Who's Ordering The S26

[BerryBubbles]

I haven't lost one yet but I've left em behind, and thank goodness for the warning. I hadn't even thought of that. I've been more concerned about losing my camera shutter.

The camera remote is very handy. I'd also miss the Air Actions.

Fortunately, the s24 Ultra has a lot of life left. Maybe Samsung will change their minds on dropping the Bluetooth support ... somewhere in the future.

 

[missy8787]

Has anyone ever ordered directly from Samsung on launch and did a trade in? How does that work I was thinking if Samsung has maybe only certain online exclusive colors I may trade in my phone through Samsung themselves and not T-Mobile that carrier I have. But I’ve never done that and don’t know how that works

 

[VidJunky]

Has anyone ever ordered directly from Samsung on launch and did a trade in? How does that work I was thinking if Samsung has maybe only certain online exclusive colors I may trade in my phone through Samsung themselves and not T-Mobile that carrier I have. But I’ve never done that and don’t know how that works

Don't ask that question. Hahaha. I kid a bit but you're asking for horror stories, and let me tell you they get gruesome. I've done the trade and pray with Samsung and had no issues. The process is kind of typical I guess. They mail you a device with a shipping label for your old device. You get 14 days before they start sending you email reminders warning you that time is almost up, and then offer you a few days more before they charge you full price for the device. I think they say 14 days but actually give you 21, don't hold me to that but this was my experience for a device I thought I had mailed and hadn't. In the meantime, when you're done transferring everything over and hoping that you haven't forgotten anything vital, they want you to factory reset the phone from the settings menu so that all of your information is removed and the phone is ready to be set-up. They will automatically reject your trade if it isn't reset correctly or if it isn't reset at all. You pack it up, slap the label on it, take it to your nearest Khol's, send it, and pray it arrives at Samsung and pray that they accept it. This goes back to the horror stories I mentioned. Every year AC members report devices they say Samsung wrongly rejected. "My phone was perfect and they're saying it has damage.", "I tracked the package to a FedEx location, usually in Texas, and it just stopped and never left.", "They say they never received my phone and now they want me to pay full price, but I mailed it.", are same basic stories that pop-up every year. I've done it 4 maybe 5 times and have not had an issue. Knock of wood. Each time I've done the return, I call myself doing things that I'm hoping will protect me if I should be struck by one of those stories, like videoing the phone condition, as I'm putting it into the box, at the FedEx drop location, hopefully in front of witnesses, but in all likelihood it only makes me feel better.

Like I said, I've done it at least 4 times and have had no issues, but I've heard if they reject your device they of course charge you full price, then give you a much lower partial credit for your device, that somehow won't count towards your new phone but can be used at Samsung dot com, because they don't return unsuccessful trade ins. At least I've never heard of or seen anyone get theirs back. Really though I think if you're honest with yourself first and Samsung second about the true condition of the device and trade this way, you'll be fine. Not always but many times I've felt people weren't being honest either with themselves or with Samsung and then suffer from their own poor choices.

A lot of people like to do trade-ins with their local dealer. They can see the hand-off, know immediately if the trade is accepted and at what value, and a lot of those places also help users get set-up the device, if that's something you need or want. BB's insistence that they set up or help you set-up your device is kind of annoying to me. Not sure if they still do that.

Let me know if this answers your question. Just wait for the dark stories to roll in but take them with a grain of salt.

 

[frank-barnett]

Couple thoughts. I held on to my S24 Ultra because it just worked, and even though I never use the S Pen, downgrading the bt just seemed a bridge too far.

QI 2 is going to be an issue- if as seems likely, it does not have the built in magnets, that is a huge reason to not upgrade - meaning if they did have them, I would think hard about upgrading.

And the price of Ram is going to impact pricing. I've read they may up the MSRP - but more likely, I expect them to hold pricing to last year's level and maybe just provide less incentives/value on trade ins.

Maybe we are already seeing that with their $30 vs.$50 reserve credit. I mean, $30 on a $1000+ phone is almost meaningless.

