Black Friday hardware sales

[rossputin]

Does PM have black Friday deals?

Eyeing the Pixel 5.

[srlawren]

@rossputin the same $489 price on the A52 outright is now also available on Amazon.ca. Just FYI. https://amzn.to/3sbnQ0n

[rossputin]

@srlawren you're very kind to offer the information, thank you.

The irony is my current data plan suffices.  So if they gave current customers something to even resemble a monthly increase, it wouldn't cost them a penny and they'd get the appreciation factor.

Thanks again.

[srlawren]

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@rossputin wrote:

Thank you.

PM gives newbies 2 GB extra a month.  We get it once. They don't seem to budge on Hardware prices. Pixel 5 seems unavailable here regardless.

Hard to feel appreciated by PM after a couple of years.

I must confess my affection for PM is eroding. Am I the only one?

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@rossputin I don't know what plan you're on here but as noted you could get the A52 which normally sells for $660 from Samsung for $360 on a Tab Mid plan at Koodo.  Without knowing your needs or budget, the cheapest qualifying plan at Koodo for Tab Mid is $50 per month--however, it IS quite a decent plan with 12GB of full-speed LTE data and unlimited mins and texts.  This is a good value but only if you need/want/have budget for a plan of that size.  You would also get access to international roaming (if desired), Call Control which absolutely rocks, VoLTE, VoWiFi, etc.  These may or may not be important to you.

On the other hand if your PM plan meets your needs and costs you less than $50 per month you may well better to just order it from Samsung directly on sale for $490.  This is still cheaper than the usual $660 pricing and you don't have to change providers or pay more per month.  

I know you're interested in the Pixel 5 as well but they aren't being sold any more (at least in Canada).  And considering PM only gives a $40 discount on the Pixel 4a vs. buying a brand new one direct from Google, I wouldn't expect a great deal on a P5 even if it were available through PM.

Okay, I've made my case.  I've given you two really good options for the phone you said you wanted the most of the available options.  I'm going to step back now and wait for any updates because I don't want you to feel like I'm trying to badger you but you're gonna be hardpressed to find a better deal on as good of a phone as the A52 is.  I wish you luck in your decision.

[darlicious]

@rossputin 

I wouldn't say you are the only one but you have decide whether or not what pm offers works for you. If you want large data buckets for cheaper prices or with full speed 4G LTE data then maybe not. If you want a subsidized device then no.....

I am perfectly happy. I switched for much lower prices and no extra billing. The lure of a $0 Bill was the clincher and with some dedicated effort very achievable. The freebies a complete bonus. For me public mobile lived up to all of its marketing promises. Unless pm leaves market place I won't be leaving pm....ever.😁

[softech]

@rossputin   all providers care about new accounts.. that's normal in this industry.. Luckily, porting is easy and people don't have loyalty anymore these days

[rossputin]

Thank you.

PM gives newbies 2 GB extra a month.  We get it once. They don't seem to budge on Hardware prices. Pixel 5 seems unavailable here regardless.

Hard to feel appreciated by PM after a couple of years.

I must confess my affection for PM is eroding. Am I the only one?

[srlawren]

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@rossputin wrote:

@srlawren not yet.  I did see that sale and apparently on till early January.

As a student I'm supposed to get an extra 10% off direct through Samsung, so working on that. $441.

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@rossputin I wouldn't wait too long, it might sell out.  But cool, please keep us posted.  🙂

[rossputin]

@srlawren not yet.  I did see that sale and apparently on till early January.

As a student I'm supposed to get an extra 10% off direct through Samsung, so working on that. $441.

[srlawren]

@rossputin did you get your A52 yet? If not, now is definitely a good time.  Samsung are selling it direct for $489.99 right now https://www.samsung.com/ca/smartphones/galaxy-a52-5g/buy/?cid=ca_paid_affiliate_awin_none_ecommerce_...or if you wanted to port over to Koodo and pick a new plan (assuming one meets your needs), it can be had for cheaper: 24 monthly payments of $15 = $360 with Tab Plus or Tab Mid https://www.koodomobile.com/phones/samsung-galaxy-a52-5g. (Skip buying it on Tab Basic since total cost is the same as buying direct from Samsung.)

Other models are on sale too--good prices on the S21 for example.  More here:

https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/12/15/samsungs-early-boxing-week-sale-is-live-now/

https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/12/16/koodos-boxing-day-smartphone-deals-are-live-now/

EDIT: added missing Koodo link and added bolding emphasis 🙂

[softech]

I like those 360 case .. but with the fingerprint sensor underneath the screen... the 360 case would be a big problem.. 

