Samsung Unpacked’s $50 stock bonus is both the cheapest and the most worthwhile

When the stock bonus for Samsung’s July 26 Unpacked event was initially announced at $50, I was blown away. The same $50 pre-order bonus was paid back during the Galaxy S23 pre-stock period, but that was less than half the stock bonuses we saw during last August’s Unpacked launch. And the S23 Series is over $1,200; the Galaxy Z Fold 5 will almost certainly be at or above the $1,800 price tag of its predecessors.

Oh, and it’s important to remember that these reserve bonuses have all been Samsung.com credits in the past Not apply for what you booked in the first place. If you pre-ordered a Galaxy S23, that $50 credit wouldn’t put the phone down to $750; you just had $50 of play money to use for something other – usually a case or charger. Whether it’s $50, $100, or $200, the value of the credit was a consolation prize meant to prompt you to buy even more stuff (that you probably didn’t need).

But this time things are different.

Samsung has confirmed that, yes, this time we can finally apply that bonus to the device itself! No more trying to figure out how to spend a use-it-or-lose-it credit on spare cables, wireless chargers, and first-party cases that you replace with a Supcase or Caseology after a week. No more unnecessary electronic waste because we greedy capitalists refuse to leave money on the table, even when it’s not real money.

Instead, we’ve got $50 direct off any of the devices announced next week, whether it’s the Fold 5, the Flip 5, one of the various sizes of the Galaxy Tab S9, or the glorious rotating bezel of the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic/Pro. While this is great news for anyone who just wants a new watch, however, $50 towards a $1,000 or higher tablet or foldable might seem like a drop in the bucket.

The true impact of that will only be revealed when we see the trade-in values ​​towards these new devices, and those were very unimpressive against the S23 series – and pretty much anything that isn’t a watch or earphones. But we have some hope that Samsung will at least improve the trade-in values ​​for the Fold/Flip 2/3 in an effort to get more users switching to the newer model, and honestly, if Samsung is going to give you $700 or more for a Flip 4, it’s probably worth upgrading just for the bigger screen coverage.

But back to those watch trade-ins, Samsung has had a guaranteed trade-in deal literally from the day the Watch 6 went on pre-order until today – currently you can trade in any smartwatch in any condition for $70 towards the latest Watch 5 or $120 towards the Watch 5 Pro. If the commercial guaranteed values ​​towards the Watch 6 series match the launch window values ​​towards the 2022 Watch 5 models ($75 towards the 5, $150 towards the 5 Pro) and stack with this $50 pre-order discount, it will be at least 30% off for anyone without a galactic clock.

Galaxy Watch 3/4/4’s classic trade-in values ​​were around $150 for the Watch 5 and $270 for the Watch 5 Pro, which would put at least $200 off the Galaxy Watch 6. If this deal holds up, it’ll be an insanely good chance for previous Galaxy Watch owners to upgrade and get a better battery, tougher screens, and (hopefully) a faster chipset.

In any case, if this is $50 off anything you can buy from Samsung next week and it costs nothing more than an email address, why the heck wouldn’t you have it just to be safe?