Just like a new car starts to lose value the second you drive it out of the dealership, phones start to depreciate as soon as you take them out of the box – and some depreciate in value much faster than others.
musicMagpie’s Annual Phone Depreciation Report uses our own trade-in data to compare the values of the most popular phones from Apple, Samsung, Google, OnePlus and Huawei, for three years from the date the device was launched, creating a definitive guide to phone depreciation.
We’ve crunched the numbers to help you reduce the amount of money you lose from depreciation and help you make smarter choices for the environment too.
Of all the 5G phones released, the iPhone 12 Pro, one of Apple’s first 5G-enabled models, managed to retain its value the best in the six months after release, dropping by just 32%. Samsung’s first 5G-enabled phone release, the Samsung 10 5G, lost a higher 55% of its value in the first six months.
The 10 phones which held the most of their value at 12 months are all iPhones – making them the better investment for people who are likely to trade their device back in every year to upgrade.
The iPhone 11 has held onto its value the best, depreciating by 33% in the first 12 months. The iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 8 Plus take the 2nd and 3rd positions, losing 36% and 38% of their value respectively after 12 months.
The OnePlus 7T and the Samsung S7 Edge are the best performing non-Apple phones, losing 50% and 52% of their value in their first 12 months on sale.
The Huawei Mate 30 Pro was the worst performing phone in our 2021 report, losing a huge 87% of its value in the first year. The Huawei P20 and OnePlus 8 were the next worst performing phones, losing 84% and 83% of their value after just 12 months.
Apple’s worst performing model was the iPhone X, which lost 51% of its value 12 months after launch. The Samsung models which depreciated most in the first 12 months were Samsung Flip, which lost a substantial 83% of its value, and the Samsung Fold, which lost 75%.