Refurbished smartphones are widely available – so should you buy one?

They're not quite as good as new but the phones are cheaper, more sustainable and now available at the supermarket in Australia

Buying new smartphones gets worse for the wallet every year. Back in 2008, the first generation iPhone cost about $700. The tenth generation started at $1,549. Today, the top-shelf iPhone 12 Pro Max with more than 500gb of storage is an uncomfortable $2,369 - about a third more than the cheapest Apple laptop.

On top of that, e-waste is the world's fastest-growing solid-waste stream, increasing at a rate three times faster than general waste in Australia.