to the QC 45, launched at €350, but has already gone down to €220. It’s comfortable and has a 24-hour battery life, as well as excellent active noise cancellation, perfect for long flights.

UK

There are plenty of deals for the Google Pixel 7 Pro, including one at £720, well below the official store price of £850. However, we chose a unit sold and shipped by Amazon for £788.

The OnePlus Nord 2 5G is down to £350 on the official store for a 12/256GB unit thanks to a promo, however, the 8/128GB is £400. If you want it cheap, Amazon has the 8/128GB model for £240.

The Samsung Smart Monitor M5 is a 32-inch screen with a resolution of 1080p (60 Hz, 250 nits, HDR10). You can easily connect it to your PC, but it also supports wireless mirroring – Apple AirPlay as well as wireless DeX. It’s also a fully-featured Tizen smart TV, so you can run video and game streaming apps on it, as well as control your SmartThings devices.