How old is this 3gs ?

Apple iPhone - How old is this 3gs ?

Is there a way to find out when a iPhone was purchased, how long it has been used by its serial number?

I just got this 3gs, the seller said it is 4-5 month old. But to me, it must be as least 16 month old !! I have iPod Touch, 2 year old, and it looks much better!

iPhone Warranty
In what way does it even matter how many months it took to reach its present state?

If my quick calculation is correct, it is a MAXIMUM of about 16 months old.

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You can tell when it was produced,

Serial no: abcde.....
the first 5 digits are important
ab = factory code
c = year (8)
de = week

Settings > General > About > Serial Number - the first two digits are the factory it was produced in (should be 86 for Foxconn), third digit is the year it was produced, (8 would be 2008, 9 is 2009, 0 is 2010, etc) and the 4th and 5th digit are the week of the year, ie 25 is the 25th week (these numbers are for iPhone 4)

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No matter what the serial number tells you, some people don't take care of their gear or toys. I hope you paid appropriately for the wear and tear.

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In iPhone the numbering is quite different. Can you tell something about that too?

I meant iPhone 4.

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To reiterate comment shown above, "These numbers are for iPhone 4".

For example, mine is 88022

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My serial is 7S040GGLA4S
Does it convey anything?

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It would seem to indicate manufacture in the 40th week of 2010 (early October). I don't know what factory "7S" would be.

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Decoding iPhone Serial Numbers that start with 7
http://www.hackint0sh.org/f127/21463.htm

"Produced in other areas, that the serial always starts wit a 7 and a letter.

So far, I stumbled over other threads, where people have serials, starting with a 5 or an 8 and have a digit as the second character.

So how can I describe an iPhone serial with its absolute basis attributes?

Is this correct?

1. - has 11 characters
2. - third character is either a 7 oder an 8
3. - fourth and fifth character are the production week
4. - following are characters uniqe per iPhone with no special meaning"

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Go to Apple's website. There is a page about repairs and services or something where you can check if your iPhone still has warranty and if so, when it expires. You just have to input the serial number.

The warranty expiration is the same date of purchase (or activation) last year...

If there's no more warranty, must be more than 12 months but not more than 16.

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I get on Apple.com, key in the serial number and find out the warranty actually already expired. So the phone must be over a year old and not 4-5 month old as the seller said !

Well, I know a nearby AT&T so I went there, gave them the number of the phone and they gave me the printout ...voila, iPhone 3gs, white, purchased on 6/18/2009

So the seller just ..forget this is 2010, no longer 2009 ..honest mistake :)) and it runs on 4.1 so "nobody can unlock it!" (My intention is to give the iPhone to a relative who lives in a country without AT&T service !)

All my life I have this weakness: to trust people too easily! I don;t know how to react when people look straight at me in the eyes and ..lie! I guess I belong to the older generation :))

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So it turned out to be 4-5 months AND A YEAR old... Tsk tsk...