All iPhones are like new refresh ref. Should you be afraid of refurbished iPhones? At the official Apple factory
Officially refurbished iPhone 5s with 32 GB of internal memory, which has already sold out in a matter of days. In this regard, Apple plans to continue supplying “like new” iPhone smartphones to Russian retailers.
After Apple, due to the collapse of the ruble, twice raised the price of its products, refurbished Apple communicators appeared in Russia.
What are refurbished iPhones?
What is the difference between new devices and refurbished ones? Imagine that a defect was discovered in your smartphone and an official Apple service center offered you to exchange it for a new one for free. After the exchange, a separate “file” is opened for the broken device, which indicates how long it was used, what problems experts found in it, etc. After this, the smartphone is sent along with a questionnaire to the factory to replace the defective parts.
A gadget equipped with new parts has its case and display changed to give it a marketable appearance, and the serial number changed. New accessories are then added to the device and packaged up. Refurbished iPhone is sold UNACTIVATED!
After all these manipulations, the smartphone is sent to the store, where it is put up for sale with the mark “ Refurbished" You can distinguish “refs” from new devices by markings - on the packaging of refurbished gadgets the type number FF (digital model identifier) RU/A is indicated, for example: FF353RU/A.
When purchasing a “like new” iPhone, the user is given a one-year warranty - during this time, in the event of problems that are not the fault of the owner, he can return the smartphone for free repair.
However, a distinction should be made between used gadgets and refurbished devices.
In the first case, if parts are replaced in them, this is done in a makeshift manner; in the second case, the gadget’s “filling” (display, case, battery) is changed at the factory, after which it is checked for defects.
In Russia, refurbished iPhones can be bought in the retail chains Svyaznoy, Tekhnosila, Yulmart, M.Video, Eldorado and others.
Please note that the box is official refurbished iPhone 5s looks like this:
Whereas on the box from new iPhone 5s There is an image of the smartphone itself:
The price for “refs” is significantly lower than the price for new devices. Thus, a refurbished iPhone 5s with 32 GB on board had a price tag of 26,000 to 29,000 rubles, depending on the retailer, while new devices are available at a price of 37,000 to 41,000 rubles per copy, depending on the configuration.
It's time to talk about the real quality of refurbished Apple products from personal experience. “REF” aka “Refurbished” or “Refurbished” is a device restoration program from Apple itself.
The essence of the program is painfully simple - to get rid of returned equipment. For example, a person bought an iPhone and found it was defective, he returns it to the Apple Store and gets a new one, and the old one is sent to the factory. There they “change” it into a new case, change the screen and battery, and correct the reason for the return.
Back on the market, such REF iPhones are delivered in sleek white boxes and, of course, with a new set of accessories.
It is also worth noting that all refurbished devices have a serial number starting with the letters FRD. Be careful if you buy an iPhone secondhand. 😉
After weighing all the pros and cons, I decided to purchase 16gb REF. It cost me $510 (I purchased it in February 2017). The same new iPhone at that time cost $600 or a little more, prices are relevant for Ukraine, in Russia it may be different.
But the joy of the purchase did not last long, this refurbished iPhone 6s served me for about five months and problems began.
On the fifth month of use, I had an unpleasant incident - my iPhone 6S did not light up the screen when I turned to it. Referring to the fact that it froze, I rebooted it and believed that the problem was solved, but every day such episodes occurred more and more often, and the reboot was not a panacea.
Later, realizing the problem, I began to figure out what could have happened. It turned out that the screen backlight did not light up periodically, but the screen itself functioned perfectly. Only one thing helped - press closer to the upper right corner of the iPhone display, after which the picture appeared.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t contact the official service because I have an “American” iPhone 6s, and in Ukraine service centers only work with “Europeans”. Without thinking twice, I decided to disassemble the iPhone itself in order to check the screen cable. Spoiler alert: that wasn't the problem.
By the way, I would like to note that the build quality of restored iPhones is absolutely indistinguishable from a new device straight from the factory.
Realizing that I had nowhere to go, I turned to a fairly popular commercial service and, having received a verdict of $150, went to a trusted specialist. The iPhone was under repair for more than a month.
Why so long? We simply could not determine the cause of the breakdown. There were three options: the backlight controller, a malfunction of the display module, and the saddest one - internal damage to the motherboard on the way from the controller to the cable. Guess which option I had :)
We fixed the malfunction of the display module immediately by simply installing the screen from my iPhone on an exactly working iPhone 6S, but resoldering the backlight controller did not give any result.
