The phone I have watched since December is under my line
Buy now. At $339 the mid-range phone I have tracked since launch is finally below the $349 I set in December, and it is the lowest price I have logged.
Phone and earbud reviewer
When a phone, earbuds or a charger is worth buying: buy now, wait or skip
I’m Farhan. I test phones, earbuds and chargers, log their lowest prices and write a weekly letter that says buy now, wait or skip, and I sell price log sheets, a checklist and two video courses.
The map
When each gadget got cheap
Each dot is a phone, a pair of earbuds or a charger I watched from launch day: how many weeks in, and how far below its launch price it fell. The line joins the deepest drops so far.
- Earbuds
- Chargers
- Phones
- Sold out since
- Deepest drop so far
- 1Wireless charger padChargers · 40% off at week 26Deepest drop so far40%
- 2Sport earbudsEarbuds · 35% off at week 4435%
- 3Flagship phonePhones · 30% off at week 5230%
- 4Travel chargerChargers · 28% off at week 16Deepest drop so far28%
- 5Budget earbudsEarbuds · 24% off at week 6Deepest drop so far24%
- 6The phone I watchPhones · 24% off at week 4824%
- 7Power bankChargers · 22% off at week 3422%
- 8Mid-range phonePhones · 20% off at week 3620%
- 9Noise-cancelling earbudsEarbuds · 18% off at week 3018%
- 10Two-port chargerChargers · 15% off at week 1015%
- 11Last year’s phonePhones · 9% off at week 56 · Sold out since9%
- 12Budget phonePhones · 8% off at week 128%
- 1365-watt chargerChargers · 4% off at week 404%
Newsletter
Latest issues
New issues, straight to your inbox.
6 min read
Noise-cancelling earbuds: the new model is close
Wait. Last year’s pair has not dropped in five weeks, and the new model usually pulls it down within a month of arriving.
6 min read
The phone at $359: close, but not yet
Wait one more month. October took $20 off the lowest price, and the line I set is still $10 away. The camera test I filmed does not change that.
Downloads, a course and merch
Shop
Downloads arrive by email. Merch is printed to order and shipped by Printful.
Price Log Template$9
A spreadsheet with a row for each shop and a column for each month, a chart that draws itself and a line for the price you would pay.
Buy Checklist$6
One page of questions to answer before you buy anything with a battery: the price history, the next model, the return window and what you already own.
Launch Calendar Sheet$7
A sheet for writing down when each phone and pair of earbuds you own was launched and when its next model tends to come, from the dates I have logged myself.
Refurbished Phone Guide$12
What the grades mean, what to check on arrival and what to ask the seller, with a page for phones, earbuds and chargers.
About
About me
I started writing down prices after I paid full price for a phone and watched it drop by $60 six weeks later. It was a small amount of money, but it bothered me enough to open a spreadsheet. A few months later I had forty phones, earbuds and chargers in it, and a friend asked if she could see it before she bought a phone.
Now I write one letter every Thursday from a desk by the window in my flat in Lahore. I also film short reviews: battery tests, camera comparisons and a power meter on a charger, so the letter can say what I measured as well as what the price did. Each letter takes one gadget that a reader has asked about, shows its price for the last year and ends with a verdict: buy now, wait or skip, and why. I write the lowest price I find and I never move the line I set. Prices are in US dollars, so a reader anywhere can follow them.
What I sell are the sheets I use myself: a price log, a checklist, a calendar of launches, a planner for sale season and a sheet for charger tests, plus two video courses, one on reading a price history and one on buying a refurbished phone safely. I do not take gadgets from makers and I do not earn from shop links. The letter is free.
Newsletter
Wait for It
A short letter every Thursday on when a phone, earbuds or a charger is worth buying, with the lowest price I logged and a verdict: buy now, wait or skip.