Where to buy a refurbished iPhone in the UK: Apple, Back Market, CeX or an independent?

There are four kinds of place to buy a refurbished iPhone in the UK, and they're genuinely different products wearing the same word. This is the comparison we'd want to read before spending £400, written by a seller who obviously has a view — so we've tried to be fair about where the others win.

Apple Certified Refurbished

The gold standard, and priced like it. Apple's refurbished iPhones get a new battery and new outer shell, come in a plain box with a one-year warranty, and typically sit around 15% below new. Stock is thin and skews to recent models. If money is no object and you want the nearest thing to new, this is it. If you want the savings that make refurbished worth doing, it isn't.

Back Market

A marketplace, not a refurbisher: dozens of independent sellers listed under one brand, with Back Market setting the rules — a 12-month minimum warranty, 30-day returns and a grading scale of Fair, Good and Excellent. Prices are competitive because sellers compete, and the choice is huge. The catch is that quality depends on which seller you happen to get, the grades are self-declared within Back Market's definitions, and any problem goes through a platform rather than a person.

CeX

The high-street option, with the advantage of walking out with the phone in your hand and a 24-month warranty. CeX grades A, B and C, and the phone is tested and working — but 'tested' at CeX means functional, not a full diagnostic report, and a grade-B phone can vary a lot between stores. Prices are usually a little above the online market, which is the cost of the shop.

Independent refurbishers (that's us)

A smaller operation that tests, grades and sells its own stock — and answers its own phone. The good ones give you what the big platforms can't: a real diagnostic report (every phone we sell has a Phonecheck certificate), battery health printed on the listing, a consistent grade because one team grades every phone, and someone accountable when something goes wrong. At Optimise Marketplace that's a 24-month warranty on any fault that isn't accidental damage, 14-day returns, and a repair bench that fixes what we sell.

Where independents lose: choice and stock depth. We'll have five iPhone 15s, not fifty. And you're trusting a name you may not have heard of, which is why we publish the Phonecheck report and our grading standard rather than asking you to take our word for it.

So where should you buy?

Buy from Apple if you want new-minus-a-bit and can afford it. Buy from Back Market if you want the widest choice and are happy to shop by seller rating. Buy from CeX if you need it today. Buy from an independent if you want the best value with a human behind it — and check three things before you pay anyone: the warranty length and what it excludes, whether battery health is stated, and whether there's an actual test report or just the word 'tested'.

Everything we have in stock is on the iPhone page, each with its battery health, grade and price up front.