Let’s take a peek at how the top smartphones of the year held up in terms of value. SellCell, the online marketplace and price-check champ for smartphones, just dropped a report giving us the lowdown on which brands weathered depreciation the best.
Apple’s iPhones usually do a better job at holding their value compared to top-tier Android phones, and the iPhone 15 continued that trend. Just three months after hitting the shelves, the iPhone 15 only saw a 27.9 percent drop in value, a whopping 27.1 percent less than other flagship phones. It even outperformed the iPhone 14 by 5 percent.
The top dog in the lineup was the 256GB iPhone 15 Pro Max, showing an impressively low depreciation of just 18.2 percent in the initial three months. Different versions of the iPhone 15 clearly owned the charts for the smartphones that held their value the best in 2023.
The Galaxy S23 lineup proved to be a standout in holding its value among Android phones. It shed about 32.8 percent less value than other top-tier Android flagships, making it the go-to option for those who switch phones frequently. Within the initial two months, the Galaxy S23 family dropped 43.5 percent in value, with an additional 1.5 percent slide in the third month. In comparison, the Galaxy S22 had lost a whopping 46.8 percent of its value in the first two months alone.
The real MVP in the lineup was the 256GB Galaxy S23 Plus, holding strong by only losing 35.3 percent of its value three months after hitting the shelves. On the flip side, things weren’t looking great for Samsung. The biggest loser in the analyzed phones was the Galaxy S23 FE, taking a nosedive with a staggering 68.4 percent depreciation just three months after release.
As for Google, the Pixel 8 took a beating, dropping 61.2 percent in value within the initial three months. What’s wilder is that it got outdone by its predecessor, the Pixel 7a, which only lost 52.5 percent of its value over a similar period.
Here’s a curveball: the OnePlus 11 surprisingly outpaced the Pixel 8, taking a hit of 48.5 percent in value within the first three months. Not exactly a brag-worthy performance, and it landed the phone a spot on the “Top 15 Worst Depreciating Phones of 2023” list.