Buying a smartphone in 2022 isn’t an easy proposition. There are so many different brands, models, and spec sheets that it can be easy to get overwhelmed. This goes double if you’re buying a smartphone for the first time; a surprising number of people are just entering the smartphone market, and it can be very difficult to negotiate the deluge of different options you have. Don’t worry, though – we’re here to help you. Here’s our 2022 smartphone buying guide to help you figure out what’s right for you.
Figure out your budget
The first thing you need to figure out is what kind of budget you’re working with. You can get smartphones for as little as £100 in the UK market, but flagship devices often sell for over £1000, so deciding where you rest on that scale is, as you might imagine, extremely important. Of course, you always have the option of looking into quick loans so that you can get the cash you need to buy an expensive phone, but if this isn’t a good avenue for you to take, then settle on a budgetary range and discard any of the options outside that range.
Android vs iOS
Apple likes to say that its operating system is easy to use and emphasises intuitiveness over customisation, but the truth is that both Android and iOS are fairly foolproof these days. When you buy a new Android phone, you’ll be guided through the setup process right out of the box, and everything you’ll want to do is accessible from the system tray. With that said, Apple’s OS does have a different look to it, so make sure to research both systems and see which one you prefer. In the end, given their similar functionality, it’ll all come down to your personal taste.
Storage space
Whether or not your phone has a microSD card slot is of paramount importance. Some smartphones don’t have anywhere near enough storage space on their own, and will likely need a microSD card in order to expand the amount of memory available to you. Check whether your phone has a slot like this, because if it doesn’t, you’ll have to make do with the storage available to you (or use a USB-C storage solution, which can be exponentially more expensive).
Power vs budget
Once you’ve figured out what your budget is for your new device, you need to think about whether you’re going to need a flagship phone or not. Generally speaking, flagship devices are much more powerful and zippy than regular phones, because they’ll have the latest processors and a high amount of RAM. However, the tradeoff for this is cost, of course. Ask yourself whether you need the amount of power a flagship would give you; are you going to be doing a lot of gaming or other processor-intensive tasks with your phone?
Camera quality
Some phones emphasise their camera quality, even to the detriment of their general power and speed. If the most important thing about your phone is whether or not the pictures you take look good, then you need to make sure you’ve got a decent camera. Don’t be fooled by high megapixel numbers; this isn’t the only value you need to examine, although manufacturers like to emphasise it in order to make their cameras look better than they really are. You’re also looking for high-quality lenses, a bright aperture, and other important camera stats.
Battery life
You might be the kind of user who needs a long battery life over and above good specs. If that’s the case, you need to look at the “mAh” number of your phone, otherwise known as milliamp hours. Higher is better; many phones plateau at around 4-5000mAh batteries, which will get you through a day of usage but probably not much more. iPhones have smaller battery values, but since they’re running proprietary software, they can often extend their battery life beyond that of Android devices. There are also specialist phones that have incredibly high-capacity batteries, but they tend to be chunkier and have worse specs as a result.
Display resolution and refresh rate
Nowadays, phones are being manufactured with higher and higher refresh rates. This means the experience of scrolling content and video on the screen is smoother; if the screen’s refresh rate is 120Hz, for example, then you’re going to get a much better experience than if it was 60Hz. Many flagship phones now come with 120Hz screens as standard, while budget devices (and even some iPhones) still have 60Hz displays. In addition, you should be paying attention to the screen resolution; the higher it is, the sharper and crisper the image will appear on your phone screen.
Security
How likely is it that others are going to be able to access your phone? In addition to this, how likely are you to want to sell your phone later down the line? If you answered “very likely” to either of these questions, you’re definitely going to want decent phone security. Flagships tend to have better security, simply because they’re supported for longer by security updates and overhauls. That doesn’t mean budget phones aren’t secure, of course; it just means that if longevity is the name of the game and security is important to you, then a flagship phone is probably the best way to go.
Of course, we can’t instruct you strictly on how to buy a phone; a lot of your decision will come down to personal preference and which of the above options are more or less important to you. Whatever decision you make, we wish you all the best in your smartphone purchasing journey!
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