Is Buying a Refurbished Cell Phone a Good Idea?

Thinking about buying a cell phone these days can be nothing short of overwhelming, with the range of brands and models to choose from. Among all the factors that need to be considered while buying a cell phone or smart phone, the most important consideration is the price tag on it. If you are looking for something like the Apple iPhone or any of the top Android phones, remember, they don't come cheap. One way of landing up with these expensive smart phones at lower prices, is to opt for refurbished models. In this Buzzle article, I discuss the pros and cons of opting for refurbished cell phones, which will certainly help you make up your mind regarding them.

What are Refurbished Cell Phones?

Just what are refurbished cell phones? Are they same as used cell phones? Let me answer some of these questions for people who are new to this concept. A refurbished cell phone is generally a phone used for a short period of time by a user, which is returned to the manufacturer due to a design defect. Subsequently, the cell phone manufacturer fixes the defect and puts the phone back for resale, as a refurbished phone. So they can be classified as used cell phones, but they are not used for that long.

Since refurbished cell phones are resale products, they are obviously offered at highly discounted prices which may be up to or more than 30% of the original price. Most manufacturers sell them with a warranty, which is same as that offered for the brand new ones. There are also some third party vendors which buy used cell phones, get them repaired and put them back on sale. These are also known as refurbished cell phones, though, they do not come with a warranty. There is a huge untapped market of refurbished electronic goods that you can take advantage of.

Is Buying a Refurbished Cell Phone a Good Idea?

Let us first see the upside of opting for a refurbished cell phone. The first benefit is of course the price of the cell phones, which is a substantially lesser compared to brand new products. You can get a 20% to 50% discount on refurbished cell phones. If you get a warranty on a refurbished cell phone, it's an even better deal. Warranty is given only when the refurbished products are directly sold by the manufacturers.

One may experience the downside of buying refurbished smart phones, when you buy them from third party distributors who don't offer a warranty and replace the defective parts with non-original parts (non OEM) parts which may be of substandard quality. If you go for such refurbished cell phones, chances are that they will have a very limited service life and your money will go down the drain. So if you must, go for refurbished smart phone deals from manufacturers only, for ones which come with a warranty.

Hope this article has helped you reach a consensus regarding whether buying a refurbished cell phone is a good idea. To conclude, if you are getting the refurbished cell phone deal, right from the manufacturer and it is backed by warranty, then buying it is certainly a good idea. Avoid going for refurbished cell phone deals provided by third party vendors as they usually do not use original parts. Unless you are looking for a high-end phone like the Apple iPhone, it is always better to go for a brand new piece. If you covet a high-end smart phone, which is beyond your budget, going for a refurbished cell phone from the manufacturer is definitely a good option, because of the big discount that you can land up with!