Best refurbished phones in the UK: How pre-loved gadgets can help you save money

Is a refurbished phone more eco-friendly?

Experts agree: buying your smartphones renewed instead of new is an eco-friendlier way of upgrading your gadgets.

“People are into having tech products to be connected to their friends, their family or to work; technology is everywhere,” Thibaud Hug de Larauze, the co-founder and CEO of Back Market, one of the most prominent second-hand technology marketplaces, told Good Housekeeping. “So how do we make more with less while we need more tech products? We have to make them last longer.”

“I think the biggest challenge of the century is fighting climate change,” he adds. “If you have kids, you want them to enjoy their life and maybe have grandkids that will do the same, so our responsibility is to stop emitting too much Co2 emissions. And that means doing more with less.”

Why buy a refurbished phone instead of a new one?

There are two benefits to going refurbished: savings and sustainability. It is usually the case that a pre-loved handset won’t cost as much when compared to going brand new. You can save even more money if you don’t mind having an older model, too. Take the iPhone as an example. The base handset in the latest iPhone line-up starts around £800 if you buy it new, however, an older refurbished iPhone will be available for under £400 on Back Market, and under £300 if you don’t mind seeing a few blemishes and getting it in “fair” condition.

Making tech go further, for longer, means it’s eco-friendly to buy a refurbished phone instead of a new one. It makes sense that refurbished smartphones – due to reusing finite materials that are intensive to source, mine and move – reduce a device’s overall carbon footprint and help to reduce e-waste from the manufacturing process. Plus, fewer unused handsets end up in landfills so soon after purchase.

Research from the WEEE forum found that, of the 16 billion phones found around the world in 2022, 5.3 billion became waste that was thrown away rather than recycled.

Where to buy a refurbished smartphone

Shopping via Back Market, musicMagpie or Giffgaff saves you money on iPhones, Google Pixels or Samsung Galaxys, especially older models that are no longer available on the high street.

Networks (like O2 and EE) sell refurbished phones, too. And that’s no surprise given the increasing demand. Research indicates more than a million adults in the UK bought a refurbished phone between 2021 and 2022, with millions more considering one when it comes to their next upgrade.

Here are a few options we'd consider for refurbished phones:

• Apple Certified Refurbished Store
• Samsung Certified Refurbished Store
• Back Market
• Amazon Renewed
• eBay
• Music Magpie
• Giffgaff
• Argos
• EE
• Vodafone
• O2

How are refurbished phones graded?

Refurbished phones are always given a grading based on their physical condition. That’s how many marks, blemishes or scratches were picked up from the previous use. Every website or marketplace uses different ways of describing this, but most use a system from “good” to “excellent”. The devices with the most marks will be the most affordable, while pristine handsets always cost you more.

Take Back Market: there you’ll find every phone has a grading of “fair” (where there could be tiny scratches on the display and visible marks or dents on the phone’s case), “good” (where the screen is in perfect condition, but the body may have micro-scratches visible from 20cm away) or “excellent” (the display is in perfect shape and any micro-scratches on the body won't be noticeable from 20cm away). For comparison, Giffgaff uses a grading system that goes from “good” to “like new”, while Amazon Renewed’s spectrum goes from “acceptable” to “excellent”.

What to look out for when buying a refurbished smartphone

Not all refurbished phones from all marketplaces are the same. In general, there are a few key things we’d pay attention to, so that you can make sure you have the best possible experience. Here’s what we recommend to keep in mind:

Warranty

Make sure the refurbished smartphone comes with a warranty, preferably from the retailer or manufacturer, to cover any defects or issues that you may experience after purchase.

A one-year warranty is typical, but you’ll find that you’re likely to get the best warranties from the manufacturer itself. Despite potentially higher prices, you’ll be best protected when getting a refurbished handset from Apple or Samsung, for example.

It’s also worth double-checking what the warranty covers. You should be protected against defects or issues with functionality, but you probably won’t have damage protection without extra insurance.

Return policies

If things do actually go wrong with your purchase, which can happen, it’s essential that you’re able to return the device and get a refund.

So, make sure to check the return policy of the refurbished retailer and the return process. It’s worth knowing exactly how this works, whether you have to pay for postage or whether it’s covered, and how many days you have before you’re unable to return a device that doesn't meet your expectations or has problems.

Condition

As explained above, when you’re picking a refurbished phone, you’ll notice that each retailer uses a grading system. This will have tiers like “Like New”, “Very Good” or “Good” or perhaps “Certified”, “Excellent”, and “Fair” designations.

Either way, we’d recommend finding the page on any refurbished retailer’s website where it explains exactly what kind of physical and functional condition you can expect with each level.

Battery health

A device’s battery life will always diminish over time, so the life that you can get from a refurbished phone might vary depending on where you buy it from.

For full battery health, buy a refurbished model directly from the manufacturer – both Apple and Samsung put brand-new batteries into the phones they sell as refurbished models.

If shopping from somewhere else, try to find out the battery health percentage or at least check if the battery health is linked to the condition tier of the phone. Sometimes, a handset in a lower tier may also be one with reduced battery health.

Original accessories

If possible, it’s worth finding out if the phone comes with its original charger.

Because many are compatible with easy-to-find USB-C cables, this check isn’t quite as essential when hunting for a refurbished phone as it is when trying to make sure a smartwatch comes with the correct charger or that a MacBook comes with the right MagSafe cable.

However, if you’re buying a refurbished iPhone, you’re at least going to want to be certain that it comes with a compatible Lightning cable so that you can charge it!

Read more: What is a refurbished phone? | Refurbished MacBook deals | Refurbished smartphone deals | Refurbished iPad deals | Refurbished Apple Watch deals

Buying a refurbished phone is a fantastic way to save money while shopping in a more sustainable way and making tech last longer. We know how easy it is to get swept up in the latest phone releases, but if you don’t need the latest model with the latest specs, buying used no longer means settling for a poor experience and is a great way to get a cheap smartphone. Marketplaces have vetting, testing and warranty policies, and we love that most offer a no-fuss returns process if the phone isn’t quite right.