t’s now been over half a decade since Samsung folded its Galaxy Note lineup into the mainline Galaxy S-series, but fans of the original “phablet” aren’t ones to let go so easily. If you’re still holding onto your Galaxy Note 20 Ultra — a device first released in August of 2020, believe it or not — Samsung is willing to give you a pretty sweet deal to part ways with it.
For the second year in a row, it’s Galaxy Note 20 Ultra owners that are getting Samsung’s best deal, delivering $500 in trade-in value towards the purchase of your next phone. For a device that’s about to celebrate its 6th anniversary later this year, that’s an outstanding discount towards the S26 Ultra.
This year’s trade-in values are all over the place, but largely speaking, those values are linked to the age of your current smartphone: the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and S25 Ultra are worth $900, the S24 Ultra is worth $800, and so on. There are, however, a couple of exceptions to this pattern, and it seems to be all about getting those with older S Pen-equipped devices to finally ditch their existing hardware for something new. The Galaxy Z Fold 4, Z Flip 5, and S23+, for example, are all many generations newer than the Note 20 Ultra, but deliver $100 less in value.
This isn’t the first time Samsung has used its trade-in program to try to specifically get those holding onto aging Notes to pick up new hardware. Last summer’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 launch included a similar $600 deal for Note 20 Ultra owners will to jump into the foldable space, though considering that device ditched S Pen support, I think this Galaxy S26 Ultra offer makes a little bit more sense.
And honestly, Note 20 Ultra owners are in for a pretty sweet upgrade, so long as they don’t regularly rely on any of Samsung’s Bluetooth-powered S Pen Air gestures; the company removed that functionality on last year’s S25 Ultra. Otherwise, though, the S26 Ultra features a much more powerful processor, faster wired and wireless charging, Samsung’s excellent anti-glare coating alongside its (very cool!) new privacy filters, not to mention a refined — albeit more generic — design. For whatever you want to say about Samsung’s update cycle being boring, waiting nearly six entire years for an upgrade is bound to leave you feeling at least a little impressed.
Other legacy S Pen-equipped devices, including the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the Note 20, and the Note 10 and 10+, all give respectable trade-in values given their respective ages ($500 for the S22 Ultra, $250 each for these various Notes). But it’s the Note 20 Ultra users who might want to finally give their smartphone a new lease on life, before Samsung finally gives up the ghost on delivering these massive payouts.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 series is now available to pre-order at Samsung.com, with up to $900 in trade-in value or $150 in store credit for additional devices if you forego a trade-in altogether.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments