8 Defects to Look out for While Buying Wholesale Refurbished iPhones

If you don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on new iPhones, buying refurbished or second hand iphones from China is a much feasible solution many people opt to. The latest iPhone XR, Xs aren’t affordable, even the older models would still break your wallet when purchased new. Investing in second hand or refurbished iPhone definitely save you serious money if you’re in the market for iOS device. Here we highlight some commonly seen defects to look out for when buying wholesale refurbished iPhones from Shenzhen.

1. Locked iPhone.

There’s a huge price difference between locked iPhone and unlocked one. A locked iPhone usually only works with the carrier it’s locked to while unlocked phone can work with basically any carrier. Though recently a special kind of card sticker has been develop to bypass the server of Apple, making locked iPhone also compatible with other carriers, prices of locked iPhones rocketed. However, in April, Apple fixed the bug, though not sooner other measures have been taken to unlocked phones, it’s suggested to always go for unlocked iPhones.

2. Screens that are damaged inside coz of crushes.

It’s not easy to spot the damages from the default interface of refurbished iPhones, however, they appear obviously from dark interface or light one. Different degrees of damages would lead to different colors, most frequently seen is irregular spots in light blue.

Second-hand iPhones with damaged screen-1
Second-hand iPhones with damaged screen-2

An easy way to test when the screen is damaged inside is go to Compass and press it gently, if it appears like below, the screen might have been crushed before.

3. Screens that the external layer of glass has been replaced before.

A large part of screens with scratches or cracks are only related to the external glass and the inner screen is in perfect condition. In this case, the broken external layer of glass has to be separated from the screen and a new one would be used to replace it. In most cases it work well, however, there’re some defects caused by inferior quality of new glass that can lead to color difference, touch sensitive, etc.

4. Screens that are not original.

Many refurbished iPhones feature Chinese screens even when they are in Hongkong ready to enter Mainland. They’re widely used of price advantages. Some function really well while some fall behind.

A few tips:
* Color difference. Chinese screens tend to be a bit blurred, blueish.
* Original screens fit perfectly the assembly while Chinese screens might be a bit bigger.
* Chinese screens usually come with sharper edge that wouldn’t feel smoothly while touching the brims.

Refurbished iPhone with problems in screen-1

5. Screens with backlight problems.

While the interface is white, small white (highlighted) spots can be easily spotted.

Refurbished iPhone with problems in camera-1
Refurbished iPhone with problems in camera-2

6. Cameras with spots.

It’s a most frequently seen problem with iPhone 7 plus and older phones, while taking pictures of the wall or a white paper, gray, black spots appear. It’s caused by aging of cameras.

7. Cameras with auto focusing problems.

It’s common in iPhone 6 and 6s Plus, when you start to take pictures, it’s hard to auto-focus as it keeps shaking.

8. iPhone 8 with PCBA board problems which can result into unable to start the phone.

Apple has announced its programs to certain iPhone 8 that were sold from September 2017 to March 2018 in Australia, Mainland China, Hongkong, India, Japan, Macau, New Zealand and the United State. You can check the serial number online and see whether the phone fits into the program.

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