Phone value retention league: which phones hold their value best?

What value retention means

Retention is the share of its launch price a phone still commands on the used market, expressed as a yearly rate. We compute it from two anchors: the official price when the model shipped, and the live median of current used listings for that model. The gap between the two, annualized, is the depreciation slope — the number that separates phones that age gracefully from the ones that shed value every quarter. The table above is that comparison for every phone we track, refreshed as listings change.

How to read the table

Each row shows the retention rate, the depreciation slope and the current used-market median for one model. Higher retention means the phone keeps more of its original price after a year of ownership; among models with equally high retention, the flatter slope wins the tie. The color coding follows the same level scale we use across the catalog, so a green marker reads the same way here as it does on a phone's spec page. Rows link to full reviews, where the resale reasoning sits next to battery, display and performance context.

Why some phones hold value better

Durability of price is mostly a function of three things: brand demand staying power, software support horizon, and how replaceable the model is by its own successor. Flagship lines with long update commitments tend to sit at the top of leagues like this one, because a buyer three years out still receives current security patches. Midrange devices often depreciate faster even when their hardware is competent, simply because their successor undercuts the used price of the previous generation. None of this is fixed in stone — a single aggressive price cut on the new model can re-rank the cohort below it within weeks.

Using the league when buying

If you plan to resell within a year or two, the retention column is effectively a preview of your total cost of ownership: a phone that keeps more value per year costs less to own, whatever its sticker price. If you buy to keep, a flatter slope still matters — it signals a liquid resale market and a model the second-hand market trusts. Compare this league with the yearly cohorts below to see whether a generation is aging better or worse than the long-term average, and check a specific model's review for the listing-level detail behind its row.