Buying guide for Mobile phones

... essential facts to help you with your decisions

The mobile phone has become an item of everyday use and many different models are on the market. Style and fashion will influence people's choices, but make sure you also get the features that are important to you.

What mobile phones are available?

If you only want to make and receive calls or communicate via text messaging, even the most basic phone will do the job perfectly well. You will even get additional features such as voicemail and possibly games, calendar, address book etc.

If you want some fun with all the latest features and gadgets, you can go for phones that include digital camera functions, video clips, large colour screens, advanced games, build in radio and/or MP3 players and any kind of application. Many of these phones include also additional communications features (e-mail, WAP, modem etc.).

If you use your phone for business and want to connect back to resources at the office or the Internet, data communications features such as modems, true e-mail access, gprs, Wi-Fi or 3G become more important. Smart Phones with operating systems like Symbian, Windows mobile, BlackBerry OS, etc. merge the functionality of PDAs or laptops and mobile phones, with data connection through browsers, e-mail clients or custom build applications. Also a full QWERTY keypad and touch screen are a great help for writing longer messages.

3G phones: due to their much faster data transfer rates these phones are especially suitable for applications such as full mobile internet access, e-mail, video calls, video services and connections to your PDA, laptop and desktop. However, network coverage in some areas may be patchy and cost per data exchanged can be expensive for data rich content.

Mobile phone pricing

The price you pay for the same mobile phone depends largely on how you acquire it. The main options are Pay as you go, monthly contract or Sim-free. You can get very high-spec phones for free in contract deals, but you may have to commit yourself to expensive contracts. Make sure they are right for you! There are also some good deals for pay-as you go phones (but you are mostly tied to the network, unless you can unlock the sim). For sim free phones you pay basically the market price for the phone (which can be quite expensive) but you have free choice of the network (e.g. get local sim for work in foreign countries).

Important mobile phone features to consider

Bluetooth: allows wireless connection of your phone to other devices such as hands free headsets or computers. Make sure the system supports data transmissions if you want to connect to computers etc.

Tri-band: you will need this If you want to use your phone in America. Dual-band will work in Europe and Asia. Roaming: allows you to use your phone abroad. This service must be enabled by you provider. Making calls and receiving calls is charged and can be quite expensive.

Built-in Camera: With more and more phones now including camera functions it may be just an additional feature you get with your next phone. Picture quality can be poor but you can opt for 1 mega pixel or above for a more decent quality. Pictures can be send via MMS (can also be useful for business use to send back images to be discussed).

Size and weight: many features can be accommodated in a small and light phone (phones are getting smaller all the time). To allow for the functionality of serious business use (large screen, key pad, etc.), you may have to accept a slightly larger size.

Battery life and talk-time: most phones, especially at the higher end, will provide plenty of talk-time. For heavy users, make sure you get the best.

Guide to mobile phone jargon

SMS: (Short Message Service) you need this to send and receive text messages

GPRS: (General Packet Radio Service) allows you to send and receive data at a faster transmission rate (network must be able to handle GPRS).

GPS or satellite navigation is becoming more and more a feature of some high spec phones (mainly smartphones). These phones have their own GPS receivers and mapping services. Additional services such as location-based service (LBS) come at a price but some premium features are also free with Google Android and Nokia.

3G: Faster data transmission that GPRS, enough bandwidth to allow video calls, streaming videos, proper Internet and other kinds of data connections. Charged according to the amount of data transmitted (Mb).

HSDPA: High-Speed Downlink Packet Access allows faster data transfer rates than ordinary 3G. It is also known as 3G+, 3.5G or turbo 3G. HSDPA comes in different categories with different data speeds such as 3.6, 7.2 and 14.0 Mbps.

Polyphonic ring tone: Music-like ring tones that can also be downloaded from the Internet. No mayor use but fashionable (and sometimes annoying).

Megapixel: for camera phones it indicates the quality of the pictures you can take (the more the better). But also the lens, etc. must be of good quality.

MMS: (multi-media messaging service) mainly for sending pictures taken with camera phones.

WAP: (Wireless Access Protocol) allows access to specially designed smaller pages on the internet. Can be slow and is limited in content.

Java: downloadable applications and games. Phone must be able to handle Java.

Smart phones: These combine the functionality of a mobile phone with that of a PDA. Very useful for the mobile business person.

Wireless: Look out for mobile phones that can switch between 3G and Wi-Fi for the best data transfer rate when it comes to sending data (especially important for business users).

See also our selection of mobile phones ...