The prices of the new Samsung Galaxy S24 series are mostly unchanged in the US, with a notable exception being the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The base model of the most powerful phone in the lineup is $100 more expensive than the Galaxy S23 Ultra this time around at $1,299.99. That’s quite an outlay, even if it is set to be the hottest new Android phone on the market. But how does the price in the US compare to what residents of other countries around the world are paying? We were curious, so we looked for the cheapest place to buy the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

We’ve got a particular angle in mind here. We specifically want to know how much a US resident would pay if they bought the phone while visiting another country. This is an important distinction because it takes sales tax into account. Buying a phone in America will usually require a citizen to pay sales tax on top of the retail price, and this is no small amount on a device of this value. But if you’re a tourist in another nation, you can often avoid or claim back the sales tax, opening up the prospect of making significant savings overseas. We’ll find out if it’s worth buying the phone abroad.

We’re only looking at the price of the base 256GB model of the Galaxy S24 Ultra in this rundown. You can assume that the price structure of each country for the higher storage variants will be relative. In other words, the most expensive country for the 256GB model isn’t going to have the cheapest 1TB variation.

What are the cheapest countries to buy a Galaxy S24 Ultra?

We looked at the retail price of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra in 15 of the biggest markets in which it is available for pre-order. We then converted the price in the local currency into the equivalent price in US dollars and organized them from cheapest to most expensive. You can see the results in the table below.

The asterisk against the US price indicates that this is the approximate price a US resident would pay for the phone in the States. Sales tax varies depending on where you are, so we’ve used an approximate 10% extra for the purpose of the comparison. Conversely, the retail prices of the phone in other countries, as shown in the table, are the most an American tourist will pay. In some of those countries, the price will include sales tax, and you may be able to claim a significant amount of between 10% and 20% back before you leave.