What Does a Refurbished Grade A or B Phone Mean?
Refurbished phones have letter grades attached to them. A, B and sometimes even C or D ratings tell you what condition to expect. These grades are meant to show you what the phone will look like when it shows up at your door. Plenty of shoppers don’t know that these letter ratings can get you a flagship device without paying full flagship prices (and I’m talking about flagship devices here!).
Grade B phones cost less than the Grade A models. The price difference usually falls somewhere between $75 and $200 based on which model you’re looking at. That savings sounds appealing. It makes you think about what you’re giving up in exchange for that lower price. The scratches and scuffs on the outside are noticeable. Buyers have bigger concerns - they wonder if this phone has been passed around to more owners, if the battery will drain faster than it should or if the internal parts are more likely to quit working sooner.
Retailers use these letter grades as a way to sort through thousands of returned and traded-in devices. Grade A phones can look almost brand new in most cases. Grade B phones will have some visible wear and tear from whoever owned them before. Both grades also go through the exact same testing procedures. They each get the same component repairs when they are needed. They each have to meet the same battery health standards before they can be sold.
Each grade tells you about what the outside of the phone looks like. What it doesn’t tell you is how the phone actually performs or how reliable it’s going to be.
Let’s talk about what these grades mean so you can shop with confidence.
How the Grading System Works
The refurbished phone industry needed a way to rate its products, so they came up with a grading system that’s based mostly on how the phone looks. Grade A and Grade B phones get the same repairs and go through the same testing to make sure that they actually work the way that they should.
The grade just tells you what the phone looks like on the outside. A Grade B phone won’t have a weaker battery or run any slower than a Grade A phone - it just has a bit more visible wear on the case and on the screen. It’ll power on and work like it’s supposed to.
This grading system started when the refurbished market got bigger as more sellers got involved. They needed a way to describe their phones so everyone was on the same page. Customers want to know what they’re paying for. Without any standards in place, every seller could call their products “in great condition” and it could mean something different.
What this does for you as a buyer is pretty simple. You can pick a grade that fits your budget and what you care about. Maybe you want to save more money and you don’t mind if your phone has a few scuffs. The grades also let sellers adjust their prices based on how the phone looks while they can still work just as well.
A lower grade doesn’t mean that anything inside the phone is damaged or that it doesn’t work right. Your phone is going to work the same way if there’s a small scratch on the back or if it looks like it just came out of the box.
The Cosmetic Quality of Grade A Phones
A Grade A phone is going to look almost brand new in your hand. There could be a couple of small micro-scratches that are visible if you angle the screen just right under bright light. Most of your friends or family members would never even see them though. The marks are small enough that they’re pretty hard to see even when you’re actively trying to find them.
When you hand your phone to a coworker for a second, they probably won’t see that it was ever used before. Grade A quality means just this level of condition. A phone that meets this standard won’t look refurbished to anyone who picks it up or sees it on your desk.
Grade A devices usually had very short lives with their original owners. A lot of customers return their phones within just a few weeks because they decided to switch to a different model instead. Another common source is from owners who kept their phones in protective cases from the first day. Display models from retail stores can also wind up as Grade A refurbished products because they mostly just sat on display shelves rather than in pockets and purses all day.
If appearance matters to you personally, maybe you want a device that looks pristine because you don’t plan to put any protective case on it at all. Or maybe how your phone looks to your friends and colleagues in professional settings matters to you. A Grade A model costs a bit more but it can be worth it in either case. The phone that you receive won’t have any visible signs of previous ownership.
Visible Wear That You Can Expect
Grade B phones usually have a bit more character on them compared to what you’d see with Grade A models. Light scratches on the screen are pretty common and small scuffs along the edges and the back are normal too. These marks are just from normal use, and they show that the phone had a previous owner who put it to work.
The main point is that this wear is cosmetic! Grade B phones work just like Grade A phones in every functional way. The touchscreen is going to respond just as fast and the camera is still going to take the same quality photos.
Visible wear on the outside doesn’t show what’s on the inside. Refurbishers also look at the appearance as a separate aspect from how the phone performs. A phone could be scratched up on the outside and still have its internal parts in perfect condition.
The wear on Grade B devices usually shows up in pretty predictable places. Corners usually get small dings when owners set them down on hard surfaces over time. Back panels will show scuff marks in the areas where a protective case didn’t quite cover everything. Faint lines across the screen are another common find and those usually came from keys or coins that shared a pocket with the phone.
None of these marks are going to get in the way when you read messages or watch videos though. All it means is that the phone lived a normal life with an owner before it made its way to a new owner. Cases are going to hide most of the wear anyway. And if battle scars don’t bother you, a Grade B device delivers the same experience at a lower price point.
