Cell Tower: It’s A Smartphone Showdown!

Today, you’re likely to have your coffee machine longer than your cell phone! Most companies offer either twelve, or eighteen or twenty-four-month contracts, so it’ll only seem five minutes since you last parted with a huge chunk of cash before it’s time to upgrade again.

Know What You Want

First of all, there’s a lot of different cell phones out there, and that shows no sign of slowing down with two of the biggest players, Samsung and Apple rumored to be releasing their latest models this year! Most of us tend to be either team Android or team iOS depending on what we use our phones for, how easy it is to upload pictures, watch movies and send emails as well as whether we like having a physical keyboard or are a fan of the touch screen. Decide on what you absolutely cannot live without whether it’s a giant high-res screen, number of camera pixels, a decent battery or if your phone’s operating system can be customized or not.

Sales Season

Many carriers like to encourage people to shell out for a new phone by offering them an incentive like free movie passes, money off their air-time plan or a free iTunes voucher. Avoid the temptation to upgrade early, because you’ll find that any existing contract you need to buyout will cost much more than any customer loyalty perks. Try to wait until the holidays when sale season starts, or when upgrading, hint out how long you’ve been a customer. In this day and age loyalty means a lot and companies hate losing repeat business. Don’t believe you’re getting the best deal? Threaten to move to a rival carrier, and hopefully you’ll soon be the proud owner of a new phone with three months free data to boot!

Hold Me Close

While the biggest brands all have online stores it’s always worth getting up, close and personal with the device that you’ve got your heart set on as the reality can be quite different. One thing to note is to see how the phone feels in your hands, does it sit comfortably in the palm? Can your fingers reach all the buttons or slide rockers without stretching? Would you want to carry this phone around with you? Can it fit in your coat pocket or bag? Phones often look very different in person compared to how they look in a glossy; celebrity endorsed advert. Remember also that each firm has a solid brand strategy when it comes to selling their products, for instance, Apple tends to focus on the social media aspects while Blackberry and Nokia phones were initially aimed at the business customer.

Phone Protection

You wouldn’t believe how much it costs to replace a cracked or damaged iPhone screen! Phones fall out of people’s pockets, coats and hands all the time and landing face first on the floor can cause quite a bit of damage. Always use a screen protector, so your phone screen doesn’t end up covered in fingerprints and buy a case so even if you do drop it on the kitchen floor the hard outer shell will protect it from breaking.