Mobile devices

Choosing The Best Mobile Phone For You

qwerty-mobile-phonesThe internet is full of lists ranking the best mobile phones on the market. But if you’re looking for the best phones for you, then you might be having some problems deciding. You have an awful lot of options out there, and choosing can be a nightmare. Today we’re talking about what the best mobile phone really is, and you might be a little surprised by the answer…

The Best Mobile Phones for You

The best mobile phones for you aren’t necessarily going to be the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the iPhone 5, or any of the other phones that regularly top the best mobile phone lists. Rather, the best phone is going to be the one that meets your needs and your budget requirements. This sounds rather simplistic, but it’s the truth. That being said, there are a few things that you’re going to need to think about so that you can make your purchasing decision correctly.

Budget Narrows Choices

There are two ways that you can really narrow down your options when it comes to mobile phones, and the first is by your budget. Deciding how much you have to spend not only narrows the field a little, but it also stops you from being tempted into spending more money than you can really afford on a phone. There are three broad classes of phone that we determine by cost: budget, mid-range and top end. A budget phone will be a hundred and fifty pounds or less. A mid-range device will be between two hundred and three hundred and fifty pounds. And a top end mobile is going to cost you over five hundred pounds. Know which of these groups you belong to based on your financial situation, and you’ve already eliminated many of the thousands of models that you have to choose from.

Operating System Narrows Choice Further

The second way of narrowing your choices down is by operating system. Just like your home computer or lap top your mobile phone requires an operating system in order to run. On today’s market there are four such systems to choose from. There isn’t truly any one system that’s best for everyone, or that’s better than all the others, most people just have a personal preference. If you don’t already have a preference, then it’s a good idea to go ahead and try a few demo models on the high street until you find the system that you feel most comfortable with. The four options available to you are: iOS, Android, RIM and Windows. All iPhones run iOS and all Blackberrys run RIM, so if either of these is your preference, then a lot of your purchasing decision has already been made for you. Do be aware that you’ll have a tough job finding either of these makes in the budget phone category though. Windows and Android lovers have many more options open to them, since a lot of models run these systems. You can narrow your choice slightly by looking for phones that run the most recent versions of Windows and Android though. You’ll want to do this because the newer an operating system version is, the more secure and stable it will be. On a Windows phone you’re looking for something that runs either Windows 7.5 or Windows 8, and on an Android phone you want something that runs Android 4.0, 4.1 or 4.2.

Eliminate Models that Aren’t Good Value for Money

You obviously want your money to be well spent when you’re buying a mobile, and that means ensuring that the phones that you’re looking at have the kind of features you would expect from a mobile in that price category. There are really four things that you need to look at: screen size, processing power, RAM and internal memory. Any phone in each of the three budget classes should meet certain minimum requirements in each of these four categories to ensure that it’s good value for money. A budget phone should have minimum values of: three and a half inch screen size, 800 MHz processing power, 512 MB of RAM and 2 GB of internal memory. On a mid-range phone you’re looking for at least a four inch screen, a 1 GHz (or 1000 MHz) processor, 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory. And on a top end phone you want a minimum of a four and a half inch screen, a 1.2 GHz (or 1200 MHz) processor, 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory. You should eliminate any models in your price range that don’t meet these criteria so that you know that you’re getting a decent phone for your money.

The Internet is Your Friend

When you’re looking to buy the best mobile, the internet really is going to help you. You can research all phone models and find their spec lists online from a variety of sources, so you’ll know which models meet your minimum criteria. But you can also compare models. There are many mobile comparison web sites that allow you to match two phones and then compare their specs, letting you easily see which of the two is the better phone. You can use these sites to narrow your model choices down further and further until you’ve found one that you’re really interested in and that’s going to fit your needs. The internet is also important for the shopping process. Online prices tend to be far lower than physical prices, so you’ll save yourself some money. You can use a price comparison web site to find the cheapest price, or a site such as Phones4U to find great deals on mobiles and service contracts combined. A little research will ensure that not only do you get the best phone, but you also get the best deal. However, you should always make an effort to inspect a phone in person before buying it, just to make sure that it’s really what you’re looking for. But it’s easy to check out a phone on the high street and then go home to buy it online.

Finding phones for you and all your family is something that Sam Jones can help with. He searches online to see all the different handsets and compares the deals using sites like uSwitch.

If you have any questions, please ask below!