Smartphones were invented to our make lives a lot easier. This little hand-held device helps us to manage our e-mails, find directions for us, click pictures, play media files like mp3 and do basically whatever a computer can do in general. Ironically enough, choosing the correct version of this gadget is far from ‘simple’. There are literally too many choices for the consumer to choose from, which leads to confusion and ultimately, a wrong choice. It is important to choose well while buying a smart-phone; primarily because, it is expensive. Besides, if a wrong choice is made, you might end up getting stuck with an expensive phone.
There are so many questions that need answering while buying a smart-phone: Which OS to opt for? Which features can be omitted and which ones are essential? It is worth your time to do a proper research to know what you need, can get and for how much, before making the purchase. This article will help you in narrowing down your options and in identifying what you need as far as phones are concerned.
Do you even need a smart-phone?
Other than acting as a status symbol or competing with friends/neighbors/colleagues, would your smart-phone be performing the tasks that are unique to it? This is perhaps the first question you, as a prospective smart-phone user should ask yourself. If you are looking for no other function from a cell-phone than making calls, occasional text messaging and listening to music; buying a smart-phone is redundant. Otherwise, if your job requires you to respond to and monitor emails at a moment’s notice or feel it is important for you to keep up with your friend’s latest tweets, Facebook updates and such – a smart-phone might be a good choice for you.
Setting a budget
Your budget should not only just take the cost of the desired smart-phone into consideration, but also the cost of its competitors. Due to extreme competition, cell-phone companies often offer discounts which would bring down the price of a smart-phone from its normal market price. Therefore you need to cross examine the various brands and the discounts that they are offering to avail the best offer.
Choosing the right O.S
A lot of people consider that choosing from a group of smart-phones is really a choice between the different Operating Systems (OS). The most common OS are Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS, Microsoft’s Windows mobile and Research in motion’s Blackberry OS. While choosing OS, all you need to consider is the kind of functionality you are looking for. If sending mails and browsing the web is all that you want to do, Blackberry OS works just fine. For the app maniac, Apple’s iOS is the best option because of the Apple app store, which is the largest in the world. Google’s Android is catching up to Apple, and it also gives you the added advantage of being available to a wider range of phones than any other OS. Microsoft’s Windows mobile is the obvious choice if you wish to get a lot of work done on your phone.