Apple's 5G iPhone SE (2022) scores some incredibly rare discounts for a limited time
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Although the holiday shopping season has brought with it a customary avalanche of festive deals on pretty much everything you can imagine from the best Android phones to the most popular smartwatches, tablets, and true wireless earbuds in the world, certain product categories and individual devices seem to have been largely left out from the Thanksgiving and Christmas-themed celebrations of the biggest US retailers and carriers.
We can't even remember the last time Apple's first 5G-enabled iPhone SE, for instance, was available at a truly notable discount, especially in an unlocked variant... if that was in fact ever the case. Well, that is the case right now, even though it's apparently already too late to hope to receive a cheaper-than-ever "factory reconditioned" iPhone SE (2022) unit from Woot before Christmas.
If you hurry, the best the Amazon-owned e-tailer can do is deliver one of these flawless-looking handsets with nearly perfect battery health between December 28 and December 30, which is definitely not ideal. But for some reason, the unlocked third-gen iPhone SE is incredibly hard to come by in other places across the web at the time of this writing, not to mention discounts without upfront carrier activation, new lines, new accounts, trade-ins, or port-ins are completely nonexistent.
Meanwhile, Woot can hook you up with a 64GB storage configuration in exchange for $299.99 and digital hoarders are charged $359.99 and $379.99 for the privilege of bumping that number up to 128 or 256 gigs. Considering these are not brand-new, unused, unopened, and undamaged devices, their markdowns from Apple's $429, $479, and $579 list prices respectively may not feel dramatic.
But while the 90-day warranty included here is a major compromise compared to what you'd get from the world's second-largest smartphone maker or a retailer like Best Buy, Woot is ready to vouch not only for the flawless functionality of its iPhone SE 3 units on sale (technically) until January 1.
Believe it or not, these reconditioned (which is evidently not the same as refurbished) puppies should present "no visible" scratches or blemishes whatsoever, looking "practically brand new" at first glance and offering a "minimum" battery health rating of 95 percent.
Of course, you have to consider a fourth-gen iPhone SE is probably (more or less) around the corner before settling for the outdated design of this ultra-affordable Apple A15 Bionic powerhouse. Naturally, the iPhone XR-inspired iPhone SE (2023) is likely to start at a significantly higher price than $300, so if you're on a really tight budget, there's almost certainly no point in waiting. And by the way, we'd surely not be shocked if Woot ran out of inventory (far) earlier than the end of the year.
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