BERLIN — The refurbished smartphone market has moved past the question of whether used devices are good enough, with the industry now focused on trust, visibility and OEM support.

This was the consensus reached by a panel discussion entitled “Why your next smartphone doesn’t need to be new,” at the recent Retech Days conference in Berlin, which outlined how refurbished devices are becoming a mainstream purchase.

“The debate today is no longer whether refurbishing works because we all believe that it does. The debate now is whether the industry can make buying refurbished feel as trusted, visible, simple and emotionally comfortable as buying new,” moderator Alexander Sobolenko — the founder of France-based Z1ro Packaging — said.

Rene Kleinstueck, director of circular supply chain at Germany-based electronics rental company Grover, argued that OEMs still need to do more to support refurbishment and repairability, particularly as EU regulations regarding sustainability and the right-to-repair evolve.

“We need to put pressure on OEMs to make repair and refurbishment as easy as possible,” he said, adding that legislators and the industry must work together to extend device life cycles and normalize refurbished devices as part of standard consumer behavior.

Panelists pointed to Gen Z as the primary drivers of adoption in smartphone recommerce.

Arianna Fumagalli, head of strategic growth at Switzerland-based smartphone recommerce company Revendo, said refurbished devices should not be perceived as “cheap” products, but as smart purchases by informed consumers, as many of them no longer need the newest hardware to satisfy their everyday needs.

Dave Kempton, director of recommerce EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) at U.S.-based Ingram Micro Lifecycle — the circular economy division of technology distributor Ingram Micro — added that one of the biggest remaining misconceptions about the industry is that consumers believe they are “getting less of a device” when purchasing refurbished phones.