64% of readers do not buy a used or refurbished phone

Sustainability is important to us and so is price, yet no less than 64 percent of our readers say they would not buy a second-hand or refurbished phone. This is evident from our AW Poll this week.

Second-hand or refurbished?

To the question: ‘would you buy a second-hand or refurbished phone?’ the answers were considerably less variable than usual: 31 percent are considering a second-hand or refurbished phone, 46 percent do not think about it and 4 percent do not know. If we look at the difference between second-hand models and refurbished devices, we see that more readers would consider refurbished than second-hand (5 percent more). Yet the majority seems to prefer to buy a new phone.

There are many different reasons for this. People often notice that second-hand phones still contain information from previous users. Some people seem to find it a nice surprise, such as Karel-willem: “I once bought a second-hand Oneplus Two. It was still completely full of energy contracts that had been concluded with customers. “. RRRobert doesn’t seem to like it: “Bought a used phone once, it was good in itself, but there were still photos of the previous owner, even though the phone would have been provided with a factory reset.” In his own words, RRRobert also sees around him that people who buy refurbished telephones still run into tech problems.

Updates

Tukker also prefers a brand new device. “As long as I can afford to buy a new one, I’m more likely to get a cheaper unit than a used one. I have been using my device for 4 years. So as long as there are no 10 years of updates, I will not start.” Although the update policy of various smartphone makers is being improved, partly due to pressure from governments, we are indeed far from the 10 years of updates.

Ar.D gives a completely different reason why refurbished is not an option. “No, I think the price difference is too small. In addition, an acquaintance of mine once bought a refurbished iPhone. When I opened it to replace the battery, a few screws were missing and there was even a screw loose in the device. This could have led to a lot of problems.” Unfortunately, yet again complaints about the quality of refurbished. Very unfortunate that this is happening, because it should be an ideal option to give a smartphone a second life, with all the sustainability benefits that come with it.

Battery life becomes battery: duration

Vallinny van Stijn adds that you don’t really know how the battery is doing. Vallinny is absolutely right about this: if you are not sure that the battery has been replaced, then there is a good chance that problems will arise first. Probably even before the device has received all its years of updates. Finally, Hoi_roy does have a good smartphone policy at home: it gives his phones a second life within the family. A new device may be expensive, but Hoi_roy also makes it sustainable that way.

See you next week, then we’ll present you another brand new question in the AW Poll.