Almost a decade ago when mobile phones entered the consumer market and
gradually emerged to become a mundane accessory, it was not that difficult to
select your model. There were very few brands and even fewer features to offer.
But now, there are smartphones and they are getting smarter every day..! The
question is, are you smart enough to select a phone that suits you best? In
today’s world where there is a new smartphone coming up every month and there
is so much it offers, what exactly should you be looking for? Here are some
tips that should help you while selecting a smartphone.
1. Display
There has been a trend of
increasing screen size since the introduction of smartphones. The screen size
kept on increasing which led to the introduction of tablets and later on
compelled phones to become phablets. But while considering the Display, it’s
not just the screen size that matters; rather Resolution plays a much more
important role. Some common resolutions are VGA (640x480), WVGA (800x480), HD (1280x720),
Full HD (1920x1080) and so on. The number of pixels packed up together per sq.
inch defines the pixel density PPI (pixels per inch). This PPI is responsible
for the crispness and sharpness of the display. A big screen with lower
resolution will lead to lower PPI of around 200; where as a decent screen with
high resolution will produce a dense PPI of around 300-400. So you should look
for a dense PPI so that the quality of display is good. Phones with lower
resolutions may not be able to play HD videos or HD apps.
2. Processor
Processor is the heart of the
device. This along with the RAM is responsible for multitasking which actually
makes your phone smart. Amongst the leading chipset manufacturers are Qualcomm,
Apple, Samsung, Motorola and MediaTek. Qualcomm with its Snapdragon 600 and 800
processors are arguably the best ones out there. Being quad-core processors
equipped with Adreno GPUs, they can run at speeds up to 2.3GHZ. These
processors combined with a RAM of 2GB can produce a smartphone which will
easily deal with heavy duty tasks. Samsung came up with its octa-core Exynos
processor which effectively is a combination of two quad-core processors. Normally
the 1.2Ghz quad-core processor is active and as the demand increases, it is
paired with the 1.8Ghz quad-core processor. The underdogs MediaTek with its MT6589
and MT6592 processors is successful in developing low cost chipsets which can
easily fight off Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 and 400 processors. The MT6592 is an
octa-core processor which can run all its 8 cores together. So according to
your needs you should select your processor. If you want HD games to run
smoothly you should go for Snapdragon 800 with at least 2GB of RAM; if you use
your smartphone for multimedia and internet surfing purposes, a dual-core
processor with 1GB RAM may suffice.
3. Memory
Under memory comes the storage
memory as well as RAM memory. The smartphones available today come with
internal storage memory options of 8GB, 16GB and 32GB. They may or may not
provide a SD card slot for memory expansion. If there is no slot available, you
may want to consider the option of at least 16GB internal memory of which only
12GB will be available to the user. If there is a slot provided, there are various
microSD cards available ranging from 2GB to 32GB. A new feature, USB on the go,
enables the user to connect a pen drive with their smartphones. This comes in handy
when you don’t have enough space on your device. So according to your needs you
should select an appropriate memory option as you cannot upgrade internal
memory even if you wish in the future. If you like to keep a collection of apps
and movies or you like to play HD games, you’ll need more storage. Along with
bigger storage a good RAM memory of 2GB will enhance the performance while
playing HD games or watching HD movies. Otherwise 1GB RAM will be good enough.
4. Battery
The one place where smartphones
take a hit is Battery life. Almost everyone complains about the lack of battery
and how their device couldn’t even last for a day. The applications running in
background, live widgets, HD displays use up a lot of battery. If you do not
wish to compromise on any of these, it is always better to have a battery with
higher mAh. A battery with more than 2000 mAh will be just enough to last for a
day, but it again depends on usage pattern.
5. Camera
Nowadays when almost everyone
wants to share their moments on social media and apps like instagram, snapchat
going viral, Camera has become an integral part of every smartphone. More and
more people are resorting to video calling and skyping. Therefore having a good
camera has become almost mandatory. Most of the smartphones come equipped with
a 5MP camera; some come with 8MP while few come with a 13MP camera. However number
of megapixels is not the only criteria that defines a good camera. A camera with
optical image stabilization and high quality lens but with low megapixels will
produce better images than a camera having just good number of megapixels. If a
good camera is amongst your top priority, do check the quality of images taken
from that smartphone before purchasing.
Once you have considered all the above factors, start prioritizing them
according to your needs. Then try to set up a trade off point as per your
budget. Once you have done this, you must have narrowed down your hunt by a
large number. Amongst the final few left, select the one which appeals to you
the most and you’ll be more than happy with your purchase..!
www.gsmarena.com is a good platform where you can compare the devices.
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