iPhone SE (2016) Refurbished w/ new battery VS brand new from China

[treeroy]

Hi,

My iphone 7 is basically non functioning and I am going to replace it imminently.
I do not want to spend much money. I don't particularly care for having a top end phone at all and as I'm trying to save every penny at the moment for a new car in a few weeks - i really can't afford to buy something fancy.

As it happens my favourite iphone is the SE, my last one died when it was flushed down the toilet,. But they are not sold any more.

I am looking at two options:

1) iphone SE, refurbished grade A from an online retailer. They have good reviews and they fit it with a new battery before dispatching it. 12 month warranty.

2) brand new iphone SE. There are multiple sellers on ebay selling brand new SEs. I am not sure how/why they have leftover stock... these are individual sellers and they are all from China. They claim to have warranty but the odds on some bloke in China fixing my phone is around 0 i'm thinking. Also they say doesn't come with charger/box etc which seems odd to me if the phone is new. "open and unused"

Price difference is not much, so that aside, what would you think is the safer option?

My experience of refurbished phones is quite poor, fyi, the only reason i'm considering it is because it comes with a new battery.

Many thanks.

 

[nicho]

2) brand new iphone SE. There are multiple sellers on ebay selling brand new SEs. I am not sure how/why they have leftover stock... these are individual sellers and they are all from China. They claim to have warranty but the odds on some bloke in China fixing my phone is around 0 i'm thinking. Also they say doesn't come with charger/box etc which seems odd to me if the phone is new. "open and unused"

Just a thought on this - replacement iPhones in China are not allowed to come from refurbished stock. The replacements are brand new, Apple still makes a small amount to satisfy warranty obligations etc in this way. These may be unopened warranty replacements (ie, SE breaks, get a new one, buy something else and sell that)

 

[treeroy]

Just a thought on this - replacement iPhones in China are not allowed to come from refurbished stock. The replacements are brand new, Apple still makes a small amount to satisfy warranty obligations etc in this way. These may be unopened warranty replacements (ie, SE breaks, get a new one, buy something else and sell that)

Interesting, so Apple still produces iphone SEs for the chinese market?
I am assuming these chinese versions would not be any different from the versions that were sold here (Europe for me)...

 

[nicho]

Interesting, so Apple still produces iphone SEs for the chinese market?
I am assuming these chinese versions would not be any different from the versions that were sold here (Europe for me)...

Any Chinese-market phone would differ from others in that it would lack the Taiwan flag and FaceTime Audio would not exist. There is no way to enable these features, changing region settings does not help.

 

[treeroy]

Any Chinese-market phone would differ from others in that it would lack the Taiwan flag and FaceTime Audio would not exist. There is no way to enable these features, changing region settings does not help.

I don't use facetime so that isn't an issue. Interesting.

As for a refurbished phone - if it has a new battery is there any downside to having a second hand phone? I'm not concerned about the physical condition more the software side of things.

 

[freeagent]

I bought a certified preowned from my carrier and it is a brand new phone. No marks, scratches, everything is prestine, and the battery is 100%, for nearly half the price of a brand new one. I bought the phone for 856 CAD, a savings of 785. I paid just over 100 for tax.