What to look for when purchasing a used smartphone
Nobody likes over paying for something, so if it is your first time buying a used smartphone, there’s a list of things you may consider. Since there’s new phones entering the market every year, it makes it easier to find a decent pre-owned phone especially you are on a budget. So once you identified your budget on your first pre-owned phone, you first should identify what kind of specifications you would like to have on the phone, if you are trying to figure our what you are looking in a smartphone , ask yourself a few questions ,what’s the main purpose? work, school, or personal. Are you a gamer? What kind of storage capacity will you require.1 SD card enough or how about a dual SIM. And lastly what kind of aesthetics do you prefer, screen size, color .etc. Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and do your research.
There are many outlets that you can buy pre-owned phones from these days, if you prefer going online you can try amazon, ebay, gazelle or swappa. But you might want to be careful buying electronics online , just make sure it is from a reputable reseller. If you prefer buying a pre-owned phone in person then you will need to know a few things.Pay attention to to some of the points mentioned in the article, even if you discover these issues after you make the purchase you should be able to explain a good reason to return it.
Make sure the Phone is not stolen
Since it’s your first time buying a pre-owned phone you will have to make sure the phone has IMEI or ESN number, that way you can trace the origin of the phone to ensure that the phone is not stolen. There’s a few things you can check to make sure it’s no stolen by uploading the IMEI number to the
Central Equipment Identity Register , the online system will advise you as to whether or not you should buy the phone. The lesson here is to never buy a phone if the reseller does not have a IMEI number or provides you with an IMEI number that is not valid.
Check the condition of the phone
Once you get the phone in your hands you will want to check for any cosmetic damage, such as cracks or dents. The first thing you should look at is the phone screen, check for scratches, whether it’s a surface scratch or deep scratches. Deep scratches can be dangerous if you are swiping the phone a lot you can definitely cut your finger. Functionality is key for your device , there are a few ways you can go about checking the functionality of your smartphone, you can ask the seller give you a brief demonstration of the phone. One feature I would closely examine is the charging ports. If you plug the phone into the charger and it takes longer than usual to charge or is the battery seems abnormally hot, those are warning signs to pay close attention to . There can be a few reasons why the phone takes a long time to charge, it can be bad cables, port damage, or you have an app that is draining your phone, you can open up your phone under settings and try to identify the app that is using the most battery power. If that doesn’t remedy the issue, walk away! You should also check the mic and speaker on the phone to make sure you are getting adequate volume levels , you can simply call the phone and listen to the volume. The last thing you might want to do is a file transfer to tests the ports.
Negotiate Price
Once you examined the phone and decide to make a purchase, you should aim to get the best price possible, make sure you aware of the market prices of the phone you try to buy, try to not haggle too much, be polite in the best way possible. Try to get additional add ons for a lesser price. You can even mention that you can get it cheaper from another seller . The point here is to just go with your gut instinct, does it feel right for you? always get ready to walk away from a deal if it doesn’t feel right. Good Luck!
I am sure that I only covered a few points, but if you do your research you can find a lot of other tools that can be of assistance. If you are looking for a certified trusted phone wholesaler of the secondary market
contact us, our quality is always consistent and we will alleviate the hassle of second guessing if you made a good purchase or not.
