15 showstopping Christmas tech gifts from refurbed that cost hundreds less than new
Flagship phones, cult headphones and this year’s most wanted consoles for hundreds less than new, each one restored, tested and covered by a 12-month warranty.
Christmas tech shopping usually goes the same way. You find the perfect gift, see the price, then quietly settle for something the recipient will use twice. This year we tried a different route. All 15 picks below come from refurbed, and almost every one is a current flagship or a cult favourite, sold for a real chunk less than you’d pay new.
We’re talking the iPhone 17 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra, a foldable that opens into a small tablet, noise-cancelling headphones built for long-haul flights and a 16-inch MacBook Pro that will happily edit video for years. Nobody unwrapping them will clock that they’ve lived a life before. Unless you tell them, which you might, because the environmental case is surprisingly strong.
So what is refurbed, exactly?
refurbed is an online marketplace for refurbished electronics, founded in Vienna in February 2017 by Peter Windischhofer, Kilian Kaminski and Jürgen Riedl. It doesn’t fix devices itself. Instead, it vets a network of specialist refurbishers and sells their stock through one shop, under one set of rules. It now runs local sites in more than 20 European countries, the UK included, became a certified B Corp in 2024 and sits at 4.6 on Trustpilot from over 200,000 reviews.
Every device goes through a refurbishment process of up to 40 steps: data wiped, faulty parts swapped, exterior cleaned up, everything tested. Then you pick a cosmetic grade. Premium looks identical to new, Excellent shows nothing from 30cm away, Very good may carry light marks, and Good has visible wear for the lowest price. All four should work like new. Every order comes with a minimum 12-month warranty, which also covers battery defects, plus 30 days of free returns with no questions asked.
Why refurbished makes a smarter gift
The savings are real. refurbed puts typical savings at up to 40% versus new, and a few picks here go well past that. The Galaxy Z Fold7 launched at £1,799 and refurbed has it from £736. An Apple Watch Ultra 2 for £390 rather changes what counts as a nice present.
It’s properly greener. Most of a phone or laptop’s lifetime carbon footprint is created before it’s ever switched on, through mining, manufacturing and shipping. refurbed worked with Fraunhofer Austria on a calculation model verified to ISO 14040/44, and it finds that refurbished smartphones, tablets and laptops avoid 80 to 85% of a new device’s CO2 emissions on average. They also save 82 to 92% of the virtual water and 59 to 96% of the e-waste. The company funds landscape restoration in Ethiopia, carbon removal and e-waste recycling projects on top, and has planted more than 6.6 million trees since it started.
You’re not settling for old tech. Eight of the 15 gifts below launched in the past 18 months. A lot of refurbed’s stock comes from corporate fleets and trade-ins, so this is this year’s hardware, not a bargain bin.
Phones they’ll actually want to unwrap
Apple iPhone 17 Pro
Three 48MP cameras (main, ultra-wide and telephoto) mean zoomed-in shots at a gig or a nativity play still look sharp after you crop them, and that alone makes this the iPhone to give a keen photographer. The A19 Pro chip and 12GB of RAM will keep it quick for years, the 6.3-inch 120Hz OLED is lovely to look at, and 256GB of base storage means nobody’s deleting photos to make room by February. Go for Cosmic Orange if you want everyone at the table to know it’s the new one.
From £844.99 (256GB, Excellent condition), refurbed.co.uk
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Samsung’s 2026 flagship is for people who treat their camera roll like a portfolio. The 200MP main sensor sits alongside a 50MP ultra-wide and two telephotos (50MP and 10MP), so you can go from a wide cityscape to a detail on a rooftop without moving your feet. The 6.9-inch 120Hz AMOLED is huge, yet the phone is only 7.9mm thick, and the 5,000mAh battery gets through a long day. This listing includes the S Pen, and it’s sold in Premium condition only, so it will look box-fresh under the tree.
