Hey guys, I need some advice on a used iPhone 13 Mini I just bought.

I got a 128GB model for ₹16,000. The seller mentioned the phone had crashed previously and was repaired. The battery health is currently at 78% and it drains quite fast in standby.

My original plan was to take it to an official Apple Store and pay roughly ₹8,000 for a genuine battery replacement. I thought ₹24,000 total for a 13 Mini with a brand-new official battery would be a great setup.

However, I just noticed an "Unknown Part" message in the settings. It turns out the display is a non-genuine, third-party screen (it has a slightly yellowish tint). I looked it up online and found that Apple Stores might refuse to change the battery if the phone has non-genuine parts [Apple Support]. Even if they do agree, I am worried they might charge me for a screen replacement too.

I am not a heavy user at all. My screen time is around 4 to 5 hours maximum per day, mostly just scrolling social media. My goal is to use this phone reliably for the next 3 to 4 years without wasting extra money.

What do you think I should do?

1. Should I return the phone to the seller? Is a previously crashed phone with a third-party screen unsafe or unreliable for long-term use?
2. Should I keep it and get a cheap third-party battery locally? If I get a local battery replacement for around ₹1.5k–2k, will it harm the phone, or can it easily last 3 years for a light user like me?
3. Is a 13 Mini with a third-party screen and a third-party battery worth keeping for the long run?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Hey everyone, hoping someone can clear this up for me :)

I'm still on iOS 16 — never updated because I remember all the reports back when iOS 17 came out saying it tanked battery life, so I just... never bothered since.

I got my battery replaced about a year and a half ago and I don't remember Apple requiring me to update iOS at all for that. Now I'm wondering if I need to update to iOS 26 to replace it again this time.

Is there an actual technical reason iOS needs to be current to swap out a battery, or is this just something Apple pushes to force people to update? Genuinely curious if anyone here knows the real reason behind it, or if this is more of a policy thing at the Apple Store.

Would appreciate any insight, especially from anyone who's had a battery replaced recently on an older iOS version.

Just finished watching MKBHD's impression video and I'm curious. Are you guys planning to switch to Samsung if this is cheaper than iPhone's Folding phone? It's light and small which is really good.

Recently bought a second hand 13 mini as my second device as an entry as well to iOS and so far it’s been good aside from the laggy iOS 26 stable. Currently in the iOS 27 public beta and just received a new update for the beta 2. Any warnings for the beta 2 before I install it?

My 13 mini water damage detector has gone off and there is some water residue in the camera lens but the phone is 100% perfectly functional, even the camera still takes perfect photos and everything is fine. But to my understanding, Apple will not replace the battery if the water damage sensor has gone off. Do they make any exceptions to this? What are my options to replace a dying battery otherwise?

Thanks in advance

My 13 mini has been having all sorts of memory issues lately. Sometimes this random band appears at the bottom of the screen, and I have to clear out the app to get it to go away.

Recently, my sound just stopped working. I would essentially have to restart my whole phone to get the sound back.

However, in the last week, something completely new has happened. On three separate occasions, my sound has gone out. Initially, I thought no big deal, I’ll just reboot the phone. But then when it reboots, it goes to a screen, which will no longer allow me to access my phone, unless I’m either on my Wi-Fi network, or I can connect it to my MacBook. This means I have to run around town trying to find some public Wi-Fi to access my phone again.

Any idea of what’s going on? Because this interfered with my ability to get work completed the other day and that’s a problem.

I can deal with a slow laggy phone, I can’t deal with the phone that won’t allow me to access it.