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March 30, 2021

Refurbished Apple iPhone 8 & 8 Plus - Better Value Than New Phones?



The iPhone (News - Alert) 8 and 8 Plus are an interesting member of Apple's line up. Despite being released in 2017, they have gone on to become a hit among iPhone users and especially now that phone prices have become ridiculously expensive.  Price is an important consideration for most people when buying phones but with most modern phones crossing the $1,000 mark, it is understandable that people are looking at older classics to save some money.  You can easily buy a refurbished iPhone 8 Plus 64gb in Australia for $429 AUD.



When Apple (News - Alert) releases a new phone line the price of the old line-up goes down and soon some become forgotten. What we know is that the iPhone 8 range—iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 plus, is still creating buzz and in demand in 2021. They are still receiving updates even to the latest iOS 14 and for most people, it is a budget entry into Apple’s ecosystem. This is despite apple releasing a look-alike budget phone the iPhone SE 2 with updated internals to replace it. The bottom line seems to be price but keep reading to find out why the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus still have the dominance they has today.

iPhone 8: Design

At its release, the iPhone 8 series shared its design philosophy with the iPhone 7. In fact, most people touted it to be the iPhone 7 pro. But that aside, it was an iPhone legacy design and if you had owned older iPhones before its release, you knew what you were getting with this new model. Often there are not many cosmetic changes but the internals was revised extensively from the old model. It still has the old tried and tested TouchID at the front, a new glass back that allowed wireless charging, IP67 water resistance. The display is the Retina HD with TrueTone which meant it would automatically adjust the display based on the ambient lighting.

iPhone 8: Performance

Probably one of the areas where Apple has excelled since they started producing phones. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus came with Apple’s A11 Bionic chip and 2GB RAM (News - Alert).  It was a more powerful chip than the A10 Bionic chip on the iPhone 7 and it was the same chip that went into the iPhone X.  This chip was powerful enough to handle all the tasks thrown at it and at the time it was the fastest chip on mobile. The fact that both the iPhone X and iPhone 8 exist today goes to show despite not being the newest iPhones they can still perform just as well today. The chip is good enough for everyday use cases of the phone acing task like making calls, messaging, social media, light gaming and internet browsing.  Excellent Apple optimization means that the 2GB RAM on the iPhone 8 and the 3GB RAM of the iPhone 8 plus are enough to deliver this performance without breaking a sweat even with the age of the phones.

iPhone 8: Camera

As a point and shoot device, the iPhone 8’s camera can trade shots with most modern budget device cameras. While the regular iPhone 8 has a single camera the iPhone 8 Plus has a dual-camera setup that is capable of 4K video at 60FPS.  The iPhone 8 camera is a 12MP sensor while the pro adds a 12MP telephoto lens.  At its release, DxOMark—a reputed camera reviewer dubbed the camera setup on the iPhone 8 as the best performing Camera on a phone thanks to improved image stabilization, accurate autofocus and great colour accuracy. In the modern context, this camera is a big plus and it gives the iPhone 8 a great advantage over other phones from the time.

iPhone 8: Software

One benefit of going for an older iPhone is the support and software you receive from Apple, long after the phone has been discontinued. Thankfully, the story is similar to the iPhone 8 range.  While Apple may not roll out updates for life, it is nice that these phones still access the latest and the best from Apple’s software department.  The iPhone 8 was released with iOS 11.0 but they still function on the latest iOS 14. Most people will buy a phone based on what it will do for them now and in future hence it doesn't take a lot of deduction to understand why the iPhone 8 range is still popular.

With the iPhone 8, you have a solid phone with decent performance that will still work on Apple’s platform today.  The strong processor, great camera, TouchID, small form factor and software updates means that anyone looking for a budget phone has a default phone to begin the search with. Since Apple no longer sells them on their website, they can be found in plenty as refurbished devices. As refurbished phones, they have been given the iPhone SE 2 treatment and reconditioned to work just like new.  The iPhone 8 is still a worthy purchase and if you can buy one as a refurb— they offer even better value for you.



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