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Buying a new smartphone can seem like a daunting task. There's a dizzying array of different kinds of devices, each with a different set of features that may or may not be what you're looking for, all available on a different mobile networks.
In fact, smartphones are like cars — there's no single "best car" for everybody, and there's no "best smartphone" for everyone, either. Just like walking into a car dealership without doing your research on prices and features is a recipe for getting overcharged, walking into your local Verizon or Sprint store without knowing what you need is a recipe for future unhappiness.
So what seems like a simple question — "What kind of smartphone should I get?" — can quickly turn into days (or weeks!) of research, different pieces of advice from your friends and coworkers, and pressure from salespeople. We're here to help you avoid as much of that as possible. If you're new to this crazy world or if you're an old pro looking for some tips, read on to find the best tools and tactics for buying your next handset.
Pick your carrier first, pick your phone second
This guide isn't about giving you recommendations for specific phones — you can find our picks for the US here. Instead, we're going to give you some general hardware, software, and carrier advice to help you recognize the duds and the gems. As you read this guide, think about what it is you want your next phone to do, because there's a good chance we'll address it below. Think of this as your toolkit for navigating the crazy, ever-changing smartphone retail landscape.
Generally, our advice boils down to this: pick your carrier first, pick your phone second. You may be tempted by some hot new gadget, but for the vast majority of people this advice holds. If your calls drop, if you can't get data, or if your plan is too expensive, then that fancy new toy is on the fast-track to becoming a paperweight.
One last piece of advice before we get started in earnest: ignore the fanboys. You know the ones, the business people who scoff at iPhones as toys, the Android users who want to tell you about Linux, the Windows Phone aficionados who insist that the platform has every app you could want. It's not that we aren't incredibly passionate about these gadgets too, but you're picking a phone, not a religion. To bring it back to the automobile metaphor: somebody telling you that you should only consider a hybrid car isn't being helpful when what you need to do is haul lumber every day.
Before you ever set foot in a store or get your heart set on a particular device, the first thing you need to do is evaluate the current situation with your phone and service — that will often determine your course of action. There's a pretty good chance you were right to pick the carrier you're currently using.
With which carrier do you currently have service? The old adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" definitely applies here: depending on the locations of your home, workplace, and areas where you frequently travel, finding a carrier that works well around all of them can be tricky — so if your current carrier is getting the job done, that's something you'll want to take into consideration. Of course, the opposite is also true: you shouldn't feel compelled to stick with a carrier that has no signal or frequently drops calls or data connections in places you need it to work, just because you've been with them for a long time or you like the product lineup. Rest assured, there are great phones available with every carrier!
How far are you into your current contract? Early Termination Fees — often known by their acronym, "ETF" — are the unavoidable bane of the wireless world. In order to make an informed decision about how to proceed, you'll need to know whether you're eligible to drop your account without paying an ETF, which can run as high as $350 depending on your carrier and the device you're currently using. It's also important to note that just because you're eligible to get a discounted upgrade on a new phone with your current carrier doesn't mean you can leave the carrier altogether without getting hit with an ETF — most carriers treat those dates differently. Generally speaking, you can upgrade at a discount before you can leave, often by as long as six months or more. Carriers would always rather you stick around, and they're willing to give you steep discounts to do it.
If you paid full price (usually $400 or more) for your current phone or you bought it from someone other than your carrier, you may not be under contract at all, which means you can leave whenever you like without paying an ETF. Most carriers make it tricky to determine your contract status from your online account portal — they'd rather you not know whether you can leave for free, of course — so your best bet is to call into customer service and ask directly.
Are you part of a family plan? Virtually all carriers (including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile) offer family plans, which bundle multiple lines of service into a single shared bucket of minutes. That means that you don't need to stick with your current carrier just because you want to keep your family on a family plan — but since it's more effort to move an entirely family over to another service, it may mean that you want to pay extra attention to your current carrier's latest offerings first before considering others.