At the end of the day, it really depends on how much those visual marks matter for your everyday use.
Battery Performance in Both Grades
Power on a Grade A phone or a Grade B phone and they work the exact same way once they’re on. The only difference between them is what you can see on the outside of the device.
Decent refurbishers will put every phone through the same set of tests before it goes up for sale. They’ll check the camera to make sure that the focus works like it should. They test the speakers and the microphone to make sure everything sounds right. They make sure that the buttons click and respond when pressed. And they check that the touchscreen picks up each and every tap and swipe. They also test the cellular connection to make sure that the phone connects to networks without any problems.
Battery health is worth a mention on its own and it’s separate from what the phone looks like on the outside. In most cases, either grade will have batteries at around 80 to 85% of what they were when they were brand new. And that’s usually enough to get you through a full day of normal use for the average person.
Most refurbishers will list the battery health as a separate spec from the cosmetic grade. You can (and should) look into this beforehand.
You’re not giving up any performance if you pick one grade over the other. A Grade B phone will load your apps just as fast and will take the same quality photos. And it’ll last just as long on a charge as a Grade A phone with the same battery capacity would.
Your Savings with Grade A and Grade B
When you’re actually paying for one, Grade A phones usually run you about 15% to 30% less than what a brand new model would cost. Grade B devices go even cheaper than that at around 25% to 40% off of what you’d normally pay at retail.
Price differences like these can change what phone you’re able to actually afford. A flagship model from last year might wind up costing you the same as a brand new mid-range device. Premium features and better cameras are suddenly something you can get and you also don’t have to pay that premium price tag anymore.
With a case on your phone, you’ll probably never even see those extra scratches on a Grade B model. The discount makes much more sense when it’s going to be covered up anyway.
Some buyers out there care about that fresh-from-the-box experience though. When they pull out a phone that looks pristine, it really matters to them and Grade A gives them just that feeling at a lower cost than buying a new one. The extra money feels worth it to them when their device looks practically untouched.
Think about how you actually use your phone day to day and whether cosmetic wear will bother you or if it will just disappear behind a protective case. The right choice depends on what you care about most personally and how much you want to stretch your budget. Either grade performs just the same in my experience, so the decision is about the appearance versus the savings.
Return Policies That You Can Trust
When you buy anything, ask yourself what will happen if the phone doesn’t work right when it arrives. Reliable sellers will give you at least 30 days to return it. A full month is enough time to test everything and make sure that the phone actually matches what was promised in the listing.
Your refurbished phone needs to have a warranty. Most warranties will take care of issues like a screen that stops responding or a camera that won’t open anymore. Anything that breaks during the warranty period should get fixed or replaced at no charge to you.
Quality sellers will accept returns even on refurbished phones. They stand behind what they sell because they actually do the work right and know that their phones will hold up.
Watch out for sellers who only give you a few days to return a phone. An extremely short window tells you that they probably don’t trust their own work. And if a seller won’t give you any warranty at all, that’s an even bigger red flag.
Battery health is worth paying extra attention to when you’re shopping around. A reliable seller will also tell you the exact battery capacity percentage and guarantee that it’s above a minimum. Refusal to share battery info or unwillingness to guarantee their claims means something is probably off. Batteries are expensive to replace later, so find out this information first.
Return policies and warranties are what separate the quality refurbishers from the ones who are just trying to flip inventory fast. Solid return terms and warranty coverage tell you that the seller actually believes that their phones will work well for a long time.
Trade Your Old Phone for Cash Today
The refurbished option makes sense whether you go with Grade A or Grade B. Premium technology and the features that you want are yours without paying that premium price for them. More money stays in your pocket this way for what else matters to you. The financial benefits are great on their own. Refurbished phones also help to stop electronics from ending up in landfills and cut down on the demand for new device production at the same time. Your wallet wins and the environment does too. Few purchases give you value on a few different levels at once.
The value from your devices doesn’t stop after you buy them either. An older phone in a drawer somewhere could turn into cash pretty fast if you wanted it to. At ecoATM, we’ve streamlined the whole process with over 6,000 kiosks across the country. Walk over to one and you’ll get instant diagnostics on your device. Walk away with same-day cash or an electronic payout a few minutes later. The old tech moves out of your house and the money goes toward your next device in the same afternoon. A refurbished model makes a great target for those funds. But you can put the cash toward anything else that works for your situation.
Find a location near you and check on what your phone is worth today. The whole transaction takes just a few minutes and gives you a solid head start on your next upgrade.
