HOW TO CHOOSE BEST SMARTPHONE FOR YOURSELF

We go beyond operating systems and take a look at the key factors you need to consider before buying your next smartphone

How do you go about choosing the right smartphone? It sounds like a simple enough question but once you throw sales people, marketing spiel and fire sales into the mix it gets a little trickier often resulting in consumers not being particularly happy with the deal or handset they’ve been lumped with. So what’s a consumer to do?

First you need to tackle the basics: Do you go with Android, iOS, Windows Phone or BlackBerry? Should you opt for a high-end device with all the trimmings or go with a mid-range handset and save some cash? Then there’s contracts and tariffs – are you better off going SIM-only rather than on contract?

Beyond these questions are a myriad of others. But if you are looking to get a new smartphone and aren’t fussed about what operating system it uses you might be best accessing your needs and looking at the individual components of a phone before making your decision.

Here’s some key factors that you need to consider before buying any new flagship handset, regardless of OS.

Size

3.5-inch displays used to be the norm. Nowadays this is no longer the case with more and more smartphones using 4.7 to 4.8-inch displays. Samsung’s Galaxy Note, as an extreme example, took things even further with the inclusion of a 5.3-inch display, emphasising just how much the mobile space has changed.

Case in point: many of our readers love the Samsung Galaxy S2 but are not fans of its large 4.3-inch display. Others, conversely, love their large-displayed smartphones – just look at how well the Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy S2 sold. Even Apple, a company that has long favoured the 3.5-inch form factor, is set to up the ante with its iPhone 5 to 4-inches.

What’s clear is that smartphone displays are getting bigger but that doesn’t mean you have to buy a massive phone. Take a look at your friend’s devices, handle different models in store, ask yourself what you’d do with a 5-inch display and if it would fit in your pocket before getting something that might be too big for your needs.

Tip: if you think it’s too big it probably is.

Display

But it’s not just the size you need to worry about: display resolution and screen technology are also very important. Motorola’s Razr Maxx, for instance, is a new handset but its display lags well behind that of the Samsung Galaxy S2, which is a significantly older device.

Apple (Retina Display), Sony (BRAVIA), Samsung (Super AMOLED Plus), Nokia (Clear Black) and Microsoft (Clear Type) all use their own bespoke display technologies to heighten the viewing experience on their respective handsets. Generally speaking, though, what matters most with handset displays is resolution – and the higher it is the better.

So when you’re eying a new smartphone online or in store check what the handset’s pixel per inch (ppi) stats are. It will usually be listed next to the device’s display resolution and, like with display resolution, the higher it is the better. Ideally you want to be aiming for the top end of 200 (290 to 300) or above. Apple’s iPhone 4S has a pixel density of 330 ppi, for instance.

Tip: the higher the ppi the better

Processor

The advent of quad-core processors, such as Samsung’s Exynos 4 Quad and Nvidia’s Tegra 3, and their use in marketing spiel has lead to chipsets playing a much more prominent role in the decision process of consumers when buying a new handset.

However due to the rather oxymoronic nature of chipset production having more cores isn’t always better. For instance, in Know Your Mobile’s extensive benchmarking of Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 and Qualcomm’s dual-core S4 Snapdragon processor, nine times out of ten, Qualcomm’s came out on top despite having less processing cores.

The reason for this is that Qualcomm’s chipset is based on 28nm architecture whilst Nvidia’s Tegra 3 uses a 32nm setup. Because Qualcomm’s process is smaller it’s more power efficient, which means it doesn’t drain the batter as much.

In general, though, you’re not likely to notice much of a difference in performance when buying a handset with either Qualcomm’s S4 Snapdragon or Nvidia’s Tegra 3 – both are exceptionally powerful.

Having said that, the S4 has been shown to run rings around nearly everything else on the market,bar Samsung’s Exynos 4 Quad.

Tip: the smaller the ‘die shrink’ the better (28nm is the current upper limit)  

Updates

Is having a smartphone that’s constantly up-to-date with the latest software important to you? If it is then you might want to think long and hard about whether you opt for a BlackBerry, current Windows Phone, or Android handset.

Current Windows Phone devices on the market – Nokia Lumia 800, 900, 710 and 610 – will not be getting fully updated to Windows Phone 8. Similarly no current BlackBerry handsets will receive BlackBerry 10 once it arrives later in the year – although this is rarely advertised in stores. 

With Android you’ve got serious fragmentation issues affecting the entire platform, with relatively news handsets – Motorola’s Droid 3 and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play – being left to die on Android 2.3.

