Buying Guides

Top 5 Questions to Ask Before Buying a Refurbished iPhone

The 5 questions to ask before buying a refurbished iPhone are: was the battery replaced or just tested, what happens in writing if a defect shows up a few weeks in, does the screen or battery use genuine Apple parts, is this unit eligible for AppleCare or what warranty replaces it, and is it being sold to you as refurbished, at a refurbished price, rather than passed off as new. A seller who can answer all five clearly, before you pay, is a seller worth buying from.

Published 18 October 2026. Sources checked the same week, see citations at the end. iPhone Deals, Kimathi House, Nairobi CBD. Use this refurbished iPhone buying guide alongside our Top 5 Mistakes page before you commit to any unit.

Refurbished, replaced, or used: three different things

These three words get used almost interchangeably by buyers, and they shouldn't be. A thread on Apple's own support community lays out the real distinction: a "replaced" iPhone is a new unit issued under warranty to swap out a faulty one, usually without the original box or accessories. A "refurbished" iPhone is a previously used device that's been restored toward factory condition: cleaned, inspected, repaired where needed, and tested, then resold for less than new. A "used" phone, sold as-is with no restoration step, is a third and different thing again. The five questions below are specifically about the middle one, refurbished, and what that word should actually mean when a Nairobi seller uses it.

1. Was the battery replaced, or just tested?

Ask this directly, it's rarely volunteered. When Apple itself sells a Certified Refurbished iPhone, the battery is physically replaced and starts at 100% health. Most independent refurbishers, including the majority of Nairobi CBD sellers, instead test the existing battery against a minimum threshold, commonly around 80% health, and leave it in place if it clears that bar rather than replacing it. Both are legitimate practices, but they are not the same thing, and a battery that merely passed a test today is further along its lifespan than one that was actually replaced.

There's a second reason to ask rather than assume: grading itself isn't standardized. GSMA, the global mobile industry body, has documented that sellers use different criteria for the same grade label, covering screen condition, battery health, and warranty length differently from shop to shop. A marketplace like Back Market publishes its own specific definitions, for example requiring at least 80% battery health across every grade it sells, but that's one company's standard, not an industry-wide one. Ask what threshold the specific shop in front of you is using, and get the actual percentage in writing rather than a verbal "it's good."

2. What happens, in writing, if a defect shows up in week 2 or 3?

This is the question that separates a real warranty from a verbal promise. Get the seller to state plainly, ideally on your receipt, what specifically happens if a fault appears after you've already left the shop: a full refund, a straight replacement unit, or only a factory reset and nothing further. Kenya's Communications Authority now requires dealers to publish a returns and refund policy as part of its vendor licensing guidelines, so this isn't an unreasonable thing to ask for in writing, it's increasingly the standard the regulator itself expects.

Ask specifically what the difference is between a fault reported in week 2 and one reported in month 10, since many warranties quietly narrow what they cover as time passes. A seller who can describe this clearly and consistently, the same way twice, is giving you a real answer. A seller who gets vague the second time you ask is telling you something too.

3. Does the screen or battery use genuine Apple parts?

A refurbished iPhone can look completely intact while running a non-genuine replacement screen or battery underneath, and this matters beyond cosmetics. iPhones running recent iOS versions can display an "unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple display" or battery warning when a third-party part is installed, and independent testing reported by the MacRumors community has found that some third-party screen replacements can disable Face ID entirely or affect True Tone colour matching. None of this means a refurbished phone with a replaced part is automatically a bad buy, a well-installed quality replacement can work fine, but it's a fair question to ask rather than discover later.

If a phone has had its screen or battery replaced, ask whether a genuine Apple part was used and whether Face ID, True Tone, and water resistance were tested afterward rather than assumed to still work. A seller who inspects and discloses this is doing exactly the kind of testing the word "refurbished" is supposed to promise.

4. Is this unit eligible for AppleCare, or what warranty actually replaces it?

AppleCare and AppleCare+ are only available on a refurbished iPhone bought directly from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller, confirmed by both Apple's own support community and independent tech press. In practice, that means AppleCare is not available on a refurbished or Ex-UK iPhone bought from an independent Nairobi CBD retailer, including this one, since AppleCare eligibility travels with the point of sale, not just the device itself.

That's not a reason to avoid an independent retailer, it's a reason to ask what actually backs the purchase instead. A specific, stated warranty length and coverage list from the shop itself is the real protection you're buying when AppleCare isn't on the table, so get it named and get it in writing rather than assuming Apple's own coverage carries over.

5. Am I buying this at a refurbished price, or being sold a refurbished unit as new?

This sounds like an obvious question until you see what happens when it isn't asked. Kenya's Competition Authority publicly warned phone retailers against marketing refurbished handsets as new, after investigating a case reported by Capital FM involving a named Nairobi retailer, iPhone Street Kenya Limited, known as i-Street. A buyer paid KSh 165,000 for an iPhone 13 Pro Max believing it was new; the Authority's investigation found it was refurbished, and when a network fault appeared within two months, the retailer reportedly offered only a factory reset rather than a refund or replacement.

Where we stand on this ourselves: every iPhone we sell is listed with its condition, New, Refurbished, Ex-UK, or Used, confirmed per unit before your order goes through, and priced accordingly. Whatever shop you buy from, including this one, ask the seller to state the condition on your receipt in writing, at the price that condition should actually cost.

One more thing to ask before you pay, not after

Ask to see the device's serial number before you hand over any money, not only on the receipt afterward. With it, you can run Apple's own free Check Coverage lookup yourself, in the shop, before you commit. Our IMEI check guide covers exactly how that lookup works and what it tells you, and our guide to spotting a fake or cloned iPhone covers the authenticity checks that pair with it. This page and our Top 5 Mistakes guide cover a different, earlier set of questions: not whether the phone is genuine, but whether it was refurbished and sold to you honestly.

Questions people actually ask

• Battery replacement vs. testing, AppleCare eligibility: Apple Support Community discussion threads; SlashGear
• Grading inconsistency across sellers: GSMA, "Closing the Trust Gap"
• Grade definitions example: Back Market's published condition grades
• Genuine parts and Face ID/True Tone: MacRumors community discussion; iFixit
• Refurbished-sold-as-new case: Competition Authority of Kenya statement, as reported by Capital FM
• Terminology (replaced vs. refurbished vs. used): Apple Support Community discussion thread