Do you have multiple devices? In some situations, you can save money by going with a carrier that offers data buckets that can be shared between multiple devices (a smartphone and a 3G- or 4G-enabled tablet, for instance). On AT&T, this is called Mobile Share; on Verizon, it’s Share Everything. Either way, the concept is the same: you pay an extra fee for each additional device you attach to the data bucket. You’ll want to run the numbers before you sign up, though. In many situations, you’ll end up paying more on such a plan — if you only use data on your tablet every once in a while, for instance, you might be better off buying data for it a la carte rather than tying it to your phone’s data bucket.
Do you get any corporate or group discounts? When you originally signed up for service with your current carrier, the sales representative may have asked you who you work for. The reason? Some companies and organizations have arranged special rates with a specific carrier so that their employees and members can get discounts, often even if the line is for personal use. These discounts can sometimes total 20 percent off your monthly bill or more and can also include deals on handsets and accessories that regular customers don't receive. If you're in such an arrangement, you'll need to remember that moving to another carrier could result in some bill shock, so you'll want to ask every carrier you're considering (and your employer) if there are any deals available. And even if you're not currently getting a discount, it doesn't hurt to call your carrier's customer service line to ask if there are any available to you.
Finding the carrier that's best for you really isn't a black-and-white issue — there is no universal "right" or "wrong" answer, and there are many factors to take into consideration.
It goes without saying that you need your phone to work, otherwise it really doesn't matter how much you like it or how good of a deal you're getting on service. Though all of the national carriers (and most of the regionals) generally have excellent nationwide coverage through their own towers and roaming agreements, every carrier has dead zones — even in heavily-populated areas — and knowing where those dead zones are in your area will help you make the most informed decision that you can.
Before you buy, odds are good that you've got friends, family, or coworkers using each of the four national carriers, so be sure to ask around for their experiences in the locations that you frequent. These should actually be your main points of reference regarding coverage quality, simply because they've likely had their service for far longer than a 14-day return period — they have more experience to draw from.
When you purchase a phone and new service from a carrier, you've got a return period — typically 14 days, 30 in California — during which you're able to back out of your contract with no penalty whatsoever (you'll only be charged for the pro-rated portion of a month's service that you used). Take advantage of it! Use the phone in all your usual haunts for both calling and browsing; just because you've got good reception doesn't mean data speeds will be reasonable, and consistently bad data speeds can really ruin the smartphone experience.
Coverage doesn't necessarily need to be a dream-killer for you, though. If you've just got one nagging dead zone — say, your home or your office — all four national carriers now offer options to help patch the problem. Broadly speaking, there are three different types of solutions. We’ll lay them out below, but be warned that none of these are silver bullets and each has its own particular pain points.
just because you've got good reception doesn't mean data speeds will be reasonable
If Wi-Fi calling isn't a viable option for you (either it isn't available on your phone or carrier, or you don't have Wi-Fi where you've got a bad cellular signal), you should call in to customer service — don't go to the store! Femtocells and signal boosters frequently aren't carried in carrier stores, and more importantly, you may be able to talk a customer service agent into sending you a unit for free or a discount (for instance, AT&T's 3G MicroCell is normally a whopping $200). When you call, be sure that they're aware you don't get any signal in an important location and that you may need to cancel your service if it can't be fixed — that often catches their attention.
Though it was almost completely irrelevant a few years ago, most smartphone users end up caring about data speed much more than voice quality. A good smartphone without high-speed data is a much less compelling device.
As we mentioned in the last section, good signal strength isn't necessarily an indication that you'll get the best data speeds that your carrier advertises. It certainly plays a role, but actual speed that you receive is a combination of a variety of factors: the interface the connection between your nearest cell tower and the internet (known as "backhaul"), the number of active users in your area, the wireless technology between your phone and the tower, and the time of day, just to name a few.
All four national carriers refer to the fastest parts of their networks as "4G," but in practice, that's nearly meaningless — there are significant differences between them. On paper, the newest LTE networks deployed by Verizon, AT&T, and (to a lesser-extent) Sprint are the fastest. Take heed, though, that just as the definition of “4G” was muddled in years past, the spread of LTE networks is also a contentious issue. Verizon has the largest LTE deployment by far, though AT&T is doing its best to catch up and Sprint has plans to add more LTE markets soon.
