Samsung buys Galaxy S23 trade-ins for more money than Apple for iPhone 15

High-end phones have become expensive and its common for them to be priced above the $1,000 mark. That's one of the reasons why people have been holding on to their flagship phones for longer. Companies thus have to provide incentives in the form of lucrative trade-in values to get people to upgrade every year.

For example, if you bought the Galaxy S22 Ultra last year, you'd expect to get top dollar for it from Samsung when trading in for the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Apple's customers would expect the same when trading in the iPhone 14 Pro Max for the new iPhone 15 Pro Max. However, Apple gives its customers less money for previous generation phones than Samsung does.

Samsung is being very generous with its trade-in values

The base model of the Galaxy S23 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max both cost $1,199. Both feature 256GB of internal storage. However, compared to Apple, Samsung takes much better care of its customers who want to trade a previous generation device.

If you buy the Galaxy S23 Ultra from Samsung right now, the company will give you $750 for trading in a Galaxy S22 Ultra. That's not all. The company is also giving a $100 instant discount on the device. So your total for a brand new Galaxy S23 Ultra after stacking these incentives is $349 before tax.

Compare this to what Apple's offering for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. If you're trading in last year's iPhone 14 Pro Max, you'll only get $650. Since there's no instant discount on offer as well, your total to buy the iPhone 15 Pro Max today will be $549 before tax. Why spend $200 more on a device that's already been crushed by Samsung?

Samsung is a lot more generous with its trade-in values. Even if you have a two-year old Galaxy S21 Ultra, you can still get $625 for it, almost as much as what Apple is paying its customers for last year's flagship. It's clear as day here which company is providing the best value for money to its loyal customers.