When’s the best time to buy laptops, smartphones and... barbecues?

It won’t be surprising to hear that ‘seasonal shopping’ saves you money – but how can you work out the perfect time to buy the big-ticket items and pay as little as possible? 

One of the best ways to spot seasonal differences is to monitor the prices that retailers charge online, and there are a few sites out there which track the numbers to get a good view on when you’re likely to save. 

Analysis from price comparison site PriceSpy.co.uk, covering the whole of 2023, found that there were some serious seasonal differences – such as the price of garden storage going up by 38% in September, laptops dropping by 10% in January and lawnmowers plummeting in price by 22% in June. 

The data shows getting the best price is a bit more complicated than simply buying out of season. Just because a certain month isn’t a popular time to buy, it doesn’t mean every retailer will drop its prices. 

But seasonal differences are there if you look for them. For instance, pizza ovens go up by 28% in the summer as demand for al fresco dining soars, but BBQs drop in price by as much as 42% just before Christmas when only the brave want to cook food outdoors. 

Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett is Pricespy's Country Manager for the UK, New Zealand and Finland. She says that while she'd wait until December to buy a barbecue, she points out that not all products are seasonal.  

"Niche electronics or luxury goods can remain relatively stable in price throughout the year," she told us.  

The increasing popularity of sales events such as Amazon’s Prime Day and Black Friday has some effect too: PriceSpy found that the cost of mobile phones goes up by around 12% in October, just weeks before the Black Friday deals begin in November. 

"Electronics are usually cheaper in November due to Black Friday sales," Matinvesi-Bassett says. "We've also noticed that Black Friday sales start earlier each year, extending discounts through November."  

However, she also points out that you should still use price checkers to make sure you're getting a good deal: "Not everything is cheapest during sales periods, so it's important to compare prices even for sale items," she says. 

So, should you buy your next smartphone in the spring and a Wi-Fi router in winter? When it comes to tech, Black Friday can be the best time to buy.  

But that’s the not the case for all gadgets and devices – consumer group Which? claims prices on items can often be lower outside of the November sales period, and some retailers raise the price of certain products in the months before the sales event. 

But if you look carefully, you can still find genuine bargains – consider using price comparison sites to see which big retailers are charging the least, or CamelCamelCamel (for things on Amazon) to see historical prices so you know if it's a truly good deal.

So, if you want to save money outside of that spending frenzy, there are key times of the year to pay attention to, depending on what you’re after. 

Smartphones 

Some of the best-known smartphones follow an annual timetable: Samsung brings out new premium Galaxy S phones in late January / early February (and then another, usually foldable model, in August). 

Apple's new iPhones are launched every September – so it’s wise to never buy an Apple handset in early summer. 

Brands can change things up though, so you should always be prepared to alter your plans quickly. 

Google’s flagship Pixel phones, for instance, have always launched in October... but in 2024 that moved to August as the company shook up its marketing strategy.  

But as Matinvesi-Bassett points out, you can get good discounts throughout the year if you don't buy the very latest tech. "If you're willing to buy last season's models, you can make significant savings," she says. 

Apple is perhaps the best example of this: when it launched the iPhone 16 in early September, the iPhone 15 (last year’s model) was £799 - but the following day it dropped to £699.  

It's just as good as it was the day before, just £100 cheaper. 

In fact, if you’re not bothered about having the latest model, many smartphones from two years ago (such as the iPhone 14 for £599) are still perfectly functional and will receive security and software updates for a long time yet. 

For other phones, the sweet spots tend to be around the big sales events. While some smartphones will continuously drop in price over the year, times like Black Friday and January sales can be the moments when you’ll see a bigger plunge in cost. 

Also, if you’re in the market for a top smartphone and you know the brand you like, it’s worth getting on their mailing list. 

Samsung, for instance, runs regular promotions when it launches new smartphones – it’ll offer a far greater price to trade in your old phone in a bid to get you to upgrade, meaning you can get a lot more for an aged handset than you might usually. 

Laptops 

It can be tricky to find genuine deals on laptops because there are so many different models with strange and often very similar names: is this a good saving or is it just a device the brand is trying to get rid of?  

This is an area where it's wise to research the market and pick some products you're interested in before turning to the price-checking sites to look for deals. 

But, as a rule of thumb for laptops, there are often good deals in the second half of the year during the back-to-school period (which is usually ‘celebrated’ by retailers from July to September, as students look to buy new computers for their studies). 

Make sure you work out what you need too – if it’s just emailing, browsing and streaming, the sub-£200 models can be a great bargain and save you a pretty penny if you don’t need lots of power and storage.  

Tablets 

As with iPhones, the best time to buy a new iPad is when a newer one has just come out – and that often happens in March or September / October each year, as Apple's iPad release schedule isn't as predictable as that of the iPhone.  

But if you'd rather get an Amazon or Samsung tablet, then the big sales events are where you tend to find the best deals.  

Amazon always discounts at least some of its Kindle Fire tablets and Kindle ereaders during Prime Day (with one towards the beginning of July and another in October) and Black Friday – plus you’ll sometimes find good deals in the back-to-school sales too for other brands. 

Air fryers 

An air fryer is most heavily discounted around Black Friday: according to the research, on average you can expect to pay 14% less in November than you would in other months.  

And that's an average: even bigger discounts than that have been spotted on many kitchen appliances, particularly air fryers and multi-cookers. 

However, just like laptops, it pays to make sure you know the brand and style you want before charging in and just getting any old air fryer with a seemingly strong discount, as you'll want to make sure you're getting the right model for you.  

TVs 

The worst time to buy a new TV is apparently May, according to PriceSpy's data: that's when they go up in price.  

There are several good times to look for TVs: in March and April, when new models arrive from the big-name firms and their existing models get bigger discounts, or around the big sales and in the run-up to big sporting events such as Wimbledon, the summer football tournaments and the Olympics.  

Not all of those happen annually, of course, but there are lots of other must-watch periods through the year that are often used to hang TV promotions on. 

Coffee machines 

Coffee machines are a bit like TVs: they're often listed with very high recommended retail prices but can then sell for a lot less, especially during big sales events.  

PriceSpy's findings that espresso machines dropped in price by 10% in October are likely related to Amazon second Prime Day of the year, which runs in the same month: coffee machines are among the hero products discounted on Amazon during that sales event. 

• I saved over £2,300 by changing the way I bought the biggest brands