How To Select The Best Mobile Phone

Choosing a mobile phone is not so easy nowadays. You have tens, and hundreds of options to choose from, most of the non tech savvy users get confused while choosing the best fit for themselves and end up wasting their money buying a phone that isn’t what they were looking for. Indian users can buy cell phones in India online straightly from ecommerce portals as they are lot more concerned about their money, so they can pay after the device reaches their home using COD (Cash on Delivery).

Today, we need a lot more stuff to make our devices fit for us. As phones are no more limited to text messaging and phone calls. I myself use my mobile phone mostly for doing time pass, facebooking, and playing games. Actually all this depends on the personal choice of an individual. First of all you should see whether you need a smartphone, feature phone or a superphone, then only you can proceed with other things such as Style, Specifications, operating system, and the most important thing that is budget.

Style

Do you need a mobile phone with a large screen, small screen, touch screen phone or a device with a physical keyboard. Pen down the things that you need in your smartphone. You should check what’s the feature you want the most, what matters most for you, what’s important.

Specs

Most of the flagship mobile phones available in the market today are surely beasts, Samsung Galaxy S3, Note 2, One X and other flagship smartphones from other and other manufacturers are awesome.

Here are some general specifications of a device that you should look on.

• Screen: What is the screen size that is optimal for you, what kind of screen is optimal for you.
• Processor: Are you a gaming freak, then I would recommend you to go for a device having lots of processing power.
• Camera: If you shoot a lot of pics then you should consider a better camera smartphone, all of the flagship smartphone devices come with a good camera.
• Battery Life: How long your mobile phone’s battery can survive, it is recommended to buy a smartphone with long battery life. More mAh’s = More Battery Power and Backup.
• Size: Are you sure that you would be comfortable with the Galaxy Note 2? – It’s 5.5 inch, it cannot fit inside your pocket, once dropped by mistake, it’s gone. Go for something that really fits inside your pocket and is handy, because it’s not good to have your mobile phone always in your hands.
• Expandable Memory: I hate Nexus device and iPhone because they don’t have Expandable memory. Samsung is really good, they have still continued to provide expandable memory on all their devices. A Phone with 8GB internal storage, Android and an HD Camera seems like a joke to me, because guys like me who take a lot of pics an play a lot of games can’t cope up with that 8GB or even 16GB memory.

Operating System

Android, BB OS, iOS or Windows Phone?

• Android: Android is the most popular operating system, it’s mostly loved by people because its open source and is very developers friendly, plus the robust Google Play Store has tons of applications to keep you busy.
• BlackBerry: If you love BBM or a QWERTY physical keyboard then Blackberry might be the right choice for you. You don’t have lots of applications and support for these device, that’s why blackberry still sucks.
• iOS: If you like iOS, then you have a single choice, the over priced iPhone. Similar design from the past 5 generations and weird price tags.
• Windows Phone: Windows Mobile was a big fail, after that Microsoft worked hard and made WP from scratch. The live tiles user interface is very stylish, something very similar to the Zune MP3 player. Everything that is on your homepage can show live information.

Budget

There are three segments of smartphone. The budget segment – devices that cost really low, Mid end segment – devices with good specs and a good price tag, obviously. The last one high end – the beasts which we talked about, Note 2, GS3, and iPhone are such devices.

Choice is yours, because the money is yours.! 

Mozilla enters mobile wars, unveils two Firefox OS phones

Mozilla, best known for its very popular Firefox browser, has unveiled two handsets running the newly developed Firefox mobile OS. Mozilla made the announcement on their blog and also revealed the look and specifications of the two handsets, named Keon and Peak. The two handsets are being developed by Spanish firm Geeksphone and will be made available for purchase in February.

The Peak wields the specs of a relatively mid-range smartphone and boasts of a 4.3-in qHD IPS display. It runs on a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.2GHz and 512MB of RAM. The Peak also has dual cameras, an 8MP primary one (complemented by a flash) and a 2MP front-facing one. The Peak also has additional features such as microSD card support, WiFi (N) and GPS, light and proximity sensors. The Peak is powered by an 1800mAh battery.

The Keon, on the other hand, is clearly supposed to be a budget device. It has a single-core Snapdragon S1 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. Imaging is taken care of by a solitary 3MP camera. The Keon sports a 3.5-in HVGA capacitive touchscreen and is powered by a 1580mAh battery. Additional features are the same as on the Peak.