A special note on Sprint: it still has a 4G network based on WiMAX, which shares many of LTE's technological innovations. You can still get WiMAX phones from its sub-brands like Virgin, but generally speaking you shouldn’t be betting on this technology as it’s getting replaced by LTE. You’re better off getting an LTE phone on Sprint instead of WiMAX even though the carrier hasn’t built a large LTE network yet.
T-Mobile, meanwhile, uses a highly advanced evolution of an older 3G technology known as HSPA+, and it's quite fast — in fact, it's not uncommon to find that it's faster than Sprint's WiMAX service in some areas at certain times of day. You may have noticed T-Mobile aggressively advertising that it has the "largest 4G network in America," and that's because it has aggressively upgraded its existing HSPA network to HSPA+ and called the upgrade "4G." It's questionable advertising, though it does mean you're more likely to get a relatively fast data connection on T-Mobile in more places across the country than on other networks.
When you’re talking to any carrier about their LTE coverage, make sure that you’re getting an LTE map and not just a “4G” map — AT&T in particular like to claim that its HSPA+ network is “4G,” and while AT&T’s HSPA+ is fast, it’s not as fast as proper LTE. Even better, take our advice and test the phone where you’ll actually be using it. LTE is great on paper, but in practice you need to see how your carrier has actually deployed it in your area.
What does this all mean? If you live in or travel through rural areas or smaller cities, you may not have access to your carrier's fastest speeds — and they may not be available for a few months or years to come. When you visit a carrier's store, be sure that it's a store nearby — that'll give you a better sense of network performance in your area — and do a couple things:
Another factor to consider is the speed you'll get when you're not connected to 4G. Verizon and Sprint both have 3G data available across the majority of their coverage area, which means it's not uncommon to have download speeds of 600kbps or higher — not blazing fast, but still good enough for a browsing experience that won't drive you crazy. This can really come into play if you do a lot of long-distance driving — it's very common to get 3G service on these carriers any time you're on an interstate highway, regardless of how rural it may be. AT&T and T-Mobile, meanwhile, fall back to much slower 2G speeds in some areas that typically peak at under 100kbps. It's a very big difference: browsing is difficult, streaming is virtually impossible, and even email can become a laborious task.
In other words, if you're in a rural area or you spend a lot of time traveling in rural areas, you may find that you're much better off with Verizon or Sprint than you are with AT&T or T-Mobile. As always, your individual experience may vary — as we mentioned before, be sure to nudge your friends and co-workers to gather intelligence on how different carriers perform nearby before you make any decisions.
Generally speaking, with a smartphone, the rule is simple: get as much data and messaging in your plan as you can comfortably afford. Everything about the modern smartphone encourages heavy use of both features, and it’s a safe bet you’ll find yourself using more data than you’d expect (if you don't already).
In particular, access to high-speed data is really critical to making the smartphone ownership experience as fun and painless as possible. To that end, there's a pretty big difference in how much you'll pay (and what you'll get) among the four national carriers:
When you take all aspects of the plan into account — voice, data, and messaging — AT&T and Verizon tend to be the most expensive, while Sprint and T-Mobile typically range anywhere from $15 to $30 less for roughly the same level of service. You might figure that Sprint and T-Mobile are the best deal then, but there's a trade-off: in their LTE markets, Verizon and AT&T are often considerably faster than the fastest service Sprint and T-Mobile can provide. (Also, T-Mobile doesn't offer the iPhone, which may be a deal-breaker for some.) As we've mentioned before, your best bet is to speak to friends and family with devices on different carriers in your area to get a feel for how quick the service is locally.
Voice seems to be less important these days as email and text messaging have taken the place of many phone calls, but obviously you'll be the best judge of how many minutes you need. One thing you can do is call in to customer service with your current carrier and ask for an audit of your usage over the past few months — your carrier can tell you the average number of minutes you've used every month.
