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Quick Guide when picking your next smartphone

With the hundreds of new smartphone handsets released every year, it can be pretty daunting to pick which one is the right for you. With so many considerations that need to be taken into account, we outlined a short guide for you to follow the next time you are out for a new smartphone.

Start with a fixed budget

The easiest and fastest way to narrow down your choices for a new smartphone is to set a hard budget. Your budget must be reasonable and readily available.

Once you have done so, everything else will fall in place and you’d be able make a well-informed decision.

Do a survey of what is available

With your budget, make a list of all the smartphone brands you trust or of interest and pick specific models that fit into your budget. Resist the urge to change your budget if some of smartphones did not make the cut.

Make sure the ones on your list have been released or are officially available locally so you get the advantage of the manufacturer’s warranty.

Take note that gray market units do not offer the official warranty so if the device turned out to have any defects, you can’t have them replaced and the only help you will get is a service warranty to make the necessary repairs.

Trim down the list

In order to narrow down the list even further, add several filters based on features you need or have priority over others.

These filters will include operating system (iOS, Android, Windows Phone), display size, build materials (glass, plastic, metal) and battery capacity.

Operating System. This should be on top of your priority list. If you picked iOS, the list drops to just 2 or 3 generations of iPhones and whichever model fits the budget wins. The choices for Windows Phone are very slim so you won’t have a problem narrowing down the list to around 2 or 3 models. However, if you chose Android, then it gets more interesting since there will be a lot of candidates running in that platform.

Display Size. While each person has their personal preference, the typical display size would be between 5 inches to 5.5 inches. You should be fine at around those sizes but also take into consideration the screen resolution of the display — a 720p (720×1280 pixel) resolution is decent but full HD 1080p (1080×1920 pixel) should be the ideal. A quad HD (2560×1440 pixels) resolution is a luxury and, frankly, a bit overkill. Bear in mind that screen resolution can affect the performance of the phone.

Internal Hardware. The performance of your smartphone is determined by the internal hardware like processor and amount of RAM. A quad-core processor should be generally good enough especially when you pair it with at least 2GB of RAM. Take note that different operating systems have different hardware requirements in order to perform well. Android is the more resource intensive followed by Windows Phone and iOS.

Storage. With the smartphone becoming a convergent device, it also means that you will need a lot of storage to aggregate all your files. Depending on your usage behavior, 16GB should be the minimum with 32GB being the ideal. If you budget can still afford it, go for the 64GB or 128GB variant.

Fortunately, most smartphones have a microSD card slot that will allow you to add extra storage capacity when you’ll need it later on.

Battery Life. Crucial to your decision should also be battery life of the smartphone. What good is a nice-looking, highly-performing flagship smartphone if battery does not even last you half a day?

As a rule of thumb, the bigger the battery the better the battery life (all else being equal) so look for something in the range of 3,000mAh or higher. It is also good if the battery is user-replaceable but with the popularity of powerbanks, fast charging and wireless chargers, the importance has gradually gradually decreased.

Camera. A lot of smartphone users actually place the camera performance and image quality as their primary factor in making the selection. Good news is that a huge majority of smartphones now record good photos and videos with a few really exceptional ones.
Connectivity. With WiFi and Bluetooth being a staple connectivity feature, perhaps the more significant aspect would be the LTE-capability of the handset. NFC, Miracast, DLNA are nice to have but we don’t think they’re that important.

Apply your vanity features

By this step, you have probably selected the smartphone that fits your budget which has all the necessary features you’ll need.

If not, then this is the time to apply vanity features to the remaining contenders. This is like the clincher questions — is it waterproof (IP68 Rating), does it also have a good selfie camera, an IR blaster for use a remote control of your appliances or dual-SIM capabilities.

That’s it! We hope this quick guide will help you decide smarter when you buy your next smartphone.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

15 Responses

  1. Avatar for Cesar Noel Cesar Noel says:

    I’m still for the Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe Edition

  2. Avatar for Dudong Matanong Dudong Matanong says:

    Guys, need help! Looking for a cheap phone that can do video calls (facebook video, skype, etc) and good display.
    What’s your recommendation?

  3. Avatar for pardeep pardeep says:

    Iphone 5s 32gb

  4. Avatar for Vincent Maldia Vincent Maldia says:

    one tip would be to set a budget then list down all the models with their respective downsides then decide which downside you can live with

  5. Avatar for Vincent Maldia Vincent Maldia says:

    no reviews ever say if the gps takes half an hour to get a lock or if apps cannot be moved to the sd card. Those are very important

  6. Avatar for FiatLux FiatLux says:

    Battery – I have to try out the phone first before considering about the longevity of the battery, but I have one important rule: removable batteries are a must!
    Display – I don’t mind a display with a low resolution as long as it helps the battery life. But a color-accurate display is nice. A 5 inch display is comfy for me.
    Storage – 16 GB is minimum for me, but, just like removable batteries, a microSD card slot is a must too! 2 GB of RAM is also a must for me.
    Camera – I don’t take pictures too often, but a 13MP camera may be nice if it takes pictures properly.
    OS – Obviously, Android. But does the budget phone have a custom ROM? I would also love to have a pure, stock, AOSP Android like any Android Ones, like the Cherry One G1.
    Chipset (Did I forget…?) – I didn’t play 3D games and Clash of Clans, (really a big nope for me) so I don’t mind the type of chipset it has. However, the chipset must not ever, in any sense, heat up like a stove that cooks eggs.
    Budget – Hmmmmm… Minimal price is at 5,000 pesos and 7000 pesos at max.

    Do I want a Flare X? Nope. Do I want any O+ 360s? Nope. Do I need a Cherry Mobile One G1? Oh, yes indeed, from my heart.

  7. Avatar for Benjie Benjie says:

    720p resolution for longer battery life. Big battery 3500 to 4000 would be good. 2 gb of memory and 32 gb storage along with micro sd slot, good camera and affordable price. Pinakamalapit ang flash plus dito. I wish manufacturer would do 32 gb minimum.

  8. Avatar for deuts deuts says:

    Deciding should be very easy: get the iPhone that you can afford! LOL!

  9. Avatar for para_in para_in says:

    1.Should have a fruit at the back.

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