YOU might never need to pay full price for an iPhone again.
There’s a clever Apple shopping trick that dramatically slashes the cost of buying a new smartphone.
It turns out that Apple has a special section on its website with heavily discounted items.
This little-known Refurbished section of the Apple Store has discounts of up to £450 on iPhone models.
Importantly, it’s Apple refurbishing these items to a like-new condition, so you’ll get a fresh battery, a restored handset, and all of the usual accessories.
But it’s far cheaper than buying a brand new handset.
HOW DOES THE REFURBISHED APPLE STORE WORK?
The idea of buying a refurbished product might be an instant turn-off to you – but don’t let it be.
When it’s Certified Refurbished, the product has gone through a strict process to make it as good as possible.
And it’s fully tested before being handed over to you.
Here’s Apple’s official explanation: “You will receive a refurbished device with genuine Apple replacement parts (as needed) that has been thoroughly cleaned and inspected.
“Refurbished iOS devices will come with new battery and outer shell.
“Every device will come with all accessories, cables and operating systems.”
You’ll also get a one-year limited warranty like normal.
And you can still cover the products with AppleCare if you choose.
So there are almost no downsides compared to buying a brand new device – and the savings are significant.
HOW MUCH CHEAPER IS A REFURBISHED IPHONE?
Your saving will depend on the exact iPhone model that you’re looking to buy.
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For instance, an iPhone 13 in Midnight with 128GB of storage is currently down from £499 to £419 – saving you £80.
If you want a refurbished iPhone 14 Pro Max in Gold with 256GB of storage, you’ll save £250 – with a priec cut from £1,099 to £849.
One of the biggest savings is on the iPhone 13 Pro Max in any colour option and with 1TB of storage.
The price comes down from £1,549 to just £1,099 – saving you £450 overall.
WAIT! DON’T UPGRADE JUST YET…
Here’s some advice from The Sun’s tech expert Sean Keach…
It might be tempting to splash out on a brand new model, but hold your horses.
If your iPhone is getting slow and the battery life is dropping up, don’t feel like you need to spend big.
You could just pay for a battery swap, which is far cheaper.
The problem with all smartphones is that they use lithium-ion batteries, which get worse as they charge and discharge.
So you’d expect a phone battery to hold around 80% of its original maximum capacity after 500 of these charging cycles.
That probably takes about two years.
So if you’ve had an iPhone for a while, it might end up with poor battery life – and degraded performance as the software tries to protect the battery.
Instead of upgrading, you could just pay for a new battery from Apple.
This restores the iPhone’s battery life to a like-new condition.
And as a result, iPhone performance gets a boost too.
You might need to pay, although it’s not as expensive as upgrading.
And there are some ways to dodge paying too.
If you’ve got a defective battery and you’re still within the one-year warranty then it’ll be covered.
And secondly, AppleCare+ will get you a free battery swap if it’s less than 80% of its original capacity.
Otherwise, you’ll need to fork out a small fee – check out The Sun’s guide to iPhone battery swap prices here.
One of the biggest percentage savings is on the iPhone 13 Pro Max with 128GB of storage.
That comes down from £1,049 to £679, saving you £370 or around 35% of the full price.
The good news is that the Certified Refurbished Apple Store doesn’t just stock iPhones.
You can also grab products from the following lines:
- Mac
- iPad
- Apple Watch
- AirPods
- Apple TV
- HomePod
- Accessories
The bad news is that the newest iPhone model you can get on the Refurbished Apple Store right now is from the 14-series.
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So if you want an iPhone 15 or iPhone 16, you’ll have to either buy new, wait for a refurbished version to come up, or shop around elsewhere.
It’s worth checking back on the Refurbished Apple Store regularly, as available models and prices do change over time.
