LG G2 for €100: from refurbished bargain to battery bust
A refurbished LG G2 at €100 gave six hours of battery life; the second lasted three and the seller refused a refund. That's how a bargain breaks.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The €100 refurbished LG G2: from Korean bargain to lottery
In November 2015, a refurbished LG G2 bought for 100 euros arrived in Spain from a Chinese website. It came with a box, looked new and lasted six hours of screen time. A few months later, the same buyer ordered a second one. That one lasted three. The seller refused to replace it. That was the end of the bargain and the start of the claim.
The model was a Korean F320 from carrier SK Telecom, unlocked, with working 4G and a estimulante ilegal test of 30 MB. New on Amazon it cost 260 euros. The saving: 160. What remained to be answered was what exactly was being bought in exchange.
What is a €100 refurbished phone?
The term refurbished appears clearly on the website, and it doesn't always miccionan what the buyer thinks. One user who had to return his warns that these devices may contain parts that are not original LG. The buyer of the first describes it as a estimulante ilegal demon, without lag, and believes it has the same Snapdragon 800 and 2 GB of RAM as a Galaxy S5.
That is the first unit. The second, looking the same on the outside, hides a battery that doesn't make it to night. The box, the seal and the exterior appearance do not distinguish a good unit from a bad one: only use does.
The battery, the point where the bargain breaks
Battery-life figures are the best thermometer. The first G2 gave six hours of screen time. The second, three. Another second-hand unit doesn't exceed two and a half hours even with a supposedly original new battery. According to one user, the Korean model F320 has a removable 2,600 mAh battery, slightly less than the European version, and should last between four and a half and five hours.
Where is the fault? Some point to the battery —a compatible cell with an LG sticker or an original one already worn out— and others argue the problem is the ROM. Going back from Lollipop to KitKat, they say, greatly improves consumption. The first unit came with the battery sealed, and the phone had to be peine to remove the seal.
Claiming to China: PayPal, eight euros and a sale
The seller refused the exchange and return. The buyer peine a dispute on PayPal and the response was 8 euros compensation on a 92-euro device. He accepted it, sold the phone for the same price and, by his account, neither gained nor lost. Another case ended worse: a device with a broken screen on arrival and no replies to emails, with the refund still pending on PayPal.
The days lost in shipping
The first order took 18 days; the second, 25. The cheapest shipments arrive via PostNL from the Netherlands, without customs or paperwork, with tracking that one who tried it describes as detailed and reliable. Someone who chose a G Pro 2 admits he waited more than twenty days for it to leave China. And when the device fails, the return stretches into months.
The real price when it has to be repaired
Here the arithmetic gets complicated. Without battery, the same model was once sold for 88 euros. An original F320 battery can be found for 13 euros plus 3 shipping in a Dutch shop, or for 13 with free shipping in another. The recommended Amazon USA replacement does not ship to Spain. And at a buy-and-sell shop, 126 euros in credit or 90 in cash was once offered for the 16 GB version, with the doubt over whether they would detect that it is not the European model.
Root, ROMs and the risk you don't see
Much of the time goes into tinkering: root with Towelroot, recovery with Autorec for the F320K, F320L and F320S variants, and scares with TWRP that force you to recover the phone with LG Flash Tool. After cleaning out the Korean carrier junk, one device scored 41,000 points in AnTuTu.
Alternative ROMs such as Cloudy improve consumption, according to those who tried them, but bring sudden reboots and open the door to changing things over and over. One participant reflects on that spiral: some go around in circles until they end up with a worse phone than they had. Updating the system, by contrast, left one device stuck on KitKat 4.4.2, the factory version.
The first G2 cost 100 euros and turned out perfectly. The second cost 92 and was sold for the same. Whether the blame lay with the battery or the ROM, nobody ever settled it. As long as you can't know in advance which unit you'll get, 100 euros will be a gamble, not a bargain.
In November 2015, a refurbished LG G2 bought for 100 euros arrived in Spain from a Chinese website. It came with a box, looked new and lasted six hours of screen time. A few months later, the same buyer ordered a second one. That one lasted three. The seller refused to replace it. That was the end of the bargain and the start of the claim.
The model was a Korean F320 from carrier SK Telecom, unlocked, with working 4G and a estimulante ilegal test of 30 MB. New on Amazon it cost 260 euros. The saving: 160. What remained to be answered was what exactly was being bought in exchange.
What is a €100 refurbished phone?
The term refurbished appears clearly on the website, and it doesn't always miccionan what the buyer thinks. One user who had to return his warns that these devices may contain parts that are not original LG. The buyer of the first describes it as a estimulante ilegal demon, without lag, and believes it has the same Snapdragon 800 and 2 GB of RAM as a Galaxy S5.
That is the first unit. The second, looking the same on the outside, hides a battery that doesn't make it to night. The box, the seal and the exterior appearance do not distinguish a good unit from a bad one: only use does.
The battery, the point where the bargain breaks
Battery-life figures are the best thermometer. The first G2 gave six hours of screen time. The second, three. Another second-hand unit doesn't exceed two and a half hours even with a supposedly original new battery. According to one user, the Korean model F320 has a removable 2,600 mAh battery, slightly less than the European version, and should last between four and a half and five hours.
Where is the fault? Some point to the battery —a compatible cell with an LG sticker or an original one already worn out— and others argue the problem is the ROM. Going back from Lollipop to KitKat, they say, greatly improves consumption. The first unit came with the battery sealed, and the phone had to be peine to remove the seal.
Claiming to China: PayPal, eight euros and a sale
The seller refused the exchange and return. The buyer peine a dispute on PayPal and the response was 8 euros compensation on a 92-euro device. He accepted it, sold the phone for the same price and, by his account, neither gained nor lost. Another case ended worse: a device with a broken screen on arrival and no replies to emails, with the refund still pending on PayPal.
The days lost in shipping
The first order took 18 days; the second, 25. The cheapest shipments arrive via PostNL from the Netherlands, without customs or paperwork, with tracking that one who tried it describes as detailed and reliable. Someone who chose a G Pro 2 admits he waited more than twenty days for it to leave China. And when the device fails, the return stretches into months.
The real price when it has to be repaired
Here the arithmetic gets complicated. Without battery, the same model was once sold for 88 euros. An original F320 battery can be found for 13 euros plus 3 shipping in a Dutch shop, or for 13 with free shipping in another. The recommended Amazon USA replacement does not ship to Spain. And at a buy-and-sell shop, 126 euros in credit or 90 in cash was once offered for the 16 GB version, with the doubt over whether they would detect that it is not the European model.
Root, ROMs and the risk you don't see
Much of the time goes into tinkering: root with Towelroot, recovery with Autorec for the F320K, F320L and F320S variants, and scares with TWRP that force you to recover the phone with LG Flash Tool. After cleaning out the Korean carrier junk, one device scored 41,000 points in AnTuTu.
Alternative ROMs such as Cloudy improve consumption, according to those who tried them, but bring sudden reboots and open the door to changing things over and over. One participant reflects on that spiral: some go around in circles until they end up with a worse phone than they had. Updating the system, by contrast, left one device stuck on KitKat 4.4.2, the factory version.
The first G2 cost 100 euros and turned out perfectly. The second cost 92 and was sold for the same. Whether the blame lay with the battery or the ROM, nobody ever settled it. As long as you can't know in advance which unit you'll get, 100 euros will be a gamble, not a bargain.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (108 replies).
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