The shopping bonanza that is Black Friday is a little over a week away, and it could be the perfect time to bag yourself a bargain smartphone upgrade.
While you might be tempted by Apple’s recent iPhone 17 collection – and who’d blame you, they’re new, shiny and in the case of the Pro models, look genuinely different for the first time in years – the collection is barely three months old.
You might get a slight discount on a contract, or maybe £50/$50 at some retailers, but you won’t find anything significant on Apple’s latest iPhones.
Instead, if you’re looking for a true Black Friday bargain upgrade, these are the smartphones you should be keeping an eye out for.
iPhone 16 Pro Max
If you are wedded to the idea of picking up an iPhone this Black Friday, I’d recommend looking out for deals for the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
With the release of the iPhone 17 Pro Max in September, retailers are likely looking to shift remaining stock of last year’s top-end flagship iPhone – and that should translate to particularly tempting Black Friday offers.
Yes, it’s no longer the latest iPhone, but in most respects, you’re getting a very similar experience. You miss out on the new look, of course, but the core iPhone experience remains top-notch.
The A18 Pro powering the phone was considered one of the most powerful around until the A19 Pro was revealed, and despite being a year old, remains more than capable of powering top-end gaming experiences and pretty much anything else you want to do on an iPhone.
The screen remains the key reason to invest; the 6.9-inch OLED panel is nothing short of stunning, with an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate and vanishingly thin bezels adding to the premium experience.
You still get access to the latest version of iOS, Apple Intelligence smarts and a capable triple 48MP camera setup. You miss out on the slightly extended zoom of the new 17 Pro Max, but the 16 Pro Max’s 48MP 5x sensor remains capable.
Besides, these compromises become much easier to swallow when the phone is much cheaper than its original £1199/$1199 RRP – something I fully expect to see over the next week or so.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is one of my favourite phones of 2025 – and it’s not hard to see why.
The flat-edged, pointed corner design is premium and somehow both familiar and unique, with the signature S Pen present and accounted for. The 6.9-inch AMOLED screen makes doodling a joy, and with top-end specs including a QHD+ resolution and an LTPO 120Hz refresh rate, gaming, doomscrolling and bingeing TikTok videos are equally enjoyable.
It’s also plenty powerful, sporting a custom version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, and there’s a bevvy of AI features available under the Galaxy AI umbrella.
But of course, it’s the cameras that make the S25 Ultra stand out. The combination of 200MP primary, 50MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x and 50MP 5x zoom lenses delivers unmatched versatility, with solid performance across the lenses in most environments.
Crucially, it’s almost a year old, having come out in January 2025. While that does mean the Galaxy S26 Ultra should soon take its place, it also means that the phone is available for much cheaper than its top-end £1,249/$1,299 RRP – and I’m expecting that to plummet further this Black Friday, making it a real bargain.
OnePlus 13
Along with the S25 Ultra, the OnePlus 13 is another 2025 favourite of mine – and with the phone being close to a year old and being succeeded by the OnePlus 15 in recent weeks, it could be a double whammy for people hunting for a proper bargain.
And, despite being userped by the newer, shinier, OnePlus 15, the 13 remains a capable smartphone. And, no, you’re not missing a generation either – the 15 is the direct follow-up to the 13, with no OnePlus 14.
The OnePlus 13 is a charmer with a lot to like. It’s a performance-focused phone with the powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, along with a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen packed with premium tech including a QHD+ resolution, LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate and a retina-burning 4500nit peak brightness.
There’s also the Hasselblad co-created camera setup – something the newer OnePlus 15 actually lacks. The combination of 50MP main, 50MP 3x zoom and 50MP ultrawide lenses delivers a great overall experience, bolstered by a swathe of Hasselblad-branded filters and shooting modes to add personality to your shots.
And, with a massive 6000mAh cell – 1000mAh bigger than the S25 Ultra – battery life isn’t exactly an issue.
So yes, it really is a top-end smartphone – and given that it was already surprisingly affordable at its full £899 RRP, I’m expecting some particularly tasty deals as we get closer to Black Friday.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7
I think this is the first year that I can wholly recommend foldables to people. They’re finally thin and light – some more so than top-end bar phones – and the durability has been massively improved over the past few years too, so they won’t break just by looking at them.
For me, that’s embodied by the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.
While technically not the thinnest foldable – that’d go to the Honor Magic V5, which is a minuscule 0.1mm thinner, and only in a single colourway – but the phone measures in at a delightful 4.2mm thick when unfolded and just 8.6mm when folded, and it weighs just 215g. That’s less than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and you’re getting two screens in one here.
Crucially, Samsung has fixed most complaints about its older Z Folds; the cover screen is now wider and much more usable, and the crease on the inner 8-inch screen is much less noticeable.
There’s also great performance from the custom Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and there’s plenty of foldable-focused UI features available as part of One UI 8 to make using the big screen genuinely useful.
It also launched back in July, and having already seen slight discounts on the top-end foldable over the past few months, I’ve got a feeling it could be a Black Friday superstar. Don’t expect it to drop to less than a grand – it’s still Samsung’s top-end book-style foldable, after all – but it could be a little more tempting with a couple of hundred off.
