As good as it is (and it’s a darn good phone, as we discovered months ago when reviewing it in great detail), the Galaxy Note 9 was never worth $1,000. Fortunately, both Samsung and third-party retailers like Best Buy and Amazon seemed to acknowledge that fairly quickly, trying many different ways to sweeten the deal in the face of intensifying competition.

Right now, you can get the S Pen-wielding powerhouse from its manufacturer with a bunch of gifts valued at over $300, while Best Buy’s early Black Friday deal lowers the handset’s actual price by $300 with Verizon and Sprint payment ...