|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Cell Phone Buying Guide a Brief Cell Phone 101 For Your New Cell Purchase
With so many cellular phones on the market, it becomes a job in and of it itself to decide which one is right for you. Most of us usually decide based on recommendations from a friend or choose the phone that’s the most popular at the time we plan to purchase. With some many tasks that can now be completed by smart-phones, your decision should really be based around this one question: “How can this phone help to improve your life and help you to better manage your time”. I’m sure you live a very active lifestyle with plenty of things to do, both work and play. So in this article a plain to give you a little help deciding what cell phone may be right for you. I’m going to endorse any particular phone, but rather point you in the right direction so that make the decision that best fit your lifestyle.
When you start shopping for your new cell phone you probably feel a bit uncomfortable and weary of making the wrong decision. While in no-way I’m I professional writer I do a lot about cell phones and technology in general. Before you start shopping for a cell phone you should create a list of things that you would like this phone to do for you. Whether it’s to simply communicate with your friend or you just want to have it on-hand for emergencies. Below I have created a sample list for you:
My cellular phone needs.
1. I need want to eliminate some of my many electronic devices.
2. I’m tired of my phone dropping calls.
3. I want to be able to stay up to date with my facebook friends.
4. I don’t want to log into my computer for emails all the time.
5. My new phone has to be able to play music.
This is a very short list, just something thing give you an idea of how you can make this decision.
Let’s start with number one, “I need to eliminate some of my many electronic devices”. You may have more than one device that you carry around on a daily bases. For instance: you may have an Mp3 Player, Digital Camera, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and a Flash Drive for work. Purchasing the right cell phone can eliminate all of these devices. To eliminate multiple electronic devices you may want to look into purchasing a smart-phone. A smart-phone has the ability to perform multiply task. Most smart-phones have built-in calendars, task management, reminders, email, cameras, and mp3 players. Smart-phones are designed to make life simpler and to combine multiply devices into one. Smart-phones are essentially a combination of PDA’s (which came on the scene in the 90’s and eliminate the rolodex) and cell phones.
If you’re tired of dropping calls then you may be asking the wrong questions to start with. Most cellular companies advertise things like, “We have the most coverage nationwide”, or “The network with the fewest dropped calls”, or “We have the fastest network available.” All of things are well and good, except for one key point. It’s not important to you how good or fast their network is, it’s how good or fast it is where you live. A cell phone service provider with excellent nationwide coverage could actually have the worst service in your neighborhood. Pour service will actually limit all aspects of cell phone use including, browsing the web, getting text messages, phone quality, and yes frequency of dropped calls. You should ask your sales rep, “How is the coverage in my neighborhood?” You can also ask a few neighbors how their cell phone reception is. I’m positive some will say it’s great while others will say it barely works. You may just want to save yourself some time by going with the cell phone provider of the neighbor with great reception.
If you keep in-touch with friends and family mainly through facebook and other social media sites, then this should be a must when purchasing your new cell phone. Many cell smart-phones now have the ability to provide you access to your social media accounts. You want to make sure the social media apps (like facebook, Twitter, and Myspace) are the official apps created by that social media site. There are many third-party companies that create these apps and sell them. You often would have to purchase these apps and most of the time they perform very poorly and have limited functionality. Third party apps often have slower transfer speeds of data. Meaning if you update your status via your cell phone, it may take up to 15 minutes or so for it to actually be updated on your account; it’s the same when receiving updates of friends. While you’re in the store take some time to play with the phone and discover the limitations of social media apps that have been pre-installed on the phone. If the phone doesn’t have the app pre-installed it generally means that you will have to pay for it or the official app may not existent as of yet.
Most smart-phones are able to receive and send emails. First you need to decide how important email is to you? While most smart-phones can perform basic email tasks, some are better than others. If your email is vital, you may want to ask if the phone you’re considering purchasing has “instant push” email on it; meaning that soon as you push send the email is delivery that very second. Most smart-phones do not have this feature. Most phones have a delay of 15 minutes between sending and receiving emails, this could be a problem if your email is very important. If you’re a casual email user then any smart-phone would be able to provide this service for you.
Most cell phones are capable of playing mp3’s but only a few really do it well enough to replace your stand alone mp3 player. When purchasing a cell phone that’s capable to replace your mp3 player you should ask the sales representative these questions. I’m I able to sync this phone with a Mac and/or a P.C? Does this phone sync with iTunes, Zune software, and Windows Media Player? If so will it also allow me to sync my playlist so I want have to re-create them once the mp3’s are on my phone? Unfortunately you may have to ask a few different sales representatives to get the answers to these questions. Don’t fall for the old, “It should work” answer. If a sales rep says that, politely ask for a different rep that maybe able to answer your questions. Next you want to be able to sync your phone with your computer for several reasons, but here let’s focus on music. If your new phone allows you to sync your music, then it will appear on your phone just as you have arranged it on your P.C. Many reps may want to inform you that you can simply put the music on a flash drive that comes with your phone; this is not the same thing at all. Dropping the mp3 files to a flash drive is much different then actually syncing the music to your phone. Simply dropping the file to your phones flash drive will force you to re-arrange the files on your phone and make it much harder to find the music you want to play. Syncing the files maintains all of the information that may be associated with that music i.e, artist info, album info, genre, and published date. You also want make sure that your phone is able to sync with some of them most popular music software like iTunes (ipod, iphones), Zune Software (Zune), and Windows Media Player (most generic mp3 players). If your new phone is able to sync with this software, then your music will appear just as it does on your computer, playlist and all.
Choosing the right cell phone can be a difficult task that can be easy by just knowing the right questions to ask. If you’re not that tech savvy take along a friend they maybe a little more knowledgeable on the subject. Do your research before you actually go shopping for your new phone, the more know, the list likely someone will able to pull the wool over eyes. I hope this article provided you with some useful information that will help with your new cell phone purchase. Thanks
|
|
|
|
