After over four years of using an iPhone 12 Pro Max, Apple's thinner and lighter iPhone Air sounded like a refreshing change. The phone's promise of providing the same Apple-exclusive perks, like iMessage and FaceTime, while being more pocket-friendly, really appealed to me.
The problem: $1,000 is simply too much for me to put towards a phone right now. Plus, my existing T-Mobile plan has a low monthly price and is no longer eligible for those larger "get a phone on us" deals because it's so old. Switching carriers to get such a promotion is also a no-go, as nearly every wireless plan that is eligible would cost me more money monthly. Phones themselves are even more expensive, with the price of new devices fluctuating due to an uncertain economic outlook and the ongoing RAM shortage. Two phones I've recently reviewed, the $180 Moto G Play and the $700 OnePlus 15R, both have higher starting prices than the models they replaced.
And that's when it hit me: Apple made more pocket-friendly iPhones years before the Air with the since-discontinued iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 13 Mini. Both are able to run iOS 26 and will likely receive updates for a few more years. Even more incentivizing, I could get a 13 Mini with 256GB of storage for the same price as a brand-new budget phone.
But I have concerns about buying such an old phone.
Apple no longer makes the iPhone Mini, so the only way to find one will be to buy it used. While sellers promise that their used phones will function and only show some signs of wear, will that really be the case? And even though it will run iOS 26, will the phone be able to keep up with my daily routine? I decided to take the plunge and test whether a used iPhone 13 Mini could fill some of the iPhone Air's promise at a much lower price.
Finding an iPhone 13 Mini
For the purposes of this test, I bought an blue iPhone 13 Mini with 256GB of storage for $353, after taxes, from a vendor on Amazon. I use a 256GB edition of the 12 Pro Max, and didn't want to sacrifice storage by switching to a different phone. If you don't want to go through Amazon, you can find the iPhone 13 Mini on numerous used phone sites, including Gazelle, Back Market, Swappa and eBay, among others. I often scope Woot for phone deals, and occasionally see refurbished models of the Mini pop up there, too.
These vendors will often price the used phones based on their condition. In this case, I bought one in Renewed condition, which meant that the phone would show some signs of wear and a battery with at least 80% capacity. Amazon also has a Renewed Premium tier, which costs $60 to $90 more and offers phones with at least 90% battery capacity. Renewed is different from refurbished, as the latter means a phone has been repaired or repackaged and sold in like-new condition. In this case, a renewed model should mean it's been inspected before being sold and mailed out.
I decided to go the cheaper route, as I imagined that most renewed phones would have a battery life of at least last a day (and I later discovered this to be wrong). Also importantly, the phone came with a generous return policy, allowing me three months to get a refund if I decided the phone wasn't for me.
The iPhone 13 Mini arrived in a white box, and included a power adapter with cable. Numi Prasarn/CNET
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