 

[missy8787]

Don't ask that question. Hahaha. I kid a bit but you're asking for horror stories, and let me tell you they get gruesome. I've done the trade and pray with Samsung and had no issues. The process is kind of typical I guess. They mail you a device with a shipping label for your old device. You get 14 days before they start sending you email reminders warning you that time is almost up, and then offer you a few days more before they charge you full price for the device. I think they say 14 days but actually give you 21, don't hold me to that but this was my experience for a device I thought I had mailed and hadn't. In the meantime, when you're done transferring everything over and hoping that you haven't forgotten anything vital, they want you to factory reset the phone from the settings menu so that all of your information is removed and the phone is ready to be set-up. They will automatically reject your trade if it isn't reset correctly or if it isn't reset at all. You pack it up, slap the label on it, take it to your nearest Khol's, send it, and pray it arrives at Samsung and pray that they accept it. This goes back to the horror stories I mentioned. Every year AC members report devices they say Samsung wrongly rejected. "My phone was perfect and they're saying it has damage.", "I tracked the package to a FedEx location, usually in Texas, and it just stopped and never left.", "They say they never received my phone and now they want me to pay full price, but I mailed it.", are same basic stories that pop-up every year. I've done it 4 maybe 5 times and have not had an issue. Knock of wood. Each time I've done the return, I call myself doing things that I'm hoping will protect me if I should be struck by one of those stories, like videoing the phone condition, as I'm putting it into the box, at the FedEx drop location, hopefully in front of witnesses, but in all likelihood it only makes me feel better.

Like I said, I've done it at least 4 times and have had no issues, but I've heard if they reject your device they of course charge you full price, then give you a much lower partial credit for your device, that somehow won't count towards your new phone but can be used at Samsung dot com, because they don't return unsuccessful trade ins. At least I've never heard of or seen anyone get theirs back. Really though I think if you're honest with yourself first and Samsung second about the true condition of the device and trade this way, you'll be fine. Not always but many times I've felt people weren't being honest either with themselves or with Samsung and then suffer from their own poor choices.

A lot of people like to do trade-ins with their local dealer. They can see the hand-off, know immediately if the trade is accepted and at what value, and a lot of those places also help users get set-up the device, if that's something you need or want. BB's insistence that they set up or help you set-up your device is kind of annoying to me. Not sure if they still do that.

Let me know if this answers your question. Just wait for the dark stories to roll in but take them with a grain of salt.

Thank you for the reply maybe I’ll just go through T-Mobile they now started that where when you trade it in you send the phone back lol my fiancé when he got his s25 plus last year they’re like ok you have this many days to send it back your old device lol but I believe they looked over the phone at the store and then sent it into our account saying there was no damage and ended up with the trade in price not needing a down payment on the new one lol…….im hoping that trading my s24 plus will bring down the down payment a lot for the ultra I rly rly rly want a bigger phone with s pen and great cameras lol…….but I also know if I go the Samsung route take lots lots of photos of the old device to have proof of no damage

 

[danhartman26]

I've been doing the trade in directly with Samsung going back to the Note 9 and had no problems. Every year you see horror stories posted here, and it gets scary, but I just do wamhat Samsung asks and it all works out. I would say the biggest thing is just relax and don't get stressed out when someone else says there trade-in was received... there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the timing. Sometimes yours will go before anyone else, and sometimes it seems to take foreve...
Just relax and trust the process

 

[edubfromktown]

Has anyone ever ordered directly from Samsung on launch and did a trade in? How does that work I was thinking if Samsung has maybe only certain online exclusive colors I may trade in my phone through Samsung themselves and not T-Mobile that carrier I have. But I’ve never done that and don’t know how that works

I've pre-ordered and processed trade-in's twice without issues. On the last one, I contacted Samsung when my trade-in had not been processed within the time limit. They updated the status as "returned" the same day.