Now the most difficult thing remained: to find where exactly the track on the motherboard was damaged. Ultimately, the problem was eliminated, and we were unable to determine the specific cause, but one thing was clear for sure - this was a serious defect.
When giving me the iPhone, the master made it clear that I needed to get rid of this smartphone as soon as possible. Within a week I found a buyer and bad luck - during the inspection the camera module refused to work.
Turning to the master again, the verdict was no less terrible - this time the main camera controllers began to fail. By the way, they are located next to the breakdown site. Having restored the iPhone for the second time, I decided to exchange it for another smartphone with an additional payment. Some Ukrainian retailers provide this opportunity.
I chose between the Apple iPhone SE 32gb, Sony Xperia X Performance and Meizu Pro 7. Alas, neither Sony nor Meizu were available at that moment, but I needed to get rid of the 6S, so I took the iPhone SE 32gb Space Gray, this time a new one .
In the end
I can't say that this story ended completely well, but it will be useful for you so that you don't make my mistakes.
What angers me the most is Apple's approach to refurbished products. As practice shows, more and more owners of refurbished products have problems. The very idea of a device that can safely be called “like new” appeals to me, but the implementation is somewhere at the Samsung level.
Unfortunately, it is now the businessman who rules, not the genius.
For dubious savings, there is a high probability of getting a defective device, and on the secondary market such devices are more difficult to resell and often cost much less. When you buy a refurbished device, you are essentially playing the lottery.
Apple has developed products that people are very willing to buy. Even if they don’t have money, it’s not a fact that they don’t have a new apple iPhone 6s or iPad pro. The company's marketers competently created, are creating and will continue to create excitement around their creations. But what should entrepreneurs who also want to make money from the popularity and success of apple do? China opens up great opportunities for us, giving us the chance to work directly with suppliers, get the best prices, affordable quality, and most importantly, high profits.
There are no original new factory iPhones in China!
This truth must be understood, remembered and accepted. In China, there are only refurbished iPhones, and no matter what the supplier tells you, remember this. We are talking about goods for business, because in the original apple stores, of course, there are original phones and tablets, but there are simply no favorable prices for these items in the b2b segment. Let's talk in more detail.
What is a reference phone and what is the difference between it and the original new factory phone.
Refurbished (aka “ref”) is the same phone that was once bought by someone in the apple store, it was already turned on and was in use. Unfortunately, no seller will have the data on how much it was used; this information can be viewed on the official website when you look at the activation date using the IMEI number. The used phone is being dismantled.
It turns out he is there for various reasons:
- the owner loses it, finds an enterprising Chinese who sells it for disassembly
- they steal it, after which the same enterprising Chinese sells it for disassembly
- it is broken, drowned, etc., after which it is handed over for disassembly for a small fee
Next, during disassembly, the seller of refrigerated phones breathes second life into a dead, killed, stolen, or lost phone. He disassembles it, repairs it, replaces some of the original expensive spare parts with cheap Chinese ones (most often the screen module, camera, battery, original button, speakers, back cover, charging and headphone jack are changed), after which he assembles it and puts it up for sale. We all know about the quality of Chinese goods:
- class A quality
- class B quality
Each class is divided into at least 3-4 subclasses: BBB and AAA, where BBB is the worst quality of a product that you can pick up, and it will crumble without giving you a chance to look at it.
iPhone ref set
But what about the fact that the iPhone comes in a factory box, with an IMEI number sticker, in full? This is an original, not a ref. Any refurbished iPhone can be packed in a box and supplemented with a charger, cable, needle, headphones and instructions, after which everything is packed in mica.
The seller can even supply original components, can equip it with quality A, or, at the client’s request, can also shove in a terrible BBB copy. In China it's just a matter of cost. Also, if desired, an entrepreneur can purchase a refrigerated iPhone or iPad in a regular zipper bag, so as not to overpay for packaging, but, of course, we don’t think that this will have a positive effect on your sales of these devices.
How reliable are refs and can you trust them?
Among apple refurbished equipment, at least from our supplier, the defect rate is 10-15%. Unfortunately, in this group of products this percentage of defects is the minimum that can happen. While studying suppliers and developing this position for our clients, we came across 40-60% defective lots. The defect in this position is the performance of the devices: screen flickering, battery overheating, camera not working, Home button sticking, speakers working for a day. No one can say for sure whether this iPhone will work for a year or two, or whether in a week it will begin to please its owner with glitches.
