iPhone 17s will lose resale value faster than Galaxy S26s 2026

For many years Apple was the king of value retention, with all of the company's devices holding their price for an absurdly long time. Although the iPhone 16 depreciates more slowly than the Galaxy S25, the gap between them has narrowed a lot, and if the current trend continues, the Galaxy S26 will surpass the iPhone 17 in value retention.

Smartphones start losing value the moment you take them out of the box. While this may not matter to you if you've kept the same phone for three and a half years – which is the average upgrade cycle – or longer, it's something to consider if you care about resale value.

Traditionally, iPhones have held their value longer than Android phones, but SellCell's latest report shows that the rate of decline in iPhone prices is increasing with each new generation. For example, the 2020 iPhone 12 series lost 25.2% of its value nine months after its launch. The iPhone 15 was depreciated by 34.3% in the first nine months. For the iPhone 16, this figure is around 34.7%.

The exact opposite seems to be the case with the Galaxy S series phones. In its fifth month of release, the Galaxy S22 has lost an impressive 51.9% of its value. During the same period, the value of the Galaxy S24 fell by 47.3%. The Galaxy S25 experienced a 46.6% depreciation in its first five months of release.

Samsung's foldables follow the same trend, as does the Google Pixel 9.

Samsung phones seem to hold their price more, not because they bring a lot of new features, but quite the opposite. When each newer device has no glaring differences from the previous generation, then demand for the previous one increases, keeping prices high. This is because users, with a little less money, get something similar. That's why iPhones kept their prices high, and that's why now Galaxy Ss keep their prices high.

The Galaxy S26 may hold its value better than the iPhone 17 if things keep moving in the same direction. | Image Credit – SellCel

Regardless, the iPhone 16 is still ahead of the rest in terms of depreciation. It lost 35.4% of its value five months after launch, compared to the Galaxy S25's depreciation rate of 46.6% and the Pixel 9's depreciation rate of 56.9%.

However, if the current trend continues, by mid-2026, the Galaxy S and iPhone could lose value at a similar rate, with Samsung's line potentially overtaking Apple's smartphones in value retention sometime between 2026 and 2028.

If Samsung starts innovating again, then we'll see the price drop we had a few years ago when the company was bringing in new features and functions that had value. At that time, the user had reason to get rid of his old Galaxy S device to go to the new one, while prospective buyers preferred the new one, which had big differences from the previous one. So there wasn't much demand for the previous model, so its price was falling.

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