We Bought a Bunch of Used iPhones Heres What We Learned. Reviews by Wirecutter

For example, if you’ve got a phone to trade in, you can select ‘Smartphone,’ pick the new Galaxy device you want, and then select the exact smartphone you have from the drop-down list. Apple lets customers trade in eligible devices for credit (or if Apple deems there’s no value for the device, it will recycle it for free). The thing is, it’s not always easy to know how much your old phone is worth before you get a new one. So, here are some of the ways to check your phone’s trade-in value before you buy.

I haven’t seen the orange in person, but if it’s as bright as the matching lanyard I got, be aware that it could stop traffic. Like its big-sibling Nothing Phones, the CMF Phone stands out; it looks, er, nothing like other phones you’ve seen. The back of the phone is punctuated by exposed screws, a removable circular plate, and cameras that look like internal components laid bare.

The website was user-friendly, and the ordering process coinspot reviews was smooth. The customer service was also great, they answered all my questions promptly and professionally. That said, bargain phones offer great battery life, just like cheaper cars usually get better gas mileage. The CMF Phone 2 Pro’s cameras offer plentiful examples of pretty much every way smartphone cameras can go wrong.

He’s no stranger in this area having covered mobile phones and gadgets since 2008 when he started his career. On top of his editor duties, he’s a seasoned videographer being in front and behind the camera producing YouTube videos. Previously, he held editor roles with PhoneArena, Android Authority, Digital Trends, and SPY. Outside of tech, he enjoys producing mini documentaries and fun social clips for small businesses, enjoying the beach life at the Jersey Shore, and recently becoming a first time homeowner. While all of this makes the Galaxy S25 Edge an engineering feat, I don’t have the same reaction as other thin phones I’ve seen in my lifetime.

The Google Pixel 8a (buy now) confirms that Google is a master of affordable phones and is a lesson in vanilla Android excellence. A neat design and top-spec camera smarts make it a wallet-friendly winner. It’s a pleasing update to a winning formula that’s a much more appealing combo than spending more to go Pro. This is the iPhone to buy for the smartphone shopper who wants the best of the best. Thepoorswiss.com needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding.

And you have to replace the battery sooner than you would with a new phone, which for an iPhone 13 costs $89 if you take it to an Apple Store for repair. Plug provided the best packaging of the refurbished-phone sellers, tossing some accessories into the box that we didn’t expect, which made the experience feel like opening up a new product. Plug shipped the phone with three chargers, a clear phone case, and an adhesive phone grip (like a knockoff PopSocket).

  • The CMF Phone 2 Pro has a MediaTek 7300 Pro 5G chipset inside, which is a bit faster than the Exynos 1380 you’ll find in a Galaxy A26 or the MediaTek 6300 in the Moto G Power 2025.
  • But since the latest update (Nothing OS 1.1.0), users can choose between high and standard refresh rates, and the toggle for adaptive refresh rate is gone.
  • Sure, it might have been usurped by the newer Galaxy S25 Ultra above, but the Galaxy S24 Ultra is still a cracking smartphone, especially when you take into account its current offers.
  • In our Future Labs battery rundown test the CMF Phone 2 Pro was a top performer, managing to last just over 16 hours.
  • We’ve long been fans of Google’s affordable phones, and the Pixel 8a only continues that record.

Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make roboforex review quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time). Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Sam Levine is a longtime writer, investor and educator with nearly three decades of experience in the investing industry.

I saw plenty of chromatic aberration along high-contrast edges, and the camera falls apart when asked to shoot in low-light near darkness. If you screenshot everything, or if you’re willing to change your behavior, you may find this more useful. I, on the other hand, did not feel the CMF Phone 2 Pro was missing anything when I skipped these AI features. The CMF Phone 2 Pro has a screen that’s durable and should stand up to mild abuse.

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  • The OnePlus 13 (buy now) has one of the best smartphone displays out there.
  • The addition of luxuries like wireless charging and a 120Hz refresh rate, missing on the outgoing Pixel 7a, mean you’ll struggle to find a better all-round Android experience for less.
  • Until we have that data, we can say that both devices rely on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor.
  • He’s no stranger in this area having covered mobile phones and gadgets since 2008 when he started his career.
  • I’m pretty religious at playing graphically intensive games on my phones, so the last thing I want to happen is it getting extra toasty and potentially affecting its GPU performance.

