Swappie: Sell your old phone, help the planet, what’s not to love?

To say the experience was painless is an understatement, and my only advice is not to leave your old phone in a drawer where it will eventually end up as electronic waste 

Restaurant Utsu, Levi, Lapland, Finland. Picture taken with Swappie refurbished iPhone 14 Pro. Picture: Noel Campion.

When I started reviewing mobile phones, a Finnish company called Nokia was the most popular brand. Back then, you could go a week between charges and replace the battery if it started to wear out. I knew people who carried an extra battery at a time when phones started to become more powerful and battery banks were not yet a thing.

The selection of phones was much more limited than today, and people only changed their phones when they stopped working. There was no such thing as changing phones yearly because they lasted for years, partly because you could easily change the battery but also because they were much harder to break. Generally, the front and back covers were made of plastic and could easily be replaced.