Mobile Phone Shopping For Dummies: 7 Specs You Need to Know

Make your mobile phone shopping experience easier

Shopping for a new smartphone involves going through spec sheets that are full of technical terms, acronyms and numerical values. All of these can be too much to digest if you’re an average consumer with little to no technical background in mobile phone configurations.

As confusing as these specs are, you might be forced to pick a device based on the numbers you see on the sheets. Truth is, some matter more so you should always know what they mean—and what they do for your phone. This way, you can choose one that gives you more bang for your buck.

Here are the specs that you need to pay special attention to:

1. RAM

RAM stands for Random Access Memory, which is where your smart phone stores data. It lets your smartphone load apps fast as they get loaded from the phone’s central processing unit into the RAM where they are queued—ready to be accessed anytime you need them. You should shop for phones that have at least 2GB of RAM as basic items on your phone, including keyboard, home screen and the likes, already take up half a gigabyte of RAM.

2. Storage

Like RAM, your phone’s storage is determined by how much GB is available so you can save photos, videos, music and other multimedia files. With the availability of cloud storage— which lets you access your files from an online web server—you’ll be getting a lot of mileage with prepaid phones that have 16GB to 32GB of storage on top of an SD card, which acts as an extension of your device’s internal storage.

3. Battery: mAh

Battery life is expressed in milliampere hours (mAh), which describes how much energy your phone battery can provide. Generally speaking, a high mAh value can offer an extensive battery life, although it also depends on how much power your device needs to stay powered for an hour. Plus, the overall efficiency of your mobile phone dictates how long your battery will last. Some phones pack their battery with up to 10,000 mAh.

4. Operating System

The battle of operating systems mostly belongs to Android and iOS, but the former gets the upper hand in that it’s an open OS. Unlike iOS, the Android OS can accommodate different devices to run applications across its system. Whether your phone is Android- or iOS-based, you should watch out for OS updates issued by the phone manufacturer to ensure you get all the improvements and enhancements on your phone.

5. Screen Size

Screen sizes on smartphones range from small to medium and large. Your choice will ultimately depend on what you use your device for. A basic 5-inch model is compact and handy, especially if you have a tiny pair of hands, while phones with a bigger screen make for a more pleasant experience if you’re into mobile gaming and entertainment on-the-go.

6. Camera: Aperture

Carrying a smartphone means you get a shooter in tow as well, which has the capability to produce quality pictures based on its aperture value. Your camera’s aperture—expressed in f-stops—refers to the size of the opening through which light can enter. This setting can seem a bit tricky, but here’s a general rule to keep in mind: The lower the number value, the wider the aperture and the better shots you can take. A wide f/1.8 aperture works well even for indoor settings, where you tend to have low light compared with outdoors.

7. Display Quality

The display quality all comes down to how bright images appear as well as how wide the viewing angle is on the screen. AMOLED screen panels tend to fare better than LCDs in terms of color richness and wider viewing angles on your phone.

Now that you have a good grasp of mobile phone specs, you’ll know better what specs to look out for and make a well-informed decision on what device is right for you. 

Ready to shop for your new smartphone? Visit the Globe Online Shop for easy on-the-go shopping with the latest offerings from the biggest tech companies.