The data is from the States and iPhones are more popular in the US
(Picture: Apple)Nobody buys consumer tech as an investment — or at least, they shouldn’t.
While there are occasional exceptions if you’re prepared to play the very long game, generally speaking, from the moment you buy something, it’s losing value should you wish to sell it on. Blame tech’s annual upgrade cycle for making your shiny new device lose its lustre in record time.
But it’s well known that some brands hold their value better than others and, thanks to the latest SellCell Tech Depreciation report, we now have data to back up anecdotal evidence.
Keeping an eye on minute-by-minute trade-in values, the report claims that Apple products are the best at keeping their value. The company’s best performer — the iPhone 13 Pro Max — was originally released in September 2021, but had lost just 44.6 per cent of its trade-in value by December 2022.
That sounds like a lot, until you see what happened with the competition. Samsung’s Galaxy S22 family, released five months later than the iPhone 13, had lost between 58.9 per cent and 63.3 per cent of its value by the same point, while Google’s Pixel 6 had lost 67.4 per cent for the regular model and 72.5 per cent for the Pro version.
Taking into account phones dating back to 2015, SellCell found iPhones lost an average of 68.8 per cent, Samsung Galaxy S handsets 84.2 per cent, and Google Pixel phones 89.5 per cent. For phones from LG, Motorola and OnePlus, the data doesn’t go back as far but, for reference, they lost 93.3 per cent, 92.3 per cent, and 82.3 per cent respectively.
In spite of this, all isn’t necessarily well with Apple’s latest devices, with the iPhone 14 Plus already losing 40.5 per cent of its trade-in value despite being just three months old. That’s not far behind the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and suggests that matching it to specs similar to last year’s range may have been a misstep from Apple.
Obviously, this data is for the United States, which is different to the UK in a number of ways. Android has less of a foothold in the US, with recent data suggesting iOS beats Android by around 55 per cent to 43 per cent. Additionally, the larger population means that it could be more of a “buyer’s market”, with more people scouring the online classifieds for bargains.
“In general, tech depreciation trends are representative across the Atlantic, especially for iPhones,” Sarah McConomy, COO of SellCell told The Standard. “The population numbers will not affect the depreciation statistics very much.”
And spot-checking a few products on CEX, the trends seem to be broadly the same, even if the exact figures don’t line up exactly.
At the time of writing, the retailer will give you between £409 and £489 for a 128GB iPhone 13 Pro Max, depending on condition and colour — that’s between 53 per cent and 61 per cent of its original £1,049 price tag.
By contrast, the store will pay between £268 and £388 for a 128GB Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra — which equals something between a 66 per cent and 77 per cent depreciation from its £1,149 starting price.
Of course, you will always be able to command a better price by selling privately, albeit with the obvious disadvantage of having to handle any after-sale disputes yourself. But, if you do that and sell before a device’s successor comes along, you’ll get the best price possible.
And for bargain-seeking buyers, the advice is clear: when it comes to tech, it simply doesn’t pay to be an early adopter.