Apple has the best record with regards to updates, supporting its handsets, on average, for around two years. Microsoft has been a lot better updating handsets than Google has with devices using its Android OS, but the schism that Windows Phone 8 will cause throws all that progress by the way side.

In the end no one platform is perfect but if you’re a stickler for always being up to date Apple is probably your safest bet. Microsoft has promised to support its Windows Phone 8 handsets for 18 months but that will only come into fruition on new devices, and not current Windows Phone models.

Tip: Windows Phone 8 handsets or Apple’s iPhone are your safest bets for consistent updates

Apps & Games

Applications and, to a lesser extent, games are the lifeblood of the modern smartphone. Back in the day, early-2010, the number and quality of applications on the world’s two major platforms – iOS and Android – was a major differentiating factor with Apple well out in front.

Nowadays that’s no longer the case.

Here is a break down of the current numbers:

• Apple: 500,000+
• Android: 500,000+
• Microsoft: 100,000+
• BlackBerry: 60,000+

Apple and Android are clearly the front-runners in this respect, but Windows Phones’ lower numbers shouldn’t put you off. Microsoft’s platform is a baby compared to Google and Apple’s platforms and is growing at a rapid pace.

Couple this with the advent of Windows Phone 8, the level of support Microsoft gives its developers, and the high-end gaming capabilities of the newly announced Windows core and 2013 could well be the year that Windows Phone becomes truly mainstream.

Tip: Apple and Android are currently best for applications and games but Windows Phone is catching. The less said about BlackBerry’s current state of affairs the better – maybe BlackBerry 10 will change this. We can but live in hope.

LTE-ready?
LTE is on the way to the UK and will be here before the end of the year, according UK officials. But how can you be sure that you’re next smartphone will support it?

Many manufacturers, as we’ve seen in the US, will market devices purely based on their abilities to access the faster spectrum of mobile data. HSPA+ is already a reality in the UK, which is essentially 3.5G, but full LTE is scheduled to hit before the end of the year and will represent a massive uplift in speed bringing download speeds usually reserved for your home network straight to your phone.

Many current flagships, such as the iPhone 4S, HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One S, already take advantage of HSPA+ but will not be able to access true LTE once it’s rolled out.

For this reason it’s important to think carefully about the timing of your next upgrade: LTE is coming in late 2012, early 2013, and if you want it on your phone you’ll have to wait for LTE handsets to arrive. There are currently no handsets in the UK that support 4G LTE. This will change as we approach Q4 2012, however.

Tip: If you want an LTE-ready handset put off upgrading your phone until later in the year. We expect LTE-ready handsets to start hitting the market in Q4 2012.

NFC

Near Field Communication (NFC) isn’t a deal breaker for most but it is a technology that could potentially become quite popular in the coming year, particularly with the rise of mobile payments and interactive advertising.

Many new smartphones come with NFC built into them, so if you’re the type of person that likes the idea of paying for a coffee with their handset then NFC could very well be for you. Here’s a list of NFC-enabled devices currently available in the UK:

• HTC One X
• HTC One XL
• Nexus S
• Google Nexus S
• Samsung Galaxy S III
• Samsung Galaxy S II (not all versions)
• Samsung Galaxy Note (not all versions)
• Galaxy Nexus
• Samsung Galaxy Ace II (not all versions) [9]
• Samsung Galaxy S Advance
• Sony Xperia S
• Sony Xperia P
• Nokia Lumia 610
• Blackberry Bold 9790
• BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930
• BlackBerry Torch 9810/9860
• Blackberry Curve 9350/9360/9370/9380

Cost – Contract or SIM-free?

The decision to go with a contract or a SIM-only deal is a big one and often involves a lot of cash. Top-flight phones like the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Apple iPhone 4S will set you back a minimum of £499.

On contracts high-end handsets are often subsidised by the network and, therefore, a lot cheaper with the cost of the device being recouped over time. The downside of network subsidisation is that you often end up paying more for the phone and tariff than you would if you’d bought the device outright and opted for a SIM-only plan.

Example: you can get a 16GB iPhone 4S for £499 and sign-up to a rolling monthly SIM-only plan from a network, lets use Three in this instance, for around £20 a month. With a SIM-only plan you’re free to leave at any time, are not tied to one network, and can always follow the best deals.

Over time this is significantly cheaper providing, of course, you can cough up the cold hard cash to buy a device out-right in the first place. But if you treat it like an investment more often than not you can sell your existing handset after six months, recoup most of the cost, and use that money to buy the new latest handset.

With contracts you're locked in for up to two years with no chance of an upgrade until you're at least two-thirds through your contract.

Tip: if you can go SIM-free and buy the handset outright – it definitely pays off in the long run

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