I put one wrap of old school reinforced paper gum tape all the way around the box so it is obvious if someone tampers with the contents. Also weigh the package and take photos of it opened, sealed and at FedEx on the scale as it is being scanned for shipping.

 

[bembol]

Samsung Canada is "only" giving $50 vouchers for pre-orders this series.

Hopefully, the trade-in for my Flip⁶ will be like last October at $915.

Otherwise, I'll wait for a carrier trade-in deal.

 

[missy8787]

I’m also excited to see what colors they come out with hopefully something new from what they’ve been doing lol

 

[missy8787]

Random question has anyone ever reserved on the Samsung website? I did this for the first time whats there to expect?

 

[runfar262]

I'm planning to upgrade from my S24 Ultra. I did do the reserve already. I hope there are some good deals.

 

[EazyD33]

One week away. Has anybody heard of any samsung exclusive colors?

 

[missy8787]

One week away. Has anybody heard of any samsung exclusive colors?

Not yet if they have different ones I may try to do my first pre order on Samsung for an unlocked phone

 

[Ihazterbo]

My phone stays in a case at all times so aluminum or titanium doesn't matter to me, but this is where I'm not sure if it makes or breaks things.
No Built-in Magnetic Charging (Qi2): The S26 and S26+ are not expected to have built-in magnets, meaning they will not work with magnetic chargers or accessories without a specific case.
Thoughts?

 

[Dualmonitors]

May i ask if the good folks here know much about the pros and cons of E-SIM vs physical SIM?

This is especially vis-a-vis international travel.

Thank you all in advance.

I'm wondering if by now, the S26 Ultra, one would think E-SIM might be so well developed and accepted that there might be few downsides to going E-SIM?

I have no knowledge or experience with E-SIM so I thought the S26 Ultra might be a suitable transition from physical SIM to e-SIM.

Thank you in advance.

 

[danhartman26]

My phone stays in a case at all times so aluminum or titanium doesn't matter to me, but this is where I'm not sure if it makes or breaks things.
No Built-in Magnetic Charging (Qi2): The S26 and S26+ are not expected to have built-in magnets, meaning they will not work with magnetic chargers or accessories without a specific case.
Thoughts?

I would like built in magnets because I would like to use magnetic accessories without a case...

But if you plan to use a case, you will need a magnetic case anyway to use magnetic accessories. The built in magnets are not strong enough for a secure connection.

Notice all of those iPhone and Pixel classes have magnets...

So if you want a case, I don't see this as any loss.

 

[donm527]

My phone stays in a case at all times so aluminum or titanium doesn't matter to me, but this is where I'm not sure if it makes or breaks things.
No Built-in Magnetic Charging (Qi2): The S26 and S26+ are not expected to have built-in magnets, meaning they will not work with magnetic chargers or accessories without a specific case.
Thoughts?

I may have mentioned this already... but personally I don't really care if they have magnets or not because I find the Qi useless.

I have the Fold 7 and I think it's a poor design placing the magnetic rings so high and most current aftermarket accessories like wallets and charge packs are not useable because the cameras get in the way of a square accessory.

Like a charge pack you have to place it rotated about 10-15 degrees to not bump the corner of a square battery pack against the camera rings. The only thing it's good for his magnetic pop sockets and round charge pads.

They should have arranged the cameras across the top to alllow more room for magnetic accessories.

 

[donm527]

May i ask if the good folks here know much about the pros and cons of E-SIM vs physical SIM?

This is especially vis-a-vis international travel.

Thank you all in advance.

I'm wondering if by now, the S26 Ultra, one would think E-SIM might be so well developed and accepted that there might be few downsides to going E-SIM?

I have no knowledge or experience with E-SIM so I thought the S26 Ultra might be a suitable transition from physical SIM to e-SIM.

Thank you in advance.

Physical E-sims if you are going to swap phones occasionally.

In past I would say having a physical slot for travel too but I had co worker travel to India a couple months ago and another to Jamaica and instead of getting local sims they were able to get E-sims for country they were traveling to from a web site and set up before they took flight to destination.