EOFY 2026 is officially over, but you can still save up to 51% off a new phone

There isn’t a single set day for when EOFY deals start, though some retailers, telcos and brands have begun offering discounts on some phones as part of their respective EOFY sale events, with some starting as early as late May. Most deals are set to wrap up by June 30, which is also the last day of the 2025-2026 financial year, but some retailers and brands will continue their sale events into July. In fact, Amazon Australia’s Prime Day is set for July 7-13, 2026, and that’s one of the retailer’s major sale events with lots of major discounts to expect.

We'll be rounding up all the best EOFY phone deals right here on this page, so bookmark it and check in regularly for recommendations when the discounts start coming in. As a quick overview, here are the big three retailers and major phone brands that we're expecting to feature the best phone deals until June 30.

• Amazon: hot deals year-round
• eBay Australia: a one-stop shop for a lot of hot offers
• JB Hi-Fi: discounts on big-ticket phones and mid-range marvels
• Samsung: big savings on Samsung Galaxy premium and budget phones

For EOFY phone deal hunters, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that there are a few deals already live, and we're expecting more discounts in the next few weeks.

But if you're in the market for a new iPhone, we won’t expect as many deals, as Apple’s handsets don't usually see the same major price drops as Android rivals. In fact, the best deals you'll find will likely come from a telco with a contract agreement, but if you were already shopping for service, you could absolutely score a bargain at least on plan fees.

That said, we’ve seen big discounts on the ultrathin iPhone Air all year, so expect to see similar deals during EOFY, whether it’s from a telco or when bought outright. On the other hand, if you’re happy with an older iPhone model, they tend to get nice price drops. In fact, the oldest phone that’s slated to get the latest iOS 27 includes the iPhone 11, which originally launched in 2019. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a phone that old, it’s a testament to how long Apple supports its iPhones.

For Android phones, Google and Samsung usually offer discounts on both their flagship and budget models relatively frequently. Smaller makers like Motorola, however, are more likely to offer discounts even more often than Google and Samsung, with deals across its full range. Third-party retailers will be a good bet too, including The Good Guys and JB Hi-Fi.

Display

Without question, the best kind of display you can get is AMOLED, as it offers deep blacks and individually-lit pixels, allowing for always-on-displays that consume very little battery due to the majority of the screen turned off. They're also incredibly vibrant, with vivid, organic colours that really bring videos and games to life.

Various types of OLED displays are featured in most top models, including the Samsung Galaxy S26, iPhone 17, Google Pixel 10 ranges and more. Some of the more affordable options, however, still opt for LCD displays, and while they aren't quite as impressive when it comes to vibrancy and contrast, they do tend to offer excellent brightness.

Operating system (OS)

The first big thing you'll need to decide is whether you're after an Android handset, or would prefer to hitch your wagon to Apple's iOS ecosystem.

There are a huge number of Android handsets on offer from several major manufacturers, which all generally have their own strengths (and occasional weaknesses). That means there's a lot more choice for those who want to embrace the customisation and freedom that Google's mobile OS is known for.

On the other hand, Apple's iPhones, while more closed-off in nature, are excellent options for those who prioritise predictability and want to ensure they get the latest OS updates as soon as they're available. They're also ideal for those who already own Mac computers and subscribe to Apple's various services.

Camera

When looking at a phone's camera array, you should consider the types of photos that you want to take. If you want to photograph wildlife or other things you can't easily get close to, then a telephoto lens is essential, with zoom a key factor to consider, while for landscapes a good ultra-wide is your friend.

But of course, still photography isn't the be all, end all. If your needs are more centred around video recording, you will want to track assets like the resolution at which a camera phone shoots video, stabilisation features (for action video) and capture modes.

When you have at least a general idea of what you need from your phone's camera, you can get a better picture of which phone camera setup is for you, with our best camera phones list helping you to easily find which options tick the right boxes for what you might need.

Chipset

Depending on how much you're willing to spend, Android phones offer varying degrees of performance, with top handsets like Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra and Apple's iPhone 17 Pro Max offering plenty of grunt under the hood thanks to their top-of-the-line specs.

When purchasing a new handset, it's important to find out if its chipset is powerful enough to handle your daily tasks. At present, the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset is what you'll find in most top-of-the-line Android models, even in this year's Samsung models. You’ll find that, among the Snapdragon, Exynos and MediaTek chip families, the more powerful the processor, the higher the model number.

Apple's iPhones, on the other hand, often pack a similar amount of horsepower depending on which generation of device they belong to. Apple's own A19 Pro chip powers its high-end iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models, with a slightly less juiced up base A19 silicon chip used in the lower-end iPhone 17 and 17e handsets. Both guarantee terrific performance and will continue to do so for a couple more years yet. After that, you may start to notice some slowdown, depending on how much power-hungry Apple makes its next iOS iterations.

Storage

Most manufacturers will offer their handsets with various amounts of onboard storage. Depending on what you want to do with your phone, you'll want to settle on a storage size that's right for you. Smartphone storage can range anywhere from 64GB to 2TB (realistically you'll be seeing between 128GB and 1TB in most cases), though you can expect the price to rise significantly as that number gets larger. Some Android phones will offer expandable storage via a microSD card slot, meaning you can add more capacity should you ever need it.

There are plenty of savings to be had in the final month before the Australian financial year comes to a close, and that makes it a great time to save a packet on the latest phones.

As is always the case, more recent models like those from Apple's iPhone 17 range and the Samsung Galaxy S26 lineup won't be seeing the biggest discounts (although we suspect something in the 10-20% range may arrive, and more likely with the latter), but models from the previous generation or more mid-range handsets are quite likely to get hefty savings applied to them.

This means that we may see savings on the more affordable iPhone 17e, although it is rather fresh on the market, and previous models like the iPhone 16 and Samsung Galaxy S25 ranges will be had for a bargain as retailers want to clear their stock.

Since launch, we've seen the Google Pixel 10, 10 Pro, 10 Pro XL and even the 10 Pro Fold receive up to AU$500 off as soon as Black Friday 2025, which was just a few months after launch, and now that the handsets are almost a year old, we'll likely catch a bargain or two on the Google flagships, either through a telco or outright.

You don't necessarily need to buy the phone of your choice outright either — telcos have started offering discounts on certain models purchased on a plan. For example, Vodafone and Optus discounted the iPhone Air and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra by up to AU$800, as long as you got them on either a 12-, 24- or 36-month plan. You can expect more of these this year, although the better discounts and wider variety of handsets will likely be on outright purchases.