Thanksgiving is behind us, which means the holiday shopping season has officially begun. And that means that both companies and third-party retailers will spend every day between now and Christmas morning trying to get you to spend your consumer dollars with them.
As in years past, one of the most sought-after gifts will be the smartphone. According to an analysis last month by global marketing research firm NielsenIQ, 37% of shoppers buying tech this season have smartphones on their list. And when it comes to smartphone brands, Apple tops tech buyer preferences, with 54% of those surveyed looking to buy an iPhone.
But as anyone who knows Apple well knows, the company rarely offers sales on its iconic smartphone—even during the holidays. Yet that doesn’t mean iPhone deals can’t be had this festive season. You just need to know where to look. Here are three shopping hacks you can use to find the best deals on iPhones this holiday season.
Use price tracking websites to keep tabs on iPhone sales
There’s no shortage of places to buy an iPhone. Besides purchasing one directly from Apple, you can pick one up at nearly anywhere where electronics are sold, including Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, carrier stores like AT&T and Verizon, eBay, and more.
Yet manually checking to see if any of these third-party resellers offer iPhone deals during the holidays (which they often do) can be time-consuming. But that’s where price tracking websites come in. They let you quickly check whether an iPhone is on sale and often provide the direct link to buy it before the sale price disappears.
There are numerous price tracking websites and apps you can use to find the best sales on an iPhone. These include sites like CamelCamelCamel, which tracks the prices of products available on Amazon. Just type in the iPhone model you are looking for in CamelCamelCamel’s search bar, and you’ll see Amazon’s current price of the model, along with new and used prices from third-party resellers on the site. You can also add your desired iPhone to a price watch list, and CamelCamelCamel will notify you as soon as it detects a sale.
There are also plenty of tech sites that offer dedicated price trackers for Apple products, including iPhones. Some of the better ones include AppleInsider’s iPhone Price Guide and 9to5Toys’ Apple tracker. The advantage of checking these sites is that they tend to show iPhone deals from across the web, not just on Amazon. MacPrices.net also keeps a good running list of iPhone deals.
Use Google Chrome’s Shopping Insights and price tracking
Yes, it’s somewhat ironic that Apple’s competitor, Google, can help you find a good deal on the iPhone. But it can.
Google’s Chrome browser offers a feature called “Shopping Insights” that lets you view the price of a product over time, track its price, and receive notifications when the price drops. The tool is great for those looking for a deal on an iPhone (or any other product) but don’t want to check dedicated price-tracking websites multiple times a day.
“Shopping Insights” is built into Chrome on PC, Mac, Android, and iOS and is simple to use. Just go to a retailer’s website and look up the iPhone you want to buy. In Chrome’s URL bar, you’ll see a shopping bag icon. Tap it to get shipping insights for your desired iPhone, click “Save and Track Price,” then turn on price notifications to be alerted when the iPhone you want goes on sale. (Full details about how to use Chrome’s Shopping Insights and price tracking tools can be found here.)
Use ChatGPT to find the best holiday deals on iPhone
The holidays are a busy time, so maybe you don’t want to spend your time browsing price tracking websites or clicking around in Chrome to find iPhone deals. In that case, this final shopping hack to help you find a deal on an iPhone is probably for you: Just ask ChatGPT.
Given that you can use ChatGPT to find deals on flights, it should be no surprise that you can also use OpenAI’s chatbot to assist you in finding the best holiday shopping deals for an iPhone.
I asked ChatGPT where I could buy an iPhone 16 with at least 256 GB of storage for the best deal right now, and the chatbot instantly returned a list of results showing a range of prices for the model, both new and used, along with direct links to where I could buy them. It was by far the easiest and fastest way to find iPhone deals out of all the methods above.