The CMF Phone 2 Pro has a MediaTek 7300 Pro 5G chipset inside, which is a bit faster than the Exynos 1380 you’ll find in a Galaxy A26 or the MediaTek 6300 in the Moto G Power 2025. The phone ships with 8GB of RAM, which is adequate for a bargain phone, and there’s a microSD card slot behind the SIM tray if you need more storage space. The 128GB model has an incredibly low price for a phone this good, and if you use cloud storage services there isn’t a pressing need to buy the larger capacity. The worst thing about the CMF Phone 2 Pro is how hard it might be to buy one – and then to buy all the accessories you want. In the US, you can only get the model with 256GB of storage as part of Nothing’s so-called ‘Beta’ program. I used the Phone 2 Pro on AT&T near New York City, and after an initial warning message from AT&T that my phone wouldn’t work properly, it worked just fine.

The website was easy to navigate, and the ordering process was simple. The customer service was also excellent, they were friendly and helpful. I would recommend Phone Traders to anyone looking to buy a new phone. With a slower processor on board, you’ll use less battery power; the Moto G Power 2025 is even slower, and that phone lasted slightly longer in our lab tests. You also won’t use the cameras on the CMF Phone 2 Pro as often as you might with one of the best camera phones.

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The Plug phone was also the only one updated to the latest version of iOS 18; the others were still running iOS 17. Buying refurbished typically comes with some kind of quality guarantee and return window, in case you don’t like the specific phone you receive. This was possible because of the online environment that allowed anyone with an Internet connection to open a trading account with a broker and place trades on the Forex market.

How to choose the best smartphone for you

PCMag is obsessed with culture and tech, offering smart, spirited coverage of the products and innovations that shape our connected lives and the digital trends that keep us talking. The S25 Edge’s lithium-ion cell has a capacity of 3,900mAh, which is 1,000mAh less than the capacity of the S25+ battery (4,900mAh). For comparison, the S25+ lasted about 14 hours and 40 minutes in testing.

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The phone was also well protected, shipped in a smaller box inside the accessory box; some other phones we received were stuffed in a small box in a flat mailer, so this is a clear win for Plug. Other marketplaces sent phones with considerably more wear, especially around the camera lenses. The iPhone 13 we bought from Plug also had a battery health of 98%, which is excellent for a used phone. In addition, our phone had a screen protector preinstalled, which we hadn’t expected, since Plug advertises preinstalled screen protectors only as part of its additional accessory kit.

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra proves that sometimes refinement is just as important as reinvention. This year’s flagship keeps much of what made the S24 Ultra a fan favourite while introducing meaningful improvements in design, performance, and AI integration. After this rigorous testing, only the best-performing handsets make it into our guide. Whether you’re after the fastest processor, the best camera system, or the longest battery life, our rankings are designed to help you find the perfect smartphone. With so many options available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one, but our comprehensive guide is here to help.

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The lighter weight of the Edge is even more impressive in comparison. Many of today’s big flagship phones weigh 8 ounces or more, so a phone that tips the scale below 6 ounces is a remarkable achievement. And, kraken trading review finally, if you’re a hardcore gamer, then you should consider one of the best smartphones for gaming.

There’s a lack of detail in most shots, and evidence of strong digital sharpening that makes photos look more like still frames from a low-quality video camera. Backgrounds are frequently over-sharpened, leaving dark edges around objects. In even my most simple shots it can be so hard to tell what I was photographing. At startup, you can choose between a Nothing interface and a standard Android home screen. Go with Nothing and you’ll see fewer colors, fewer labels on app icons and settings, and presumably fewer distractions. I actually like the NothingOS design, especially with its home screen widgets and monochromatic wallpapers, so I stuck with it for my review period.

The phone uses Panda Glass from Chinese glass maker Tengshu, and it offers many of the same physical qualities as Corning’s Gorilla Glass. I didn’t see any scuffs or scratches after an intense week using the phone as my primary device. My phone came in a lovely light green color that is becoming popular this year – the Galaxy S25 Ultra is available in the same hue as a Samsung online-exclusive color. Unfortunately, you can’t buy this color in the US; you can only get the black, white, or orange versions.

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