This story was updated on January 19th. Update below.
Fresh from a surprise January sale, Google has ramped up its aggressive marketing strategy with a new offer to people who want to buy a Pixel 8.
The has company launched a new promotion that gives everyone who buys a Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro a £125 ($158.59) Google store gift card. The promotion runs until February 2nd and it’s only available to U.K. buyers. For U.S. shoppers, Google has slashed prices of its two flagships phones for January, which the company has done a couple of times since the handsets launched in October.
Google is also offering temporarily enhanced trade-in prices for your old device, topping out at £710 ($900.78) when buying the Pixel 8 Pro. Of course, to get this amount you will need to trade in an iPhone 14 Pro Max 1TB. This is a good price because it’s slightly more than you’re likely to get if you sold it on eBay, for example. But trading in a phone that has several years of software and security updates to go isn’t a wise thing to do.
There is some small print here you need to watch out for. Firstly, you have to be signed in to your Google account when buying the Pixel 8. People who checkout as guests won’t receive the gift card. Also, the offer won’t be valid if the phone is returned, and the gift card has to be used within a year of issuance. Similarly, the inflated trade-in prices will only last until February 2nd.
Google has repeatedly slashed the prices of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro since they launched in October last year. In between the price cuts, the company has thrown out gift cards and vouchers to people who subscribe to its services like YouTube Premium.
That $125 voucher that was sent out to YouTube Premium users was stackable on top of the then discounted phones. This brought final prices down to $424 and $674 for the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro respectively. A seriously impressive price cut for phones that are barely three months old.
This is part of a much more aggressive marketing strategy the company has undertaken in the last few years, which has arguably paid off with Pixel sales steadily improving. Albeit they remain dwarfed by Samsung and Apple sales. Samsung’s new Galaxy S24 will be announced imminently and it’s hard not to think that Google’s repeated price cuts are related. The Korean company’s new phone is expected to park its tanks directly on Google’s turf with new AI abilities, too.
The goal for Google isn’t just to shift phones, but get people into its ecosystem, which it has been revamping recently. Google Podcasts is being shuttered, in its stead a newly refreshed version of YouTube Music is being pushed. Google Assistant (in its current form) appears to be winding down with a recent announcement that several features are being dropped. It looks like Google is planning to replace Assistant with the more accomplished generative AI chatbot, Bard, which could end up with some premium paid-for tiers soon. Your Pixel phone is a conduit to more Google subscriptions.
Update January 19th: Google’s unexpected voucher deal pre-empted the Galaxy S24 launch, which has now happened. As predicted, and leaked last week, Samsung is running an aggressive pre-order deal of its own. The Korean company is giving away storage upgrades for Galaxy S24 Ultra orders, which means you’re paying for the lower storage amount. For example the 512GB storage option costs what the 256GB unit would cost: $1,299.99.
Trade-in prices are also temporarily enhanced. For the Ultra and Plus models, Samsung will hand over up to $750 for your old iPhone 15 Pro or Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G. While the most Samsung will give you for a Google phone is $600 for the Pixel Fold. Curiously, Samsung values the Pixel 7 and 8 Pro phones at the exact same price: $450.
For the base Galaxy S24, trade-in prices are capped at $550. As ever, trading in your iPhone 15 Pro, or any phone that was released in the last year or two, probably isn’t worth it. While Samsung will give you better prices for it than you will get on the secondary market, it’s never worth getting rid of a phone that still has several years of software support left.
There’s also a raft of discounts for accessories, including the Galaxy Buds Pro 2 and the Galaxy Watch 6. I had expected to see Samsung throw some of these in for free in a bundle. Instead the company is handing out $100 store credit vouchers with pre-orders for the Ultra model and $25 with the Plus and base models.
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Alex Mitchell is your go-to expert for all things mobile. With a passion for the latest smartphones, apps, and mobile innovations, Alex provides in-depth reviews, insightful analyses, and breaking news about the ever-evolving world of mobile technology. Stay connected with Alex to navigate the fast-paced realm of mobile devices.
