I am thinking of changing my mobile. So far I have worked wonderfully with my beloved Elephone P8 Mini, but the truth is that I have given it so much whip that the poor thing no longer gives for much more. It has received blows from all sides, and apart from having several cracks all over the screen, the camera has stopped working.
It is time to retire the little P8, but what should be his replacement? There are several requirements that I have clear, and others that I don't really care too much about. Today, we review some of those essential factors, which, if we do not take into account they can ruin an acquisition as important as the purchase of a mobile phone.
5 essential requirements that will help us choose the perfect phone
Here I have tried to be as neutral as possible. If we are fans of mobile photography, obviously we will try to have the best camera phone on the market that we can afford. But the thing is not about that. Here what we are going to talk about is those types of characteristics that can make we are forced to replace a newly acquired mobile, Simply because it does not serve us!
Supported networks and bands
This is one of the characteristics that my readers often ask me a lot when I post a review on Facebook. "Is it compatible with the networks of Peru? ”,“ And those of Mexico? ” Although today's mobiles –especially the Chinese ones- support most of the networks offered by the main Spanish teleoperators, this is not the case in the rest of the world.
Mobile phones support certain kinds of frequency bands. If our operator is not compatible with any of these bands, we will not be able to use the SIM to make calls or consume mobile data.
Kimovil is a good source to check network compatibilityIn the following GearBest blog post you have a very useful band, country and operator compatibility guide. If we already have our eye on a specific phone, we can also see its file on the website of Kimovil, where the network compatibility offered by each phone in our country is shown.
The type of SIM card
It may seem silly, but you know that there are several types of SIM cards, right? I am the first who does not usually pay too much attention to these things. But taking into account that we have micro SIMs, nano SIMs and others, it may be the case that we arrive home with the mobile just bought and that the card simply does not fit in the slot. What a downturn.
If we have a micro SIM and we need to make the transfer to nano SIM, we will have to contact our operator, and normally this type of action usually carries a surcharge that is easily between 5 and 10 euros.
Although standard SIMs are no longer in use, the same is not the case with nano and micro. | Source: ShailendraranaThe weight of the phone
It is not the first time that I emphasize the importance of weight within the basic characteristics of a terminal. The weight of a mobile is important for many factors. If we do not calculate well, we can get a real brick and not realize it until it is too late.
Personally, I would not recommend buying any mobile that weighs more than 200 grams unless we are always going to carry it in a bag or backpack. I believe that the ideal weight would be between 165 and 185 grams: easy to handle and comfortable, even if we carry it in our pants pocket. Attentive, because normally mobiles with large batteries are the ones that least tend to notice these types of factors.
Performance (RAM + CPU)
For some, if you don't have a top-of-the-line Snapdragon, your phone sucks. Logically it is an absurd reasoning, since today, more than ever, the hardware that is manufactured offers a fairly good user experience in general, even in the lower ranges.
We do not need a 900 euro mobile phone if all we are going to do is browse, upload photos to Instagram and talk on WhatsApp. But that does not mean that the whole forest is oregano and that we should settle for anything. There are also minimums.
He doesn't understand why his new folding phone from '97 takes so long to upload files to Google Drive. And we don't even talk about wassap ... We're going to make a call to the Android SAT!In 2018, and after having had several mid-range and low-end mobiles in my hands, these are the minimums that, I think, we should require from a smartphone to ensure good and smooth performance:
- Mediatek MTK6750 Octa Core 1.5GHz CPU.
- 4GB of RAM memory.
From now on, any improvement is always welcome. From here down, problems.
Android version
Online stores have a larger stock every time. Hundreds and hundreds of terminals crowd the product lists, and inevitably, phones that are already a couple or 3 years old are always sneaking in.
Design cannot always make us see how old a mobile is. In fact, that's not even a bad thing. A mobile that is a couple of years old can be more powerful than another that just came out 3 days ago.
The Le 2 Pro is still a great mobile after 2 years on the market, but its version of Android is starting to be a bit outdatedWhat unfortunately we cannot avoid is that an old mobile has an Android (or iOS) version according to its release date. As users, a recent version of the current operating system will always benefit us more. Not anymore because the device will be more fluid, safer and with better functions. If we have an Android 4.0 or 5.0, for example, some applications will simply not be compatible, and we will not even be able to install them. Anything sadder than that?
Be careful, because Chinese mobile stores and other sites like Amazon are still plagued with mobiles with Android 4.4 and the like. They grow like mushrooms and tend to attract a lot of attention thanks to a really low price.
In short, take a good look at all the features of the phone and you will not get any unpleasant surprises
After this we already have other factors such as the ease of rooting offered by the terminal, the quality of the screen, the battery, the camera, or the budget that we have.
Luckily, none of these is essential to get a decent average mobile phone - unless our ceiling is less than 100 euros: there we will start to have problems, of course.
However, if we comply with the 5 indicated premises, without a doubt we can be calm, because we will be taking a good phone home. As long as it is good value for money, of course!
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