Refurbished iphone advice on models please

[LeeMiller]

Hi, I'm going to buy a refurbished iphone as my phone has finally given up (have had a refrbished iphone, ipad and macbook in the past and no issues). I don't want to spend much so not looking at the latest models, but I don't want something with an operating system so old that I can't install the latest apps, or update them. Any advice? Would iphone 7, or 8 be ok? 6 or 1st generation SE? And what GB is sensible and won't fill up too fast? Better an older phone and bigger GB or newer phone and smaller GB for the same price?

I basically use the phone for whatsapp, emails, photos and a handfl of apps, nothing fancy.

i have a iphone 8 - bought refurbished from amazon at the beginning of the year and its fine, no issues - mine is a 64gb

Thanks @chipsandpeas. I wonder if I could get away with an earlier model?

I would always go for an older phone and more GB. I have an iphone 6+ (the one with the massive screen) - bought it refurbished few years ago.
It's brilliant and still works perfectly well but it is running out of space so badly that it now doesn't have capacity to download ios updates and even some apps I use all the time (like Amazon) I can't even bring down from the cloud. I've deleted as much as I possibly can and practically all the apps live in the cloud but it just needs more capacity. I'd be happy buying another one of the same model but with twice the GB.

@ LeeMiller the lowest id go is a 7 - only reason i didnt get a 7 was i was replacing it due to a dodgy screen and it wasnt costing that much more to get the 8

Thanks @lurkingfromhome how many GB do you have?

I wouldn't go lower than an 8 tbh. The SE and the 6/s will drop out on the next iOS update. The 7 will probably be after that so if you don't want to be replacing it needlessly go for the newest you can.

I just checked and mine is only 16GB! No wonder it's running out of space. I was sure it was 64GB.

I'm definitely going to have to replace mine soon but I really love the big screen so that's going to be another issue.

I got a 7 because anything newer than that is too big for my hands and there’s no point in having a phone that I continually drop and which gives me hand ache. I’d agree with PP that the key thing is to get tons of memory, much more than you think you need, because apps and the operating system just keep getting bigger and bigger.

My 6s was 64gb and my 11 is 64gb and I find that plenty of space, the 8 sounds like a good idea to get

I bought a refurbished iPhone 8 from eBay and it’s been brilliant. Sim only contract so it’s cheap as chips too.

@OverZoomed the 8 is the same size as the 7 just in case you need to upgrade again

iphone 6 plus and up. Size is important

@chipsandpeas You’re right - that’s why I got a 6 with 128 GB memory. I mistyped (unhelpfully).

So 64GB is a decent amount?

@avroroad Thanks, ruling out a 6 on that basis. Can't decide about the 7, an 8 I'd probably have to go with 32GB or it starts to go out of budget.

I’ve got a 6s. It’s fine for now, but I expect that it will be dropped from the updates with the next release.
I always buy outright and usually go a couple of versions behind the latest release with the most storage I can afford.

I just had a look and I am using just under 30gb of space. When the new iPhone came out a lot of people were moaning that the cheapest one only had 64gb and then I did see somewhere that for the average user that was plenty unless you store a lot of 4K videos on your phone

I would get the newest you can afford, go for the 8 at least. Storage is less important although don't go less than 64GB.