There so many choices these days when it comes to figuring out what is the best mobile phone for you. The are at least half a dozen top manufacturers of mobile phones and each one has a number of exclusive technologies, innovations and even patented features that only they can use or license to other makers at a cost.
With so many mobile phones to choose from you will likely get end up with information overload before you finally narrow your choices down to a few good choices. Once you find yourself with just two or three models that seem to fit all of your most important criteria, you can then get down to what really counts; which fits best into your price range the best.
Where to begin your search?
The obvious place to start is the OS or Operating System, there are three distinct OS’s that all of the mobile phones or smartphones on the market run on. These OS’s are designed specially to control all of the features and functionalities built into the different models of mobile phones being offered by the top manufacturers.
The three operating systems that currently being used are Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Mobile Windows from Microsoft. Apple’s iOS is proprietary and can only be loaded onto mobile devices offered by Apple, this includes iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touch. Google’s Android OS is by far the most popular choice among the mobile phone manufacturers that are not named Apple. Microsoft has found a small niche for its Mobile Windows OS and has managed to build a decent following.
Once you have decided on which OS you are interested in, you will then need to figure out which smartphone to purchase based on your needs.
Which smartphone model to choose?
When it comes to choosing the best smartphone model your search needs to start with a carrier that you can trust. The main reason why you need to start with a carrier is that while no operating system is carrier specific, each of the three major carriers (AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile) offers special deals and plans based on certain brands and models of mobile phones.
Many of the deals are designed to subsidize the high cost of the mobile phones in order to make them affordable. However, there are ways around the connection some of the carriers have with the phone makers in order to give you more flexibility. By choosing a “unlocked” mobile phone you are not forced to use any specific carrier to set up service for one of those phones. The biggest downside to unlocked phones is that they generally cost more money and you will not get the benefit of discounts and other incentives offered by specific carriers.
What service plan to go with?
Mobile service is very competitive these days and each of the big three carriers have a number of plans that they established in order to offer their customers a plan that meets all of their needs. Each and every plan will offer some combination of text messaging, phone calling and data access in order to win over new customers.
Depending on how much you are willing to spend per month is what will determine which of the many plans that your carrier of choice will have to offer. By far the best plan of choice will give you unlimited text,calling and data for one price. As you can imagine, if your carrier does offer totally unlimited, chances are you likely pay a bit more than all of the other plans.
If you are not necessarily enamoured with the idea of paying so much for unlimited, you will need to pay close attention to one of the many other plans that have a combination of the three services.
Mobile phones
Now that you have the preliminary things taken care of, it is time to get down to the nitty gritty and look at the actual phones that you will have to choose from. Since you have already narrowed down the search of your next phone when you chose the phone’s OS, you will need to stick with your for try.
Most of today’s hottest mobile phones offer a model or two with screen sizes that range from 4” to 6”. This makes it a bit more difficult when it comes to selecting your new phone. Apple’s iPhone (iOS), Samsung’s Galaxy, Moto G which features Google’s Android and Nokia features Windows mobile OS.
Newer vs. older model
If you are on a tight budget you may not have the luxury of being able to buy the latest and great model offered by your carrier. This may not necessarily be a bad thing since older models are considerably less, but sometimes they have features that might not be available on the brand new model. This is something that you really need to look at very carefully before jumping into a mobile phone purchase.
Power and Storage
The processor and storage capacity of a phone will determine how fast your apps with run on your phone and the amount of storage will determine how many pictures you can store, apps you can download and install on your phone. However, some models of mobile phones can have the storage expanded using a larger SD card (optional).
Cameras, Front and Rear Facing
These days with people wanting to take selfies and recording just about everything imaginable it is really important to have good front and rear facing cameras. It would be highly recommended that you look at a phone that has at least a 16MP rear facing camera and 8MP or more for the front facing camera.
Battery Life
As with any mobile device, the battery life is extremely important and it should be high on your list if priorities. You never want to be caught with a dead battery and by choosing a mobile phone with a rechargeable battery that boasts of having an extremely long life and does not take a lot of time to recharge.