How to choose the right smartphone

New Delhi: The smartphones universe is growing magnificently – at a rate much faster than you can imagine. They have become ubiquitous as evident from the fact that worldwide smartphone shipments overtook feature phones in the first quarter of this year. With each passing day, smartphones are becoming more powerful, enabling us to do more in a lesser period of time. At present the smartphone market is ripe with the number of choices available well-suited to every budget, but picking the right one is tricky. Here's a guide that will give you advice on navigating the minefield to pick the right phone for yourself.Choose the right OS You are buying a smartphone to do things like e-mail, web access, phone calls and texts, so choosing the right operating system does matter. It is also because what you'll be interacting with for hours every day. Today, Android runs on 43 percent of all the world's smartphones while Apple iOS still runs on one in five smartphones. Of the 227 countries for which data is tracked by StatCounter's research arm, StatCounter Global Stats, Android was the market leader in 135 countries, whereas Apple was the market leader in only 38 countries, including the U.S.It says Android's biggest advantage is that it is not bound to be used by a single device manufacturer or a relatively limited price point. This shows why Google-owned OS is very popular in countries with low per-capita income. On the other hand, Android also has its list the non-price-sensitive consumers either, since companies like Samsung and HTC produce high-end Android-powered phones featuring the newest technology. Android also appeals to regular consumers; devices from HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, and Sony are using Android to give users beautiful displays perfect for Skype, texting, emailing, and reading eBooks.The iOS, which runs only on Apple devices, is not only tied to a device but a relatively high price range. Most of the 38 countries in which iOS is popular are developed countries with a large number of consumers with high disposable incomes. So if you want a phone running a mature and stable operating system with a plethora of apps from which to choose, this is it. But the platform also has its own downsides. If you are buying an iPhone then you have to accept Apple's design choices or its preference for 4-inch screens. Also, the the platform is rigid and not very customizable — apart from being able to choose your wallpaper and the arrangement of your app icons, you can' do much. The most common difference is that a common user can say about these platforms is the availability of different programs and apps across various platforms. If you plan to have high-quality and vivid apps, an iPhone is your best bet. However, Android-powered phones are quickly making up ground against Apple regarding apps. Similarly, a Windows mobile phone is also a good option if plan to do a lot of work on your phone. The operating system has a unique flow; screens slide into one another, and the home screen has Live Tiles to give immediate updates on everything from the weather to social media. Apps are becoming more plentiful, but there are still Android and iOS titles that might be missed by those who switch. Display You need to choose the display that best suits your need and fits into your budget. A display is considered to be a user's main point of interaction to get things done. And if it doesn't satisfy you, you'll be left sulking. Apple (Retina Display), Sony (BRAVIA), Samsung (Super AMOLED Plus), Nokia (Clear Black) and Microsoft (Clear Type) all use their own display technologies to enhance the viewing experience. The most prominent tech terminology of 2013 was full-HD displays and everyone, including domestic handset makers, jumped onto the bandwagon to launch their own full-HD phones. A Full High Definition 1920x1080 display has the same pixel resolution as your living room HDTV, but with a 5 inch screen size – that is very impressive! So how many megapixels do you really need? A megapixel rating tells you how many pixels there are in a photo. If it measures 4,000 by 2,000 pixels, multiply the two numbers to get 8 million, so it's an 8-megapixel photo. Also, the most megapixels you're likely to need to show your photos at their best on today's electronic displays is 3MP. If you want them to look even greater, you might want to shoot them at 8MP. For printing, 300 pixels per inch (ppi) is widely accepted to be as sharp as the eye can see for photo prints. Screen resolutions iPhone 5 1,136 x 640 0.7MP Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 2MPiPad Retina Display 2,048 x 1,536 3MP4K TV 3,840 x 2,160 8MP Print sizes 7x5in print at 300ppi 2,100 x 1,500 3MPA4 print at 300ppi 3,508 x 2,480 9MPA3 print at 300ppi 4,960 x 3,508 18MPA2 print at 300ppi 7,016 x 4,9603 35MPSmartphone camera resolutions HTC One 2,688 x 1,520 4MPApple iPhone 5, 5c, 5s 3,264 x 2,448 8MPSamsung Galaxy S4 4,128 x 3,096 13MPNokia Lumia 1020 7,136 x 5,360 38MPProcessor The processing speed of a smartphone is a solid reason to a buy or reject a smartphone. The biggest advancement in current smartphones is the introduction quad-core and octa-core processors. Originally the domain of desktop computers and laptops, multicore processors use "cores," smaller processors working in tandem, to complete more tasks at once, thus speeding up processing time.This year brands like Samsung, Sony, Apple and many others came with charismatic high-end phones boasting of high-end processors. For instance, Nokia Lumia 1520 is the most powerful Windows Phone 8 handset in the market, featuring a quad-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC and 2GB of RAM. Also, Nexus 5 is equipped with a super-fast, 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU – the same as in the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 – and performance is lightning quick. Also, the new iPhone is super fast, outstripping even the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 with its new 64-bit Apple A7 processor.Strikingly, a smartphone with a dual-core processor may also perform beautifully, as it enables you to quickly switch tasks. If one core is busy in running an app, then other core may be at work on your web browsing. A quad-core processor is useful in running the latest, greatest, most complex apps, such as an intricate, graphics-heavy videogame. It can also mean business-oriented functions that require speed perform more smoothly. At the same time, the onboard RAM is also crucial. A phone that comes with 16GB or 32GB of memory is able to store lots of information on board. This means that you can carry lots of apps, documents, graphics, and audio and video files with you all the time, enabling apps to grab data with almost no delay.Build quality Though not a first priority, build quality matters to a lot of people. For starters, the size, shape, button placement, color, and other decoratives are important for consumers to make a snap decision right away on whether they think they'll like the device or not. Of course, from the outside you'll hardly get any clues about what's on the inside. For instance, button placement is important for those who want to hold the phone comfortably in hand. For some, having a power button on the right side of the device may not work out that well. Similarly, phones with speakers on the back can muffle the sound. The other added benefit to having the speaker grills on the front is for when you're watching movies or videos. Another significant point here is the use of plastic. A powerful example is Samsung Galaxy S4. Then there's the aluminum-clad HTC One which screams quality. From the matte back right down to the glossy edges, the aluminum shell of the One is a triumph in design. Obviously, when you are paying over Rs 30,000, you have every right to demand the best quality for your phone. The outer shell of the device is what first catches the eye, and certainly, an aluminum shell scored more than plastic. But in contrast, plastic is more durable and easy to mass produce. Any polycarbonate device is lighter than the same device made out of aluminum, or glass. Nokia preferred polycarbonate in the Lumia line because of the way it retains colors. Battery life Faster processors, clearer displays, high-end cameras, and improvement in other quarters literally take the juice out of batteries everyday. This makes battery life an almost equally important factor for every smartphone user. A good smartphone is considered to be one that can last through the day with a single charge. Battery life should be atleast 1750 mAh to support the usage of different applications on your smartphone.Most phones pack in Lithium-ion battery, or Li-ion. Phone batteries have a limited number of charge and discharge cycles, usually falling between 300 and 500. Beyond this, batteries gradually diminish below 50 percent of its original capacity. Battery life and charge cycles vary by the operating system, phone settings, network type (WiFi, CDMA/GSM, 2G/3G), and programs used. A typical smartphone features around five hours talk time on 3G (2-3 times more on 2G) and 150 hours standby time. But this reduces significantly when you play media and games or surf the web. Do remember that if you are a heavy phone user who makes a lot of calls and sends emails constantly, then you might want to keep a spare battery on hand.