Smartphone Buying Guide 2020
A smartphone is a real necessity for all, so here goes a buying guide to it. There is always a process or way to do any sought of activity or work. And purchasing something is also surely a great big task, as you will be spending your hard-earned money. You definitely don’t want it to go in vain. Moreover, a smartphone is such an important piece between regular works and businesses. You want it to be perfect with offering everything you need.
So, here you get top points on what all crucial points to keep in mind while purchasing a new smartphone. That is, the reason I’ve named it as a smartphone buying guide. As it would answering almost all of the questions that go in everyone’s minds before purchasing a phone. It should be read by everyone because it will help you in choosing the best smartphone, which is perfect for you. Also, it will help you save a lot of money too.
Pro-Tip
Whenever you decide to purchase a new smartphone, keep one golden point always in mind. That is, remember that a smartphone is a depreciating asset, with time its value would decrease. If you purchase a ten thousand rupees phone after a year its value would become half. But, if you go on to use it for another year it means it has given enough value already. Moreover, there are certain brands who unnecessarily charge extra money and provide nothing in return. Biggest example these days is the fruit brand “Apple”.
Remember purchase an expensive flagship smartphone only when you can pay the complete full amount in one go and too easily. If you have to think too much about the price or EMI then just don’t take it. There are smartphones available at a range of 20-30 which provide well value. So, why to go towards the costlier ones, just not needed.
Best Short Smartphone Buying Guide
The Right Time for Smartphone Purchase!
We will understand this point with the help of a very simple example:
- Consider a company named “X” launches a new phone “A” on date 1st January.
- You were thinking to purchase a new phone from 25th December.
- After the launch, you go through the smartphone buying guide and investigate everything about the phone.
- You finally decide by 7th January to go for the purchase.
- On, 7th itself the company tweets or informs the market that within 10 days they will be launching a new phone “A Pro”.
- You decide to wait for the “A pro” thinking that it would be better.
Why make up the above example? That is because these days this has become a trend! Many brands are getting into this trend of launching new phones almost every week, which is good also and bad also at the same time. This is because it gives lots of options to use as users. But, still, when you purchase a phone after some time another one comes up and you feel regret that you should have waited for that.
No, that is what I want to explain to you that the wait would never be over. The above story would go on and on. Don’t wait too much for a phone to come until and unless you were waiting for it from a specific time. The right time to purchase a new smartphone is when you need it. Yes, that is why this is the most important and very first point of smartphone buying guide.
Guide Yourself with A Checklist for Best Pick of the Smartphone
Always and always get yourself a checklist made with all the essential features you want in your new cellphone. This makes the work easier for choosing the best. I’ll tell you in what way to make the checklist. Think of the things you do most on your phone, gaming, photography, vlogging, watching movies or listening to music etc. Read ahead and select your most important factors for the phone accordingly.
Performance
Personally, in my opinion, performance comes at number one position because it becomes the heart of the phone. If performance is good then all the other liking stuff can be done really easily. If the performance comes out to be average then after a certain time period from the purchase the phone will start to hang. Which definitely no one wants. Further, I have divided the performance into 3 factors, which must be kept in check while selecting for the best mobile phone.
SoC(Chipset)
The processor, key part of the phone, what to select which to select? Get every answer on this smartphone buying guide! These days smartphone companies do not disappoint much and are providing good quality processors in almost every range of phones. As we know that no phone is perfect, similarly no company is also perfect. So, keeping that in mind you keep the following points in mind while selecting an appropriate processor:
- Go for Snapdragon or Mediatek processors only!
- Avoid Snapdragon’s 4 series processors. They are very outdated and old now.
- For the lower to mid-range go for at least a Snapdragon 675 or 660 in the worst case.
- Then moving ahead with premium mid-range and gaming-oriented smartphones, select Snapdragon 710, 712 etc.
- Mediatek’s P90 and G90T are also great gaming processors.
- Last but not least if you are a Samsung freak! Then make sure to go for at least an Exynos 9611.
- Since I emphasised on gaming processors, it simply means that other tasks are mere basics in front of them so other tasks can also be done very easily on gaming processors.
Storage Type
A good and effective storage type makes up a good performing smartphone, only a good processor isn’t enough. The read-write speed highly depends on the storage type. Latest and best are UFS 3.0, 2.1, 2.0 and eMMC type of storage. Moreover, how much storage to take? In my opinion, 64GB should be more than enough because almost every mid-ranger carries an SD-card slot and a flagship’s base variant also comes with high-end storage like 256GB. Since we have google drive storage should not be a major issue with 64GB, but still, if you have a tight budget there is no harm in going with 32GB too.
RAM Type
This part is ignored by many, which is not at all good. The read-write speed which I talked about above, also depends on the RAM type. The best RAM types are LPDDR4X and LPDDR3X which gives a good hand in making the phone perform good. Remember one thing to not to take a 2GB RAM smartphone because it would not be smart enough. These days as the technology is increasing a 2GB RAM phone would not at all be enough. Best is to have 6GB RAM but still for normal and moderate usage 4GB RAM would be really good.
Capture Every Moment
Next prime feature to be present on the phone is the beloved camera. This era is serious of cameras, smartphone companies have guided themselves towards an insane number of cameras. Not 2, not 3, not even 4 we are having mobile phones with 5 and even 6 cameras. Many times things also seem useless, we actually don’t need to have 4 cameras at the back of the phone. Best example supporting that statement is the Google Pixel it had only one-two cameras and it easily competed with other brands having 4-5 cameras. Well as this buying guide of smartphone promised, it will help you choose the right camera.
