Buying a refurbished iPhone: is it a good idea?

Provided: ‘refurbished’ (iPhone) is not a protected name. Every online store can say that it sells refurbished devices. Some Marktplaats sellers also refer to their used iPhones as refurbished. This is misleading because an originally refurbished iPhone has been checked in all respects by a professional party and comes with a money-back guarantee and technical warranty. For these reasons, we prefer a refurbished iPhone from a (web)shop to the blue eyes of a Marktplaats seller.

There are several refurbished iPhone providers in the Netherlands. A handful of well-known vendors Quality mark Refurbished This means the quality of the provider, the certainty of the smartphone and a two-year warranty.

Swappie is not (yet?) affiliated with this quality brand, but uses similar terms, so including a two-year warranty on every iPhone sold. At Swappie’s invitation, we’re testing a refurbished iPhone 11 to check its quality and compare it to a new iPhone 11.

That two-year warranty is instantly recognizable because you get it on a new iPhone, too. Swappie sells iPhones in all colors and storage configurations through their website. The options regarding the condition of the device are interesting: Fair, Very good and New. Swappie says the iPhone should work like new anyway.

A model in good condition with obvious signs of use such as dents and deep scratches. If you pay two tens more for the iPhone 11 you will receive a device with ‘scratches, nicks or other marks’. For seventy euros more you’ll get an iPhone with ‘minor signs of use like minor scratches but no glaring marks’. We chose the latter condition, and indeed: the bright red iPhone is like new, except for a barely visible scratch on the screen.

A tip: The original battery is standard on the iPhone and may have been charged multiple times and therefore shows wear. Swappie guarantees that such a battery has at least eighty percent of its original capacity, but for twenty euros more you get an iPhone with a new battery. We think this is a wise investment, especially if you want to use the device for years to come.

The refurbished iPhone seller can purchase used devices in a number of ways. All models purchased are thoroughly tested before they go on sale, so the seller stands behind quality. Hence the two-year warranty. When it comes to swappie, the company says it tests every iPhone at 52 technical points upon arrival.

Notable: We can’t find what Swappie is testing on the website. Some opponents call all the dots by name. All in all, it doesn’t matter, because you can assume all the important stuff has been tested, otherwise you’ve got fourteen days of money and a two-year technical warranty.

The ‘like new’ iPhone 11 we tested for this article works perfectly well and really feels like new. One thing to note: the website is reasonably concealed that the water and dust resistance of the smartphone is no longer guaranteed. Swappie took the device apart and put it back together. There is no adapter in the iPhone box but there is a lightning cable to charge the battery.

There are two main reasons to choose a refurbished iPhone over a new iPhone. First of all, the price: a revised model is cheaper by tens to hundreds of euros. We will return to this issue at the end of this article.

The second reason is that a refurbished iPhone is better for the environment. After all, instead of buying a brand new smartphone, an existing iPhone gets new life. The more people buy used smartphones, the less new ones need to be produced. This saves on raw materials and CO2 emissions. Swappie – logically – places a lot of emphasis on both benefits of a refurbished device.

An important consideration with a refurbished iPhone is software support. Apple ships all of its iPhones with iOS software and warrants five to six years of updates per model. The update period is valid from the date of release of the iPhone, not from the moment of purchase of the smartphone. The iPhone 11 we tested was released in September 2019. So it’s almost three years old or halfway through its update policy.

If you’re looking for a smartphone that you can use for a few more years, a model in the iPhone 11 series is a great choice. We don’t recommend an older phone like the iPhone 8 or iPhone X, both from 2017 because software support is likely to end this year or next. You can go for years with a newer (and more expensive) model like the iPhone 12 (from 2020).

Swappie’s refurbished iPhone 11 makes a good impression because – as promised – it looks like new, works well and comes with a two-year warranty. So, the iPhone 11 we tested comes close to a new copy, especially if you pay twenty euros more for a new battery.

The most important point that comes to mind about this renewed iPhone is the sale price. The selling price of the version we tested was 429 euros, and 449 euros with the new battery. You can find a real new iPhone 11 (red, 64 GB memory) in well-known (web) stores for 529 euros. If we compare apples—excuse apples—to apples, we get a price difference of eighty euros.

The question is, did you put that difference in your pocket with a refurbished iPhone, or did you spend a little more on a truly new iPhone that is waterproof and dustproof, for example.