How To Check If Your Android Or iPhone Is Refurbished Or Factory New
Keep an eye out for the casually slipped-in reconditioned models whether you’re purchasing a new phone or having a current one replaced or fixed. Refurbished products are much more appealing to repair shops, wireless providers, and eBay vendors than brand-new ones. Factory-new phones are, in fact, brand-new, and it costs carriers or retailers more money to replace damaged handsets with factory-new ones. And many will attempt to sell you refurbished ones because sometimes it can be difficult to determine if a phone is a refurbished one. But using the method in this article, you can find out if your phone is refurbished or not.
Before obtaining a device, you should always confirm whether it has been reconditioned. A company is utilizing some very dodgy methods to get the better of you short of that. It has happened in the past and is probably going to happen again. When looking for a smartphone, you must understand the distinction between a new and a refurbished phone.
Best Ways To Check If Your Phone Is Refurbished Or Factory-New
1. Check The Packaging
Check if the box is the same as the original box, has the same labels, etc. One of the main things to pay attention to is the seal which says, “Do not accept if the seal is broken,” If it’s broken, it could mean that it’s refurbished. Make sure that seal is not broken.
2. Check The Contents In The Box
Checking the box and the contents of the smartphone is the first step to confirming the existence of a refurbished phone. If the phone you are holding doesn’t match the box’s branding or description, it presumably is a reconditioned model. If you don’t know what the original box contains, you can search for unboxing videos of your mobile phone which usually are originals and will give you a general idea of what the box contains.
3. Check For Any Physical Damage On Your Mobile
A phone will inevitably begin to exhibit common wear and tear signs when it is used more frequently. The back may have some nicks from being banged around in a backpack. A new phone won’t have any scratches. Before using it, inspect the device for any signs of obvious damage, such as scratches on the display. Dents in the chassis are more concerning as they can indicate damage to internal parts, such as the battery.
To determine whether or not force has caused the chassis to flex, see if the phone lays flat on the floor and isn’t uneven. Check the camera assembly to see if any lenses have been scratched or damaged. Try to get a phone from a different vendor who will be honest with you if you discover any scratches, but the seller insists it is a new one.
4. Using Third-Party Apps
You can find a lot of apps that do this for you, but the best one is the “Phone Info” app which you can download from many websites. This app is a fairly easy task to find out if your phone is refurbished.
First, open the app, enter the serial number of your mobile, that’ll give you the hardware and software details of your mobile, and click on the menu on the top left, then click on the “Refurbishment check” feature. That will automatically perform the check, and you’ll have your result after a few seconds.
5. Using The IMEI Number To Check If Your Phone Is Refurbished
A phone’s IMEI number can help you determine whether it’s authentic, fraudulent, or refurbished. Once obtained, you can locate the manufacturer’s information for the phone and contrast it with your purchase to identify any discrepancies. If your gadget has been pre-activated and refurbished, visit the original manufacturer’s website.
6. Using Phone Settings (iPhone Only)
If you want to know if your iPhone is refurbished or not, it’s fairly easy to find it compared to androids; all you have to do is, go into Settings > General > About, then you will see a lot of details about your mobile, Find “Model.” This will contain a sequence of letters and numbers that will show what kind of device you have and its current condition.
The first letter is the most significant because it indicates whether the item is new or refurbished. Here’s what each letter indicates:
- M – Your mobile is brand new
- F – Your mobile is refurbished
- N – This device was a replacement for an iPhone
- P – The device is sold with a message, which you can see on its back
7. Checking Short Codes For Your Android Mobiles
To check if your mobile is refurbished with this method, you need a couple of pre-requisites, A smartphone is running Android with a unique home screen launcher.
8. Using The Method On Your Mobile (Above 4.0)
Go to your Android phone’s home screen using the custom launcher, then long-press anywhere on the screen. “Add to Home screen” will be listed in a menu that appears. Toggle to Shortcuts, Pick Your Activity, and Click Activities. For the next menu, choose Activities. The list of phone actions will be displayed on a black screen. Use the hidden menu in the name section and find the RTN menu; click on it, and there it’ll show you if your mobile’s refurbished or not.
9. Using The Method On Your Mobile (Below 4.0)
Open the dialer on your mobile and enter “##786#”, If that number doesn’t work, you can try “#*#786#*#*”.
Once you are done, the RTN menu should pop up; It’ll give you options to either view or reset, click on view, and Look for “Reconditioned Status”, If it says “YES.” beside it, then it means your mobile is refurbished; if it says “NO,” it means you don’t have a refurbished device, and it’s brand new.
Conclusion
If the phone and accessories were secured with protective plastic coverings and the package was shrink-wrapped, you can be sure that they had never been used before. If the product has been expertly repaired, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, as long as you were made aware when you bought it that you weren’t purchasing a brand-new phone.
A refurbished model is frequently better than a used one that still has the original manufacturer parts when buying an older phone with a battery that may have worsened over time. This is particularly true if you buy a phone with a brand-new battery or display. For a buyer to be aware that a phone has been refurbished, a shop must be open and honest about the phone’s condition. Hence, if you weren’t told if it was remodeled and want to know if it’s refurbished, you can use the steps above and find it out quickly.
