xda-developers: Samsung Access program quietly launches for the Galaxy S20 with Premium Care and Microsoft 365 included

Friday, May 29, 2020

Samsung Access program quietly launches for the Galaxy S20 with Premium Care and Microsoft 365 included

A few years ago, Apple launched its iPhone Upgrade Program. Apple’s program offered a great deal where every year you could pay a low monthly fee to have the option to upgrade your iPhone while continuing those monthly payments. Carriers and other device makers emulated this idea but started to add their own offers to improve upon it. Samsung, of course, was one of the companies that emulated that idea with the Samsung Upgrade Program. Now, Samsung has quietly launched a new program called “Samsung Access” that provides even more benefits at a lower cost.

Samsung Access, which we spotted earlier today on Samsung.com, is a bit different than the previous Samsung Upgrade Program in terms of benefits. Both Samsung Access and the previous Samsung Upgrade Program have you finance a new phone through monthly payments and later allow you to trade in the phone for the value that’s left. For example, if you had the Samsung Galaxy S10 for a year and paid $30 a month for 12 months ($360 total), you would have owed $540 left on the balance on the device. If you wanted to upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy S20 after it launched, you would send back the Galaxy S10 to Samsung so they could void the $540 and allow you to start a new contract for a new monthly fee for the new device.

Samsung Access works the same way for upgrading. If you wanted to keep the device instead of upgrading, you are able to pay off the full balance or just not upgrade and continue your financing which takes 36 months or 3 years.

If you are like me and like to upgrade a lot, that’s also a possibility with Samsung Access. You are able to upgrade your phone for no fee every 9 months. If you wanted to upgrade earlier in the cycle, say for example from the latest Galaxy Note to Galaxy S series or vice versa, you can do so if you pay a $100 fee. In the long run, you would likely save money using this service instead of buying and trading in phones every time a new one launches.

Samsung Access – Other Benefits

What makes Samsung Access better than the Samsung Upgrade Program are the other parts that are included in the monthly subscription. Samsung Access includes both Microsoft 365, which itself includes 1TB of OneDrive storage, and Samsung Premium Care. Microsoft 365 gives you full access to the Microsoft Office suite, including Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Skype, and Teams. The 1TB of OneDrive storage, which is included in a Microsoft 365 subscription, is especially useful on Samsung phones. You are able to link your Samsung and Microsoft accounts to use the 1TB of storage for photo backups in the Samsung Gallery app or Samsung Cloud storage for backups. The other benefit, Premium Care, is Samsung’s insurance program. If you break your phone, you are able to get it replaced or repaired for a $99 deductible up to three times in a 12 month period.

Samsung Access is available for the Samsung Galaxy S20 series only. When financing the Galaxy S20 series, it costs $37 a month for the Galaxy S20, $42 a month for the Galaxy S20+, and $48 a month for the Galaxy S20 Ultra. In my view, this is actually a great deal. If you were to sign up for Samsung Financing, Premium Care, and Microsoft 365 separately, it would cost you an extra $9 per month. That might not seem like much, but over the 36 months of the contract, you would save $324. That’s ignoring the money you can save from the upgrade program. If you want to cancel, you are also able to return the phone for free after 3 months. If you want to cancel before those 3 months, though, you will owe a $100 fee.

These programs are actually really good for those early adopters who love to upgrade (like me). It makes upgrading easy and painless along with not having to worry about accidental damage since it’s covered under Premium Care. All around, this is a pretty great upgrade deal. For a visual overview of what’s offered in Samsung Access, check out the video below that Samsung uploaded to their YouTube channel today. Otherwise, hit up the Samsung Access page and read the FAQs to get all the nitty-gritty details.

Samsung Access for Mobile ||| Samsung Access FAQs