Sprint, by the way, has one other key advantage: full integration with Google Voice. If you are the sort of person who needs to have multiple phones but would like one number, you can get a pretty darn good experience on Sprint. Google voice works on other carriers too, of course, but you'll need to choose an Android smartphone in order to get a decent experience.
the rule is simple: get as much data and messaging in your plan as you can comfortably afford
You shouldn’t plan on using LTE outside the US with a US-based smartphone
Does your job call for a lot of foreign travel? Do you enjoy vacationing in strange, foreign lands? Depending on how much time you're spending overseas, it's something you may want to take into consideration when choosing a carrier. It boils down to this: depending on where you're going, what phone you have, and what carrier you're using, your phone may or may not work when you get there. Fortunately, you can plan ahead.
GSM — the Global System for Mobile Communications — is generally regarded as the baseline world standard for cellular service, and it's available in almost every country in the world (well over 200 at last count, with Japan being perhaps the most frequently-travelled exception). AT&T and T-Mobile operate GSM networks in the US, and virtually all of the phones they sell are compatible with the GSM networks used in Europe, Central and South America, Australia, the Middle East, and most of Asia.
In other words, having an AT&T or a T-Mobile phone gives you the highest likelihood that your phone is going to work whenever you're out of the country, particularly in Europe where GSM is used exclusively. The CDMA networks deployed by Verizon and Sprint are less widely-used globally, but that doesn't mean you're totally out of luck — you can still roam in nearly 50 countries and territories that use CDMA, and both carriers offer a selection of devices that include GSM compatibility for the same level of global service that AT&T and T-Mobile can provide. And if you've got a device that doesn't support GSM roaming, you can contact your carrier's customer service line to inquire about buying or borrowing a discounted GSM phone specifically for international travel that will allow you to continue using your regular phone number.
Lastly, the LTE phones that Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint sell are not likely to work in the fledgling LTE networks that are launching internationally. They’re usually locked down and even if they weren’t, the bands are likely to be incompatible. You shouldn’t plan on using LTE outside the US with a US-based smartphone.
Regardless of which carrier you choose, keep in mind that international roaming — voice, text, and data alike — is exorbitantly expensive! Though AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all offer a few types of discount packages for international travellers, you'll still pay $1 per minute for voice in most locales, 50 cents or more per text message, and data rates that can easily lead into the thousands of dollars on a modern handset with email accounts configured (and don't forget about maps, since you likely need help navigating).
So, what's the solution to expensive roaming rates? Unfortunately, there isn't a great one, but you've got a few options. If your phone can be "SIM unlocked," that means that you can insert another carrier's SIM card when you're out of the country — in other words, you might be able to obtain a SIM locally at your destination and pay local rates while you're there (you won't be receiving calls on your regular number, but at least you'll be able to place calls normally, and some SIMs allow you to use data services as well). The problem is that when you purchase a phone from an American carrier, it almost never comes unlocked. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile will sometimes unlock your device if you call and ask, but it's at their discretion; the policy varies from device to device and from customer to customer. Your best bet is to speak to customer service.
As we mentioned earlier, some T-Mobile handsets (including many Android models and several BlackBerry models) include a feature called Wi-Fi Calling, which allows you to send and receive both calls and text messages when you're connected to a Wi-Fi network. If your destination has convenient access to Wi-Fi, this is an excellent option, since it prevents you from having to pay roaming fees and you can still use your regular number. If you're on another carrier, you can still take a look at Skype, which is available for Android, iOS, and Symbian and offers free calling to other Skype users (and pretty cheap rates for calling landline numbers, too).
Now that you've chosen your carrier, the next step generally isn't to get the best looking or most powerful phone you find
Now that you've chosen your carrier, the next step generally isn't to get the best looking or most powerful phone you find, it's actually to think about which software platform is right for you. In the US, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry are the big ones to consider. All four have their own strengths and weaknesses, which we will get into below.
Before we do, though, here's something to consider: what are you friends and family using? If you have a community of people around you using the same kind of phone, you'll be able to help each other out with apps and even get unique communication options like BlackBerry Messenger or iMessage. We're not saying you should just follow the crowd here, but it's something to think about.
iOS is the platform that powers the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It is quite simply one of the most powerful and easy-to-use smartphone operating systems out there. The most important thing to know about iOS as a platform can be summed up on one word: apps. iOS straight-up has more quality apps than any other smartphone. As a gaming platform, as an entertainment device, as a business tool, it really does a lot. iOS also has the best mobile browser available. No, it doesn't support Adobe Flash, but it's faster and easier to use than competing browsers.
iOS is an entirely touchscreen affair, there are few physical buttons you'll need to learn. The most important one is the home button, which takes you to the home screen. There, you are presented with a grid of applications that you can easily re-arrange. That approach makes iOS easy to use and understand, but it means that you won't have widgets to display "ambient" information like the weather or your next appointment. Again, it's all about the apps.
