# used iphones. best bang for the buck?



## og bunky (8 mo ago)

wanted to get a used iPhone for using in Wi-Fi mode, mostly as a dedicated phone for running Uber.

anything even remotely close to $1,000 is way too much for this budget, and basically looking for a phone that won't be terribly slow and outdated, and won't have too many issues running either Uber or lyft, maybe other stuff as well.

so far I've settled on the iPhone xs max, which was a little bit more money than the iPhone xs, but I think the larger screen will be worth it. if I recall correctly, it was something like $250 versus $320.

I don't know anything about the chipset names or how they perform relative to the other versions, but what I thought was important was having 4 GB of RAM for multitasking. I looked at the iPhone 11, and it was a bit pricier for what appeared to be not too much more in terms of hardware, but I could be mistaken here.

iPhone 12 and later are too expensive for this budget. and the XS seems like a faster version of the x?

any thoughts, opinions, recommendations?


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## Ted Fink (Mar 19, 2018)

www.trademore.com - they will refund you if there's an issue and their customer service is great. prices good too


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

that's primarily the reason that I bought it off of amazon, for the easy, free, no hassle 90-day return.


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

I bought a Samsung a50 to replace mine with a broken screen, and the refurbished one that I bought came with a really poor quality LCD screen with a faulty capacitive touch sensor, nowhere near the brightness and quality of the original super AMOLED screen. returned it a month or so later, since I'm terrible about returning stuff in a timely manner, no problems at all.

hopefully the iPhone xs will have a quality screen installed, but I will not have a very good way to gauge the quality of the screen versus the original besides recognizing whether it's good enough or not for me.

I actually bought the original iPhone xs then ordered the xs Max a couple of days later, so I will have both of them in my hands at the same time. plan on returning the small xs. definitely an abuse of the return policy


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## LoLo SF (Jul 12, 2019)

I think this is a pretty good buck-banging deal and it's brand new. I'm thinking about getting one. I had a 6T and it was a great phone. They are selling them for $699: Buy OnePlus - OnePlus (United States)









OnePlus 9 Pro Specs | OnePlus United States


Explore the specs for the OnePlus 9 Pro 5G. Discover the 120 Hz display and latest technologies that offer an extremely compelling smartphone experience.




www.oneplus.com


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

has to be iphone


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

most likely returning the xs and keeping the xs max


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## New2This (Dec 27, 2015)

og bunky said:


> most likely returning the xs and keeping the xs max


I used an Iphone 6 with no problem. Got it for around $200.

That Robitussin is good for the COVID cough. I went through bottles of it when I had it.


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## ObeyTheNumbers (8 mo ago)

og bunky said:


> wanted to get a used iPhone for using in Wi-Fi mode, mostly as a dedicated phone for running Uber.


Let me stop you right there.

My carrier was working on the local tower near my house for 5G and I was being denied trips due to no signal.

So I tried WiFi from another carriers phone, it's not fast enough for Uber. The problem is WiFi needs to be highly encrypted and decrypted this slowing things down considerably.

I ran some speed tests and this is the result.

5G on the upgraded tower, followed by 4G Wifi of the new carrier and of course just plain 4G. Old phones may not be 5G compatible, but newer ones are and you want 5G, it's awesome. 😎












4G everywhere I go is severely stressed, with sometimes no signal on the meter. WiFi is far worse.

Don't waste your money on a non 5G compatible phone, 4G going obsolete soon.


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

either I misunderstood you or you misunderstood me. either way, I've been doing it off of Wi-Fi for a long while without problems


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## Invisible (Jun 15, 2018)

I had an iPhone 6 and now an 8. I’m happy with my 8, and mine still works fast. I have zero plans to upgrade anytime soon and wouldn’t pay $1000. I’d get rid of my phone before then or buy used next time. 

Check out used IPhones at a pawn shop. They test them out before. Many people probably had to sell theirs to pay the high gas prices or to make rent.


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## ObeyTheNumbers (8 mo ago)

og bunky said:


> either I misunderstood you or you misunderstood me. either way, I've been doing it off of Wi-Fi for a d the longttt while without problems



WiFi at home (cable/DSL) is faster than hotspotting off a phone, especially an older one on 4G. Obviously you'll be moving thus using the cell hotspot.

What I do now is use the 5G phone for just Uber and video, the 4G phone for everything else. No hotspotting at all except to pax or Pandora phone (I have three phones). Uber set up on two, but only allows one online at a time.


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

with apps like Uber it's not throughput speed that's important it's latency and if it's good enough it will work fine.


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

XS vs 11









iPhone 11 Vs iPhone XS: Performance, Camera, Design & Display


Apple's iPhone 11 is up for pre-order and at the same time, the company has stopped selling the iPhone XS. Here we compare both gadgets.




wccftech.com


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

amazon now has 2 levels of refurbished ("renewed") phones, used to be just 1 level. now there is a "renewed premium" that they guarantee will work "like new". im assuming the "renewed premium" ones are in better physical condition with OEM parts used for replacement (ie screen) vs aftermarket.

planning on keeping the xs max if all else is equal; otherwise plan on keeping the one with the better quality screen if the other is subpar. if both have cheap quality screens, I'll return both, but will keep one to use during the 90 days until i can find a suitable replacement


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## Uber's Guber (Oct 22, 2017)

og bunky said:


> has to be iphone


An older iPhone 8+ has plenty processing power to run multiple gig apps at the same time and offers ample view screen.


