The iPhone 17 Pro Max is The Most Traded-in Phone Months After Launch
The iPhone 17 Pro Max is The Most Traded-in Phone Months After Launch
Publish Date: 2026-02-18 16:10:00
Source Domain: www.androidheadlines.com
Despite launching less than a year ago, Apple’s latest flagship, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, has quickly become the most traded-in device across the independent trade-in market. This is very surprising considering most trade-in lists feature older phones that consumers have owned for a good few years. Perhaps the most interesting part is that across the top-20 trade-in rankings, there’s only one Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The rest are all iPhones.
iPhone 17 Pro Max is reportedly already the most traded-in phone
According to a new report published by SellCell, which is a tech trade-in comparison platform, the iPhone 17 Pro Max climbed to the top in the trade-in rankings just months after its launch. The report adds that while the early trade-ins might seem like a disappointment, the data apparently suggests the trend is actually driven by high resale value, changing upgrade habits, and economic factors.
The report includes the top 20 most popular devices for trade-in over the past 30 days. Among them, 19 of them are iPhones, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra is the only Android model. It’s not even on the top; it’s in 17th place. The Galaxy S25 Ultra, too, is just a year old and is also Samsung’s current flagship variant in the S-series. This is considering the Galaxy S26 series isn’t here yet. Speaking of the Galaxy S26, the Ultra model is likely to be one of the best Android phones in 2026. Android users may be willing to keep the phones instead of trading them in.
But then again, Apple devices typically retain stronger resale value than Android flagships. This can influence trade-in ranking across independent resale markets. Apple iPhones usually retain around 60-70% of their value after one year compared with roughly 50-60% for Samsung devices. This means owners are likely to resell their devices while the prices remain high. This explains why iPhone models dominate the top-20 trade-in rankings and not Android models.
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