There are lots of articles on the Web about how to choose the best smartphone, and they often just reel out a list of specs to look out for. They contain useful information, but most of them will fly over your head if you are not a technical person. As such, I set out to write a practical, no bullshit article on how you can decide what is the best phone for you to buy.
First things first: are you clumsy with mobile phones or do you often find your smartphone dropping to the floor and breaking or cracking, or getting easilly scratched? This is a very important question in choosing the best smartphone for you. You have to be extremely honest with yourself.
If you are clumsy with your smartphones, stay away from phones made of glass. They are shiny, sleek, and beautiful to look at, or to hold, but they are like snakes and slippery eels. They slip out of your hand or off the table or sofa and dive for the floor. The hard floor.
Do not be decived by their delightful appearances; they are not the best phones for you. It does not matter what version of Gorilla Glass, Panda Glass, or Sweet Potato Glass is used on them; glass phones are delicate and crack/damage more easilly.
Get a phone made of plastic instead. Smartphones made of plastic are more friendlier to clumsy people. They do not often slip and take a dive. But the times they do, you can almost be sure that the body will not have cracked or shattered suddenly. If you are clumsy and really must buy a glass phone, buy a protective case to use with it. Did you hear that?
What of size and weight? I do not know how the smartphone market decided that bigger is always better, but that is what it looks like now. People just want their phones bigger and bigger. Unfortunately, they also get heavier and heavier.
My Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Pro weighs 208g. What on earth does a smartphone weigh that much for? I hate the weight. I hate the heft. I love that phone, but everyday I have to deal with the weight.
Using it with one hand for extended periods means there is considerable strain on my fingers and wrist. I am not joking. And using it with one hand while reclining is outright torture. Trust me: size is important. Weight too.
So, you have to determine what size is ideal for you, and what weight feels comfortable for you. I have made up my mind to not purcahse any smartphone that weighs more than 180g going forward. The muscles I have developed in my hand over the last 11 months are enough.
Smartphone, not dumbbells. The first chance I get to replace it with something lighter, I will.
Picking the best phone for you: what of all those other features?
Camera. RAM. Storage. Battery. Charging speeed. Etc. What of these features? Aren’t they important? Of course they are. Here is the no-bullshit advice I give for these to help you pick the best phone for you:
For photography and video recording, buy the latest phone within your budget. In any product range, the most recent smartphones have the best cameras. For example, iPhone 12 has better cameras than iPhone 11, TECNO Camon 16 has better cameras than Camon 15, Pixel 4 has better cameras than Pixel 3, and OPPO A93 has better cameras than the A92. Do you get the progression?
Forget the megapixel numbers and other metrics and marketing gimmicks. As a rule, the latest model in a particular product line has the best camera. There may be some unfortunate exemptions to this, but that is the rule. Lastly, really good cameras are not cheap, so the best cameras are found on upper mid-range and premium flagship smartphones.
This is why the best smartphone cameras in the world are found on devices like Google Pixels, Xiaomi Mi Note 10 series, Xiaomi Mi series, Samsung Galaxy S series, iPhones, and Huawei P series.
As for everything else like RAM, storage, battery size and charging speed, go for the highest number possible for your budget. For example, 4GB RAM is better than 2 GB RAM. Take a 40000mAh battery over a 3000mAh battery.
Take a 4G phone over a 3G phone. Take 18W fast charging over regular charging or 10W charging. Do you catch my drift? With these features, the higher the number, the better.
Lastly, do brands make any difference? I wish I could tell you that they don’t. Unfortunately, I would be lying. Some brands are known for exceptionally good cameras. Some are known for delivering the most possible features for the price. Some brands are more expensive than others. Some are known for delivering software updates faster and to more of their devices.
You are going to have to pick your favourite brand. OPPO. itel. Xiaomi. TECNO. Nokia. Infinix. Huawei. Samsung. Apple. UMIDIGI. BLU. Pick a brand, then apply the above tips in choosing which model to buy.
In closing, if you follow this easy guide of mine, you will almost never end up with a phone you do not like. They are good for helping you choose the best phone for you, year after year.