Click to Skip Ad
Closing in...

A Korean carrier is selling iPhones for $40, but there’s a huge catch

Published Jun 14th, 2018 8:00PM EDT
iPhone 3GS Sale
Image: ETNews

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

The dawn of 5G is near, and we’ll soon surf the web from increasingly larger phones at speeds above anything we’d have dreamed of just a decade ago when the iPhone started the mobile revolution. But until we get there, you might be interested in this 9-year-old iPhone 3GS that a carrier is willing to sell you for just $40.

This is no joke, and I’d totally buy it.

You see, I skipped the 3GS, Apple’s first “S” phone, and upgraded to the iPhone 4 instead. So I’ve never owned that iPhone version. I can’t, however, take advantage of that offer because it’s only available in Korea, where SK Telink will sell the old handset to interested buyers by the end of the month.

Mind you, this is a marketing stunt, of course, as the launch coincides with the launch of the SK Seven Mobile Online Integration Mall.

There are no new iPhone 3GS units going around, as Apple stopped making the iPhone 3GS ages ago. These $40 iPhone 3GS are repackaged old devices, ETNews reports, although they may have not been used before. Supposedly, the phones were kept in a warehouse for a long period of time. They were deemed as still usable, and have been repackaged for this promo event.

The iPhone 3GS runs iOS 6, if you were wondering, which means it still delivers the skeuomorphic UI of the original iPhone. It also has a headphone jack, because of course, it does, they all did back then.

At around $40 without a contract, this deal is a steal. Who knows, you might resell it for real cash at some point down the road, especially if it’s in pristine condition.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.