Tips for buying a value for money smartphone

 What will you do, if you are to buy a new smartphone? Do you know how many brands are there in the market? Are you aware of UI variations in those brands?

Let's go through some basic knowledge of smartphone world,by answering all the above questions!

Software:

There are basically two softwares in the smartphone world. Android and iOS. There are seperate fan base for both the softwares.

In upcoming comparisons, only Android will be taken into account as if you are going with iOS, you don't need to compare with other. Just go and buy the latest version of iPhone.

Pros and cons of the software are tabled below:

Main difference b/w Android and iOS

Android	iOS
highly customisable	less customisable
less secured	highly secured
can use custom ROMS	these kinda things are not allowed here❌
one can install any application available on internet	only the applications available in apple app store can be installed
designed for affordability	price tag is usually high

UI

UI stands for User Interface. Brands offer their own UI in their devices. Different brands and their UI are tabled below:

Brands and their custom UI

Brand	UI
Xiaomi,redmi,poco	MIUI
Realme	realme UI
Oppo	color OS
Vivo	Funtouch OS
OnePlus	Oxygen OS
Samsung	One UI
Sony	Sony UI
LG	LG UX
Moto, Lenovo, Nokia, Micromax,Pixel & MI A series	Stock android

Each of the above have their specific style. Its purely based on the users' taste.

SoC

SoC stands for System On a Chip.  There are three main chip producers in the world. They are

• Qualcomm
• Mediatek
• Samsung

Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors (chips) are most widely used by all brands because of their quality. When the brands are needed to compromise on chip for cost cutting, they prefer mediatek, because of their low price.

Samsung's Exynos processors are exclusively used in Samsung mobiles.

When compared, Qualcomm offers best processors in all budgets. Exynos is good in flagship mobiles of samsung but not on par with Qualcomm's Snapdragon.

Huawei was producing it's own Kirin processor a year ago. Due to the ban imposed by US , they stopped their chip manufacturing.

Display

Smartphone's one of the important part is its display. They are classified as below.

Based on type of technology:

• LCD
• AMOLED
• OLED
• TFT

Based on resolution:

• HD
• Full HD
• Quad HD

Low end mobiles (price range below 10k) usually have HD display. Whereas midrange mobiles feature Full HD display. Flagship mobiles should have quad HD display.

The display vary on refresh rate also. Refresh rate means, the number of times the display refresh itself. Its like the FPS count in videos.

Normally all smartphones are packed with 60HZ display. Whereas midrangers may have 90 HZ and sometimes 120HZ too.

Flagships are fully packed with high end features. So they have variable refresh rate( refresh rate varies from 0HZ when the phone is idle to 144HZ when intense tasks are performed (like gaming)).

LED displays have in-display finger print sensor. Whereas LCD and TFT display can't have in-display finger print sensor. Those mobiles with LCD and TFT displays, have physical finger print sensor on back or side of the mobile.

Cameras

Another important part of the smartphone is camera. As of now there are two companies manufacturing camera sensors. They are Sony and Samsung.

When compared, Sony's sensors are better than Samsung's sensors.

The pixel count also matters in the camera. If the camera packs 48million pixels in it's sensor, it will be 48MP camera . More the pixels , more the details in the image, but image is not required to be good as image processing is related to ISP of processor used .

There may be quad camera set up or tri camera setup. To know more about smartphone cameras, click here.

Battery and charger

Today's smartphone world is loaded with high capacity batteries and high speed chargers.

The manufacturers offer two types of batteries, Li polymer and Li ion batteries. When compared, Li ion batteries are superior. To know why, click here. 

When speaking about chargers, we need to speak about charging speeds. The normal speed is 10Watts. The manufacturers offer 15W,18W,20W,30W,60W,120W etc.

When stuck with choosing a smartphone, the charging speed can help in making final decision.

Software updates

Software updates play a major role in smartphone industry. Brands promise minimum two years of security patch update and one Android version update.

Never buy those phones with no software updates.

Storage

There are two different types of storage based on the read write speed. They are

• eMMC
• UFS

eMMC is an old school type of storage. Low end mobile phones are packed with this type of storage. This type of storage has low read and write speed.

UFS is the new generation type of storage with high read and write speed. Midrangers use UFS 2 series memory (like 2.0, 2.1& 2.2) . Higher the number, newer the technology, greater the speed.

Flagship mobiles use UFS 3 series memory, which has high read and write speed than 2 series.

We have seen the necessary information about smartphone world. Let's see how to buy a value for money device now!

1. First decide your budget.
2. Look for the mobiles under that budget.
3. Go through the specs of those mobile and create a simple spreadsheet.
4. Choose the mobiles with UI that suits your taste.
5. Then filter the mobiles by their RAM and ROM. 
6. Then go to camera. Filter according to your need. Never believe in camera count and megapixel count. 
7. Now go through battery specs. 
8. With the above steps, you would have chosen your device. If you still can't make a decision, check whether any of your friends using the devices you have picked. Use those devices for a while. Go through the settings and camera. You will get an idea.

A kind advice - never buy in offline stores!

Its our money right? We need to spend it on worthy device. A smartphone costs more than 10k, which could be monthly salary of many people. 

Hope this blog helps you to spend wisely!

If you find it useful, please share with your family and friends!