New replacement iPhone 5 with AppleCare plus?

[Vell843]

I have an iPhone 5 that I have had since September 2012. No problems really except for had to get battery replaced. Now my sleep/wake/ button seems to only be responsive when I press on the edge of it. My question is when/if I go to apple store and get my phone replaced, will it be refurbished or brand new? Current phone is covered under AppleCare plus until October 2014.

 

[eyoungren]

I have an iPhone 5 that I have had since September 2012. No problems really except for had to get battery replaced. Now my sleep/wake/ button seems to only be responsive when I press on the edge of it. My question is when/if I go to apple store and get my phone replaced, will it be refurbished or brand new? Current phone is covered under AppleCare plus until October 2014.

It doesn't matter.

Assuming they do not repair your iPhone (some Apple stores can do this now) they will pull a white box out. The white boxes have a mix of new/refurb devices.

The refurbs are wiped and all components are tested. Anything that fails is replaced and the phone gets an entirely new casing. Then it goes back through quality control and through rigorous testing. This is what will happen to your phone if Apple replaces it.

You cannot tell the difference. You'd have to check the serial to see if it's new or not.

Hence, my answer – it doesn't matter. The quality is the same.

 

[T5BRICK]

Most likely it'll be refurbished, but eyoungren is right, there isn't any way to know without checking the serial number.

I'm curious why it matters? Regardless of new or refurbished status of the replacement phone, it'll have the remainder of your warranty. I mean, you're taking in a phone that is more than a year old that has a defective component. If Apple replaces it with an equivalent device, I don't see why there'd be an issue. Apple refurbs are EXCELLENT quality. Every Mac I've purchased was a refurb, I've purchased a refurb iPad, they all looked NEW aside from the brown box packaging.