An ordinary buyer will never be able to understand that he is using a referral iPhone, unless, of course, he checks on the Internet about the date of its activation. Iphon will work quickly, nimblely, on the same IOS system, since it is still the same used original Apple, but modified with some Chinese components.
Yes, your iPhone will be original, it will be new, without any scuffs and scuffs, it will work quickly, it will probably take good pictures, it will have iOS... but it will still be a ref, as new factory original apple products for business not in China.
It is quite natural that when planning to buy an iPhone for ourselves or as a gift, we are looking for the most favorable offer. The current state of the market has made this much more difficult. Many people still can’t wrap their heads around the fact that the two-year-old iPhone 5s model costs 35 thousand rubles. I paid the same amount for this smartphone 2 years ago, when it was the best smartphone from Apple. Finding a good deal may lead you to buy a refurbished iPhone, and if you're considering it, you'll want to be very careful.
It doesn't cost anything to find it in a store in your city. They are sold in large chains and official reseller stores. You will find a huge number of advertisements on Avito. Even Yandex Market, a platform where the placement of used goods is prohibited, is filled with offers of refurbished iPhones. And there would be nothing wrong with buying such a smartphone if they were all restored by Apple, but this is not the case. There are much lesser-known organizations that willingly restore and sell iPhones. Their products are not at all what you expect to buy.
The main difference between official refurbished iPhones and those that can be ordered from China lies in the components. A refurbished iPhone is a smartphone with a new body, a new screen, a new battery and other components, and only Apple uses original components. A smartphone restored in China is a board, wrapped in an inexpensive non-original case, and covered with the same non-original display.
Another important difference lies in responsibility. If Apple cannot lose face and sell you a large number of defective devices, a master from China, instead of checking the quality of his work, would rather assemble two more such iPhones in the same time. Now I will tell you about all this in a little more detail, and you will learn what you should first pay attention to when buying.
Where are you going to buy an iPhone?
Do you want to buy an iPhone and the price seems tempting to you? Who is offering you this price? Most likely, in the stores of the Svyaznoy, M.Video chains or from one of the official Apple resellers, you will buy either a completely new iPhone or an official refurbished iPhone. The price tag may include the words “like new,” designed specifically to avoid scaring buyers with the word “refurbished,” or, worse, the phrase “used.” In other words, you can trust large retail chains. They, like Apple, will try not to lose face.
If you are planning to buy an iPhone in a hardware store, a consignment store, or if you just found an iPhone at a good price on Avito, you should be extremely careful. They may not just sell you an iPhone refurbished in China, which will come in a neatly sealed box. Some sellers may simply not mention that it is refurbished and sell it as new. We'll talk about refurbished iPhones and unofficial refurbished iPhones below.
Package
Official refurbished iPhones are sold in white boxes without a picture of the smartphone. All they have is the name of the device model, for example “iPhone 5s”, and the inscription “Apple Certified Pre-Owned”, confirming the fact that the device inside is not a new one, refurbished by Apple. 
Unofficial refurbished iPhones are also sold in sealed boxes, and these boxes are an exact replica of the packaging of the new iPhone. You will not find any information on the packaging that the device is refurbished. Experienced store workers will be able to understand that the packaging is not original in terms of the quality of the paint and fonts, but even the serial number of the device will most likely match what is printed on the packaging. Skilled craftsmen spare no time and effort for this.
In the box with your new iPhone and official refurbished iPhone you will find the original headphones, charger and charging cable. We all know how well EarPods play, and how long the original charger can last with careful use. 
When you open a box of a refurbished iPhone from China, you'll see everything the same, but it just looks the same. The kit includes the cheapest copy of the headphones, and exactly the same non-original charger. From my experience, I can say that more than half of the included chargers do not work, and the rest fail within the first two weeks, or simply fall apart in your hands the first time you try to use them. You will, of course, receive a key for removing the SIM card, which is by no means made of “liquid metal,” but you most likely will not get stickers with apples.
Appearance of the device
As I wrote above, to restore an iPhone, Apple uses only original components, which means that the official restored iPhone does not differ in appearance, feel, or anything else from a brand new one. It really is “like new”. Have you bought this smartphone? Enjoy it and know that it was a good purchase. 
