Weekly deals: Galaxy S26 series comes with gift cards, Pixel 9 series units resurfaced

There haven’t been any new major launches in the US, so we’ll focus on the recently released Galaxy S26 series. Meanwhile, the previous generation Pixel phones have resurfaced.

The S26 flagships are in the midterms – they’re too new to be discounted straight away, but they’ve been out for a month, so they need a sweetener – the top dog, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, has been bundled with a $200 gift card from Amazon. If you choose the 512GB model, you can also get a $300 bonus on trade-in.

To help you choose the best phone for you, we have a Galaxy S26 Ultra vs iPhone 17 Pro Max article. We’ve also compared it to previous Ultra flagships, here’s a comparison of the Galaxy S26 Ultra vs S25 Ultra.

The Samsung Galaxy S26+ gets a small $100 gift card, but both the 256GB and 512GB models have a trade-in bonus – $200 in this case.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 is basically in the same boat – $100 gift card and $100 trade-in bonus for both memory configurations.

Before you decide on the S26 model, we’ll point out that the OnePlus 15 (512GB) is still available for $900 — which is cheaper than the smaller Galaxy S26 (512GB), to say nothing of the Plus and Ultra models. Here’s how the OnePlus 15 compares to the OnePlus 13.

Samsung Galaxy A57 and A37 are not available yet. The A57 in particular is headed for a rough launch as the MSRP for the 8/128GB model is $550, while the Galaxy S25 FE has become even cheaper – the 8/256GB model is now down to $580 (was $657 last week). The FE is the better phone overall, with a faster chipset (Exynos 2400 vs 1680), an 8MP 3x/75mm telephoto, and a USB-C 3.2 port with DeX support.

Amazon has located some remaining Pixel 9-series units. The Google Pixel 9 is available for just $500 – that’s the same price as the Pixel 10a, which uses the same chipset (Tensor G4), but lacks the older model’s larger camera sensors (50MP 1/1.31″ and 48MP 1/2.55″ for the 2024 phone).

There’s also the Google Pixel 9 Pro, which upgrades to an LTPO display (6.3”) and adds a 5x/113mm telephoto camera with a 48MP sensor.

See also

Tech Hub

OnePlus Pad 3 Hands-on Review

google pixel 9 pro

$370 off
Read our review

16/256GB – $730 on Amazon US

The larger Google Pixel 9 Pro XL offers a 6.8″ display and a larger 5,060mAh battery (up from 4,700mAh on the Pixel 9 and 9 Pro). Note that since these are salvaged units (but still new in the box), there aren’t much options when it comes to color or memory configuration.

That said, a vanilla Pixel 10 (256GB) costs the same as a Pixel 9 Pro with the same storage. The 10 may have a telephoto camera, but it’s only a 10.8MP 5x/112mm unit. And even the 48MP main camera has a smaller 1/2.0” sensor, so it’s no match for the older Pro.

Of course, you can always get the Google Pixel 10 Pro, but even with the massive $200 discount it’s still $800 for the base 128GB model. Note that the 10 Pro was discounted by $250 last week, so, with a little patience, you can get it at a lower price.