From £889 (256GB, Premium condition), refurbed.co.uk
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7
Folded, it feels like a normal 215g phone with a 6.5-inch cover screen. Open it and you get an 8-inch display that’s big enough to read a PDF properly, edit a document on the train or watch a film without squinting. The 200MP main camera and Snapdragon 8 Elite chip mean you aren’t trading power for the party trick. At well under half its £1,799 launch price, it’s the biggest saving in this roundup, and the gift most likely to get passed round the table on Christmas Day.
From £736 (256GB), refurbed.co.uk
For the person who lives in their headphones
Apple AirPods Max (2024)
The aluminium cups, knit-mesh canopy and memory-foam cushions still make the AirPods Max feel like the most expensive thing in the room. Noise cancellation shuts out a packed commuter train, Transparency mode lets the world back in with one press, and the Digital Crown gives far finer volume control than tapping an ear cup. Battery runs to around 20 hours. On refurbished pairs the ear cushions are either sterilised or swapped for new ones, and the Smart Case comes in the box.
Sony WH-1000XM6
If the AirPods Max are about looking good, the XM6 are about getting on with it. You get up to 30 hours of battery, noise cancelling that flattens engine drone on a long-haul flight, and multipoint Bluetooth that hops between laptop and phone without fuss. There’s still a 3.5mm input for the seat-back entertainment system, which feels like a small kindness in 2026. Silver stock was running low when we checked, so don’t sit on this one.
From £249 (silver), refurbed.co.uk
Apple AirPods Pro 3
The smallest box in this roundup, and probably the gift that gets used most. They manage up to 8 hours per charge with noise cancelling on, the MagSafe case charges over USB-C, and five sizes of ear tip mean they actually stay put. They also track heart rate during workouts, so the runner in your life can leave the chest strap at home.
From £185 (approx.), refurbed.co.uk
Wrist tech for people with big weekend plans
Apple Watch Ultra 2 (2024)
A weekend in the Lakes is where this watch makes sense. The 49mm titanium case weighs just 61g, the screen stays readable in low winter sun, and this GPS + Cellular version takes calls and streams music on a fell run while your phone stays in the car. Sensors cover heart rate, ECG, a barometer and temperature, and Apple quotes up to 36 hours of battery. One honest note: refurbed can’t certify the original water rating after refurbishment, so treat it as a trail watch rather than a dive computer. At less than half its £799 launch price, that’s easy to live with.
From £390 (GPS + Cellular, Ocean Band), refurbed.co.uk
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra
The Android answer to the Apple Watch Ultra weighs almost exactly the same at 60.5g. You get a 47mm titanium case, 4G so it works without a phone nearby, and a barometer and temperature sensor for hikers and runners, while Samsung quotes up to 100 hours of battery in power-saving mode. It needs a phone on Android 11 or later, so check before you wrap. It was out of stock when we checked, but refurbed’s watch stock moves quickly, so it’s worth a look.
Out of stock at time of writing (check current price), refurbed.co.uk
Apple Watch Series 11 (46mm)
The safe bet for anyone with an iPhone who has never owned a smartwatch. The 46mm aluminium case weighs just 37.8g and is under 1cm thick, so it disappears under a jumper sleeve, while the sensors cover heart rate, ECG, temperature and a barometer, with sleep tracking built in. Apple quotes up to 24 hours of battery, enough for a full day plus a night of sleep data. It needs an iPhone 11 or later on iOS 26, so check before you wrap. refurbed only lists it in Excellent or Premium condition, so there are no scuffs to explain away.
From £288 (GPS, 46mm, Jet Black), refurbed.co.uk
For thinkers, makers and the permanently busy
Apple iPad Pro 13-inch (2025)
At 5.1mm thin and 579g, it’s hard to believe there’s an M5 chip in here, yet it gets through 4K video edits and layered illustrations without breaking a sweat. The 13-inch OLED (2752 x 2064, 120Hz) is one of the best screens Apple makes, and the Thunderbolt port means fast transfers to an external drive. The discount is the slimmest in this roundup, around 14%, because this is Apple’s newest tablet. Buy it for the creative who was going to get one anyway.
