Check your own phone the way our agent will
Every surprise at the door starts as a question answered from memory. Here is how to answer from the phone instead.
The condition questions are not a test, and nobody expects you to know what a technician knows. But every unwelcome surprise at a doorstep starts the same way: a question answered from memory rather than from the phone. Ten minutes fixes that.
The screen, properly
Open a plain white image, full screen, at full brightness, in daylight. Look across the whole panel for spots, patches, faint lines or a permanent ghost of the navigation bar or keyboard. Then do the same with a plain black image, which is what shows up dead or stuck pixels.
Then turn the phone in the light to see the glass itself: cracks, chips, and scratches deep enough to catch a fingernail.
The body
Take the case off — properly off, for the first time in a year. Look at the corners, the frame and the back panel. A phone that has lived in a case usually does well here; one that has not, usually does not.
The cameras
Open the camera app and take a photograph with every lens, front and back, in daylight. Look for blur that does not focus, spots in the same place on every shot, or a wide lens that will not switch in.
Sound and touch
Play something to test the loudspeaker. Record a voice note and play it back for the microphone. Make a call to check the earpiece. Then run a finger over every part of the screen in a drawing app to find dead spots in the touch layer.
The port and the buttons
Plug in your own cable and see whether it holds firmly and charges. Press every button — volume, power, mute — and the fingerprint reader, several times.
The battery
On an iPhone, Settings → Battery → Battery Health & Charging gives you the figure to declare. On Android, answer what you actually see: fast drain, shutdowns before zero, and — the one worth checking by hand — a back panel that no longer sits flat, or a screen lifting at one edge. That is a swelling battery.
Then answer
Every fault you declare is priced once, before you book, and it is in the number you accept. Every fault you do not is a conversation at your door. What the rider checks is exactly this list.
See what your phone is worth
A price in about a minute, free doorstep pickup in a two-hour slot, and paid — cash or bank transfer — before our agent leaves.
Questions people ask
- How do I check for dead pixels or panel damage?
- Open a plain white image full screen at full brightness and look across the whole panel in daylight, then do the same with a black one. Spots, patches, lines and a permanent ghost of the navigation bar all show up this way.
- Do I need to test everything?
- It takes about ten minutes and it is the difference between a quote that holds and a conversation at your door. The rider checks the same things.
- What if I find something I did not know about?
- Declare it. A fault in the quote is priced once, before you book. A fault found at the door is a change you have to accept or decline on the spot.