Whenever the time comes around to upgrade your phone, tablet, or laptop, you don’t necessarily have to go for the latest (and most expensive) model. You can take the refurbished route instead.

Refurbished tech sits somewhere between brand new and used, although the exact definition depends on where you’re buying from. Typically, these devices will have been returned after a certain period of use, though the length of that period and the extent of the use can vary from gadget to gadget.

What you always get with refurbished devices is a guarantee that they’ve been professionally inspected, cleaned up, and (where necessary) repaired. They’ll come with a warranty of sorts too, so you can be confident they’re not going to fail out of the box. They are often a year or two (at least) behind the latest gadget releases as well.

Crucially, these items will cost you significantly less than buying new, and there’s a good chance they’ll last almost as long too. At the very least, it’s worth looking around to check out current models and prices—here’s how to do it.

The best refurbished tech you can buy

Phones are pretty much the perfect gadget if you’re wanting to take the refurbished route. A constant, annual cycle of new models hitting the market means old models being sold on, and lots of different places to buy from. Any refurbished marketplace you come across will likely have a phones section. You can throw in tablets here too, which are again regularly updated and widely available.

What’s more, year-on-year phone and tablet upgrades are more iterative than they used to be. You’re not really missing out too much by having a phone design or a tablet spec that’s a year or two old—these devices are well supported with software updates for many years by Apple, Google, Samsung, and other manufacturers. That means you don’t need to worry about your refurbished bargain becoming obsolete soon after you’ve bought it.

Laptops are another product category well suited to being refurbished. There’s an even greater choice than with phones and tablets when it comes to specs, designs, and screen sizes, which means you’re likely to be able to find something that fits your requirements without too much searching. 

Games consoles can be bought refurbished too. Here the refresh cycle is much slower—there were seven years between the PS4 and the PS5, and we’re still waiting for the PS6—so you’re not really buying outdated tech, just pre-owned. Older consoles often show up on refurb portals as well, if you want to do some retro gaming.

The tricks to finding a good refurbished gadget deal are all common sense: Buy from a reputable outlet (see below), look particularly closely at the details given for the item condition and the included warranty, and shop around several sites for the best deal.

Give some thought to timing as well. Phones in particular are usually released on a predictable schedule—Google, Samsung, Apple, and others all tend to launch new handsets at the same time each year. So if you’re hearing rumors about product refreshes, you might want to wait until they’ve arrived. It’s always going to have a knock-on effect on the refurbished market, and you might be able to get a later model.

Where to find the best refurbished tech

There are plenty of places to find refurbished tech online, which tells you that plenty of shoppers see the appeal—and gives you the chance to compare prices and save as much money as you can. To begin with, Apple, Google, and Samsung all have official stores for refurbished tech, with one-year warranties as standard.

If you’re looking at third-party refurbished tech stores, BackMarket has one of the widest range of gadgets. You’ll find phones, tablets, laptops, consoles, speakers, headphones, smartwatches and more here, and some significant discounts too. As well as a one-year warranty as standard, the site also has a free 30-day returns policy, in case you change your mind about what you’ve bought.

Don’t discount eBay from your searches either. Yes, there are lots of individuals selling old tech here that’s way past its best, but there are also real manufacturers and reliable third-party stores selling refurbished kit through the portal too, covering every category you can imagine—one way to get started on your refurb search is to click the Brand Outlet link at the top, though you can also run a general search.

Then there’s Swappa, which is another well-respected source of refurbished gadgets. It has a mix of used and refurbished items, and a mix of individuals and professional tech sellers, so be sure to read the listings carefully to know what you’re getting. Reassuringly, all the listings are reviewed by Swappa staff, and the condition of gadgets (plus details of any warranty) have to be clearly stated.

Also worth a look is Amazon Renewed, especially if you’re already used to the Amazon shopping experience, because everything works in the same way. The condition of items and the warranties attached to them can vary, but everything comes with a 90-day guarantee window for returning items if you need to.

Ideally, it’s best to be checking multiple different sites in your search for the best refurbished tech—there isn’t the same consistency of pricing as you’ll find on something that’s brand new, so you can compare different offers against each other (just be sure to check on what else you get for the price, in terms of returns policies and extras).

