Home office, cost per day
Refurbished or new? A phone, costed per day
A phone is the most expensive thing most people carry and almost nobody costs it per day, which is a shame, because per day is the only unit that makes the decision legible.
Some links on this page are affiliate links, which earn us a commission if you buy. It costs you nothing extra, and it never changes which option comes out cheapest here, because the ranking is arithmetic. How this works.
Four numbers
The range across this table runs from 27.8p a day to £1.24. A new flagship replaced every two years costs about £1.24 a day. A refurbished one kept for four costs about 27.8p.
| Option | Running | Cost per day | Relative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refurbished, kept four years£400 | 0.37p | 27.8p | |
| Refurbished, kept two years£400 | 0.37p | 55.2p | |
| New flagship, kept four years£900 | 0.37p | 62p | |
| New flagship, kept two years£900 | 0.37p | £1.24 |
The interesting comparison is not new against refurbished. It is how long you keep it. A new flagship kept four years costs 62p a day, and a refurbished one kept two costs 55.2p. Those are close enough to call level, which means the handset you buy matters less than the cycle you keep.
Keeping it longer beats buying it cheaper
Buying the same phone and keeping it twice as long halves the cost per day exactly, every time, with no compromise on the handset. Buying refurbished instead saves 56% on the purchase and rather less than that in practice, because a refurbished phone starts partway through its supported life and often has to be replaced sooner.
Rarely the hardware. It is the battery, which is replaceable for around £50 to £80 and instantly resets the most common reason for upgrading, and then security updates, which is a date the manufacturer sets. Check the support window before buying refurbished: a handset two generations old may have eighteen months of updates left rather than four years.
The battery is the cheapest year you will ever buy
A replacement battery at £70 on a phone you already own adds a year at about 19p a day. There is nothing else in this article that buys a year of phone that cheaply, and it is the single strongest financial argument in the whole comparison.
Where refurbished genuinely wins
At the top of the market. The saving on a flagship is large in absolute terms, several hundred pounds, and the hardware was built to last longer than its first owner kept it. On a mid range phone the saving is smaller and the remaining supported life is shorter, so the case is much weaker.
The verdict
Buy a refurbished flagship rather than a new mid range one, and then keep it until the updates stop rather than until it feels old. Replace the battery once, around year three, because it is the cheapest thing on this page. The upgrade cycle costs far more than the choice of handset, and it is the one part of this entirely within your control.
Put your own numbers in
The purchase price and the expected years are the only two inputs that matter here. Energy is a rounding error and is prefilled.
Cost per meal
Set the purchase price to zero for the running cost alone.
Questions
Is a refurbished phone cheaper than a new one?
Per day, yes. A £400 refurbished handset kept four years is about 27.8p a day against 62p for a £900 new one kept the same length of time.
How much does a phone cost per day?
Between 27.8p and £1.24 a day depending on price and how long you keep it. Charging it is under a penny a week and makes no difference.
Is it better to keep a phone longer or buy a cheaper one?
Keeping it longer, and it is not close. Doubling how long you keep any phone halves its cost per day exactly, with no compromise on the handset itself.
Is replacing a phone battery worth it?
It is the best value option in this whole comparison. Around £70 buys roughly another year, which works out at about 19p a day.
What should I check before buying a refurbished phone?
The remaining security update window, the battery health figure, and the grade. A handset two generations old may only have eighteen months of updates left, which changes the cost per day completely.
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More home office costs, or read how we work these out.
Prices used on this page
- Electricity, 26.11p per kWh. Ofgem price cap, direct debit, average of England, Scotland and Wales, including 5% VAT.. Ofgem energy price cap unit rates and standing charges. Checked 22 August 2026.