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The Samsung Galaxy S23 and its siblings are sure to be expensive phones, especially in the UK where leaks suggest there may be a price hike. But if you pre-order, you can take a bit of the sting out of the price.
That’s because Samsung has officially confirmed that you can get a free storage upgrade with your purchase. So if you pre-order a 256GB Samsung Galaxy S23, you’ll only pay the price of a 128GB model. Similarly, if you pre-order a 512GB Galaxy S23 Plus or Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, you’ll be paying for the 256GB capacity.
Interestingly, there is no mention of this scheme working for a 1TB version of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, although it is rumored to exist.
This deal was strangely – and probably accidentally – confirmed in the fine print of the Samsung Galaxy A23 page on the Samsung Business UK website (opens in new tab) (through Phone Arena (opens in new tab)). At the time of writing, the text is also still visible.
There’s something to unpack here – firstly, although this was a business website, the wording refers specifically to orders from Samsung.com (not the business site), so you presumably don’t have to be a business customer to get this incentive. However, there is no guarantee that it will be available at third party stores or in other countries.
However, the US has its own schedule, which allows you to reserve a Samsung Galaxy S23 (opens in new tab) and get $50 off when it comes time to buy, so even if this storage upgrade isn’t offered there, you can still save some money.
However, the text on Samsung’s UK site also confirms a number of other things, such as the fact that there is indeed a Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus and Ultra in addition to the standard model, not that this is too much of a surprise.
More interestingly, this incentive runs until February 16, suggesting that the phones will ship on February 17, as previously rumoured. As a reminder, the Samsung Galaxy S23 series will be announced on February 1, so it won’t be long before they get an official look.
Analysis: how much money will you save with this scheme?
UK pricing for the Samsung Galaxy S23 range remains unclear so we can’t say exactly how much money you could save with these storage upgrades, but for what it’s worth it cost £50 to increase a storage capacity with the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus, while with the Ultra you were looking at £80 to go from 256GB to 512GB. So we may see similar differences this year, even if prices differ.
If the same deal is offered in the US, the savings could be around $50 for the Galaxy S23 or S23 Plus and $100 for the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. While in Australia, we might be looking at saving AU$100 to increase a storage size on the Samsung Galaxy S23 or Galaxy S23 Plus, and a $150 discount on the S23 Ultra.
All in all, it might not be a huge saving, but it does make some of the best Samsung phones a bit more affordable.