If you’re the least bit familiar with how Apple normally conducts its product upgrading and replacement business, you were probably not surprised to see the company’s hugely successful first-gen SE and Series 7 smartwatches officially discontinued after the recent introduction of their direct successors.
Of course, it was equally unsurprising that retailers like Amazon and Best Buy continued to sell the two “outdated” wearable devices, and we could have also easily predicted an avalanche of interesting Apple Watch Series 7 deals, for instance, would drop in time for the holidays.
While said avalanche doesn’t technically appear to be underway yet, Best Buy is charging a whopping and (as far as we know) completely unprecedented 170 bucks less than usual for a specific 41mm Series 7 variant with a green aluminum case, matching “clover” sport band, and built-in cellular connectivity.
Typically priced at $499, the S7-powered bad boy can thus be yours in exchange for just $329 right now, which is, you guessed it, $170 cheaper than a comparable S8-based Apple Watch Series 8 model.
Looking beyond the larger number, however, you’ll find that the Series 8 is incredibly similar to the Series 7, delivering pretty much the exact same amount of raw power (aka a lot) while adding a skin temperature sensor and car crash detection technology to the equation.
Although certainly useful (at least in theory, because in practice the temperature sensor was found to be severely lacking in our in-depth review), those upgrades are not what we’d call game changers… and may well not be worth an extra $70, let alone $170.
