iPhone / iOS Thread

[marcos_eirik]

Finalgear hive mind, I need your assistance!

My son is looking for a new phone, and since he's into the Apple ecosystem now he's reluctant to switch back to android.
However, as he's young iPhones are eye wateringly asspensive, so he thought it would be a good idea to get an older model. Apparently you can still buy a 12 nowadays, but I think this is a bad idea, as it will lose support quite soon (he may get iOS 18 in a few months time and then it's over).

A 13 (like I have) works, but because 700+€ he's looking at refurb ones around 400€, anyone have any experience with these? Are they worth it? And is "excellent" condition just a word they throw around. He's of course scared of getting something that's scratched to hell, or with a battery which has 81% life left in it, but doesn't want to spend basically double the amount just to be getting and new "old" one...

Ideas?

I bought an off the shelf 13 mini (purely for its size) about 9 months ago, got a nice discount on it. As for Apple's certified refurbished, you'd never know it was second hand, they get a new display, casing and battery. In that respect the 13 is the optimal value phone in Apple's lineup.

 

[NooDle]

Well we took the risk and bought the refurb 13 mini, from swappie.com. We did opt for the "best" possible condition though.
It's completely mint and was like 200€ less than a brand new one. So, so far so good.
Battery life is also at like 97% or so, so our fears may have been unjust.

I'm actually quite jealous, because a 13 mini is a lot better size wise compared to my "normal" 13 come to think of it...