Qualities to Look for When Buying a Phone

When that time comes around, when your old phone dies, screen is destroyed, or your contract is up, or you are simply wanting something new, you’re debating what your next phone will be. For some it might be easy, going for the newest and the greatest. Some might have a hard time looking through all the options. While others are concerned with their price range. In any case, you should all be aware of what you should look for in a phone. What makes the phone the best and the greatest? What qualities should I look for to narrow down the choices? What qualities should I look for while comparing price? All good questions when looking for a new device.

When looking at a phone, what makes a phone “great”? A great phone can be down to opinion, but I always like to compare specs to determine what is the best phone. Phonearena is a website that I like to use to compare specs. It allows you to few the specs of the device, that could be found around on the manufacturer's website, and compare them side by side to find that perfect phone. For example, if I would want to compare some of this year's flagship phones, I’d start searching for phones like the iPhone6s, Nexus6p, OnePlus2, and compare their specs.

Specs are not everything though. If you looked, most iPhones have no where near the power that Android phones have, yet most would argue that they are just as fast. On top of specs, I always like to see someone else’s opinion of the phone after they’ve used in in their daily lives for a while. Sometimes software and other features/bugs can have a big impact on the performance of the device. Fortunately, YouTube has many of such reviewers, one that I trust, MKBHD. When I find a device that I’m interested in, I’ll search YouTube and find a review of the phone, looking for the performance of the device, the battery life that they were getting out of the device, and their general opinion of the device.

I know that not everyone is able to spend whatever is needed to get the newest, best, flagship phone every year. Some people might barely have the money to get a phone, yet want some sort of smartphone that just works. Of course you’ll have to make compromises, but instead of buying some cheap phone, I’d recommend looking back to a few years old flagship phones. Often you might be buying some used phone, and if you’re cool with the potential risk, then there’s a cheap solution for you, but if you’re concerned, a lot of manufacturers are producing a cheaper version of their flagship phones. Apple with their C model phones, Motorola with their Moto G series phones, and until recently, the nexus line phones. All have been cheaper phones, yet still a functional and fairly nice phone.