How to Check if Your Android Phone is Refurbished or Factory-New

Whether you are buying a new phone or getting an existing one swapped out / repaired, you might want to keep an eye out for the casually slipped in refurbished models.

There are two methods for checking whether your Android smartphone is new or Refurbished!

Method 1

Step 1

Tap your Phone app and open up the dialer.

Step 2

Using the touchscreen keypad, Dial ##786# (aka ##RTN#).

No need to press dial, the phone should automatically open up to the RTN screen. From here Tap View

Note: If this code does not work, try *#*#786#*#* instead. Stars and numbers must be entered in the correct order.

Step 3

Scroll down the RTN screen to Refurbished status. Here there are only two possible status entries:

Yes – Your phone is a refurbished model.
No – Congratulations, your phone is not a Refurbished model. Instead, it is factory new.

CHECK SHORT CODES FOR ANDROID DEVICES

Method 2:

Before we get started, you’ll need to make sure you have an app installed that will add the “activities” option to your shortcut creator.

Requirements:

An Android phone. ( only tested this on version 2.1 and higher)
A custom home screen launcher, suggestion Launcher Pro. (it’s free!)
ADW Launcher and others also work, but the steps below are shown using Launcher Pro.

All set? Let’s get started.

Step 1

Go to your homescreen (using a custom launcher) and Long-Press on an empty spot.
The “Add to Home screen” menu should appear; Tap Shortcuts.

This also works with ADW launcher, but the process is changed to Custom Shortcut > Pick your activity > Activities

Step 2

From the next menu, Select Activities.* Now you should be at a black screen with a list of phone activities. Slide-down to whatever activity you can find with “hiddenmenu” in the name.

Tap the hiddenmenu entry and then below you’ll see a list of all hidden menus on your phone. From here you can access any one of them.

*Note this may be called something else if you are using a launcher other than Launcher Pro.

Done!

Read More : Buying Smartphone New , Used or Refurbished? Must Read
Now you have a shortcut to one of your hidden menus on your home screen, and you can keep adding them to your hearts content. I first chose the RTN hidden menu because several people were wondering how to access it on phones that don’t support the # codes after reading our previous article. I hope this helps you with your Android phone, and feel free to post a comment below with your results!