Report: Apple's iPhone holds its value longer than the competition

What you need to know

• Apple's iPhones depreciate more slowly than other phones.
• Sony Android phones depreciate particularly badly.
• LG phones don't perform much better.

There has long been a belief that iPhones depciate more slowly than competing flagship products and now new data from SellCell (via Apple Must) backs that up.

That data covers five of the top US smartphone brands and then looks at their flagship devices over the last year or so. It then compares their original selling price to how much they can be traded in for today. The depreciation is then calculated and the table speaks for itself.

Apple's iPhone XS Max sold for $1099 in September of 2018 and can now be traded in for $580. That's a depreciation of 47.2%. But when you compare that with Galaxy Note 9 which sold for $1000 a month earlier, things don't look great for Samsung. It's now worth just $321 which means a depciation of a massive 67.8%.

Sony's XZ2 and XZ2 Premium fare even worse, and LG isn't far behind. If you're buying an Android phone and want it to hold its value you're best looking at the Pixels or the Samsung phones. Google's Pixel 3 line saw its value fall around 69% which is still a lot. But it's also a lot better than most other Android phones.