The smartphone market has been rapidly growing over the last few years. With companies working hard to best one another, consumers expecting more and more from their devices, and other areas of technology steaming ahead, it’s easy to see why this field is growing so fast. Of course, though, this doesn’t really help with it comes to choosing and owning your smartphone. Instead, it makes the process confusing, often resulting in poor choices and wasted money. To give you some support with this, this post will be exploring the important basics you need to know to be able to make the right choices when it comes to your phone.
Choosing The Device
The phone you choose will drastically impact your experience for the next few years, and it makes sense to consider all of your options when you are looking for one. To begin this journey, it will be time to find all of the best contenders within your price range, gathering them up and comparing them against one another. When you take phones in the same budget margin and put them together, it will be hard to see any clear differences between the devices you have available. In reality, though, phones can differ hugely from manufacturer to manufacturer, making the next part of this effort even more important.
There are loads of review sites around the web which compare mobile phones and tell people which devices are the best deals. Websites like HandsetExpert can help with this, providing you with loads of great reviews, along with price guides to help you with your budget. At each budget level, you will find clear winners and losers, and it doesn’t always matter which brand you decide to go for. Most phones will have an area which they excel in above the others. For example, Sony usually produce great cameras and screens, whereas Apple is mostly heralded for their incredible design. This gives you a lot to research when you’re first looking to buy your phone.
Looking After It
Next, it will be time to think about the work which has to be done to maintain your phone. If you’ve had a smartphone in the past, you will have experienced the performance degradation which makes these devices so frustrating. For the most part, though, this sort of issue, among others, can easily be avoided with some tender loving care. Below, you can find some examples of the sort of work which can be done to keep a phone running smoothly, while also ensuring that you spend as little as possible.
- Clearing Unused Apps: Flash storage can be a weird thing to manage, and will be slowed down when it is reaching capacity. To avoid this sort of complication, removing unused apps, files, and other things stored on the device is a great way to get started with your device maintenance. There are loads of apps out there which can help you with this.
- Performing Clean-Ups: Along with removing the unused files which you can see, there could also be loads of hidden data which is causing your phone to slow down. Clean-up software has the power to tap into your device, giving you a clear idea of what can be done to make it faster, while also opening your storage to be used for bigger things. Like the work above, you can often find an app to handle this for you, and this will make the whole process much easier.
- Refreshing The System: Finally, as the last bit of maintenance work which can done to your phone, it will be time to look at the operating system it has on it. Over the weeks and months, this sort of software will quickly degrade in performance. By performing a factory reset or replacing the OS entirely, you could make your phone feel a lot swifter, and it doesn’t have to cost anything in the process.
Making Repairs
Once a phone’s screen is cracked or the device won’t turn on, it can be very tempting to abandon it, and a lot of customers find themselves replacing broken phones almost as much as they buy new ones. This trend costs a huge amount in both money and the world’s resources, with a lot of precious and semi-precious metals and stones going into producing them. Of course, this means that when something goes wrong, it’s much better to try and repair your phone rather than replacing it. Below, you can find a couple of different routes to help you to achieve this goal.
Self-Repair: Over the last couple of years, it’s gotten a lot easier to handle work like repairing your own phone. With websites like iFixIt can provide you with both the guides and the tools you need to complete jobs ranging from simple connector to entire screen replacements, all presented with videos and easy to follow articles. This sort of approach is best for those with a passion for technology. It won’t be easy to repair some phones, and a lot of people will find these jobs to be fiddly and stressful.
Pro Help: If you’re one of these people, it could make sense to have someone else handle your repair work for you, as this will make the process a lot easier. When you’re looking for people to do this sort of work for you, it will be essential that you read reviews and do some background research to make sure that you’re choosing the right professional for you. This will always cost a little bit of money, but it will still be cheaper than replacing the entire phone. Of course, sometimes, you might not be able to repair your device, and buying a new one will be the only option you have.
Hopefully, with all of this in mind, 2018 will be the year which sees you mastering your affinity with smartphones. With technology always on the move, it can be hard to keep up with what is possible with devices like this. In reality, though, they should last more than a year, especially if you treat them correctly.
This post is a collaborative effort by St. Louis Dad.
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