4 Smartphone Purchase Filters That Will Help You Buy The Right Phone
It is the season of sales and discounts and if you’re looking to buy a new smartphone this is the best time. You may get into a bind given the plethora of options out there, but thanks to the commodification of phone hardware the filters you need apply have shrunk to a few. Processor speed, phone memory (RAM, not storage), screen-size etc are all nearly uniform. All you need is a checklist of 4 factors to zero in on the right smartphone.
Camera
We’ve come a full circle. It is all about the camera again. Blame it on the apps and your vanity but this is one feature that you will be using a lot, so pick a phone that has a great camera. Look at MP and sensors on the piece. More MP is good but it is not all. Is the sensor big enough to process those high pixel images you’ll be snapping. What about night shots and low light images, for those selfies you’ll click when you’re partying with your mates? You don’t want them to be grainy and un-salvageable even while using Instagram filters. If you want a detailed comparison, check out the mobile camera comparison by DXO Mark.
Storage
Anything below 32 GB is a no-no. Don’t believe the ‘You can use micro-SD cards to transfer data’ line. You never will. 32 GB is good, 64 GB is perfect. Plus you’ll get a few GBs thanks to all the cloud storage you get bundled with Google/Apple, Dropbox etc
Battery Life
This is one tech that has not grown in leaps and bounds. Most smartphones barely make it through the day. Part of this is due to the tonne of hardware that is crammed into the phone. However don’t fall for the trap of of the MAX sized batteries, those phones are just bulky and under-specced. A phone promises a 12-hour battery life on regular usage should be fine.
Price
Some phones cost an arm and a leg and yet they sell in millions. If you are one of the minions then go for the top-of-the-line devices. Those on tighter budgets too have an impressive selection to choose from. The mid-range phones are great bargains as they maybe mid-range in price but sport an impressive set of specs (almost all of them would have specs similar to a flagship from the previous generation).
While fixing a budget remember this, you’ll set a figure and then end up hiking it by 15% to pick up the slightly shinier, slightly more expensive device. But that’s ok, after all you got a discount because of the sale.
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