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With every new release, brand-new smartphones make a bigger dent in our wallets. Just a couple of years ago a decent flagship phone would cost £700, today the latest high-end Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G carries an eye-watering price tag of £1,229. Besides extremely high financial cost, newly manufactured phones cost the earth to make. As a result of these two issues, refurbished smartphones have rapidly gained popularity and are now widely available from major phone makers and retailers.
Refurbished smartphones are an appealing choice in a number of ways. First of all, they are cheaper and deliver the same feel as a brand-new phone. Moreover, refurbished devices tick the sustainability box as no raw material mining has been involved in producing them. This isn’t something phones manufactured from scratch can boast of.
Image: WeSellTek
If you’re looking for your next phone and want it to deliver plenty of value for money without sacrificing on specifications, refurbished market makes total sense. There are phones available that will please both the killer phone hunters and those who are not so fussed about what phone to make calls with. At the moment, the oldest and still supported iPhone costs less than £100. Apple’s generous software support for 5+ years gives people confidence to choose an older generation iPhone, because it will be capable of running the latest iOS for a good few years and won’t cost an arm and a leg.
But what iPhones do people go for when buying refurbished? We have dug into our data and top three most popular refurbished iPhones in 2021 are:
The iPhone X and iPhone 8 went on sale in 2017 and have been recently updated to the latest iOS 14.5. At a starting price of £259.99 for an unlocked iPhone X and £145.99 for an unlocked iPhone 8 these are decent options 4 years down the line. Surprisingly, an iPhone 7 is also one of the preferred iPhone models among buyers and the reason behind it making its way into people’s baskets could be the starting price of £114.99. Given how desirable iPhones are among children, buying a refurbished iPhone for your kid as a first phone suddenly has a tonne of benefits.
Read more: What Are Refurbished Phones? A Complete Guide
On the Android side of things, Samsung phones are the most popular with the Galaxy S8 and S10 being in the top 5 along the iPhones we’ve mentioned above. In 2021 you can find a refurbished Galaxy S8 for as little as £162.99, and just two years old Galaxy S10 at a starting price of £249.99 can save you in the excess of £250 when buying refurbished. Compared to iPhones, Samsung, and Android phones in general, miss out on lengthy software support and when choosing Android devices make sure to check the guaranteed amount of years the manufacturer will release security and software updates for this particular model.
If getting a refurbished phone sounds like a good idea, but you have questions about warranties and conditions and how refurbished phones compare to brand-new, head over to our guide here to find all the answers you need and learn why refurbished is totally worth it.
Prices mentioned in the article correct on 05/05/2021
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