Data from musicMagpie, a UK retailer of refurbished tech products, reveals something a lot of us have known for years: Apple and Samsung smartphones depreciate the slowest compared to other brands.
As per the report, average UK users change their phones every 16 months, and costs them about 50% of their old phone’s value. In the chart they provided, it appears that iPhones top the list as they only lost 41% of their value after the first 12 months on average, and 60% after two years.
Apple is followed by Samsung, one of the most prominent Android brands. After a year, a Galaxy device depreciates by 64% and 77% another year after. OnePlus comes in at the third spot.
Google phones depreciate slower after a year at 65% but jump to 83% after two years. Makes sense, since previous Google phones usually use aging midrange chips. Hopefully, that changes after the release of the Pixel 6 series and their in-house Tensor chips.
Huawei phones depreciate the fastest after a year at 75%. As you know, Huawei tends to bring groundbreaking improvements on their yearly releases, making the previous one almost obsolete.
The firm also gave us a detailed look at the numbers. As you can see, the list of phones that loses value the fastest is all Android phones, while the slowest are all iPhones.
musicMagpie also shared that about 33% of the users don’t trade in their old phones and the older it gets, the less likely they’ll have it traded. About 10% of the consumers even delay selling their aging phones thinking it will increase in value.
They also said that expensive phones do keep their price the most, while cheaper phones depreciate faster.
For iPhone 12 series users wondering how the iPhone 13 series’ release affects the value of their phones, check the table above.
Source: musicMagpie