A new report on “mobile phone depreciation” has just been released, revealing many interesting findings when comparing phones running on Android and iOS operating systems.
Specifically, within 24 months, top Android mobile devices have lost value twice as much as iPhones.
However, after 4 years, this gap will narrow somewhat, with iPhones losing an average of -66.43% of their original purchase value, compared to -81.11% for Android.
On average, Android devices priced at $350 or less lose half of their trade-in value within just one year. Owners of popular budget smartphone brands such as Samsung, Motorola, LG, HTC, and Google lost an average of -52.61% of their trade-in value in 2019-2020.
These findings appeared in a report from the trading website BankMyCell, after tracking the value of 310 devices resold from various suppliers. The report identifies which smartphones are most likely to depreciate in resale value based on brand, model, and operating system.
iPhone and Samsung
The report states that 9 months after the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra was released, its resale value dropped to -64.71% of its original retail price. In comparison, during the same 9-month period after release, the iPhone 11 Pro Max only lost -32.22% of its retail value.
However, things are not always smooth for Apple; the iPhone SE 2020 did not follow the average decline, losing -16.70% in its first year. Similar to low-end Android devices, the iPhone SE 2020 lost an average of -38.32% of its resale value within 8 months.
Low-end Android devices priced at $350 or less will lose an average of -52.61% of their resale value in the first year, -73.61% in the second year, -85.15% in the third year, and -94.90% by the fourth year.
A common example is the Samsung A50, which lost -79.94% of its trade-in value from March 2019 to December 2020. Another example is the Motorola G7 series, which lost up to -79.17% of its trade-in value within 9 months in 2019, and then an additional -61.97% from January to December 2020.
Google Pixel Phones Lose an Average of 40.17% in One Year
The report states that consumers owning one of the 10 most traded Google Pixel phones in 2020 lost an average of -40.17% of the device’s value within 12 months.
In 2020, the average depreciation of all Google Pixel phones was -38.46% across all models and memory sizes. The Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL lost $154-163, which is quite significant given their original trade-in values ranged from $380 to $490 in January 2020. The Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL from 2019 also made it to the top 10 list of highest depreciated phones, with -40.06% for the Pixel 4 and -34.64% for the Pixel 4 XL.
Additionally, the Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL from 2019 are among the top 10 phones with the highest depreciation, with -40.06% for the Pixel 4 and -34.64% for the Pixel 4 XL.
HTC Has the Highest Depreciation
The report tracked the depreciation rates of 9 popular phone brands to see which brand lost the most in 2020.
The trade-in price of HTC smartphones dropped an average of -53.08% from January to December 2020. The HTC U11 Life (2017) recorded the highest drop, at -81.82%.
Motorola smartphones saw an average drop of -42.57% from January to December 2020. The Motorola G7 (2019) had the highest depreciation at -61.97%.
Sony phones saw an average decrease of -39.51% from January to December 2020. The Sony Xperia XA2 (2018) had the highest decline, at -72.22%.
Source: Techradar