Buying a Refurbished iPhone: An Affordable iPhone Risk-Benefit Analysis

Devices marked as “refurbished” are more often than not used. The seller is responsible for cleaning the devices, resetting them to factory default, and conducting any repairs deemed necessary. Unlike smartphones sold by private parties refurbished smartphones sold by businesses often come with some sort of warranty and very often accept returns should the device not fit the description or meet your expectations.

Older devices often suffer from poor batteries, and many sellers replace batteries with significant loss in capacity with new ones. Depending on seller we would expect a battery health of at least 80 to 88 percent. Upon further inquiry we were told that original OEM parts are rarely ever used given the general and well-documented unavailability of Apple OEM parts. However, the batteries used instead are supposed to be of no lesser quality than the originals.

The better-known refurbished iPhone retailers are Apple itself, Back Market, and Woot. Some sellers offer devices in various conditions with prices decreasing with increased wear and tear. More details below.

Many sellers differentiate between various levels of condition, such as good, very good, or like new. Due to lack of a universal definition every seller can define any condition as they deem appropriate. However, as a general rule of thumb devices that are in better condition tend to be more expensive. In order to demonstrate the differences between three different levels we received three iPhone X models in three different conditions from Back Market.

The devices in good and very good condition differ mainly by the location of their respective scratches. While one of the devices shows scratches on the display and backside the other has a lot of them on the side. Even the device deemed in excellent condition showed a few minor scratches on the backside but was otherwise in like-new condition. All three devices serve as excellent examples of what to look out for in refurbished iPhones.

All things considered it is virtually impossible to give any recommendations as to what condition you should prefer. Given that each seller can make up their definitions as they go some devices sold as “good” can be in better condition than others sold as “very good”.

The most important thing to keep in mind is to inspect the battery for signs of swelling right away and take a very good look at the entire device, front and back (and sides). Many sellers offer a short return window should the device not meet our expectations.

Apple’s update policy is highly commendable by and large. Most iPhones get at least five years of full software support. If, for example, you purchase an iPhone X that was first released in November of 2017 today you can rest assured to receive at least iOS 15 and 16, if not more. The device is thus going to be in full support at least until the release of iOS 17 in late 2023, which is more than many Android smartphones released in the last few months will receive.

Once an iPhone falls out of active support by Apple it might start losing access to apps. This is particularly likely for applications with high security or performance requirements, such as for example banking apps. For example, the Chase Mobile and American Express apps requires at least iOS 13.0 and 13.2, respectively, while the Bank of America app still supports iOS 12.4 and Wells Fargo goes back as far as iOS 12.0 or later. You will thus not be able to run the Bank of America or the American Express app on an iPhone older than the iPhone 6S.