BEFORE YOU BUY A CELL PHONE:

Mobile users will need to rely on their cell phone for maintaining communication with their co-workers and clients. Having a reliable and economical cell phone will provide mobile users with a valuable tool to complete their jobs. When considering what cell phone you want to purchase, keep in mind the different options available and the tasks you want to accomplish. Know what you need before you buy will make your decision easier and you will have the mobile device best suited to your needs.

WHAT TYPE OF USER YOU WOULD BE?

The type of mobile phone you are going to buy depends largely on the type of user you are. Users belong to basically three categories:

i)Just interested in making and taking calls: A basic handset could be enough if you just want to make and receive calls. You will also have some other features like voice mail and text messaging. Even the simplest phones have more to offer, for example, games, calculator, alarm clock, address book, calendar, and the ability to download ring tones and some additional services. Battery life can be 40-100 hours after a complete charging and it usually depends upon the type of phone and the frequency with which it is used. There can be other factors as well that will affect battery performance where the battery has to work harder to maintain a signal. These are video transmissions, colour screens and poor network charges.

ii)Interested in more advanced technologies: People today have a knack for modern technology which adds more to the features of mobile phones. Mobiles with cameras are becoming more and more popular because of their ease of use. The picture resolution of most camera phones is just 0.3 mega pixels, whereas those of digital cameras is 3.0 mega pixels. Though this renders the quality of camera phones to be less effective than those of digital cameras, their ease of use and convenience outweighs it. Apart from cameras, other attractive features are full-colour screens to facilitate games playing and to display WAP information (web pages redesigned for the small screen size of the phone), short videoclips, built-in radios, and built-in MP3 players.

iii)Would like to have one’s office in the pocket: If you want all the office tools on your mobile phone, you definitely belong to this category. The Symbian and Smart phone operating systems are the best ones with which your mobile phone can perform like a laptop computer.

WHERE FROM WOULD YOU BUY IT?

There are mainly 3 ways to buy a phone:

You have basically got three ways to choose your next mobile phone: 1.Buy online: You can buy online from websites like amazon.com. Here you get the flexibility and ease of comparing all the phone handsets and the prices as well. 2.Buy directly from the carrier: You can directly buy a suitable set if you already know which one you need. 3.Buy from an independent store: There are specialized cell phone stores that are not necessarily affiliated with one of the major carriers but will sell you an unlocked phone -- a GSM phone that can be used on any carrier, not just one as usual -- and activate it on the network of your choice.