[Q] Is it new or refurbished?

Hi all,

Will be receiving a new sm-t705 tomorrow. Sadly, the seller isn't exactly known as a reputable procurer of tablet goodness... Refurbished sold as new might be a reality (not stolen, but possibly tinkered with). Besides scuffs and marks, what can I look for in making sure I'm dealing with a genuinely untouched item?

Should you buy a refurbished HTC One from aliexpress?

A refurbished HTC One from overseas is pretty cheap, but is it worth it?

I have both an original and a refurbished (aliexpress) model.
I tested the refurbished one with HTCs hidden function test (*#*#3424#*#*, dialer) and everything worked flawlessly, but I found some flaws afterwards:

-the IR-remote doesn't work
-the glass of the front camera isn't flush with the case
-button backlight bleed on the bottom of the front:


I also opened both up to see if there are differences inside (the gold one is refurbished and the black is original):


-there was no glue holding the back in place, only clips:


-some tape, covering the connectors, is missing:

-looks like corrosion on the headphone jacks soldering points:

-two pins(antennas maybe) missing which should touch the back cover(GSM and HSPA work, can't test LTE though):


Conclusion:

I think I made a good choice, the two noticeable flaws(IR-blaster and backlight bleed) don't bother me. Alse unlocking the bootloader via htc-dev worked flawlessly. But your mileage may vary, as there are so many different shops on aliexpress.