There are several reasons why people buy a used smartphone. One of them is a principled position. People simply do not want to pay for a new gadget at the start of sales and prefer to buy it, but after a year. During this time, the price of a new smartphone may fall by a third, and in the secondary market it will cost half of this cost. As a result, the savings are very decent. But someone buys an old smartphone just because they like it very much, but is no longer released. Whatever the reason for the purchase, you need to do everything right so as not to miscalculate and not buy something that will only leave you feeling disappointed. In this article, you will find some tips on how to do this.
Can I buy a used smartphone?
Perhaps the advice given in this article will seem banal and too logical to you, but still not everyone knows it. In any case, many will find here something for themselves or simply generalize their knowledge so as not to be deceived.
How to buy a used smartphone
Before buying, you need to choose a smartphone. It is necessary to carefully study the ads. You should not rush to those that offer the lowest price. Especially if it is significantly lower than the rest. There is a possibility that the seller really urgently needs money, but the risk that something is wrong with the phone is significantly higher.
You should also avoid ads in which there are no photos at all or the photos are simply downloaded from the Internet. Sometimes such sellers say that they will answer all the questions, but it is better to buy from those who were not too lazy to photograph the device from all sides and described it in detail in the description.
It is also useful to check the seller's profile. If he has too many ads of the same type, most likely, he is a reseller, the price of which will be 10-30 percent higher than the device in the same condition from other sellers. If he has many similar ads for the sale of something else, but only one smartphone, then everything is fine. Although he is engaged in resale, he sells his smartphone. This shouldn't scare you off.
You can even buy a smartphone of the current generation from hand.
Pass by the announcements, which indicate that something is broken (and if this is not indicated, but it was revealed at the meeting too). First, why do you need this, and secondly, it can be a sign of more serious damage. For example, you will be told that “for some reason” NFC does not work. If you don't need it, you will ignore it, but such a refusal may be a sign that the phone has been drowned and is gradually dying. At the time of purchase, everything should work. If you still want a partially working device, feel free to knock down the price, even if you are not going to use the failed element.
Meeting with the phone seller
If you've been invited to your home to sell your phone, that's a good sign. This means the seller is not afraid that you will return with claims. Meeting “at the metro” is also an option, but the likelihood of deception will be slightly higher. The main thing is not to get into anyone's car and try not to enter the apartment. You never know what.
Be sure to take with you all the accessories that you want to use with this smartphone (headphones, cases, etc.), a SIM card, a memory card, a power adapter (or Power Bank) and a cable of the appropriate type to check charging. Even if the kit is complete, it is still better to have everything with you.
Is it possible to buy a phone without a box
I don’t think storing boxes of gadgets for several years is right (although I don’t throw everything out myself). Therefore, if there is a box, there will be more chances of success, but this is also not a guarantee. Some sellers on Gorbushka have learned not only to forge boxes, but even to seal them. As a result, they may even sell a used smartphone like new. You may have seen on Avito and other places advertisements for the sale of boxes from iPhone. This is exactly the case when you can buy a box for 500 rubles, and sell an old phone like a new one for 10,000 rubles more.
It's good to have a smartphone in a box, but it's not a quality indicator.
To check everything, look at how the information sticker is glued to the box. At the factory, it will never be pasted with bubbles and with foreign objects under it. But if the previous sticker was removed and a new one was glued in its place, there could be some debris that the seller did not pay attention to. Or just too lazy to remove them.
Checking IMEI before buying
If you buy a phone with a box, you need to check that the IMEI on it and in the phone settings matches. Restart your phone before checking. Sometimes scammers install software that displays the data they need. When you reboot, all this flies and all data about the phone will be real. If you check IMEI before and after the reboot, it will be great.
If the battery is removed, the IMEI can be found underneath it on the case. Be sure to look there too. IMEI should be the same wherever it is. Or the same if the phone has two SIM cards.
IMEI must be marked on the box.
There are services on the Internet that allow you to check IMEI, but I would not use it either, since their adequacy has not been proven, and there may be harm from them.
How to check your phone before buying
If the seller with his smartphone has passed all the stages of preliminary verification, you can deal directly with the device.
First of all, carefully examine your smartphone. If it has scuffs or scratches, then think for yourself how embarrassing you are and how willing you are to buy it for the indicated price. But if there are traces of a blow, then you need to think about it. After a fall, the delicate insides of the smartphone could be damaged and it will work slower or gradually fail. These are not my observations, but repairmen and even engineers with whom we worked a lot. It is worthwhile to strain if the case creaks or does not look like a real one. Perhaps it was changed.
If the interface between the screen and the case is damaged or the fastening screws under the battery (if removed) are damaged, this means that the phone has been disassembled. At the same time, with crooked hands. The question is – why did they do it? In any case, this is bad. Especially if he had protection from water. Exactly WAS – after such “repair” it will not be.
If there is a guarantee, that's good. Only now it will not always be possible to check it. Not all manufacturers provide a uniform service to test the possibility of warranty service. For example, for a vehicle Apple it can be found here. If the smartphone is in the database, you don't need any receipts or extra papers.
The screen should also be checked. First, on the broken pixels by running a solid color background and looking for color spots. Then you need to check the sensor. To do this, you can open some kind of menu, where there are many elements, and check the performance of as many zones as possible.
The display can be of any size. The main thing is that it works.
With the rest of the points, everything is more or less simple. Check if the smartphone is charging from the cable you brought and supplied. You also need to turn on music or video and listen to how the speakers work (if there are several of them, then all, sequentially covering them with your finger or hand). If there are no wheezing and everything is smooth, then they are in good order. And you definitely need to check the SIM card, moreover, in all the slots that are there, so that later it does not turn out that something is not working. Do not forget about the memory card as well, if it is supported by the smartphone. The headphone jack is rarely something that happens, but you can check it if you plan to use it.
How to check your phone battery before buying
Probably the hardest part to check is the battery. Even a running tester will not answer the question of whether the battery is alive. The only way to check would be to try to land him. To do this, while checking everything else or just chatting with the seller, turn on some 4K video over a cellular network, for example from YouTube. Even a battery that is not newest should not drain in five minutes more than a couple of percent. If the value falls by five percent or more, then battery replacement is already on the doorstep.
If your smartphone has wireless charging, it should work too.
Is it possible to buy a phone from hands
Although I am against buying used phones and even wrote a separate article about it, I respect the decision of people who prefer this option. In general, this is not a big deal. You just need to understand that any technique has a resource, part of which has already been worked out for used equipment.
That is why, before buying, you need to carefully check everything and do not hesitate to ask unnecessary questions. If for the seller this is not a business, he has nowhere to rush and has nothing to hide, he will treat inquiries with understanding and will be glad to receive the money. If they rush you and shy away from answers – this is another reason to think about what is happening.