Samsung Will Pay You up to $900 If You Trade in Your Phone for a Galaxy S26.
Samsung has officially announced the date for its next Galaxy Unpacked event, where everyone expects the Galaxy S26 series to be announced. But before the event begins on February 25th at 1:00 PM ET, the company is offering the chance to get ahead of the competition by trading in your current phone for a better deal. Right now, you can register on Samsung’s website and trade in your phone for up to $900 by pre-ordering the Galaxy S26 (or, in the highly unlikely event that the S26 isn’t announced at the event, for any other phone announced instead).
How to get $900 for trading in your old Samsung Galaxy S26 for a new one
That’s $200 more than Samsung currently offers for trade-ins on its other phones, which max out at $700 when trading in a Galaxy S24 Ultra for a Galaxy S25 . Additionally, when you register, you’ll receive $30 toward accessories during (but not before or after) your pre-order. You can also enter a giveaway to win $5,000 in bonuses for Samsung’s online store, if you choose.
What’s the catch? Pre-orders aren’t open yet. This usually happens within a week of the Galaxy Unpacked release, but you can still start the process now. Just visit the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked pre-order website, enter your name and at least an email address (you can also provide a phone number), and you’ll be taken to the form. If you’d like to participate in the giveaway, also check the “Participate” box.
Next, you can select your phone’s manufacturer and model from the drop-down menu. Note that the list of manufacturers includes Samsung, Apple, Google, and “Other,” so it appears Samsung is also willing to accept phones it doesn’t manufacture. As for model selection, you can select models from approximately five years ago for each manufacturer, although if your model isn’t listed, you can also select “Other” here.
How much will Samsung pay me for my phone?
I can’t promise how much Samsung will pay you for any specific phone model, although it’s reasonable to assume you’ll get more for newer, more powerful phones. I’m also willing to bet that Samsung might offer you a bigger discount if you trade in one of their own phones, but that’s just a guess. To get the full $900, I think you’d need to trade in a Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Once you’ve made your selection, tap “Submit,” then scroll down a bit and select the item you’re interested in for which you’d like to receive offers from Samsung. Make sure you select at least “Trade,” and then tap “Submit” here as well.
That’s all for now. Samsung will now know what phone you have and whether you’re interested in a trade-in, and as soon as a trade-in offer becomes available, it will send you an email with a suitable option. Again, this should happen closer to Unpacked, likely within a week of February 25th.
What will the Galaxy S26 look like?
Overall, this is a good opportunity to score a good deal, but it continues Samsung’s unfortunate trend of requiring pre-orders before its official announcement and before its full specifications are revealed. Fortunately, a number of Galaxy S26 rumors have made it easy to guess what we’ll likely see, including a similar design to the S25, the absence of the ultra-thin S26 Edge model, a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and a new 10-megapixel telephoto lens on the Ultra model. However, we’ll have to wait and see for confirmation.