If you’re a regular reader you may recall that one of Samsung’s recent Galaxy S26 Ultra promotions, which knocked $200 off the device, didn’t match up to an equivalent deal at the same time a year before.
We expected this to happen. Profits are squeezed because of the RAM crisis and Samsung has responded with price increases and weaker deals. Except a couple of recent promotions show that the Korean company is fighting to stay competitive on Galaxy S26 Ultra pricing.
The latest one, a free pair of £219 ($249.99 in the U.S.) Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, is one of its best offers yet and hints at the company’s pricing strategy for the rest of the year.
Samsung Brings Back A Serious Freebie For Galaxy S26 Ultra Buyers
Samsung is giving away a free pair of Galaxy Buds 4 Pro with every Galaxy S26 Ultra purchase in the U.K. if the code “S26UP” is used at checkout (spotted by SamMobile). I tried it and it works, but I’m not sure how long it will last for.
That freebie is stacked with a straight £100 off ($134) and a further £200 ($268) prepaid Mastercard that’s loaded on to your Samsung Wallet. Altogether that deal is worth £519 ($696) and represents one of Samsung’s more serious promotions so far for the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
It’s not uncommon for Samsung to give away free hardware with its flagship phones in the U.K. At least it wasn’t. But as the RAM crisis has taken hold, I’ve seen fewer (if any) free laptops, tablets, watches and earbuds, until now.
Clearly, Samsung is prioritising keeping its flagship as competitively priced as possible (and perhaps trying to steal a bit of the WWDC limelight this week) despite battling rising manufacturing costs.
That is obvious in Samsung keeping the price of the Galaxy S26 series flat in the U.S. at launch, while raising prices for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Galaxy S25 Edge and potentially the upcoming Galaxy A27 if leaks are accurate.
A recent offer that knocked a surprise $500 off the Galaxy S26 Ultra also proves that the Korean company is protecting its prized asset. Pre-Galaxy S26 launch leaks suggested the company would do exactly this.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra Has Lost Some Things
It’s not all rosy, some freebies and offers have disappeared this year. A free Perplexity Pro subscription that was available to all Samsung Galaxy users in 2025 has expired, the Korean company confirmed to me.
The “APP5” discount code that knocked a further 5% off purchases through the Samsung Shop app is also gone. Three months free of Amazon Music was briefly bundled with the Galaxy S26 series, but that has disappeared too.
Some of the deals have been weaker, too. A promotion on May 12th was $30 less than the equivalent Galaxy S25 Ultra deal from the same period last year.
But a Memorial Day sale made amends. The Galaxy S26 Ultra price dropped to $1,049.99, knocking $250 off and beating the equivalently timed S25 Ultra deal from 2025. Then came the $999.99 promotion, which was $500 off with a free storage upgrade from 256GB to 512GB. That deal only $50 more than the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s best price, $849.99, on Black Friday.
What can Galaxy phone buyers learn from this? A holiday is the best time to buy your hardware, even in a time of rising prices.
Father’s Day Changes The Galaxy S26 Ultra Calculation
This is a Father’s Day promotion. The $250 and $500 discounts were in or around Memorial Day, too. So the pattern is clear: Samsung is concentrating its best deals on major shopping holidays rather than rolling out modest discounts throughout the year. Prime Day and Black Friday will almost certainly follow the same logic. There may be some World Cup price cuts too.
For buyers, that means waiting for a random sale is less likely to pay off than it used to. Waiting for the next public holiday almost certainly will.
The real test comes in November. Can Samsung match the $850 Galaxy S25 Ultra price from last year with the RAM crisis in the background? Current evidence suggests it could well do. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment, the pattern now tells you exactly when that moment is.
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