[darlicious]

@rossputin 

Well that depends....the bf needs full armour. I prefer a flip case. I tend to peruse Amazon looking for what I like, what's a deal and what they recommend and pick up some screen protectors at the same time although you may have trouble getting them to ship to us in bc at the moment.

London Drugs can be good for deals currently with black Friday sales and their clearance section. Don't make me look or I will find some irresistible deal that I can't pass up and I already spent all small fortune last night picking up door crashers at Marks!

[rossputin]

@darlicious yes, except I find few cases I like.

I suppose a clear case could suffice if I go with the S20 FE.

I do prefer a thin case. To that point what cases brand to you recommend?

[rossputin]

@srlawren I fully agree with your legit question.  Except this salesperson at BestBuy seemed surprisingly knowledgeable.  For instance he explained WHY my Pixel 3aXL should have had very similar sound/volume to other phones (I've forgotten already but I think it had to do frequency Hz) which it didn't.

I do like the red for the S20 FE

[darlicious]

@rossputin 

If you do go for the A52 make sure you get the dual SIM version. There's no point in forking out that kind of cash for a single sim phone. Then you can do like z10user4 and I and opt for the "data" account when the stars align and you can stack promos into one heck of a deal! Hopefully one that is available for an in store activation to be able to save with the CCS activation bundle.

Of course you could still use the pixel phone as a hotspot but a dual sim phone is just more convenient.

Edit:

That's what phone cases are for.....any colour or style you like!

[srlawren]

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@rossputin wrote:

• related, sales person said I'd slightly lose some quality with a headphone adapter for the S20 FE.

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@rossputin out of curiosity, what store were you in?  The thing with salespeople is--and no offense is intended to anyone here in sales--they sometimes don't know much and sometimes will speak authoritatively about things when they shouldn't.  I'm not saying this salesperson was intentionally misleading, but may not know what they're talking about.  With a headphone adapter, to some degree (and to a point of diminishing returns), you're going to get what you pay for.  If you plug in a lame adapter, you're going to get poor sound.  If you spring for and plug in a high quality unit, the inverse will be true.  The A52 will give you plug-and-play which is handy, and if your headphones sounded good enough for you liking when you sampled, then yeah that does seem like a no-brainer.  But saying a blanket statement that you'll get poorer quality output using an adapter is not valid.

EDOT: S20 FE is available in a nice dark blue 😉

[softech]

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@rossputin wrote:

I just wished the A52 was offered in anything but black.  Why does Canada primarily get black?  It's annoying.

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Canadians are boring...😒

[rossputin]

Hi @srlawren et al,

I'm veering towards the A52 because:

• Approximately $200 cheaper
• Headphone jack (saves me buying wireless)
• related, sales person said I'd slightly lose some quality with a headphone adapter for the S20 FE.

The difference in sound was HUGE compared to my current Pixel 3a XL. The sound is soooo poor the sales person suggested I may have got a lemon.

The Pixel's camera is outstanding but I suspect the A52 will be close. Also, apparently recording video in 720p is possible, whereas Pixel's is not.  720 is plenty for my purposes and saves space.

I just wished the A52 was offered in anything but black.  Why does Canada primarily get black?  It's annoying.

[srlawren]

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@rossputin wrote:

Lol.  no @srlawren . Not yet.

I'm giving serious consideration to A52 or S20 FE depending on any Black Friday prices.

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@rossputin both are good upper-midrange choices.  I'd probably go S20FE but they actually have more in common than differing:

https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=10377&idPhone2=10631

They have the same battery and battery life (near as identical in the GSM Arena review tests), same screen, same 25W charging, nearly identical size (A52 slightly wider).

Main differences are camera arrays (check out reviews to compare them, I'm not qualified to judge), the S20 FE has last year's flagship Snapdragon 865 CPU vs. the midrange (but still quite capable) Snapdragon 750G on the A52, and the S20 FE includes wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. 

Also, being in the S-series, I'd expect the S20 FE to get quicker access to major updates. For example, the published OneUI 4.0 (Android 12) schedule puts the S20 FE getting it in January next year while the A52 has to wait until February.  Not a huge difference but still.  https://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-one-ui-40-android-12.

[rossputin]

Lol.  no @srlawren . Not yet.

I'm giving serious consideration to A52 or S20 FE depending on any Black Friday prices.

[srlawren]

@rossputin so, did you buy anything yet?  Don't leave us in suspense!

[rossputin]

@gpixel terrific points.

