If you’ve ever read any of our Chinese phone reviews, you’ll know that Tech Advisor often uses GearBest as a source for some of the best-value consumer tech products around, and especially the latest Xiaomi phones, which can otherwise be difficult to source here in the UK.
GearBest stocks all types of consumer tech, from smartphones, tablets and laptops to smartwatches, fitness trackers, electric bikes and scooters and more. It’s well-known for its ability to undercut UK retailers on prices – currently offering the 8GB RAM, 256GB storage OnePlus 7T for just £423.90, and the Asus ROG Phone 2 for just £416.05 (with coupon code GBMPROG2). Some of the Xiaomi deals it offers are incredible.
To celebrate Black Friday, GearBest is offering Tech Advisor readers an exclusive discount code that will net them 10% off any product over the value of $10 that is not already discounted. That means you can enjoy a discount on every single product in GearBest’s catalogue.
The code you need is GBBFCMSALLDC, which you should enter at checkout. It’s valid until 31 December 2019.
PLUS while logged into your GearBest account, enter the keyword techadvisor into the search bar at GearBest to scoop an additional coupon code.
Despite these incredible savings, we find UK customers can still be worried about buying from abroad because what if something goes wrong? Where will they turn?
We won’t undermine your concerns here, but we will say that in our experience things have become much more straightforward in the past few years as these sites look to become a more trusted source with foreign consumers.
You should also take comfort in the fact that we won’t recommend a product from any retailer we have not had experience with, and having dealt with GearBest for four or five years now we can say we’ve only ever received two faulty products, and had one product not turn up at all – out of literally hundreds. Our complaints here have been dealt with quickly and effectively, and GearBest does now offer shipping insurance at checkout, too.
One thing you should keep in mind when buying from Chinese retailers is that their warehouses can be anywhere in the world. GearBest specifies on its product pages whether it ships from China or Europe; if it’s the latter there are no concerns but if you’re importing a product into the UK from China you may be asked to pay import duty by Customs. This is payable at whatever value is printed on the paperwork, so factor it into your budget.
Best Singles Day Deals
Honor MagicBook 14
Honor has slashed the price of the brilliant MagicBook 14, one of the best value laptops on the market without any discount.
You get an 11th-gen Intel Core i5, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. You couldn’t ask for much more at under £550.
You can read more advice on buying Chinese tech here.
Author: Marie Black, Editorial Director
Marie is Editorial Director at Foundry. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she's worked in tech media for more than 17 years, managing our EMEA and LatAm editorial teams and leading on content strategy through Foundry's transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond.