- Samsung has just improved the terms of its phone trade-in program
- There is no longer any obligation to purchase and it is open all year round
- It has started in South Korea and France, with other regions coming soon
Are you tired of your Samsung phone and want to trade it in for something new? Samsung has just improved its Galaxy Trade-In program to offer more generous terms, making it a tempting option if you're looking to upgrade to one of Samsung's best phones.
In fact, one of the new changes is that you don't have to swap your old Samsung phone for a new one at all – there's no purchase required, so you can just trade in your old device for some cash if you want. However, you may have to wait a while, as the program has just launched in South Korea and France and Samsung says it plans to “expand to more regions by 2025.”
Previously, you always had to buy a new Samsung phone via samsung.com or the company's app when you traded in an old one. If you already had one in mind and wanted to upgrade, this probably wasn't a big deal, but less practical if you just wanted to get rid of an old device and leave it at that. And if you had switched from a Samsung device to an iPhone or another Android product, it wouldn't have worked for you at all.
And there's another improvement to the program: you can now get cash for your old phone all year round, no matter where you are in the world. This used to be the case if you lived in the US or most other Western locations, but in South Korea trade-in windows were limited to certain times of the year, limiting your options.
These windows were often tied to big product launches – like those at Samsung Unpacked 2025 – but that's no longer the case.
Limited permission
That sounds like good news for anyone looking to get rid of an old Samsung phone in 2025, whether or not they want to replace it with something better. But there's a notable catch that means it's not all entirely positive.
The problem is that you can currently only trade in certain Samsung devices. These include Galaxy S20, S21, S22 and S23 series phones. It also covers some foldable phones, including the Z Flip 3 to Z Flip 5 as well as the Z Fold 3 to Z Fold 5.
Curiously, neither the Galaxy S24 nor the Z Flip 6 nor the Z Fold 6 can be traded in, even though they were only released last year. This means that the selection of products that are eligible for the program is quite narrow.
Nevertheless, it is still a better agreement than before. While the number of devices that can be traded in isn't very large, at least you now have a lot more flexibility if you want to take advantage of Samsung's offer. If you've been thinking about trading in your old device anyway, this is a welcome change.