Ten years back choosing a mobile phone was pretty simple, because at that time there was no such thing called smartphones, the mobile market was almost dominated by giant companies like Nokia, Even I remember we had a Nokia 1100 – probably the best lovable phone in that era, and if you wanted to buy a phone everyone most probably would suggest to buy a Nokia phone
But time has changed, now there are 100 varieties available in the mobile market, this is the era of smartphones.
Uganda has now become a cheap market for the Global economy. Every company is on the race to provide more features at lower prices especially for mid-class users.
Here are some tips to consider before buying a new smartphone
As Moore says – “electronics prices will go down as they are evolved to higher technologies”.
RAM (Primary memory)
RAM is one of the primary factor to notice while buying a smartphone, your smartphone is nothing but a handhold mini-computer for you. When you open an app it will load all the data required into the RAM. So larger the RAM size performance will be better. The more RAM your phone has, the snappier its performance when switching between applications. If you want to use apps that consume a lot of memory, such as video editors or complex mobile games, then your phone may not have enough memory to run without hitching and stuttering, my recommendation is to aim for a minimum of 6gb of ram when buying a budget smartphone
Storage (ROM)
We are living in the 4G era, once upon a time, when you don’t have high-speed internet connections, people liked to store multimedia in mobile phones, but now no need to store video or music content in mobile memory – thanks to hi-speed streaming technology. In the current market – minimum phone memory comes at 32 GB variant, from where u will get near around 20GB for your storage. And let me tell you even photos, taken by 16MP camera will occupy 7 MB max and so, you could store more than 2000 photos. If you want to buy 64 GB variant – you may have to pay 400k- 500k more. So better to buy a high speed (class10) memory card(64 GB) – which will cost you 600k additional and will be sufficient for your memories. However, if you don’t want to invest in a memory card. Use your google drive, which gives you 15 GB of free space per account. So the decision is yours
Camera(MP)
Now a days people are crazy about the camera, Vendors are introducing higher MP cameras to every budget phone. But remember no mobile company will provide you good photo sensors those are equivalent to any DSLR camera. Even with so-called AI technologies it cannot be comparable with DSLR one. So if you are concerned about photography go for smartphones with 48mp and above.
Processors
Now, an interesting topic, companies are introducing many new processors in every month. The concern is that when we go for a faster processor it will consume more power and it will heat your phone quickly which will drain the battery. And except gaming no other applications utilize your processing speed properly. If you are a day to day user, don’t bother about high-end processors. And also if you compare the speed of a new processor, speed is not that leading as compared to the older one.
Battery
If you notice 90% of mobiles can last up to almost 1 day in single charge, not more than that. And also, now a days everyone likes to carry power bank and fast charger along with the phone, So actually no need to bother about the battery that much. However you can go for any phone with 5000 mah in the budget range. That’s enough for your day to day activity.
Longevity
Nowadays all budget smartphones of range 300k-600K last 2-3 years easily. And also if you go for smartphones more then 500K they will hardly last 3-4 years. If they somehow manage to survive but you will get a slowness problem due to frequent upgrade of software or due to outdated processors at that time. So better to buy budget range smartphone 2 twice in a 4-year time frame rather buying a costly one.
Conclusion
Always remember, if you are concerned about the quantity you have to compromise the quality of the product, that’s happening with the mobile market today in Uganda.
Warren Buffett says – “If you buy things you don’t need, you will soon sell things you need.
So spend wisely and so choose wisely.
