You told us: You have some opinions about buying refurbished phones

You don’t necessarily have to take the brand-new route when buying a smartphone, as refurbished phones can be a cost-effective option as well. These second-hand phones are usually much cheaper than going new and it theoretically helps to reduce electronic waste.

What do Android Authority readers think of buying refurbished phones though? We asked readers whether they’d take this route and here’s how they answered the poll.

Also read: Buying used Pixel phones: How to save money and avoid the pitfalls

Would you buy a refurbished phone?

Results

Over 2,700 votes were counted as of writing, and it turns out that there wasn’t a runaway favorite pick here. However, 34.82% of respondents said they had bought a refurbished phone before and would do it again.

Reader comments supporting this stance point to the great value on offer as well as new flagship pricing as being two motivating factors behind buying refurbished.

In second place was “I haven’t done it before but would do it,” accounting for 30.7% of the vote. This suggests that there’s still an untapped market for refurbished devices out there. We’re guessing that more attractive pricing, the extent of refurbishment, and after-sales support would help influence more people to take this route.

Related: Everything you need to know about refurbished smartphones

Meanwhile, 29.2% of polled readers say they haven’t and don’t ever plan to buy refurbished smartphones. Some reader comments in support of this choice point to trade-in offers for new devices as well as peace of mind as being two reasons for skipping the refurbished option.

Finally, just 5.29% of respondents say they’ve bought a refurbished phone but wouldn’t do it again. It’s a pretty small figure in comparison to the almost 35% of polled readers who took this route before and are happy to do it again.

Comments

• Joe Black: I do not personally buy refurbished for myself, but I bought refurbished Pixels for kids. Sometimes is hard to pick refurbished as some models have “dead” battery after 1 year of usage, iPhone 12 and older, jump in mobile photography, inexplicably high resale value some sellers demand, dead brands like Nokia, LG, HTCwith potentially zero updates etc.
• Brun0₂: Not unless it saves me like half the price. S22+ @ $500 levels of savings for me to consider it.
• mauricio chacon: If they replace the battery then yes. I bought an amazon certified refurbished pixel 1, the battery had a severe wear and you could see a gap in the screen and body. It only could give like 2h sot, then after 3 months, sudden death. Also pixel 5 from best buy open box “like new”, the screen was all scratched..
• creeper82: If it really was refurbished, then yes. But if it would consist of 1$ parts made in China and marked as “refurbished” then no thank you.
• Lamar Taylor: The cheapest way to upgrade isn’t buying refurbished…it’s buying brand new with trade in on launch day. Samsung gave an $850 credit for the GS22 Ultra on launch day after selling them my used GS21 Ultra. Samsung also included a free upgrade to the 256GB version. Most budget smartphones cost $500-$700 brand new but I got the top Android flagship for $500 new. I’ll take that all day over a used phone or budget phone.
• thesecondsight: When it comes to smartphones or “tech in general,” I always purchase my devices brand new. This ensures that there are no unpleasant surprises in performance.
• Darren Kinnersley: I was going to buy a brand new phone, but then saw a used redmi 10s from cex In the UK, the redmi had only been released 6 months before, and it was at a really amazing price, so I bought it, saved a shed load of money, and it will get security and os updates for years to come, opened my eyes.ill always look at used phones instead of brand new now
• Tony Talks: I’ve done it twice and would probably do it again. The phones were incredibly cheap compared to the MSRP however they only lasted a little over a year.
• Brian Glaze: My S10e is a refurbished phone from Amazon Renewed and it’s so good.
• Mr DadeCounty 305: I never purchased refurbished because there’s always some kind of crazy deal with Verizon. Either a trade-in or buy one get one so you technically never really pay for full price for a phone anymore
• DilbertDoe: I never buy new phones, only refurbished. Never had any problems. Only buy used cars too.
• Martin Pollard: I’ve done it twice already, and plan to do so again. With the prices of flagships (and flagship-wannabes) as high as they are these days, there would have to be a very compelling reason for me to consider buying new again, as opposed to getting last year’s hotness at a substantially reduced price.