- Firstly, delete one thing from the mind that number of pixels matter! Not, true image processing matters and the camera sensor.
- Secondly, ask yourself which is more important, selfie camera or rear camera.
- If it is the selfie, then prefer to go with Oppo or Vivo they have one of the best selfie cameras in the business.
- Now, for the ones who use their camera for vlogging make sure that the front camera supports EIS(Electronic Image Stabilisation) or OIS(Optical Image Stabilisation). If not checked then videos would be shakey and useless.
- Next up get to the internet search properly check camera reviews and then decide on what phone to pick.
Build Quality
Another key aspect to look at is here in front of you, build quality is a pretty major thing to think about. Again the biggest guide for buying a perfect smartphone is you yourself. This is because now again you have to think and ask a question to yourself. The question is how careless or responsible are you while handling your phone.
- If you are careless and keep dropping your phone every now and then go for a phone having a polycarbonate(plastic) back.
- The glass back having a gorilla glass also will also break if the phone is dropped more than 4-5 times from height.
- Still, if you want to go for the glass back, add a case. As I am also careless with phones and still I have a phone having Glass back, so have added a back case!
Smartphone Buying Guide Battery Point
The significance of the battery is really necessary and should always be considered. Due to the competitive world brands are offering good battery lives and even good fast charging technologies. So, because of which battery capacity is kept with a good check mostly, but many brands miss out with fast charging.
At times they don’t provide fast chargers and at times they do. Fast charging definitely saves a lot of time and makes life easier, but still, it comes on with personal preference. You might want it also and might not also. For capacity on an average 4200mAh-4500mAh battery should be enough and will take a moderate to normal use for more than 1-1.5 days easily. Maybe even 2 days in some cases and will take heavy users for 1 day.
Guide for Display
The very first thing to keep in mind is while purchasing a new smartphone avoid the ones having TFT displays. Next, if you are the one who loves watching movies, series and other stuff on your smartphone a lot. Then display is an essential point for you. Select a mobile phone which consists of appropriate brightness nits. Also, keep one thing in check if you use the phone a lot in direct sunlight outdoors. Then around 800 nits should be more than enough. Also, check if you can get HDR screen, in order to get good-high quality display and good colours.
Next, up for AMOLED screens. Many phones promise for AMOLED screens but the best are of Samsung. Check the nits, HDR support and also make sure to check the lowest brightness possible. Many times people miss out on that and smartphone companies too. They successfully provide high brightness but fail on lower levels. Which is quite necessary if you use the phone in late nights or low-lights.
Buying Guide for User Interface(OS)
Another crucial point which must be kept in check or else one has to suffer later. Many people really get used to there phone’s operating system at times. This is so because every company have there own different OS and provide a different user interface. For instance, many people stick to iOS, MIUI or OxygenOS etc.
Brand Preference
Can be considered as the continuation of the above point. Like many people get addicted to apple’s iOS and they just want to stick to no matter what happens. Well, now that’s a personal choice the smartphone buying guide can’t literally say anything much about that. But, yes one thing must always be checked is the updates.
For, Apple no comments they are best in the business in terms of providing updates. With, Android, almost every brand give only 1-2 updates so can’t do anything with that. But, the track record for the security patch must be checked. For the importance of security updates. Do read the previous blog.
5G Hype
Don’t flow into this at all, please! This is just unnecessary hype for Indians. 5G is not coming to India anytime soon, by at least 2023 so, it is just not needed. Until and unless you travel abroad a lot. If you take a smartphone of Snapdragon 865 and above then you will get 5G by default only. But, no need to go after it. This is the most important point of this smartphone buying guide because you will save a lot of money from this.
Old Devices Paradise
Many times people decide to go with old smartphones, just because they are available for a lesser price. Frankly speaking this not a very good idea, to be honest. They will definitely miss out on the latest technology and then after only 1-2 months, you will start feeling that the phone is old. So, instead, go for a newer device. Otherwise also, nowadays smartphone technology gets changed or evolved in a couple of months only. Then on that fact, if you decide to go for a year or 2 old phones then it will be your loss.
Stick to Your Budget
These days the smartphone companies are literally competing with themselves. Xiaomi has got its 3-4 phones in the same range and so is the case with Realme. So, because of which we’ve got plenty of devices from one number to another. That is why I want you to stick to your budget. If you have decided to purchase a phone of 15000 then don’t even think to push yourself to 16, coz, after that you will get something better again at 17,18,19… It goes on so stick and don’t push so much!
Service Center for the Smartphone
Good or bad, costly or cheap 99 per cent of the times there comes a time when you have to visit the service centre to get the phone repaired or anything. At that time if the service centre is far from your residence or workplace. Then you will have to spend on the phone as well as the extra distance. Which is painful.
With this, we come to the end of the smartphone buying guide. I hope it helped you in making the perfect decision for your mobile purchase. Do drop in a comment if you liked it and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog. For more guides and other tips and information.
Do Check Out!
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- HOW TO INCREASE THE BATTERY LIFE | OF SMARTPHONE
- SAMSUNG GALAXY M51 | SPECIFICATIONS | FEATURES | PRICE
- MUST-HAVE APPS | FOR ANDROID SMARTPHONE
- 10 MOST DANGEROUS APPS | FOR ANDROID SMARTPHONES | UNINSTALL NOW!
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