13 Things You'll Need To Look Out For When Buying Phone

We all use our phones for different reasons. Before buying a phone, it would help to write down what you want in your new phone.  

1.    The make: Believe me, almost every phone out there has a ‘China’ version of it. Here is why you don’t want China and how to identify one.

2.    Brand: The major ones are BB, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, iphone, China. Check ‘Clash of the Phone Brands’ to see comparison of these makes.

3.    The phone antennae – What is a phone if you can’t call with it? Nigerian networks 900/1800 MHz Check the phone pack for GSM 900/1800 & WCDMA 900/2100

4.    Capacity for external memory: does it have a memory card slot?

 

5.    Battery life: How long does the battery last? Compare here.

  

6.    Durability: We want to throw a phone away because we want a new one, not because the current one ‘died on us’. I know how it feels. My SE k810i died on me. Check here to compare durability between brands.

7.    Screen resolution: How big is the screen? Typical phones are 176x220, but becoming more popular are 320x240. The larger the screen, the sweeter it is to play games, watch movies on it.

8.    Camera: Life is too short not to take pictures. Some people don’t lay much stock by it though. If you do, go for 3.2 megapixels or more (tip – SE c902, N24, 000, has a whooping 5 MP! Great camera for a comparatively cheap phone).

9.    Navigation key: You might prefer the typical Navi-key to joystick because the former tends to last longer.

10.  Flat, flip or slide? I prefer flat phones. Flip and slide phones tend to have problems with their ‘flex (that’s what my phone techie calls it. When the flex is fried, your screen becomes blind)’

11.  Music player, phone speaker: How loud is that speaker?

12.  Internet: The larger the phone screen, the larger the pages it can open (although, you could just install a browser eg Opera Mini, Bolt or UCWeb). The higher the RAM, the faster it can open pages.

13.  Wifi/WLAN: Sometimes, our network providers might have problems and no one wants to be offline for too long. If you find yourself within a hotspot (that’s what UNILAG students call free wireless internet), browse away using your phone WLAN.

  

Visit gsmarena.com to check out the specs of your desired phone and to read user reviews