Google’s flagship Pixel 4 smartphone is just two weeks old, and we’re already getting word of substantial discounts. Black Friday deals on the brand-new phone are starting to come in, and so far the high mark is $400 off the device.

The biggest deal comes from Best Buy, which has already posted its Black Friday deals. The store is offering $400 off a Pixel 4 or Pixel 4 XL, provided you activate it (presumably on a contract) with Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T. That’s half off the Pixel 4’s $799 price tag. If you’d rather go the unlocked route, Best Buy is offering $200 off an unlocked Pixel 4 or 4XL. Both of these deals have “terms and conditions” that apply, but it doesn’t look like Best Buy has posted the details yet.

It sounds like the Pixel 4 will be discounted everywhere for the holiday season. Target is offering a $300 gift card with the “qualified activation” of a Pixel 4 or Pixel 4 XL. According to a post on Reddit, Google itself is running ads promising $200 off the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, too, presumably without any kind of carrier commitment.

The Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL are pretty pricey compared to the competition. The Pixel 4 costs as much as a Galaxy S10 (when comparing similar storage tiers) but the Pixels have slower storage, smaller batteries, less RAM, fewer cameras, and no Wi-Fi 6 support. OnePlus offers a higher-end device than the Pixel 4, the OnePlus 7T, for $300 less than what Google is charging.

The Pixel 4 also launches at an awkward time in the year, just a few weeks before the holiday shopping season. Combine the high price and launch timing with the fact that Pixel phones never fly off the shelves (according to the IDC, Google captured 0.3% of the global smartphone market share last year) and the result is usually steep discounts that come quickly. The Pixel 3 ran into the same situation last year, and some early adopters felt burned by the timing and vowed to stop buying the phones at launch.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1598907