Refurbished consoles: PS5 vs Xbox Series X vs Switch OLED
Ines Duarte, Gaming·2 June 2026 9 min read
Consoles age differently from phones. The silicon barely degrades, but fans, thermal paste, optical drives and controller sticks all wear. Here is what to inspect on a used machine.
Fans and dust are the real condition test
A console that has lived in a closed cabinet will run loud and hot. Every gaming device we grade is opened, de-dusted and re-pasted where the design allows, and the fan noise is measured at load.
If you buy privately, ask for a video of the console running a demanding title for ten minutes.
Controllers, not consoles, fail first
Stick drift shows up on most controllers after 300–500 hours. Budget for one replacement controller in the lifetime of any used console — or buy a bundle where the controller has been rebuilt.
Resale value after two years
Nintendo hardware holds value best, losing roughly 25–30% over two years. Sony and Microsoft consoles typically lose 35–45%, and digital-only editions depreciate slightly faster than disc models in Europe.