Mozilla has branded these handsets as “developer phones” and they are specifically aimed at developers who can use the handsets to develop apps for the Firefox OS. Along with the handsets, Mozilla has also released a desktop simulator for the Firefox OS

 

Firefox OS

In September of last year, Mozilla revealed that they were working on the Firefox mobile OS, an operating system that was completely builtusing HTML5 and other open web standards. Later that month, Mozilla released a simulator for the OS that could be installed and run on any PC. Now that Mozilla has shown off the first handsets that will run the Firefox OS, it seems like a good time to do a quick run through of the OS using the latest build of the simulator.

It's actually quite easy for anyone to try out the OS. All you need is a Firefox installation on your PC and the simulator installed within the browser as an add-on. Do keep in mind, both for the intents of this article and your own experience, that using the OS with a mouse on the PC will in no way be an accurate representation of how the OS actually works, as it is designed for a touch interface with dedicated UI buttons. Also, it would be wise to keep your expectations firmly in check, since the OS is still in beta.

So, let's dive in, shall we?

1. The Lockscreen

Like in Android and iOS, the lockscreen in Firefox OS also uses the time and date as its primary elements. However, unlike on Android Jelly Bean, you can't place widgets on the lockscreen. It seems likely that the Firefox OS will allow notifications on the lockscreen with respect to mail and social networks but that feature does not seem to have been enabled in the simulator, right now.

2. The Homescreen

Firefox OS has a flat menu structure like iOS but still allows for a homescreen. Swiping to the right reveals a screen with a search bar and a bunch of icons that represent content (such as apps or websites) curated by Mozilla and segregated by categories like games, social, music, sports etc. Swiping to the left from the homescreen reveals the app drawer/main menu of the OS. Unlike Android, where the homescreens and the menu are at different levels, in Firefox OS both exist on the same level. However, what this means is that right now, there isn't enough real estate for placing widgets.

3. The Main Menu

The main menu of Firefox OS is very similar to Android and iOS. Apps are arranged in a 4x4 grid that allows 16 icons on a page, and there are multiple pages you can work with. Moving apps around is also simple (and again similar to iOS). You just hold down on an icon until it starts shaking. Then you can either drag it around and place it in a new spot or you can uninstall it by tapping the red cross badge that appears on the icon.

4. The App Carousel

Firefox OS allows you to place four apps in the carousel, and the carousel is constantly present on every page at the first level. However, when you enter an app or the settings menu, the carousel disappears. By default, the carousel consists of icons that bring up the dialler, the contacts book, messages and the built-in Firefox browser. The carousel is completely customizable and you can replace all four of the default icons with any apps of your choosing. This is again exactly the way the carousel works in both iOS and Android.

5. The Notifications Bar

Android started it, iOS adopted it and now Firefox OS has it. The ubiquitous notifications bar has now become an integral part of a smartphone OS interface. In Firefox, the notifications bar is closer to the way Android does it since it not only displays notifications, but it also gives you quick access to settings such as WiFi and Bluetooth. Revealing the notifications bar is a simple matter of dragging down from the top of the screen.

6. The App Store

Firefox OS also has its dedicated app store, one Mozilla has named the Firefox Marketplace. Of course, the app store is under-populated right now, but considering the big push that Mozilla has initiated to increase developer interest, we won't be surprised to see the number of available apps increase rapidly. The app store features a simple, intuitive design that makes it easy to browse through those available for download.

What We Think

At first glance, it looks like Mozilla took the simplicity and intuitiveness of iOS and combined it with the functionality and feature-set of Android to come up with Firefox OS. It obviously has a lot in common with both the above-mentioned operating systems but also manages to be unique in certain aspects.

The best thing about Firefox OS has to be its clean and simple interface that's also very intuitive to use. If you've used one of the hundred thousand Android devices or iPhones at any point of time in your life, you already know how to use the Firefox OS. Unlike new mobile operating systems such as Windows Phone or Blackberry 10, Android and iPhone users will realize that there's virtually no learning curve for Firefox OS.

What makes me nervous for Firefox OS is that at times it feels highly derivative of those two pre-existing, established operating systems. Mozilla will need to have an ace up their sleeves in terms of hardware, pricing and apps to pull users away from other operating systems that offer the same look, feel and functionality. Also, while the focus on simplicity is refreshing, certain features like support for widgets are missed.

Firefox OS certainly emerges as a noteworthy contender in a segment that already has two rampaging 800-tonne gorillas. While it may garner a lot of positive feedback from enthusiasts, Mozilla's new OS will have to get primed for a tough, merciless battle.