Buying a new smartphone: These 7 things must consider

Smartphones in these days have become an integral part of our lives. We use them for communication, taking pictures, saving documents, files, internet browsing, gaming and for many more things.

But then, with the wide variety of smartphones available in the market it is never easy to decide which one to pick.

Here's a list of things you should consider before you decided to buy your next smartphone. So, Let's start.

1. Build Quality

Build is all about durability of a smartphone. The entire handset market is largely divided in two types of builds - Metal & Plastic.

There are some that even have glass-coated panels, but those are very limited. If you are one of those prone to dropping your smartphone, it's advisable to go for a metal or a plastic built handset.

These can sustain drops from 2-3 feet, while glass-based handset are sure to shatter.

2. Display

The size and resolution of display depends on how you use your smartphone. If you often stream videos, edit photos or videos or download, view movies & play games, then a smartphone display ranging from 5.5-inch to 6-inch, full-HD or QHD resolution should be good enough for you.

Anything larger than a 6-inch display not just makes the phone extra bulky, but also difficult to carry around. If you are a regular user and largely use the smartphone for checking emails, chatting and browsing social media apps, then anything from 5-inch to 5.5-inch HD or full-HD display phone is perfect.

3. Processor

If you are a heavy user who need to edit images/videos/documents online, play heavy games, stream videos or often use apps in split screen mode, then smartphones with Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 or Snapdragon 820/821 should make MultiTasking fluid for you.

Light users will even be fine if their phone come with MediaTek processors.

4. Camera

Having more number of megapixels does not mean that the smartphone camera is better. Several specifications such as camera aperture, ISO levels, pixel size, autofocus and more are essential as well. A 16MP camera does not necessarily be better than a 12MP camera.

More number of pixels mean more the size of the image, which becomes more sharper when seen on a small screen. 

5. Battery

Bttery usage differs from user to user depending on the way of using. If you are a heavy user and work on apps, play games, stream videos and more, then go for smartphones with at least 3500mAh battery or above. If you are an average or light user, handset with 3000mAh battery would be good enough to run for a full day.

6. Storage

16GB/32GB/64GB or more don’t really come with exact mentioned space. If you like to keep less number of apps on your devices, you can go for 32GB storage. You can also buy a 16GB that supports microSD card as well.

Users who like to keep higher number of apps can go for 64GB or 128GB variants. 

7. Extra Features

Most smartphones these days have started coming with extra security features such as fingerprint sensor or even iris sensors. These are not just to lock/unlock, but also to access certain files, documents or apps.

While a fingerprint sensor can be found in even a $100 USD (₹ 6,784 INR) smartphone, devices with iris scanners are still few. It's preferable to buy a smartphone with these extra security features since most of us have personal information on phone these days.