With unofficial refurbished iPhones, things are much worse. Out of the box you will get a smartphone that is assembled from non-original spare parts. Even though the IMEI of the device is carefully engraved on the case, an experienced store or service center worker will be able to distinguish a non-original case by touch and with his eyes closed. It is much more difficult for a less experienced user, and he may not suspect anything, although in fact, even the font in which the word “iPhone” is written on the back of the device is different. 
The non-original case is perfectly complemented by a non-original screen. The front camera may be displaced, the holes for sensors on the glass may be very noticeable in purple, and of course, no one promises you original brightness and color rendition. Also pay attention to the connectors and bolts. All this is assembled in China, and developed there, and not at all in California. Since low quality spare parts are used, they are more susceptible to wear. The paint on the body will quickly peel off, and the glass will become stained and scratched; it has completely different qualities compared to the original one.
But the worst thing lies inside
I admire the skills of Chinese phone repairers. The speed with which they work is reminiscent of experienced chefs who prepare shawarma from morning to evening. Unfortunately, in the first case, their haste comes at the expense of quality. It seems that it is really faster and easier for a technician to replace all the components in a smartphone than to figure out which one is not working. And as I wrote above, instead of checking his work, the technician would rather restore a couple more iPhones. This makes it really scary to look inside unofficial refurbished iPhones. 
I saw amazing pictures. When you disassemble an iPhone that looks brand new from the outside, you don't expect to see a circuit board whose components are hidden under a layer of rust. It's good if they are all in place. An unofficial refurbished iPhone may contain significantly fewer parts than originally intended. 
Unfortunately, these are not fairy tales. Even if everything works in such a smartphone now, most likely it won’t last long. Serious illnesses can appear from a simple shake, and something in a smartphone can fail, such as Wi-Fi or a modem. The build quality also matters. The battery can peel off from the case and dangle inside, and this is the most harmless thing that can happen.
In other words, an unofficial refurbished iPhone is full of surprises, and it's not something you want to surprise yourself or your loved ones with. The number of defects among such iPhones is huge. Perhaps many of them break on the way to the display case, while others were never in good working order. Let me briefly add that you will not see anything like this in an official refurbished iPhone.
Prices
What’s most interesting is that prices for official refurbished iPhones and bad smartphones from China may differ quite a bit, or not differ at all. They will be cheaper than new devices, which is what attracts them. Remember that if you suddenly find an iPhone much cheaper than in all stores, most likely it is refurbished. If miracles do happen, it’s definitely not in a store where the iPhone 5s costs less than 27 thousand rubles. Also be aware of dishonest sellers who may sell you a refurbished iPhone under the guise of a new one.
Important Details
There are a few more details to keep in mind. Remember that the iPhone 4s came out in 2011. In 2012, after the release of the iPhone 5, last year's model became available only with 8 gigabytes of memory. In 2013, when the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c appeared, the iPhone 5 was simply discontinued. Remember this when you are offered to buy the “new” iPhone 4s 16GB and iPhone 5. These smartphones have not been produced for 2-3 years, they cannot be new. Also, when purchasing a refurbished iPhone 5s, you must remember that only the A1457 and A1530 models in Russia will have LTE. Most unofficial refurbished iPhone 5s do not support our 4G frequencies.
I hope this material will be useful to you and help you make a successful purchase or avoid mistakes. Remember that iPhone is designed to make our lives easier. Be careful, and then you will be able to do without unnecessary difficulties.
") more and more often, causing potential buyers to ask: what does this status mean? Mark " like new“does not mean that the iPhone belongs to the “used” category and was sold for next to nothing by a user in need of money, but that the device initially turned out to be defective, but Apple has eliminated the existing shortcomings and now the gadget is working “ for glory." In English, such smartphones are called “ Refurbished».
There's nothing wrong with buying a refurbished iPhone.– they break down no more often than regular iPhones. However, the very fact of being under repair should be a guarantee of a reduced price for such a gadget - the buyer has the right to a substantial discount. The problem lies in the fact that sellers are sometimes not ready to put up with the loss of part of the profit, and therefore simply do not tell buyers that the iPhone is refurbished. The buyer must check it himself - fortunately, he has several effective ways to do this.
If you purchase an Apple smartphone in a box, then distinguishing a refurbished iPhone from a new one is as easy as shelling pears: on the box in which the refurbished gadget is packaged, there is a special stamp with the inscription “ Apple Certified Refurbished" or " Apple Certified Pre-Owned».
Pay attention to another point: the box Refurbished iPhone completely white, whereas on the front side of the packaging of the regular iPhone 5 there is an image of the gadget.