[gpixel]

@rossputin 

its probably a glitch text.

so after that 2 years you will gain another $2+

it depends on what your goals are. when I came to PM my goal was to lower my phone bill. I didn't care about all the data. I just wanted a cheaper plan that suits my data needs. which is around 4-5gb/month.

In the past it was always cheaper to buy the phone from the brand. though in the last couple years telecoms have been improving their cell phone bundling offers...

review your calculations and see what better suits your needs. personally, accumulating the loyalty rewards would be more important to me. plan for the longer term and see if that might help you decide. if you also find a deal for the Pixel 6 then koodos offer starts to lose steam. 

plan vs plan Koodo clearly wins. but if you look in the long run and you already have $3-4 savings, you will save another $2+/month after 2 years. where Koodo you're back at square 1. 

in 2 years you're now saving $4-6 or more off your bill. 

• $35/3gb vs $29-/3gb 

that's basically what you'll be giving up. if it were up to me I'd be looking for a deal on the phone and staying with PM. in the long run PM saves us money.

it's been a year and a half since I've paid for my phone bill 👍

[hTideGnow]

@rossputin VoLTE is Voice over LTE. 

PM is solely using 3G for voice.  One day,  3G network will be gone and we will all need VoLTE for voice call

[rossputin]

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@gpixel wrote:

if 3gb is enough for you. you'll be saving around $183 not including $1-2 loyalty reward. maybe you'll save closer to $200 by the end of it. if you compare the $50 plans with the purchase of the device PM will be more expensive.

To your point 3 GB is generally fine. (although strangley just now I got a text saying 75% of my data used but less than a third shows used on my account.  Barely a week in my cycle.

if rewards aren't an issue I would think about switching. after the 2 years with Koodo you can downgrade that plan to whatever you like. you can even go back to $35/3gb 3g at koodo. I also think volte is included in that 3g plan

without the rewards PM is not good at all lol

Again, possibly to your point I get between $3-$4 in credits each month.  Funny how it's a little game with ourselves.  So my monthly bill is closer to $31 or $32.

Not sure what Volte is.

All good points @gpixel .  **bleep** you!  😜

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[gpixel]

@rossputin 

It really depends on your data usage. if you're not going to use up that 10-12gb you'll be better off with purchasing the phone out right. 

if 3gb is enough for you. you'll be saving around $183 not including $1-2 loyalty reward. maybe you'll save closer to $200 by the end of it. if you compare the $50 plans with the purchase of the device PM will be more expensive.

if rewards aren't an issue I would think about switching. after the 2 years with Koodo you can downgrade that plan to whatever you like. you can even go back to $35/3gb 3g at koodo. I also think volte is included in that 3g plan

without the rewards PM is not good at all lol

[darlicious]

@rossputin 

Too Many Secrets!!😉

Lol....The Mobile Shop.😃

[rossputin]

@darlicious TMS?

[darlicious]

@rossputin 

In the whole scheme of things I put koodo slightly above fido and Rogers when it comes to ethical standards....but that's just me. If you are thinking of changing providers to acquire the Google Pixel 6 then pull out your pc optimum app and head on over to TMS and collect 300,000 points and a $100 trade in credit.

@mimmo already did the math in his thread and it works out to $442 for the pixel 6 (depending on the plan cost difference.) SDM doesn't sell chromebooks but next weekend during their bonus redemption event 250,000 points have a redemption value of $400. Maybe one of their laptops or tablets will interest you....just do your research and plan on redeeming just after midnight for 24 hour locations or as soon as they open in the morning for the more desirable electronics.

[Anonymous]

 @rossputin : The quote button is not available on mobile browsers.

As for value...doesn't everybody have Canada-wide calling and International texting? So then it's a question of price for data putting aside paying for talk/text.

$15 for .25gb = $60 per gb

$25 for 1gb = $25 per gb

$35 for 3gb = $11.67 per gb (or $7 for new activations)

$40 for 5gb = $8 per gb (or $5.71 for new activations)

$50 for 10.5gb = $4.76 per gb (or $4 for new activations)

$60 for 15.5gb = $3.87 per gb (or $3.43 for new activations)

Then it's a question of how much data do you really need and how much do you really consume.

[rossputin]

@srlawren wrote

Is it just a post-paid vs pre-paid thing? Or anything specific about Koodo you dislike?

Actually I WANT to stay with PM but I'm just seeing better value elsewhere, enough so that I'm having trouble rationalizing staying.

On another note, why can't I find the quote button now (posting from device)?