Samsung Galaxy phones get big Trade-In boost – you’ll soon be able to sell without buying a new one

• Samsung has just improved the terms of its phone trade-in program
• There’s no longer a purchase requirement and it’s open all year round
• It’s started in South Korea and France with more regions to follow soon

Tired of your Samsung phone and want to swap it 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 the best Samsung phones.

In fact, one of the new changes is that you don’t need to swap your old Samsung phone for a new one at all – there’s no purchase necessary, so you can simply trade in your old device for some cash, if you prefer. You may need to wait a little while to do so though – the program has just started in South Korea and France, with Samsung says it plans to “expand to more regions through 2025”.

Previously, you had to purchase a new Samsung phone from samsung.com or the company’s app whenever you traded in an old one. If you already had one in mind and wanted to upgrade, that likely wasn’t much of a problem, but it was less convenient if you just wanted to get rid of an old device and leave it at that. And if you were switching from a Samsung device to an iPhone or a different 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 long, wherever you are in the world. That was the case before if you lived in the US or most other Western locations, but in South Korea, trade-in windows were locked to certain times of the year, limiting your options.

These windows were often linked to major product launches – like those coming at Samsung Unpacked 2025, for example – but that’s no longer the case.

Limited eligibility

This sounds like good news for anyone who wants to get rid of an old Samsung handset 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 right now, you can only trade in specific Samsung devices. That includes phones from the Galaxy S20, S21, S22 and S23 series. It also covers a few foldable phones, including the Z Flip 3 to Z Flip 5, as well as the Z Fold 3 to Z Fold 5.

Strangely enough, neither the Galaxy S24, the Z Flip 6 nor the Z Fold 6 can be traded in, even though they only launched last year. That means the range of products that are eligible for the program is fairly narrow.

That said, it’s still a better arrangement than before. While there’s not a huge number of devices that can be traded in, at least you now have a lot more flexibility if you want to take Samsung up on its offer. If you were previously thinking of trading in your old device anyway, it’ll be a welcome change.

You might also like

• If you upgrade to a Samsung Galaxy S24, what should you do with your old phone?
• The best Samsung phones 2024: top Galaxy handsets ranked
• Google wants to make it easier for you to trade-in your old Android and save money

Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he’s learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That’s all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.