Philippines is the 10th largest smartphone market in the world, and it is still growing. Nowadays, you can get smartphones at price points ranging from Php 2,000 all the way up to Php100,000. Choosing what phone to buy can be a difficult and confusing process. To help you with your decision-making, here are a few handy tips or factors you should consider.
Battery
Are you the kind of user who is likely to have multiple apps open simultaneously? Do you see yourself being a heavy consumer of video-streaming apps or playing games? Heavy online usage tends to drain batteries faster. If you belong to this category of users, then it is better to go for a phone with a long-lasting battery. The phones with the best battery life last for 10 hours or more. Additionally a battery capacity of at least 4500mAh to 5000mAh would be ideal for any entry level of a smartphone.
Memory
Phones have two kinds of memory – Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory (ROM). RAM, along with the processor of your phone, determines the speed of the phone and its ease of operation. ROM is also considered as storage. This is the memory that is used to store the OS, apps and all the videos, photos and songs that you want to store on the phone.
Therefore, phones with a bigger ROM will have more space to store media files and phones with bigger RAM will performs tasks at a faster rate. An average user should be happy with a 2 GB RAM and 16 GB ROM. But if you are a heavy user, go for a phone with at least 3-4 GB RAM and 64GB ROM. To extend your ROM you can also use a micro SD memory card, but remember, apps that are stored and run from memory cards tend to be slower.
Camera
The built-in cameras on smartphones are the subject of a lot of attention, with companies competing to deliver the highest megapixel count. Don’t be tricked by this. A camera with higher megapixels doesn’t automatically produce photographs that are better.
In addition to megapixels, other elements that affect photo quality include the ISO setting, the aperture, and the autofocus response time. If you anticipate taking many photos, choose a phone with a 12 or 16 MP camera and an aperture of f/2.0 or less for excellent images even in dim lighting. If you don’t anticipate using the camera frequently, a phone with an 8–12 MP camera and an aperture of f/2.2 should work great.
Processor
People get excited about phone processors just as much as they do for smartphone cameras. Terms like quadcore, octa core, Snapdragon, MediaTek, and others are frequently used. Here is a quick guideline. Take a look at the processing speed that is specified in GigaHertz (GHz). The higher the speed the faster the processor. Choose a faster processor if you plan to stream videos, play online games, or edit lots of photos and videos.
Built Quality
The instant you hold a smartphone in your hand, it usually becomes more than just its specifications. Users can see right away if the design was carefully considered, if there are any sharp or rough edges, and if there are any other ergonomic considerations. Given how frequently many individuals use the buttons on their devices, even the positioning of the buttons is important.
It’s simple to acquire an opinion about a device by taking a glance at it on a shelf or in images. But the game is quickly changing, as we’ve seen in recent midrange assessments. On any product that costs more than a certain amount, a fragile plastic construction is no longer acceptable.
Nowadays, weight is the name of the game. It’s a good thing that technology has advanced to the point that plastics may now have a variety of textures, even making people mistake them for metallic or glass. Even if modern phones are starting to all look the same, it is still best to hold one in person before buying one.
