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For a good few years, we've been seeing a bunch of Android phones and iPhones get released every year, with manufacturers telling us that the phone we currently have is no longer trendy and we *need* to have the next big thing. Same features come out under different phone brands, making it difficult for a consumer to justify the necessity to part with hundreds of pounds. On top of that, after experiencing the electronic chip shortage during 2020-2023 which caused delays in smartphone releases and subsequently higher prices for new phones, begs the question do brand-new phones even make sense? Consumers pay a lot of money for a phone that isn’t that much different in specifications to the previous model. That’s not to say innovations are not worth paying for, sometimes they are, but it very much depends on whether the phone you get in the box is as good as the manufacturer's adverts promote or whether you're better off looking for a good deal on something else.
Generally, when something costs as much as £1000, it needs to offer the same amount of value. Recent releases have proven it’s not the case with modern high-end smartphones. Flagships from Apple, Samsung, OnePlus and Google are no longer offering what other smartphones don’t or even their previous generations. On the contrary, for £500 you can get yourself a decent phone with good performance and battery life which isn’t going to differ from established flagships (and might be even better).
Just looking at the iPhone 14 series, the depreciation rate after a couple years on the market is record-breaking and that’s not a good thing. Since its launch in September 2022, the iPhone 14 series has lost on average 47.80% of RRP in its first year on the market.
Its first 12 months on the market, the iPhone 14 512GB saw a 50% drop in value or £497- that’s huge! Whilst the iPhone 14 Pro Max 1TB dropped a whopping £920 which is the worst depreciation among the whole iPhone 14 lineup and any iPhone ever, hitting a £76 drop each month.
Have you noticed how manufacturers are creating the buzz around one particular feature to get everyone excited about the upcoming model? The high refresh rate and 100X camera zoom hype are examples of the latest craze, but once the phones hit the market and reviews start coming through, it turns out these features bring limitations and something that you pay extra for is just a gimmick. Additionally, brand-new features are never spot on, it takes a few follow up releases for it to be worth the attention and your money. So why not go one year older and save yourself a few hundred quid.
We talk a lot about refurbished phones, but we’ll say it again: if you want to save money on your next phone and you haven’t considered a refurbished smartphone, you should. They don’t have huge depreciation drops like brand-new phones as soon as you unbox it. They have all the modern features that an avid smartphone owner wishes to have. They function like brand-new and look similar, with the same warranties, but for cheaper. You won’t even notice the difference in daily use. On top of that, refurbished phones save carbon emissions as they weren’t produced from scratch.
Buying a refurbished iPhone 15 instead of a brand-new can save at least £500 off the cost (for example iPhone 15 128GB in 'Premium' condition is £599 vs brand new £899), but you can save even more if you’re fine with it having a few superficial scratches.
Undoubtedly, some people would still prefer brand-new and not everyone will be happy to buy a refurbished phone, but shopping around and looking at alternatives is a good place to start before you get your next phone. For those of us that don't fawn over the latest releases the benefits are plenty.
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