Which Smartphone is Right For You?

Smartphones are supposed to make our lives easier. With the right smartphone, one can manage e-mails and appointments from both work and home, get directions to select locations, keep track of workouts and diets, go on an online shopping spree, share information with friends, listen to music and watch movies.

However, lots of people feel rather confused when picking a smartphone, with an entire rally of questions running through their heads. Which is the best platform of them all, Android, Windows or iPhone? How can one avoid paying for minutes or data plans he or she never uses? How can one avoid overage charges? Which phones have features worth skipping and which features are must haves? 

As naive as it might sound, the first step in picking up the right smartphone is to make sure that you actually need one. These are expensive gadgets mind, and so are the coverage plans they require.  Maybe you only need and use a phone for talking and the occasional text message. And if you already possess a GPS system and an MP3 player, you can make do with a regular phone that doesn't offer music, directions and more. Moreover, you might not even want e-mail on your phone. Getting a smartphone often means having immediate access to work emails, social media and the Web. Not everyone wants to be that connected, however.

So if you do realize that a smartphone is a perfect fit, zero in on a set budget for the same. Essentially, you have two costs to consider: the price of the phone and the price of the plan. The former is a one-time expense, but do make sure a particular phone's price is in-line with your budget before setting your heart on a certain phone.

Next up is to find the right operating system for your needs, which is basically the base platform is uses to run various programs. While they can all pretty much connect you to the web, e-mail, phone calls and texts, each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Four of the most common OSs for smartphones today are Apple's iOS, Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Mobile and RIM's Blackberry. Unless you're a technophile, you might not even notice the differences in how each of these systems operate. What you will catch onto, however is the availability of different programs and apps across various platforms. For instance, if you're set on using a lot of apps, you might want to avoid getting as Blackberry - which in turn is great for using e-mail and Web browsing, and so on.

Lastly, once you've decided on your phone budget, operating system, carrier and plan, you've got one task left - deciding on a phone itself. Take your time on this. You may end up having the phone for two years, taking it everywhere with you and using it more than any other appliance. You need to make sure the actual phone suits your life. 

At the end of the day, allow your next smartphone to not just be smart - but a genius in itself!