Finally, another sign can be found on the back of the box, on a sticker with the serial number and IMEI. Next to the name of the refurbished product there should be the mark RFB (as in the picture).
Mark " Apple Certified“confirms that the gadget was repaired and tested at the company’s official production facility by qualified specialists.
There is also another note - “ Refurbished by Seller", that is restored seller. No expert will recommend buying such smartphones - the risk is too great that the repair was carried out by an amateur, as they say, “on the knee”.
Is it possible to distinguish a new iPhone from a refurbished one by serial number and model number?
Very easy to identify the recovered device by model number - in the picture above this number is located before abbreviation RFB. If there is no box, you can find out the model number through the gadget settings (path " Settings» — « Basic» — « About this device»).
If the model number begins with the letter M, it means the gadget is new, intended for retail sale; if the first letter of the number is F, then you have a Refurbished iPhone.
There are model numbers starting with P, but these are assigned only to custom-made gadgets. The last two characters before the slash in the model number indicate the country of sale - in our example it is RU, therefore, the phone is intended for sale in Russia (as it should be). If instead of RU there is, for example, LL (mark for the USA), the buyer should treat the product with distrust and check with the seller how this situation developed.
Serial numbers on packaging and in “ Settings» Refurbished iPhone are often different.
For devices released before iPhone 5, the following rule applies: if the serial number starts with 5, then the iPhone is restored. Previously, serial numbers consisted of 11 characters and always began with a number, which identified gadgets that had been repaired. The subsequent digits of the number made it possible to judge in what month and year the iPhone was produced.
Now serial numbers include 12 characters and can begin with a letter (as in our example). The rule of the first character is no longer relevant at the moment, and it will not be possible to check by the contents of the serial number whether the iPhone is restored.
Is it possible to distinguish a restored iPhone from a new one by IMEI?
There are two services that allow you to find out information about an iPhone by IMEI - www.iphoneimei.info (Russian portal) and www.imeidata.net (foreign service). Neither of them gives a clear answer as to whether the iPhone is “like new” however, based on the information received, the user himself will be able to draw conclusions.
iPhoneimei.info
Go to the website and enter the IMEI of the gadget in the only window, then click on the silver arrow button.
After a minute of waiting, the following information will be available to you:
Based on this information, the following conclusions can be drawn:
- If the color determined by the service does not match the actual color of the gadget, this is a sign that the case has been replaced. It is obvious that the smartphone has been repaired.
- On new Apple phones, the " Find My iPhone» (« Find iPhone") is deactivated - the status is " Off." Status " On“is a sign of a “like new” smartphone.
- If opposite " Telephone Technical Support» (« Telephone technical support") And " Repairs & Service Coverage» (« Warranty service) reads " Expired» (« Expired"), it is clear that the phone is not new.
Information content of the program iPhone IMEI has decreased significantly in recent years - previously it was possible to find out, for example, the date of activation of the gadget, which also made it possible to judge the novelty of the device. However, the existing signs are quite enough to fairly accurately calculate a Refurbished iPhone by IMEI.
Imeidata.net
The principle of operation of the foreign service is the same: first you need to enter the IMEI, then click to confirm that you are “not a robot”, and as a final action press the button “ Check».
The result will be like this:
It seems as if there is more data than the previous service provided, but this is a misconception - in fact there is less: almost all useful data must be obtained through additional checks (“ Free Check Now"). They require registration.
Both services allow you to conduct a one-time free check " Blacklist“—that is, to clarify whether the gadget is lost or stolen.
True, you shouldn’t put much faith in the data obtained in this way - the check is carried out mainly among Western mobile operators.
Conclusion
When buying an iPhone from a large retailer, there is no point in checking for restoration - the fact that the iPhone is “like new” is written on the price tag. This information also appears in product cards of well-known online stores:
Bye Refurbished iPhone are not particularly popular among domestic consumers, and there are two reasons for this: Firstly, many of the consumers do not have an exact idea of what lies behind the term Refurbished, and continue to clumsily classify gadgets into new and used, secondly, the discount that retailers give is very insignificant - for example, in Svyaznoy, the buyer of a “refurbished” iPhone will save only 2-3 thousand rubles.
At official dealers, even “like new” iPhones have a “biting” price– this is what forces consumers to get involved with dubious “dealers”. With such cooperation, it is important to follow the advice given in this article and pay attention to checking the smartphone for originality - how to carry out such a check is described.