8 Points to look at before buying your new Android Smartphone

Nowadays market is flooded with so many phones that it has become quite difficult to narrow down your purchase decision to a single phone. Selecting a single phone is a pain. I would admit many times I want to buy more than one phone because they both seems so good and tempting. Well I have been asked a hundred times to recommend a best smartphone in certain price category. In this scenario everyone wants a straight forward answer which they can go and buy. But it’s not that easy as there is no “Best Smartphone” out there. It all depends on the features the person is looking for in a smartphone which makes some smartphone preferable more than others for them.

You must be thinking what is this guy talking about of course there are smartphones which are considered as best , one can see infinite lists on the internet regarding the same, aren’t there?  Actually the short answer to this question is NO.

Now here comes the long part .Well take a look at any smartphone whether it’s a high end phone or a budget phone every phone has pros and cons and no phone is perfect so the buyer has to look at those pros and cons to figure out that the particular smartphone is for him or not. For instance if someone asks top smartphone under INR 40,000 or $ 600 ? One would say oneplus 5. Isn’t it? Definitely it’s one of the most value for money phone under this price category! But if you want a feature like, say, IP68 certified water proofing then I will doubt on the recommendation of oneplus 5 because it’s not IP68 certified and android has not much choice under INR 40,000 apart from LG G6, which is arguably not the best selling phone in the market but its performance is still head to head with the top dogs, in that price bracket . 

So the whole point is there will be a best phone for you which is not so best for the guy next to you and this is how it is meant to be.

You must be scratching your head saying that what the parameters are to find a smartphone for me and not blindly go with the recommended lists that are available there on the net.

Let me help you on in this aspect. Let’s get started. Here are few points to look at when buying a new phone for yourself:

      1.       Stick to your Range: Well that’s the obvious one isn’t it? One has to pay for the smartphone so definitely he should have selected a budget to buy it. But the thing people do is they don’t set a range they set a number. Let me explain. If someone’s budget is up to INR 15,000 or $ 250 they look for phone near that only. By doing this what they do is pay over there set budget mostly. What one should actually do is set a range i.e. look for a phone within the range of INR 10,000-15,000 this way you will find a suitable phone as well as you won’t go over your set budget.

Now you must be thinking that if we select a phone which is of, suppose, INR12,000 then we are under-utilizing our budget of INR 15,000. Yes undeniably you will be using less money to buy a new phone but let’s just think a bit on it. What’s the harm in it? You got a phone you like and saved couple of thousand bucks on your budget didn’t you? That’s a win-win I think. Also now-a-days protecting your smartphone against accidental damage is a necessity so one automatically spends anywhere from as low as INR 50 bucks to as high as one can go on tempered glass and cover for the phone. So if you save some bucks on the initial cost it won’t hurt you to go and buy a nice tempered glass and case to protect your beloved smartphone which will keep away the nicks and scratches because of the daily abuse.        

      2.       Every Phone is different: Every smartphone is made differently even if two smartphones are in the same price category that necessarily doesn’t mean they are made with the same materials. One can find smartphones made of cheap plastic as well as predominantly used aluminum and also rarely used titanium (yes I am talking about the essential phone). Even aluminum has different series like 6000, 7000 (got to know that when bend-gate happened).

So you have to look out for the material which is used in the phone because that is thing which defines its durability. The higher the budget the better the quality of materials one can expect but I would not recommend glass back phone if you are a rough user (as I am, I stay away from glass back phones) because they look pretty but they are fragile you drop it and you won’t know if it will survive or not.

      3.       Internals matter: Now let’s talk about the heart of the phone i.e. its processor and stuff. A phone is as good as its internals. The better the processor the better performance one can expect from the phone provided it’s optimized properly. But smartphones now a days have reached a stage where even a budget phone of around INR 10,000 or $150 mark can perform daily tasks with ease. However if you are a heavy user who plays lots of games, clicks 100’s of pics and surf multiple pages on your browser then you need to look at the internals carefully.

So here is where you need to be careful because many companies tries to fool the customer by their advertising for, ex. Advertised as Octa core processor, worlds best selfie etc.  

      4.       Dual Camera Hype: Dual Cameras are the rage now and if your new phone doesn’t have a dual camera it is assumed to have a inferior camera. But that may not be case. Dual camera doesn’t guarantee great photos camera software and camera specifications does. Like what is the aperture value, pixel size, camera module used etc. So for example Samsung galaxy s8 series has single camera setup but it’s still one the best cameras in the industry. Now you will say it’s a flagship phone and its camera is bound to be great right? What about Moto g5 plus camera. It has single camera setup and it’s the best in the class. 

