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Smartphones for first-time buyers
Bonnie Cha
Senior editor April 15, 2011
Most people are happy with their feature phones, but if you're finding you've outgrown yours and need more functionality, it might be time to upgrade to a smartphone. A smartphone can offer you more-advanced contact, e-mail, and calendar functions, additional productivity apps, a better Web-browsing experience, and so much more.
If you've been hesitant to graduate to a smartphone because it seems too technical or excessive, think again. The handsets below are good starters, offering ease of use and the essential tools for messaging, voice calls, and productivity. Fair warning: most of these smartphones require that you sign up for a data plan, so keep that in mind as you're shopping around.
| Product name | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Check Prices | Check Prices | $89.99 to $133.45 | $0.00 to $269.99 | $381.00 | $104.90 |
| CNET editors' rating | ||||||
| Average user rating | ||||||
| Release date | April 06, 2011 | April 20, 2011 | ||||
| The Bottom Line | The Samsung Gem's decent specs and enviable budget price make this reliable entry-level Android phone a fantastic value. | The T-Mobile Sidekick 4G continues the Sidekick's legacy as an excellent messaging device and also serves as a great entry-level smartphone. | The LG Vortex is a wonderful entry-level Android smartphone for Verizon Wireless, as long as you know its limitations. | Despite a few quirks, the RIM BlackBerry Style's practical design and advanced feature set make it a great smartphone for BlackBerry newbies and veterans alike. | With the iPhone 4, Apple again shows that it is a powerful player in the smartphone wars. It won't be for everyone, the call quality and reception vary if you don't use a case, and AT&T's network remains a sticking point, but the handset's striking design, loaded feature set, and generally agreeable performance make it the best iPhone yet. | The Samsung Galaxy Prevail marries sophistication with good value to become Boost Mobile's best smartphone. |
| Features | ||||||
| Cellular technology | CDMA | Info unavailable | CDMA2000 1X | CDMA2000 1X | WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM | CDMA2000 1X |
| Weight | 3.85 oz | 5.61 oz | 4.44 oz | 4.6 oz | 4.8 oz | 3.8 oz |
| Wireless Interface | Bluetooth | Info unavailable | IEEE 802.11b/g Bluetooth 2.1 EDR | Bluetooth 2.1 EDR IEEE 802.11b/g/n | Bluetooth 2.1 EDR IEEE 802.11b/g/n | Bluetooth |
| Service Provider | U.S. Cellular | T-Mobile | Verizon Wireless | Sprint Nextel | AT&T | Boost Mobile |
| Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications |
| Buying choices | | |||||
Why would a first time smartphone buyer want a slimmed down version?
This is a lame article. Maybe an LG Vortex for $.01, just for the price but then there's those nasty monthly charges.
It makes no sense to buy anything but the best you can get because data charges are the same for all.
Plus the telecom companies are really obnoxious. I say go with the off-brand carriers that piggy-back on major networks, get the least amount of talk minutes and use skype. I refuse to pay $130 a month, even though I like the iPhone and I could afford it.
I refuse to pay the extra Verizon charges even if it is a strong network. They're overpriced.
How many young people do you see staring at their smartphones, completely unaware of their surroundings. They're targets for the telecoms and for others waiting to rip them off. And few can actually afford to pay the exorbitant charges just so they can keep up their facebook status. "There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear."
A Smartphone has to be convenient as a phone first, and a versatile multi-purpose device to fulfill your real and tangible needs second.
For this it has to offer convenient carriage, perfect ergonomics, an intuitive GUI, an adequate speed, and an exceptional battery life.
With regards to dimentions; it should ideally have a width no wider than 2.25", a length no longer than 3"-4.5", and a width no higher than .10" to .30".
For a tablet these dimensions could 5"(w)*7"(l)*.10-.30"(h) or 7"*9" * .10-40* or 7"*9"*.10-40" or 9-12"*12-14"*.10-.40". The manufactures would need to try these out for convenience/difficulty of carriage vis-a-vis the enhancement/diminshment of viewing experience against the backdrop of battery life and the functionalities required by a particular niche. These of course would be carried and viewed in the portrait mode for all purposes apart from reading/browsing, because of which they need to tried out in both the portrait and landscape modes.
For surfing and messaging, an onscreen keyboard is more than sufficient. Only power users who happen to be into extensive and word and spreadsheet processing would require a sliding or folding out keyboad to maximize the available screen area for viewing - but then, these people might prefer slates or laptops instead!
The main camera should be atleast 8-10 MPX, while the video-conferencing one should be around 5 MPX and either located close to the screen or else on an extensible antenna-like platform.
The minimum battery life for a Smartphone should be at least 3 to 7 days, while that for a slate at least 11- 24 hours. For this the casing itself can be made of a battery. For the best possible signal strength and the minimum possible inconvenience the antenna can be coiled inside the phone along the two axis for a satisfactory omni-directional transception/trasceiving
Some features for a multi-purpose cellular handset for the future that might make the phone a compelling buying proposition through its ability to deliver services that would transform your personal and professional lives.
The navigation would have a trackball generating its own kinetic-energy or a touch-pad relying on ambient lighting for its solar energy. It could also have a mouse moving in between two discs. The same device could also use taps on the screen for navigation, display, and sizing.
It would also be easy to incorporate a voice- activated menu within this and even have the system repeat the menu choices aloud to ensure proper selection.(Some of these features can also be incorporated into an infotainment system for vehicles with the stereo, cell phone, GPS, traffic management, and computer systems merged into one comprehensive system utilizing the same set of speakers and microphones and the same display console (You could have three buttons on the steering wheel-one for choosing the menu, another one for voice-commands, and a third one for selection- you could even have a keyboard beneath the horn, active only in the parking mode. All of these systems can be made compliant with the relevant regulatory regime)).
All of these would have features incorporated into them in order to make navigation easy and offer a host of other functions to automate the monotonous aspects of people's lives to create time for work and fun.
They'll also have the capacity to start one's vehicle or the cooling and heating systems in one's vehicle and premises, put on one's T.V or radio as a wake-up alarm, and start one's coffee machine by having all of these integrated through a Virtual Private Network.
They'll block different groups of callers at different times of the day and provide certain special-callers with the ability to either leave text or voice messages or even bypass the don't-disturb feature to talk to the person directly in the event of an emergency (despite his/her decision not to be bothered at the particular instant).
They'll incorporate an emergency button, which will send one's GPS coordinates to the nearest emergency facility by using the IP table of the network to find the center closest to the person in times of a medical emergency, a criminal threat, or the theft of his/her vehicle, etc.
They'll provide a person with the nearest public-transportation options along with the time of arrivals and departures of the vehicles, depending on his/her GPS coordinates, and even inform a vehicle to make a scheduled stop for the person or else call a cab for him/her.
For example, the handsets of the future would interact with the Wi-Fi networks at hospitals, shopping malls, offices or other such facilities to aid navigation, thereby making trips to the help desk unnecessary; negotiate with cash counters and ticket machines to make payments, hence replacing the credit card; take a person's biometric-id to help the person gain access to his/her bank or stock account, vehicle, and premises - thereby making passwords and keys redundant; and enable a person to book restaurant, opera, and sports seats and to also automatically place orders from the menus at restaurants - thereby reducing the time spent interacting with staff.
Look and see what the best phones released 6-9 months ago were, and once you have a list of three or four phones, go on the wireless provider's site and see which ones are on sale. With Android phones, at least, there's a good chance you'll be able to get these slightly outdated phones for less than $100.