Earlier this month, the 512GB version of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra was selling for £1,200 and that was after a discount. Now that same unit is noticeably cheaper and this time the 256GB model is on offer too – finally falling under £1,000. The S24 Ultra is likely to remain Samsung’s camera flagship for 2024, even after the next-gen foldables arrive.
Speaking of, this is probably the lowest price for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 that we’ve ever seen – it’s cheaper than the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra! Of course, in a couple of months time the Z Flip5 will be the “old model”, but there is no indication that the Z Flip6 will be cheaper at launch (but there might be a Z Flip FE).
Anyway, back to camera-centric flagships. The OnePlus 12 is cheaper than the Galaxy and that is for the 16/512GB model too. Both have 6.8” QHD+ 120Hz LTPO OLED displays, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipsets (the “for Galaxy” chip is a bit faster), large sensors in the main cameras (50MP 1/1.43” for the OnePlus and 200MP 1/1.3” for the Samsung), plus impressive periscopes (64MP 70mm vs. 50MP 111mm).
The OnePlus has the larger, faster battery at 5,400mAh and 100W wired, 80W wireless charging (vs. 5,000mAh, 45W/15W). OnePlus is sticking to the old update schedule – 4 OS updates and 5 years of security patches – so Samsung has the upper hand here.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s A-series mid-rangers have gotten massively cheaper. A few weeks ago, you might have paid £364 for a 128GB Galaxy A55. That now costs less than £300 and even the 256GB model costs less at £340. Note that there are only a few units left of the 128GB version, but the 256GB one is well stocked.
The Samsung Galaxy A35 has also fallen significantly – the base 128GB model is under £250. We would recommend spending the extra £50 on the 256GB one as it has more RAM (8GB vs. 6GB).
The Nothing Phone (2a) has settled at a price of £320 for the base 8/128GB model. However, with A55’s new price, it’s no longer a favorable comparison – the 50MP ultra wide camera on the Nothing sure is better than Samsung’s 8MP and the Dimensity 7200 Pro is comparable to the Exynos 1480. However, despite advertising 45W charging, our tests showed that the 5,000mAh battery takes the same time to fill as the A55’s 5,000mAh battery (even though it only does 25W). Both need just over an hour. Unfortunately, the special edition isn’t available yet.
When looking at the OnePlus 12, we also checked the OnePlus 12R. It’s a great price for a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and an LTPO display, not to mention the 5,500mAh battery with 100W wired-only charging.
The Nothing Phone (2) costs around the same despite offering more RAM and storage. And it has a similarly sized LTPO OLED display, though it has lower pixel density. The dual 50MP camera features a better ultra wide module than the 8MP unit on the 12R. On the downside, the Nothing is powered by the older Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and a smaller 4,700mAh battery with 45W wired and 15W wireless charging.
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