This new $1,099 iPhone you may have purchased a refurbished model, but luckily there’s an easy way to tell if you’ve purchased one.
Aakaanksh Autade, who goes through @kaansanity on ICT Tacshared a trick to find out if your phone is new or used.
This code, hidden in your device settings, can reveal information about your iPhone, such as whether you were sold a new or refurbished device.
TikTok user @kaansanity has revealed a trick to find out if you’ve been sold a refurbished device
To find out if your phone is new or refurbished, find the model number in the settings.
Tech genius Aakaanksh shared the tip in a video that racked up 12.1 million views and is nearing one million likes.
In the short video, he said: “Watch this before you get a new iPhone. Open Settings and tap About.
‘And then look at the beginning of the model number. If it starts with M, it means ‘New’ and F means ‘Refurbished’.’
He added that if you have the letter P as the first letter of the code, it stands for Custom, while the letter N stands for Replacement.
The TikTok star continued, “The letters at the end tell you where the phone was supposed to be sold. Share this with your friends so you don’t get scammed.
According to the creator, LL means the United States, CH means China, C refers to Canada and F means that it was intended for sale in France.
Other codes include JP, which stands for Japan, PY, which stands for Spain. and the letter B represents the United Kingdom and Ireland.
However, refurbished phones are not necessarily bad, as companies like Apple often put the product through extensive testing to ensure that the customer gets a reliable device.
On its website, Apple states, “Each Apple Certified Refurbished product goes through a rigorous refurbishment process that includes comprehensive functional testing, with special savings of up to 15%.
They add that these refurbished devices have “Genuine Apple replacement parts (as needed) that have been thoroughly cleaned and inspected.”
“Refurbished iOS devices will ship with a new battery and exterior shell. Each device will ship with all accessories, cables, and operating systems,” Apple explains.
If you purchased a refurbished phone from Apple, you get a standard one-year limited warranty “with every Apple Certified Refurbished product.”
The last letters of your model number can also tell you where the device was to be sold
However, this iPhone trick helps users to check if the seller was honest about whether the device is new or where it came from.
If your Apple device was intended for sale in another country, you may encounter issues.
An example is FaceTime, which is banned on iPhones in the United Arab Emirates.
However, if you know what you’re getting into when buying the product, a refurbished phone is a great way to save money and save the planet.
A 2017 report from the World Economic Forum found that the billions of smartphones used by many of us every day could be responsible for producing 3.5% of global emissions within ten years and 14% by 2040.
The smartphone industry is expected to play a major role in the production of greenhouse gases
They wrote: “This would mean that industry would use around 20% of all the world’s electricity by 2025.
“This growing problem threatens to disrupt progress towards climate change goals and exacerbate increasingly stretched power grids.”
According to Swedish researcher Anders Andrae, demand for electricity from industry is expected to climb from 200 to 300 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year to reach 1,200 or even 3,000 TWh by 2025.
He said: “The situation is alarming. A tsunami of data is approaching. Everything that can be is digitized.
“It’s a perfect storm. 5G [the fifth generation of mobile technology] arrives, IP [internet protocol] traffic is much higher than expected, and all cars and machines, robots and artificial intelligence are being digitized, producing huge amounts of data which is stored in data centers.
APPLE’S BILLION-DOLLAR RISE
The company’s journey to the top of the tech industry has been rocky, having seen Jobs (pictured right in 1976) leave the company in the mid-1980s after his pet project, the first Macintosh computer, had struggling and that he tried to oust then-general manager John Sculley. Wozniak is pictured on the left
1976: Founders Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne started the company on April 1, 1976 as they began selling computer kits to hobbyists, each built by Wozniak.
The first product was the Apple I.
1977: Apple released the Apple II in June, which was the first PC designed for the mass market.
nineteen eighty one: Jobs became president.
1984: The Macintosh was featured during a Super Bowl commercial break and later officially unveiled at a launch event. It was discontinued a year later and Jobs left the company.
1987: Apple releases the Macintosh II, the first color Mac.
1997: Apple announces it will acquire NeXT software in a $400 million deal that involves Jobs returning to Apple as interim CEO. He officially took the role in 2000.
2001: Apple introduced iTunes, OS X and the first generation iPod.
The first iPod MP3 music player was released on October 23, 2001 at an event in Cupertino and could hold up to 1,000 songs.
Steve Jobs unveils Apple Computer Corporation’s new Macintosh on February 6, 1984 in California.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs with the iPhone
2007: Apple unveils the iPhone.
2010: The first iPad has been unveiled.
2011: Jobs resigned in 2011 due to illness, ceding the title of CEO to Tim Cook. Job died in October of pancreatic cancer.
2014: Apple unveiled the Apple Watch. It also unveiled its first larger iPhones – the 6 and 6 Plus.
2015: After buying Beats from Dr Dre, Apple launched Apple Music to compete with Spotify and other music streaming services.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs speaks during an Apple event at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California.
2016: Apple returns to its roots and announces the 4-inch iPhone SE. Meanwhile, the company is embroiled in a legal battle with the FBI, involving the agency demanding access to the locked phone used by Syed Farook, who died in a shooting after carrying out a deadly attack in December in San Bernardino, California, with his wife. The court order was dropped on March 28 after the FBI said a third party was able to unlock the device.
2017: Apple introduces iPhone X, which removes the home button to make way for a futuristic edge-to-edge display design and a new FaceID system that uses advanced sensors and lasers to unlock phones with just the face of the phone owner.
2018: In a first for the company, Apple is introducing new features in its latest operating system, iOS 12, that encourage users to manage and spend less time on their devices. The move was sparked by a strongly worded shareholder letter that urged the company to tackle the growing problem of smartphone addiction among children and teens.
2019: In January, Apple announces its first drop in revenue and profits in a decade. CEO Tim Cook partly blamed the sharp drop in revenue from China.
2020: In March, Apple closes all physical stores outside of China in response to the coronavirus.