Need-to-know Guide For Smartphones

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In a nutshell, smartphones are hybrid devices, meaning a single product that performs two or more different functions. What this translates into when it comes to mobile handsets is that your phone is a combination of camera, radio, internet and much more. It is the operating system that mainly defines smartphones - increasingly they have similar processing power to that of a computer and offer a wealth of applications that allow you to seamlessly multitask advanced functions and services on the go.

The following guide will explain in simple terms the main features that define smartphones, as well as the performance you can expect from them.

Advanced Operating System

The most common operating systems for smartphones are Blackberry, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Symbian and most recently Android and Apple's Mac OS X version for iPhones. Be aware that your choice of operating system will affect the applications and functionalities that your phone will effectively perform. For example, Symbian handsets are great for phone-specific applications, Palm OS smartphones focus on PDA functionality, and the iPhone ...
... is popular for multimedia functions. When shopping around, it would therefore be wise to make a note of the functionalities you most enjoy to help you find the smartphone best suited to your needs.

Internet and Email Connectivity

Another primary feature of smartphones is e-mail connectivity. These devices deliver e-mail wirelessly to the handset - using their own e-mail client they connect to the e-mail server to send and receive messages over the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) network. These days many smartphones have built-in Wi-Fi and/or EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment) connectivity, which allows for faster web speeds than GPRS.

Seamless Integration

All smartphones come with their own software CD for installation on your computer so that they can conveniently integrate with its data for updates. The device will use either a cable connection (usually via a USB port) or wireless (Bluetooth or Wi-Fi) for this synchronisation. Some smartphones even have their own cradle to plug-in to your PC for desktop synchronisation.

Hybrid Data Inputting

Smartphones offer a variety of data input options that include keyboard, handwriting recognition and stylus. The latter is an object used for touch-screens, though increasingly they are finger operated. Their keyboards range from full QWERTY (the standard layout for English-language computers) to 12-key numeric as with traditional mobiles. When it comes to handwriting recognition, the smartphone software allows you to customise in this way but at its present state of evolution it must be said that this can be a laborious process to configure.

Memory

Considering the rapidly growing wealth of data (applications, music, video clips etc) available for smartphone download these days, storage is important. Their built-in memory capacity ranges from 20MB to 80MB, however newer phones such as the iPhone offer up to 16GB. You can also buy external memory cards for additional storage of up to 8GB. Each brand of smartphone will vary in terms of internal memory and cost of extra storage, so if this is important to you it will be a defining factor in your choice of phone.

Battery Life

The battery life of smartphones is subject not only to your usage habits, but also to the individual model's operating system, battery type and how long it's built to last between charges. At world's worst, you can generally expect about 3 hours talk time, the average is around 5 hours, and this rises to a maximum of 13 hours. Standby time has an average of around 300 hours, but generally fluctuates between 140 hours and 400 hours. Most smartphones use Lithium-Ion batteries which are suitable for their small size.

Conclusion

Quite simply, smartphones are the definitive way of the future - they are rapidly becoming the standard mobile device to own in terms of the advanced and useful features they can offer. With the ever expanding range of smartphones available on the marketplace, it's important you take the time to define your needs and budget plus do thorough research on the models that match them.
Peter Williams is a mobile phone consultant and smartphones retailer.