Pro Tips: how to pre-order your iPhone 7 as fast as possible tonight

iphone7 pre-order apple store app

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus pre-orders go live at 12.01am PT Friday morning, and as always, first come will be first served as supply is expected to be limited during the first few weeks. But fear not, because we have a few tips on how to make sure you get your pre-order in as fast as possible to put all the chances of getting a new iPhone on day one on your side.

Use the Apple Store app

Historically, the Apple Store app has been much more reliable than the website itself. I personally encountered caching issues on Apple.com before where the pre-order page was live, yet my browser was still caching the version showing the Apple Store was down. In contrast, I, and many other people were never let down by the Apple Store app, which can be downloaded for free from the App Store.

Log in, then update your primary payment and shipping info

You have the Apple Store app on your phone, great! Now you must make sure that you are logged in using your Apple ID, and that you update your Primary Payment and Primary Shipping information. To do so, navigate to the Account tab from within the app and double check your payment and shipping details. This alone can shave a few seconds or minutes off of your pre-ordering process.

Know what you want to buy and mark it as Favorite

If you don’t know what kind of iPhone you want to buy, then you’d better figure it out asap. Once you do, go through the buying process by selecting the model, carrier, finish, and capacity in the Apple Store app, then save your pre-order as Favorite by tapping the Heart icon. When time comes, you can quickly access your favorites from the Account tab of the app. No need to go through the whole process again. You just saved yourself a minute.

Make separate purchases

In the eventuality that you’d be buying two or more devices, I suggest securing at least one first, and make subsequent purchases under separate orders. Once again, the goal is to minimize time spent securing an iPhone. Adding a second iPhone to your order could make you lose precious seconds that could end up putting you on back order. Been there, done that. While we’re buying two new iPhones as well as one Apple Watch in my household tonight, they will all come under separate orders. 1. My iPhone. 2. My Apple Watch. 3. My wife’s iPhone. Please don’t tell her that though…

Pay using Apple Pay

If you have a Touch ID-enabled device, then your best bet is to pay using Apple Pay. Because you don’t have to enter any credit card number or verification code, this is the fastest method of payment.

Have a backup plan

I really want the iPhone 7 in Jet Black with 128GB of storage, but there are chances that it will already be out of stock by the time I make my pre-order. This is why I have a back up plan, and that back up plan is an iPhone 7 in Black with 128GB of storage. Same phone with a different finish. Worst case scenario, I’ll order that one and maybe try to return it to Apple later on to swap it for the model I actually want.

Familiarize yourself with the buying process

If you haven’t bought anything from the Apple Store app recently, it would be a good idea to go through a dummy buying process. Select anything in the store, add it to your Favorites, add it to your bag, and go all the way till you’re being asked for payment. Again, we want to minimize surprises, and the best way to do that is to make sure you know your way around the app.

Be prepared for the worst case scenario

Having done that for many years now, I know that you must be ready for the worst case scenario. For us, the worst case scenario could be that the Apple Store app won’t refresh, or that our payment method is not accepted. For that reason, I suggest you get your iPad, or computer in front of you as well as one credit card, just in case. Doing so, you’ll have something to fall back onto should the app or your payment method be acting up.

What are your tips?

Do you have some tips of your won? Please make sure to share them with us in the comments section below.