How to Check Whether an iPhone Has Genuine or Aftermarket Parts
If you're buying a used iPhone, one check takes fifteen seconds and tells you whether the screen, battery or camera has been replaced. It's worth doing before money changes hands.
Where to look
On the phone, open Settings → General → About and scroll down. On supported models you'll find a section called Parts and Service History. Any part Apple has detected as replaced is listed there.
You may see "Genuine Apple Part", which means an original part fitted and registered correctly. You may see "Unknown Part", which means the part isn't recognised — an aftermarket component, or a genuine one swapped without being paired. If the section isn't there at all, no replacements have been detected.
What the check misses
It is a useful signal, not a complete history. Older iPhones don't report every component. Parts swapped from another iPhone of the same model may show as unknown even though they're genuine Apple hardware. And repairs to things the phone doesn't monitor — the back glass, the housing, a charging port — won't appear at all.
So a clean Parts and Service History is reassuring. It isn't proof the phone has never been opened.
Aftermarket isn't automatically bad
A good aftermarket OLED screen on a four-year-old phone is often the sensible repair — an original panel can cost more than the phone is worth. Quality varies a lot, though. Cheap panels shift colour, respond less accurately to touch, and are more fragile in a second drop.
The thing that matters is knowing which you're getting, and paying accordingly. An aftermarket screen should be reflected in the price.
What else to check while you're in there
In the same About screen, confirm the model and storage match what you were told. Check Battery Health under Settings → Battery. And make sure the phone isn't signed into someone else's iCloud account — if it is, walk away, because you won't be able to use it.
How we handle it
We check Parts and Service History on every iPhone that comes through, and when a device has an aftermarket screen we put that in the listing. You'll see it written plainly — "not an original screen" — alongside the grade and the battery percentage.
Some buyers don't mind at all and want the lower price. Some would rather pay more for an original. Both are reasonable; neither works if we don't tell you.
Bring any phone to 7712 Montgomery Rd Unit I, Cincinnati, OH 45236 and we'll run the check with you, whether you bought it from us or not. 513-745-0059.