The post The best refurbished gadgets to buy (and where to find them) appeared first on Popular Science.

If you want to find the most innovative and coolest new tech of the moment, you shouldn’t always automatically turn to familiar names like Apple, Google, and Samsung. You’ll find a whole host of smaller companies and start-ups testing out their ideas and prototypes—and looking to raise funds for the projects at the same time—over on Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

These two sites work similarly. Creators pitch their ideas and show you how far they’ve got in terms of prototyping and development. If you’re interested, you put down some money—usually less than you’ll pay if you wait until the finished product goes on sale—and this collected cash is then used to fund production.

From a quick scan at the time of writing, you’ll find portable wind turbines, retro game consoles, pocket cameras that turn into drones, and smart lunchboxes on these platforms. Whatever kind of tech you’re interested in, you’ll find there are plenty of products to browse through (and there’s lots more besides tech gadgets, too).

While there are no guarantees that these projects will actually turn into finished products, a good number of them do, and you can usually spot the ones that are less likely to succeed (as we’ll cover below). In the ideal scenario, you get yourself a new gadget you find useful, and save money at the same time by being an early backer.

Find the coolest tech being crowdfunded right now

Once you land on the Kickstarter or Indiegogo home pages, it’s not difficult to start browsing around for gadgets that might interest you: These platforms are built to make discovery as straightforward as possible, and you’ll immediately see some recommended crowdfunding projects on the front page that are proving popular with other people.

As well as highlighted listings, you get category links. These cover not just tech, but all sorts of other areas as well, including art, film, photography, education, design, journalism, travel, fashion, and community—so when you’ve exhausted all the cool hardware on these sites, there’s plenty more to look at.

If you’re looking for something specific, use the search function. Maybe you’re after a travel adaptor that doubles up as a USB hub, or a robot that can keep your pet company, or a smart suitcase designed to carry laptops, tablets, and cameras. Whatever you’re after, chances are someone is trying to get it crowdfunded on Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

Click through to any of the project listings, and you’ll get a massive amount of extra information about what’s involved. Creators know that the more detail there is, the more likely they are to attract enough funding, and you’ll typically find product photos, videos, specs, and a schedule for bringing it to market.

There should also be details about the company making the product. Often these will be smaller start-ups (or even individuals), but you do occasionally see larger tech companies take the crowdfunding route as well: The Ultrahuman Ring Pro was recently crowdfunded on Kickstarter, for example.

The all-important financial information will be included here too: How much money has been raised so far, what the target is, and the various tiers at which you can contribute. As well as getting a discount on the finished product, backing a project usually means you’ll be able to access certain rewards, such as bundled accessories or even a say in how the product is developed going forward.

What to look out for on project listings

Both Kickstarter and Indiegogo have similar rules when it comes to backing projects: If the product doesn’t actually get funded, you don’t lose anything. However, if the funding goal is reached, your money is taken—and the responsibility shifts to the project creator rather than the crowdfunding platforms. If the gadget never materializes, that’s on the creator, not Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

At that stage you may get a refund or you may not, or you may get something different for your money. With that in mind, be careful about the projects you decide to back. As per figures quoted by Kickstarter, around 1 in 10 crowdfunded projects fail completely, so the vast majority succeed—but it’s still best to be wary.

To start with, look at the people behind the project. What’s their track record with launching products? Have they dealt with hardware manufacturing before? Has the company made any devices previously? Does it have a portfolio of other products you can check out and actually buy?

Then there’s the project itself: You should weigh up how realistic the project’s aims are, especially if nothing similar is on the market. Look for evidence of prototype gadgets that have already been tested and reviewed, as well as details on how the product will be made and how its parts will be sourced.

Rewards are something else to look at—do these seem reasonable and practical, or are the creators overreaching and promising too much? A crowdfunded project’s success isn’t solely down to the main product, since rewards that get too complicated or too costly can cause problems too.

There’s no magic formula for predicting whether a Kickstarter or Indiegogo project will be successful or not, but those pointers should give you a good idea. There’s also the question of the price contributors are being asked to pay: Don’t give more than you can afford, and if you have doubts, maybe wait until it’s actually on sale to everyone.

The post How to find the best new tech on crowdfunding websites appeared first on Popular Science.