Things to keep in mind when buying a new smartphone

Smartphones these days have become the main part of our life. We use them for communication, taking pictures, banking, saving documents on the cloud, internet browsing etc and with the wide variety of smartphones available in the market it is never easy to decide which one to pick.

It is always tough deciding the one that may suit your needs best. So here I have made a list of things you should consider before you decide to buy a new smartphone.

Display

1. Size & resolution of display depends on how you use your smartphone.
2. If you often stream videos, edit photos or videos, or download & view movies, then a smartphone display ranging from 5.5 inch to 6 inch, full HD resolution should be good enough for you.
3. Larger than a 6 inch display not just makes the handset extra bulky, but also difficult to carry around.
4. If you are a regular user & largely use the smartphone for checking emails, chatting & browsing social media apps, then anything from 5 inch to 5.5 inch HD or full HD display handsets is perfect.
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Build Quality

1. Build Quality is all about durability of a smartphone.
2. The entire handset market is largely divided in 2 types of builds that is metal & plastic (polycarbonate).
3. Some even have glass panels (glossy finish), but those are very limited.
4. If you are one of those prone to dropping your smartphone, it's advisable to go for a metal or a plastic built handset, so it can sustain drops from 2 to 3 feet, while glass based handset are sure to destroide or scratches.
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Processor

1. Processing power of a smartphone varies from one device to another depending on several factors such as OS version, UI, bloatware etc.
2. If you are a heavy user who need to edit images, videos or documents online, play heavy games, use apps in split screen mode, then smartphones with Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 or Snapdragon 820 or 821 should make multitasking fluid.
3. Medium users will be happy with handsets that come with MediaTek processors.
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Camera

1. Higher number of megapixels does not mean that the smartphone camera is better.
2. Several specifications such as camera aperture, ISO levels, pixel size, autofocus & more are essential as well. A 16MP rear camera does not necessarily be better than a 12MP camera. Higher number of pixels mean that the size of the image is bigger, which becomes more sharper when seen on a small screen.
3. A photographer enthusiast might want a camera with 12MPor 16MP sensor under f/2.0 or lower aperture for speedy shots even in low lights.
4. A casual shooter can go by even with an 8MP 0r 12MP camera with f/2.0-f/2.2 aperture.
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Battery

1. Battery usage differs from user to user depending on the way of use the smartphone.
2. If you are a heavy user & work on apps, play games, stream videos & more then go for a smartphone with at least 3500mAh battery or above.
3. If you are an average or light user, a handset with 3000mAh battery would be good enough to run for a full day.
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OS (operating system)

1. The OS version are key factors to consider while choosing a smartphone. These are the interfaces that one would have to interact with each time to access anything, so it should be easy. For the most basic Android experience you can buy Motorola handsets, Nexus or Pixel smartphones or even Android One devices.
2. However different interfaces like ZenUI, Xperia UI, Samsung TouchWiz, EMUI & others offer more nifty features to sort applications & more options in styles the company thinks users would find more friendly.
3. Smartphones by OEMs also come with bloatware & certain apps that you probably won’t use ever.
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Audio

1. The quality of audio coming out of it can be an important parameter for those who rely on heavy video streaming or video conferences.
2. If you like entertainment on the go, buy a handset that has front facing speakers. This gives clear sound even while holding the smartphone in landscape mode and if you don’t indulge in video streaming or video conferencing much, then a regular handset with bottom firing speakers should be just fine.
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Headphone & USB port

1. USB ports can be a factor to consider.
2. Although both micro USB & USB Type-C ports are available in smartphones these days, it is preferable to switch to USB Type-C not just because it is easy to plug in but also it is future proof.
3. Huge number of smartphones have started in-corporating the new standard.
4. Few have started ditching the 3.5mm headphone jack as well but there might be good 2 years before all the OEMs completely switched to USB Type-C based headphones jacks.
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Storage

1. More space of the smartphone’s storage is taken away from the OS & the apps on the device comes with pre-installed.
2. If you like to keep less number of apps on your devices, you can go for 32GB storage.
3. Those who like to keep larger number of apps can go for 64GB or 128GB variants.
4. You can also buy a 16GB model that supports microSD card as well.
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Security features

1. Most smartphones these days have started coming with extra security features such as fingerprint sensor or even iris sensors.
2. These are not just to lock or unlock a handset but as a password to access certain files or documents etc.
3. Fingerprint sensor can be found in even a Rs 5,000 smartphone.
4. It's preferable to buy a smartphone with these extra security features since most of us have personal information on our handsets these days.