From £1,189 (M5, 12GB, 256GB, Wi-Fi), refurbed.co.uk
reMarkable Paper Pro
Think of it as the anti-iPad. The 11.8-inch colour E Ink screen does reading, handwritten notes and document markup and nothing else, which is the whole point for anyone trying to think without notifications. Writing on it feels close to pen on paper, there’s a front light for reading in bed, and reMarkable quotes up to two weeks between charges. This bundle includes the Marker Plus with its built-in eraser and the leather Book Folio, so it’s ready to wrap as it is.
£639 with Marker Plus and leather Book Folio (Premium condition), refurbed.co.uk
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2023, M2 Pro)
This is the laptop for long editing sessions. The M2 Pro, with 12 CPU cores and 19 GPU cores, handles 4K timelines and big photo libraries, and 16GB of RAM with 512GB of storage covers most creative work. The 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display (3456 x 2234, 120Hz) is superb, and the 100Wh battery sits right at the airline carry-on limit. You also get HDMI 2.1, an SD card slot and three Thunderbolt 4 ports. The catch is that this listing has a US keyboard, so there’s no £ sign printed on the keys.
From £1,436 (approx., 16GB/512GB, US keyboard), refurbed.co.uk
Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 (16-inch)
The 360-degree hinge flips it from laptop to tablet to presentation tent, and the 16-inch OLED touchscreen (2880 x 1800, 120Hz) is the kind people lean over to look at. It’s 12.8mm thick and 1.66kg, light for a 16-inch machine, with a UK keyboard, a number pad, two Thunderbolt 4 ports and Windows 11 Pro. The Intel Core i5-1340P is fine for office work, study and photo edits, but 8GB of RAM is the bare minimum in 2026, so this suits a student or a home office rather than a gamer. It’s sold in Good condition, so expect a few visible marks.
£925.44 (8GB/256GB, Good condition), refurbed.co.uk
How to buy refurbished tech as a gift
Pick the grade for the person. For a present, Premium or Excellent is worth the extra few pounds, since there’s nothing visible to explain away. Very good and Good make more sense when the gift is for you, or for a teenager who’ll have it in a chunky case by Boxing Day.
Mind the 30-day window. The free returns period usually starts when the parcel arrives, not on Christmas morning. If you’re buying in November, unbox it, charge it and check everything works on arrival, then rewrap.
Read the listing line by line. Keyboard layouts, SIM setups and accessories vary between sellers. Our MacBook Pro pick has a US keyboard, the S26 Ultra comes with its S Pen, and the laptops ship with just a charger.
Protect it from day one. After refurbishment, refurbed can’t guarantee a phone or watch’s original water resistance, and water damage isn’t covered by the warranty. A case and screen protector are cheap insurance.
Take the newsletter discount. First-time newsletter sign-ups get £15 off, which covers most of a decent case.
Play time, sorted
Nintendo Switch 2
The 7.9-inch 1080p screen now runs at up to 120Hz with HDR, so handheld Mario Kart on the sofa looks noticeably smoother than it did on the original Switch. There’s 256GB of storage built in, room for a microSD Express card of up to 2TB, and the dock adds a wired LAN port for online play without lag. At 534g it’s a little heavier than before, but still easy to hold through a long Boxing Day session. It was out of stock when we checked, and consoles go fast in December, so check back often.
Out of stock at time of writing (check current price), refurbed.co.uk
GoPro Hero13 Black
Clip it to a helmet, handlebar or chest mount and forget it’s there. The Hero13 weighs 154g and shoots 5.3K at 60fps, 4K at 120fps and 1080p at 240fps, so a ski run or a wave can be slowed right down without turning to mush. The 27.6MP stills are sharp enough to print, and built-in GPS logs speed and route for anyone who likes the data as much as the footage. The 1,900mAh battery gets you through a morning on the slopes, but a spare is a smart extra in the stocking.
Buying refurbished used to feel like settling. With a year’s warranty, a month to change your mind and the carbon maths on your side, it now looks like the smarter call. Wrap it nicely and keep the price to yourself.
