Google fait un jeu sérieux pour votre argent.
This story was updated on December 15th. Update below.
Google is continuing its recent hyper aggressive marketing strategy with a new discount for prospective Pixel 8 buyers.
The company emailed YouTube Premium subscribers this week, some of whom just received a huge rate hike, offering an exclusive $125 off the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro (via 9To5Google). Crucially, this deal code can be used in conjunction with other discounts currently available on the Google Store.
That means people can buy a Pixel 8 for $424 ($275 off) or a Pixel 8 Pro for $674 ($325 off). The deal ends on December 23rd and is only available to U.S. buyers.
Google isn’t shy about slashing the price of its latest hardware shortly after release. It has done precisely this for several years running for the Pixel line, with prices fluctuating throughout the 12 month run before a successor is announced. If you’re a habitual Pixel smartphone buyer, it’s probably best not to pre-order the handset at full price because there will almost certainly be a price cut weeks after launch.
Google clearly thinks that the discount will encourage YouTube Premium subscribers to dive deeper into the company’s ecosystem. Or encourage potential Pixel purchasers to sign-up to the video streaming service, which Google is currently revamping with new features and pricing. This is part of a hyper-aggressive marketing strategy the company has undertaken in the last few years, which has arguably paid off with Pixel sales steadily improving.
Is this deal worth it?
Firstly, if you have an old Samsung phone, or a friend who has one, you may be able to get YouTube Premium free for four months via the Samsung Boost rewards program. Try this first and then see if there’s a route to getting the Pixel discount code.
Outside of upfront costs, there’s a decent argument to be made that Google’s phones offer good value for money because the company continually adds new features, to current and older handsets, through its intermittent « feature drop » program.
The latest update introduced Video Boost, which touches up your video with more colour, detail and stabilization. The Pro model can also apply the Night Sight effect, currently used on still images, to your evening time videos. That is a huge addition to a handset that already takes outstanding pictures. Google is indicating that more AI features are on the way, so there’s a good chance your Pixel 8 will be a very different device, in terms of abilities, in the next few months.
But there are issues. The new face unlock technology that relies on machine learning to, according to Google, act as securely as 3D biometric security, simply isn’t reliable. Specifically, it performs poorly in low light and often fails to recognize my face to the point it isn’t useable. Read my breakdown of Google’s new face unlock system here.
Pixel 8 owners also lit up Reddit and Google’s community forums with complaints about small bumps under the display of the handset. Google confirmed that the bumps exist, but said that they won’t have a “functional impact to the Pixel 8 performance of durability.”
Update December 15th: Google has emailed out another discount code to users of its Photos service. A Reddit user received a $100 coupon to use when buying a new Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro, which Google says is a limited time offer. Presumably that means it will end on the 23rd of December, like the YouTube Premium deal.
The Redditor said that it’s possible to use this code in conjunction with the already discounted prices of the Pixel 8 range on the Google store. But it’s not clear if it’s possible to use this new code and the YouTube Premium coupon at once. If you’re able to do that, get in touch.
Right now the Pixel 8 costs $549 and Pro unit costs $799, the new code brings them down to $449 and $699 respectively. YouTube Premium users get slightly more off, but that is a paid service so I can understand why they get a better deal. It’s not clear if this deal has been emailed to all Photos users, or select users in certain countries (I haven’t received a code, for example). But Google is obviously pushing users to pick up one of its handsets before the Samsung Galaxy S24 lands next month.
Find me on Facebook and hit the follow button below for the latest news.
French