      Now let’s talk about dual camera setup phone then. If you compare Moto g5s+ camera with Moto g5 plus camera you will note that g5 plus pics are better in most cases. Because g5+ has larger pixel size and larger aperture. So having a dual camera is an advantage but don’t expect miracles from your new dual camera phone apart from those portrait photos that too when it is implemented correctly by the manufacturer.

      5.       Fast charging is a Necessity: Now a day’s battery size is increasing tremendously to get your new fancy smartphone to run all its tricks for a day or for two in rare cases. So it’s obvious now that the phone should have fast charging support. If it doesn’t the phone will take longer to charge and you might also want to carry a power bank with you which is very annoying as one expect there phone too be fully functional whenever and wherever they are.  But keep in mind that quick charging technology can also vary. 

     

      For example we have QUALCOMM’s quick charge tech and we have dash charging from oneplus. Both will charge your phone quickly but dash charging only works on oneplus phones and that too with their proprietary charger. But quick charge works on most of QUALCOMM’s chips and its chargers are easily available. So if you are one of those who forgets his charger every time then it would be recommended for you to go with phone having quick charge because of its easy availability.

      6.       Software is the key: Just imagine you bought your new high end smartphone and you started using it and found out that it lags or the phone crashes or camera software is buggy. It will dent your whole experience and you will start to think you wasted your money. That’s how important software is for smartphones. If it is properly optimized with the provided hardware even a phone with moderate specifications will run fluidly, look at Nokia 6, but if there are bugs in the software that will hamper your overall experience and will leave you frustrated, tak

e Oneplus 3 ram management issue. And with surge in use of mobile phones for online purchases security is also a big concern now and to be safe from malware attacks Google provides security updates every month. So before you buy your new phone look at the brands history for providing software updates for the phones in the similar price category. You don’t want to buy a phone which will the company will stop supporting within a year.

      7.       Brand preference: There is always a debate that one should only buy phones from tier 1 brands but I think smartphone industry has come to a point where even if you don’t buy a tier 1 brand you won’t be losing much. One can get 8/10 features of flagship phones from tier 1 brand in phones from tier 2 brands at almost half the price. So it’s hard to beat these brand in terms of bang for your buck. For example I have personally used Xiaomi and oneplus and I can say they both make great smartphones.  You can definitely go for Xiaomi, Oneplus, Lenovo, Moto and Huawei smartphones if only the brand name is holding you back. But I personally don’t recommend Oppo and Vivo smartphones because they are least value for money smartphones in the market.

As we are talking about brands we can also consider there resale values. So brands such as apple, Samsung and currently oneplus will have high resale value than others. You ask why ? Because iphones are sold only because of brand and there are many people who will like to have apple logo for cheap price and Samsung sells so many phones that there spare parts requirements are so high that every phone of there is in demand for long. As of oneplus they don’t drop their phones prices much so if you see on one hand Samsung’s flagship of last year galaxy s7 was launched for INR 48,900 or $600 and it was on sale for INR 29,999 on flipkart sometime back i.e. a woofing 38% discount and on the other hand Oneplus’s flagship Oneplus 3t was selling for INR 24,999 which had a launch price of INR 29,999 that’s a 17% drop. So as they don’t decrease there price that much there value remains high in the market.

      8.       After sales service: Now you have bought a phone with the best features one can have in that price bracket but you run into some issue with the phone, hardware issue or software whatever it is, now WHAT ?  That’s where the after sales service of the company comes into play. Customer will have to go to the company either by email route or to their service center directly. So to do this company must have appropriate customer support staff as well as centers. Although service of most brands in this sector is similar and none can be said as customer support leader, except apple they have really good service, and if you run into issues with your phone it can take from 1 day to all the way to a month to get it up and running depending on the issue but still it’s always recommended to go with a brand who has a service center in your area. This will give you peace of mind that if something happens then you can visit the center.

Also do check how well the companies fare in that department before purchasing. That means do read and inquire

about their quality of service from people who have experienced it. Like I have personally experienced Xiaomi, Oneplus, Samsung service and I cant say that I liked any brand in that aspect but oneplus was the better ones as the delivered my oneplus one, which had a screen issue, before the estimated time. Then there comes Xiaomi. They took more than month for earphone replacement. That sounds crazy right. But wait now comes Samsung. My phone had camera focusing issue and after their regular wipe procedure they kept the phone for repair. For twice they returned my phone without repairing and claiming that its repaired. I don’t even remember how many times I visited that service center of there’s. But they took close to 2 months to repair it. That was my worst experience with any service center. Though I must tell that oneplus and Samsung service center experience that I had was many years ago so things may have changed now but Xiaomi experience is a current one.

So buy a phone who has a satisfactory customer support and hope that your phone doesn’t go through any issue in its lifetime.

Now that you have gone through this article I can safely say that you can make a informed decision in which smartphone to choose.

Thank you, Stay Curious

Saurabh Khanna