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Recently I heard about what sounded like a great deal: a refurbished Pixel 1 for $199. So I ordered one. The company selling them was called Woot.
My current phone is a discontinued South Korean model. It's usable, but limited and VERY slippery. There's no cover that will fit it.
When the phone arrived, I tried to peel the plastic film off the screen. To my surprise, the screen itself wasn't fully attached; it was entirely detached from the lower left corner, and I could literally see inside the phone. It had clearly been dropped, hard, on that corner. There was visible damage inside. The phone worked, apparently, but had clearly been "refurbished" in the shoddiest way imaginable.
On further investigation, the screen turned out to be detached from the entire lower half of the phone. I did some research, and found that Woot had been acquired some time ago by Amazon. It seems that Amazon uses Woot to sell garbage that they can't or won't sell on Amazon itself.
And this phone was literally garbage. So I contacted Woot and told them I'd be returning it for a full refund. They sent me a prepaid return label, and I shipped it back.
The thing is, I still want a new phone. I won't buy a used or refurbished phone, and I'll certainly never buy anything from Woot again. I don't want to spend what it will cost to buy a new new phone - not directly from a manufacturer, anyway. But there are new-in-box older model phones available on eBay.
Here's what I'm considering:
A Pixel (1) XL - an excellent camera, but will only get Android updates for another year at most. And the manufacturer, Google, is a company I no longer like or trust.
An Essential phone. Titanium and ceramic, and not manufactured by Google. It has virtually no bezel, but that's a negative; my current phone has a tiny bezel, and it's actually a drawback. My palm isn't that fat, but it still tends to bulge around the edge enough to cause the screen to get confused or fail to respond. I never had that problem with a normal cellphone, by the way.
Last is an older OnePlus phone. I don't know much about that.
My current phone is a discontinued South Korean model. It's usable, but limited and VERY slippery. There's no cover that will fit it.
When the phone arrived, I tried to peel the plastic film off the screen. To my surprise, the screen itself wasn't fully attached; it was entirely detached from the lower left corner, and I could literally see inside the phone. It had clearly been dropped, hard, on that corner. There was visible damage inside. The phone worked, apparently, but had clearly been "refurbished" in the shoddiest way imaginable.
On further investigation, the screen turned out to be detached from the entire lower half of the phone. I did some research, and found that Woot had been acquired some time ago by Amazon. It seems that Amazon uses Woot to sell garbage that they can't or won't sell on Amazon itself.
And this phone was literally garbage. So I contacted Woot and told them I'd be returning it for a full refund. They sent me a prepaid return label, and I shipped it back.
The thing is, I still want a new phone. I won't buy a used or refurbished phone, and I'll certainly never buy anything from Woot again. I don't want to spend what it will cost to buy a new new phone - not directly from a manufacturer, anyway. But there are new-in-box older model phones available on eBay.
Here's what I'm considering:
A Pixel (1) XL - an excellent camera, but will only get Android updates for another year at most. And the manufacturer, Google, is a company I no longer like or trust.
An Essential phone. Titanium and ceramic, and not manufactured by Google. It has virtually no bezel, but that's a negative; my current phone has a tiny bezel, and it's actually a drawback. My palm isn't that fat, but it still tends to bulge around the edge enough to cause the screen to get confused or fail to respond. I never had that problem with a normal cellphone, by the way.
Last is an older OnePlus phone. I don't know much about that.
