Don't bother with the Apple Watch 9 when the Series 8 is this cheap

The Apple Watch 9 is all well and good, but when you can get the Apple Watch 8 this cheap, why bother?

Argos is selling the more expensive cellular model of the Apple Watch 8, in stealthy black, for just £299. When you consider that it cost £529 at launch just over a year ago, that’s an absolute steal.

Apple doesn’t sell the Apple Watch 8 on its website anymore, but that in itself is telling. The company tends to shuffle relatively fresh hardware out of the door after just a year on sale whenever the successor isn’t a huge upgrade.

We like the new Apple Watch 9 a lot, scoring it 4.5 stars out of 5 in our review. But is it all that different to the 2022 Apple Watch 8?

Our main criticism of the Apple Watch 9 was that its design was so familiar. “A redesign, or a least a freshening up of this near decade-old design wouldn’t go amiss in the future,” we said.

“Feature-wise, the Series 9 doesn’t have much to tempt those who have updated in recent years,” we concluded.

Look back at our Apple Watch 8 review, and we also awarded that a 4.5 star review. “Simply put, the Apple Watch 8 is the best smartwatch for iPhone users,” we said.

Even then we noted that the Apple Watch 8 was very similar to the Series 7 and even the Series 6 before it.

It’s a common theme with Apple’s classy smartwatch, and it tells you one simple thing: the best value can be found where you can find a slightly older Apple Watch model for significantly less money than usual. That’s why this Apple Watch 8 deal is so hot.