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

Uber's Guber said:


> An older iPhone 8+ has plenty processing power to run multiple gig apps at the same time and offers ample view screen.


one of the major things I didn't like about the iPhone 8 is that it doesn't have an edge to edge screen and like a quarter of the front face is eaten up by the bezel. not a huge deal breaker if they were that much cheaper, but they weren't. the 8+ was only about $50 less than the xs max


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## ObeyTheNumbers (8 mo ago)

og bunky said:


> with apps like Uber it's not throughput speed that's important it's latency and if it's good enough it will work fine.


Yes but if 4G is overloaded in your area your driver app will have network issues, can't go online/offline and those "are you still online?" issues where it lost network connection when it had trips for you.

You won't know how well 4G is in your areas unless you drive around tower to tower using the Network Cell Info app. Also rebooting a lot to get the strongest signal from that tower.

I would start there first then perhaps get a cheap 4G phone if strong 4G signal as it may be good for another 2 years or the life of the used 4G phone.

But if poor 4G, likely the area already or soon will be 5G so you'll need a compatible phone if you want to keep getting trips reliably.


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## ObeyTheNumbers (8 mo ago)

og bunky said:


> with apps like Uber it's not throughput speed that's important it's latency and if it's good enough it will work fine.


Good 4G signal, both cell and cell hotspot 










Bad 4G signal, driver app doesn't work once in yellow or red zones











Problem of course it might work fine in one area and terrible in another on another tower causing dead zones.

I would get a used 5G/4G phone over a used 4G/3G phone. (3G obsolete)


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

no issues here yet i dont think

i dont plan on using it over cell, only via wifi hotspot. already have 5g/4g phone


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## ObeyTheNumbers (8 mo ago)

og bunky said:


> no issues here yet i dont think
> 
> i dont plan on using it over cell, only via wifi hotspot. already have 5g/4g phone


That should work.

I went out and got this 4G phone from AT&T to do the cell hotspot for Uber thing because Verizon was working on the tower so getting no signal all day sometimes. 

They try to make one transfer the number, I didn't go for this luckily why I tried cell hotspot.

Turned out 4G was severely stressed in the area on both carriers, cell hotspot was worse.

Then magically after four weeks of complaining, (the very next day after I got the At&t phone), I got 5G on my local tower on Verizon. The new phone is only 4G, but it's on month to month plan.

So now I have two phones and two carriers.

Redundancy is good. 😁

If Uber does that hungry hippo thing here where the first person who taps accept gets the trip, the Uber app will need to remain in the foreground thus all the other playing around will need to be on the second phone.


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## Ted Fink (Mar 19, 2018)

ObeyTheNumbers said:


> Good 4G signal, both cell and cell hotspot
> 
> View attachment 668892
> 
> ...


What is the name of the app you are using to measure this? And is there an IOS version of said app?


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## Kodyhead (May 26, 2015)

If you accept Android I just picked up a few Samsung a13 for $140. It's normally $190 at bestbuy and last I checked it was on-sale again now for $165.


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

the a13 is a crap entry level phone



og bunky said:


> has to be iphone


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

ok so both my iphone xs and xs max are here, hopefully the max will have a good quality screen and will be able to keep it


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

unfortunately, it appearshr Xs has the better screen over the Xs max.

on a side by side comparison, the max seems to be slightly off in color. I'm not yet decided on brightness.

the max also shipped with an older version of ios, which I will be updating soon. maybe we'll make a difference with the true tone, but probably will not. most likely an inferior third party screen.

I was really hoping it for it to be the other way around.


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## Ted Fink (Mar 19, 2018)

og bunky said:


> unfortunately, it appearshr Xs has the better screen over the Xs max.
> 
> on a side by side comparison, the max seems to be slightly off in color. I'm not yet decided on brightness.
> 
> ...


True tone will change the color definition and my money says it will look about the same as the XS. I think the XS actually has slightly higher pixel density (correct me if i'm wrong, going by a vague memory) but not noticeable by the naked eye.

Third party screen replacement might be crappy, if that's what it is, idk.


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

the max seems to have slightly washed out darker faded colors. both on max brightness.


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

if it werent for the side by side comparison i might not even have noticed anything but seems subtly dimmer and lower quality colors on the max screen


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## Ted Fink (Mar 19, 2018)

og bunky said:


> if it werent for the side by side comparison i might not even have noticed anything but seems subtly dimmer and lower quality colors on the max screen


Interesting. I wouldn't worry about it. Uber and Lyft offers don't use that many colors anyway... LOL.

Did you already update IOS on the max to include truetone?


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

yes with and without truetone it's just cheaper, more faded washed out colors.

i understand its not that important with uber but just the feeling im getting a cheaper crappier screen bothers me a little.

the primary purpose of the phone is to use for rideshare but it will also be nice to use for other things as well and get the most out of it

the question now is whether the screen quality difference is worth overlooking for the size increase, I'm not sure yet


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## og bunky (8 mo ago)

the lower quality colors don't seem as noticeable until viewing videos with humans etc in it, especially side by side. then the washed out colors are much more noticeable because your brain knows about what color to expect

had a very similar issue with my old samsung a50 refurbished replacement that I got off of amazon, it came with an aftermarket screen with washed out colors that were even more apparent. beyond that, it had a faulty capacitive touch screen, and would fail after a few hours of being on

sadly I think I will be keeping the small xs and returning the xs max


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