Is this a factory refurb, or 3rd-party? Apologies if this is stated somewhere; couldn’t find it.
Hi there. This is 3rd party refurbished. Here’s our guide:
That post could be clarified a bit – the description for “refurbished” says by “the pros” and I suppose we could assume that this means by a third party (rather than the hopefully professional staff working for the manufacturer), but specifically stating this would be an improvement.
A link to that post from the FAQ might be helpful too.
Thanks for your response here.
I purchased this phone in black from this sale and it is up and running on my Verizon account. As for condition, there is a small but noticeable scratch on the front screen in the center along the right edge about 2mm wide x 3mm long. Other than that it looks and works perfectly. Yes, the S-pen was included and completely functional with no apparent wear. The battery reads at 100% capacity. I upgraded from a Samsung Note 9 and I never buy a brand new phone so I am very happy with this one.
I do have a few non-hardware related gripes, but they could be applicable to ANY phone. These are the reasons why I don’t switch phones very often. First and foremost, the process to switch phones is incredibly convoluted and you can choose any of THREE different methods to transfer and restore you accounts, apps and data to your new phone - Samsung (Smart Switch), Google Backup and Restore, and Verizon Backup and Restore. All three will do exactly the same thing and it depends on which one your reliably use as a backup on your old phone. As you are making your way through the activation process on your new phone you will be presented with the option to use each one at completely different times. I honestly wish there was a single step during activation that allowed you to choose which one to use and ignore the rest.
My other gripe is I had to sit through no fewer than 4 complete software updates to finally arrive at Android 13. As I was sorting through my reloaded apps and setting up everything I suddenly had to download and install the next update to Android and start all over again. My advice is to be patient and wait until all the Android updates are fully complete before you try to do anything else. Be aware - this could (and most likely will) take a LOT of time.
And lastly, even though I had all of my apps moved over with all the account info, etc. for each, you still have to go through EVERY SINGLE APP ONE AT A TIME and make sure you can sign in and it is working. Google Pay was very time consuming because I had to reactivate each one of my credit cards one at a time in the app. If you ignore an app now you may be stuck when you have to use it later.
Just know going in it could take the better part of a full day to activate, transfer and verify/re-activate all of you apps and data. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. As for the phone - given my same circumstances I would buy it again.