Most cell phones are not bought as an investment; you buy them to make calls. But retaining some sort of value can be nice if you want to sell it over time. Then the Galaxy S22 from Samsung is not the best choice.
At least that's according to data from SellCell. They compared value retention of the Galaxy S22 with that of Apple's iPhone 13. If you walk out of the store with a S22, your device is immediately worth 47% less. With the iPhone 13 it is "only" 19%.
After two months, that even drops to 16.4% for the Apple iPhone 13. The figures will surprise few people who ever search for used iPhones. Their prices are higher than phones from the competition. It is striking that even the Pixel 6 manages to retain its value better than Samsung. Although at 42%, it doesn't even differ that much.
iPhone retains its value better
And yet there is still a device that scores worse than the Galaxy S22 but it also comes from Samsung. The Galaxy S22+ loses a whopping 57.5% of its value after one month. Apple's counterpart, the iPhone 13 Pro Max actually scores the best. 1 month later, its price is only 4.7% lower.
One possible reason why iPhones hold their value so well is their reputation. Some people would rather be seen with an iPhone than with anything else. iPhones also feel faster for longer, partly because of Apple's processor advantage. And another explanation could be that Apple offers more extended software support, although Samsung has recently improved on this.
