Buying a used iPhone 4S. What should i look for?

I guess you could take a few SIMs with you and test em' out

Test the speakers, both eargrill and bottom speaker. Make a test call, check for loose buttons, screen leakage etc... Check if the cameras work all thatt

look for dents chips to see if it was drop
all 4s still have applecare so your good
check settings to see if its a 4s and has the right gb

First of all you should make sure it even is a 4S, and not a 4. The 4S has four antenna breaks on the outside while the iPhone 4 only has two. Also, the 4S will have Siri.

Then check button responsiveness, screen for dead pixels/sensitivity, sound quality, camera quality, whether phone calls and sms work, wifi, bluetooth, etc.

In order to check if it's unlocked, bring a different sim with you such as a T-Mobile one to make sure it works.

I can't remember exactly but i think if you switch it from vibrate to loud (back and forth) there would be a circle around the bell or something to indicate if there was water damage.
can someone correct me if im wrong?

Siri

Agent-P said:

First of all you should make sure it even is a 4S, and not a 4. The 4S has four antenna breaks on the outside while the iPhone 4 only has two. Also, the 4S will have Siri.

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The iPhone 4 on Verizon and Sprint also have four antenna seams as well, but no micro-SIM tray. The iPhone 4S on any carrier has the four seams and a micro-SIM tray. Also, I believe that you meant to say the GSM iPhone 4 has three seams, not two.

If you are able to inspect the phone in person look up the IMEI at http://www.dev.mk (enter the IMEI without any spaces). After up to twenty seconds or so of looking up the IMEI (I believe the sites checks Apple's servers, but I really don't know), it will tell you if the phone is locked or unlocked. I've used this site to see when AT&T finally processes my unlock requests for locked phones that are now out of contract so as to avoid restoring the iPhone to factory settings and then restoring from backup (which is what you have to do once AT&T's unlock request is put through in order to complete the unlock process). I don't believe it will tell you if it is a factory unlock or carrier-sanctioned unlock, but it will tell you if it's unlocked.

Now that I think about it, factory unlocked phones might have a different Apple part number, but you'd have to look into that further.

jent said:

The iPhone 4 on Verizon and Sprint also have four antenna seams as well, but no micro-SIM tray. The iPhone 4S on any carrier has the four seams and a micro-SIM tray. Also, I believe that you meant to say the GSM iPhone 4 has three seams, not two.

Click to expand...

Whoops, my bad. You are most definitely correct about that.

If you play around at store.apple.com, you'll find that the locked and factory unlocked phones indeed have different part numbers.

In the U.S. Apple Store Online, I added an on-contract (thus locked) 16GB black iPhone 4S on AT&T and in the web address it reveals the part number: MC918LL/A.
I did the same thing with a factory unlocked 16GB black iPhone 4S for AT&T and the web address has the part number listed as: MD234LL/A.

If I'm not mistaken, the part number is actually one of the few pieces of text printed on the back plate of the iPhone.

If you're meeting the seller face-to-face, do the following (assuming you're in the U.S.):
• Bring a non-AT&T micro-SIM card and put it in the phone. If it says "No Service" the whole time, that should mean it's locked. If it says "Searching" or actively shows the network name (such as "T-Mobile") then it's unlocked. Even a deactivated and/or foreign micro-SIM will work—it won't get signal but it will search instead of just saying there is no service.
• Look at the part number on the back of the iPhone per my instructions above.
• Look up the IMEI in Settings --> General --> About and plug it into http://www.dev.mk.

I presume you already met with the seller. How'd it go?