Choosing a new mobile phone

Choosing a new mobile phone or cell phone (for international visitors) in 2017 is not easy but in a good way! The main reason why it is so difficult is that there are so many choices. If you’re new to my website you’ll know that I love choices – it’s ‘consumer democracy’.

In the past it was pretty easy, in the 1990’s to choose a new phone, it was either a NOKIA or Motorola. In the 2000’s it was Blackberry, Samsung, Motorola, Sony and NOKIA then in the late 2000’s Apple. Although late to introduce a phone, the Apple iPhone was a refined update which the other brands couldn’t match it time. Their innovative and copied enhancements from Motorola/NOKIA and technology gave them a head start. While Apple software lacked features, the easy of use meant that almost anyone could use a phone and caused the rise of the modern smartphone.

In the 2010’s it is no longer about manufacturer brands but operating systems although some  brands have managed to rise above the rest, being phones made by Samsung and Apple. Secondary to that the the phone’s camera, screen and hardware specifications. So in 2017 there are two main choices, Android OS and Apple iOS to choose from but between them there are  over 100 different phone models to choose from.

Many people simply choose the most expensive or top range versions of the respective brand’s mobile phone because it’s easy, as you can be sure that it will have every feature currently available, whether you need it or not. Of course that’s not entirely true especially if you have an Apple iPhone but in general the more you pay the more features you get. With that in main many will never use all the features.

Researching a product on the internet especially high traffic online stores and websites like Amazon only partly helps. Mass reviews usually mean a product is as good as the manufacturers claim or a mass of poor reviews usually means to be wary – but not all time. Many products are region specific and different build batches can mean significant differences. This is especially common for mobile phones. As a result many claimed real reviews you see on Youtube or other websites are not actually real.

So over the next few weeks I’ll be going through my experiences and decision making on choosing a new mobile phone.