I purchased renewed direct from Samsung US. Base S23 256GB for $350 after trading in an old A10e for $300 credit. I bought the A10e for $26 just to trade in. Samsung refurbs come with a new battery and a 1 yr warranty. It's also eligible for Samsung + care. The 23 I received was indistinguishable from a new device. More on reddit.com

I have used backmarket for 4 samsung phones now. I buy them as good or better. I would never buy a phone from anywhere else now. I will never pay full retail for a phone ever again - such a waste of money. Probably 8 months ago, I bought the Samsung s23 ultra on backmarket with a steep discount, and it still works perfectly. They have a full 1 year warranty and are excellent about it. The devices are extensively tested-unlike new phones. My last phone was the Galaxy fold 3, refurbished. The phone is known for not opening fully, unfortunately. After about 5- 6 months, the phone started only opening 90% of the way, which is annoying. I was going to send it back as a repair through backmarket. They could not repair it or replace it, so they gave me a full refund, and i sent it to them. Exactly what I paid for it was returned to me after using it for 6 months and it was a win-win! I then used that money to purchase an S23U for a great discount. I can't say enough good things about backmarket. I always get them in good or better shape. I have no experience with lesser graded phones from them. At the time, the 512gb S23u was around $1200+ at carriers, I'm sure an unlocked model costs even more, too. I paid $778 before taxes. It might sound like carriers give good deals on new phones... but remember most of the time they really screw you over when you trade in a phone. Also, to get the "good deal" from a carrier, they usually require you to have an active service line with them, too. Even with having a military discount at At&T, I was paying way too much. I am trying to minimize my bills so I have more money for fun. I switched to Mint mobile, which has a $15 a month plan. Unlimited is $30 a month. They have a really easy add-on if you are traveling to a foreign country, too. I had the power go out, and I needed to switch to an unlimited plan. It took 5 minutes over the phone, and all done, too easy. Swappa is a decent place to buy a phone or to look at the prices in an easy way to compare too. They show daily deals and stuff. I think those are mostly private sellers and might not have a warranty though. More on reddit.com

On samsung .com, they are running a special now with massively boosted trade-in prices if you're buying one of their official certified renewed phones. I have an old iPhone XR that belonged to someone else and they gave me 300 USD for it. (normally worth just 77 USD). That applies instantly to the sale price which brought the S23 Ultra down to 579 USD, total. Best thing about Samsung certified renewed is that they put a brand new Samsung battery in the phone, give you a one year warranty, and verify that the screen is free of any scratches (I guess same with the camera lenses) Not sure about body of the phone, but I always put a case on them anyway. Whatever you do, don't buy a Galaxy phone from ebay. There's a ton of fraud going on there right now with Samsung Galaxy phones of all types. Refurbished phones with inferior replacement screens being sold as new being one common scam. More on reddit.com

At this moment, buying S23 is a good option considering you keep it for 2-3 years. S26 or S27 will be hopefully a meaningful update. More on reddit.com