Samsung is letting you reserve a phone it literally hasn’t announced yet

What’s better than pre-ordering a phone the day it’s announced? How about reserving it a whole week before the company even admits that it exists? That’s exactly what’s happening with the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

To its credit, Samsung isn’t asking for you to pay for the Note 9 up front in order to reserve it, and nor is it requesting you put down a deposit.

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When we signed up to see what would happen, we got through an email almost immediately, telling us that we were “in line to get the next Galaxy”. But given that we haven’t had to pay any money we imagine that this “line” is likely to get pretty lengthy.

When reserving your phone (something that only appears to be available to US customers), you’re asked the standard questions about your device.

You’ll need to provide a first and last name, email address and zip code, and you’ll also need to choose what network you want the phone for.

Samsung is also saying it’ll give you up to $450 off your Note 9 if you trade in an old device. We imagine you’ll have to have a near-mint condition Samsung Galaxy S9 or iPhone X to get anything near this amount, but it could be worth doing if you want a convenient way to get rid of your old device.

The unconfirmed confirmed device

Everyone knows Samsung is announcing the Note 9 next week, despite the fact it officially doesn’t exist. And yet, actually taking reservations for it still seems a little strange.

We all know the handset is coming, but many of us still expected Samsung to play the game of pretending that the phone doesn’t exist yet.

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That said, there’s a chance this reservation page might not be for the Note 9 at all. Since the page refers to it as a ‘Galaxy device’, it could technically be the rumoured Samsung Galaxy Watch — but we wouldn’t bet on it.

How do you feel about reserving a phone before it’s officially announced? Let us know @TrustedReviews.