Refurbished Sony Xperia C by GreenDust: As good as a new one with quite a price difference

A latest report by International Research firm Strategy Analytics says that India is fast becoming the next major growth wave in terms of smartphone sales and will soon overtake the US to become the world's second largest smartphone market by 2017. The reports also suggest that the smartphone sales will touch a figure of 174 million units, which is quite impressive.

Considering the huge figures of smartphone units, it’s not hard to understand that why the market for used smartphones (factory seconds and used ones) is also one of the biggest. This has resulted in the formation of e-commerce portals such as OLX, Quikr, etc. whose bread and butter is the reselling of these electronic devices. However, these digital portals just offer a place to sellers and buyers and can’t be trusted whole heartedly. Moreover there are scenarios where some buyers end with refurbished products from these e-commerce sites as well as dealers at the price of a new one without even knowing.

Having said that, Hitendra Chaturvedi, an engineer from IIT Roorkee came out with Greendust.com, which is basically an online platform that sources the products from the organizations with minor defects due to the manufacturing process or as a return from buyers with some minor damages. Greendust then check the products, repairs them and sell them online at prices worth considering. The company told us that it has a 50 point quality inspection process, which is followed thoroughly for every device it sells to its customers.

The e-commerce platform has tied up with various manufacturers such as Sony, Motorola, Xiaomi, Apple and e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart and Snapdeal. The company source the surplus units directly from the organizations and make them ready for the consumers. Most of the products are less than three months old.

But what about the after sale support and the warranty? A product is not just a hardware piece, the after sale support is equally important and when asked about such things, Greendust told us that if a product turns out to be non-functional over the first week, then GreenDust will service it just like a new product and if not fixed, then the customer will get a replacement or a complete refund of the price he/she paid.

All these things sound quite appealing and to validate such, we got a product- Sony Xperia C from GreenDust. We reviewed the smartphone as any other product in our labs and are quite pleased with the results.

The smartphone has no significant damages or scratches. It is as good as a new one

As you can see in the pictures, the smartphone is as good as a new one. There is no sign of any wear and tear and all the hardware parts such as volume rockers, the rear plastic panel, USB port, ear-piece, speaker unit etc. are fully functional.

The volume rockers, power button and all other ports works absolutely fine

We used the smartphone for over a week and did not encounter any issues. It works absolutely fine.

The minor scratch at the top right edge of the smartphone is hard to notice

There’s a minor scratch at the top right edge, which can be seen on a very closer look and is hard to find in the pictures. This small nick is easy to ignore against the deal the smartphone comes at. It is priced at Rs. 7,777. Flipkart and other e-commerce sites are selling the same at Rs. 12,000.

So, if you are planning to buy a second hand product from OLX, Quiker or directly from your neighbour, check out GreenDust.com first as you might get a good deal.