Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic
This is the perfect “starter” watch for those looking to try out a smartwatch for the first time: it’ll do quite well as it is, and if/when you decide to upgrade, it’s still got quite a high trade-in value at Samsung to get the latest and greatest. If Samsung will give you $200 to trade in this watch but you can buy it for $99, that’s $100 profit.
There are a myriad of amazing deals running asBlack Fridaydescends once again, but one of the best actually debuted back on November 8. Among the first ofWalmart’s Black Friday deals, this sale made my jaw drop, and friends, that’s ararething when you’ve been judging deals and memorizing price histories as long as I have. Though two years old, theSamsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classicstill regularly sells at $230-$280 out of its original $350, and Best Buy’s “Black Friday deal” (that’s really just a clearance sale) only knocks it down to $250.
Meanwhile, Walmart has it all the way down to $99, a price we’d expect from no-name watches rather than Samsung. Seriously, there are even some fitness bands that cost more than this Galaxy Watch 4 Classic deal. And when you consider that the Galaxy Watch 6 and 6 Classic are only discounted to $230 and $320 respectively in their own Black Friday deals, getting over 85% of the same experience for only a third of the price is simply impossible to resist.
We’d normally highlight the latest and greatest version of a product like an Android phone or a Chromebook, but smartwatches are a somewhat sticky wicket. See, the Galaxy Watch 6 andSamsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classicmay be the kings of Android smartwatches, but apart from havingdouble the max screen brightness, there’s not much functional difference between the latest and the first One UI Watch devices, and this same sentiment goes double for the Google Pixel Watch. The software for all three generations is basically identical, and the fitness tracking is, too, outside the new skin temperature readings — which only get used in a couple places like sleep tracking and period tracking.
If this were the normal Galaxy Watch 4, you might miss the battery life of the Galaxy Watch 6 — and to be perfectly blunt, battery life on the Galaxy Watch 6 only takes it from single-day to 1.5 to 2-day battery life — but the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic can go a full day on a charge. You may want to charge it back up in the evenings, though, just to double-check that sleep tracking won’t kill it in your bed.
Still want the Galaxy Watch 6? Buy this first anyway!
Even if you have no intention of wearing last year’s model, this deal is perfect for you. In fact, this is actually more than twice the bargain if you’re buying it just to turn around and trade it in. Samsung is taking $70 off theGalaxy Watch 6— $80 off the Watch 6 Classic — and offering $200 enhanced trade-in value for a Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. So, instead of paying $230 or $300 for your fancy new watch, you can instead pay $130 — $100 to Walmart for the Watch 4 Classic and $30 to Samsung after the instant rebate and trade-in. Or $220 total — $100 at Walmart, $120 at Samsung — if you want the normally $400 Watch 6 Classic and to keep that rotating bezel.
And yes, this will work as long as the Watch 4 Classic ships to you within two weeks of you ordering the Watch 6. In fact, a dear friend of mine has done exactly this, and is now happily settling in with his Watch 6, a myriad of watch faces from Facer, andsome sweet Watch 6 strapshe purchased with the savings.
Just remember, you can only game the system if you buy the Watch 4 Classic before it sells out — and with the black all gone at this price, time’s running out on the Silver model, too.