2012’s iOS 6 continues Apple’s longstanding tradition of releasing one major new version of the platform every year, but be aware that this year’s package is a mixed bag — Cupertino has done little to update the UI’s aging look and feel, the highly-regarded Google Maps has been removed in favor of an underperforming in-house solution, and some new features (like Passbook) are of limited value to many users.
iOS also has broad support for accessories. More car stereos work better with iOS than with other platforms, for example, and there's AirPlay, which lets you stream both audio and video to the Apple TV and a wide variety of speakers and receivers. It's also worth noting that the iPad runs on the same OS, which means that you can use the same apps and also not have to learn a whole new platform if you already own an iPad (or iPad mini).
The Android OS has taken the world by storm in the past few years. You can buy an Android phone in nearly every shape and size and on pretty much every carrier — it's become ubiquitous. Android is designed from the ground-up to work with Google's services, so if you're a heavy Gmail user it should definitely be on your short-list. It will also work with other services, of course, but it really shines with Google's setup — especially Google Maps, which is stellar on Android.
Although there are a large number of Android apps available, they tend to not be as high-quality as what's available on iOS. Android is also not a very strong gaming platform — the wide variety of phones it comes on means that it's more difficult for developers to support them all. That said, Android has a strong app ecosystem that's second only to iOS, and most of the key apps that people care about are available on both.
The basic Android experience is all about customization. Most manufacturers work to build on top of Android to provide custom "skins" with their own widgets and tools. Some of these are great, some are not. Many people dislike these manufacturer and carrier customizations, but in the past year or so most of them have gotten rid of their speed issues and don't get in the way much. This does mean that using one Android phone isn't exactly like using another one, however, so make sure that you get a chance to try out the phone you're thinking of before buying. On the bright side, these customizations usually don't prevent you from installing any apps.
More important, however, is that it offers great customization tools to you, the actual user. Android comes with several home screens that can be filled with the icons and widgets of your choice. It generally takes a little longer to set up an Android device to your liking, but once you do it's very powerful.
Android comes on a very (very) wide variety of hardware form factors. We will discuss this more below, but right now it's important to know that not all Android phones are the same. The less expensive models can often feel slow and sluggish if you try to do too much with them. If you are not planning on trying to make a low-end Android phone do high-end stuff, this may not get in your way. Still, we recommend avoiding the cheapest Android handsets.
We've mentioned that there are a wide variety of phones and a wide variety of custom software "skins." That makes it easier to find a phone with the features you want, but it has a downside as well. Google quite often updates Android with new features and functionality, but it can take some time for those updates to become available on every phone. Those updates have to be tested by every manufacturer and carrier for each phone and custom skin. It can be frustrating to wait for updates that may never even come to your phone, but we urge you to not sweat it too much. Our advice when buying an Android phone (actually, our advice when buying pretty much anything) is this: make sure you are happy with what it does on day one, because you can't be sure that future updates are guaranteed. That’s particularly true as Google’s “stock” Android experience has become quite excellent in recent months with the release of versions 4.1 and 4.2 — outside of the company’s own Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 devices, you’ll struggle to find a phone anywhere in the world that runs it exactly as Google intended.
Microsoft made a big change with Windows Phone, it's much different from what Windows Mobile used to be and also, it should be said, much different than anything else out there. Windows Phone is defined by its unique interface, dubbed "Metro," which is based on big, bold text to make it fast, fluid, and very usable. Windows Phone also has deep ties into the entire Microsoft ecosystem, working well with Xbox, Office, Bing, and Microsoft's cloud services.
Windows Phone's most unique feature is its home screen experience. Instead of icons and widgets, you have large square "Live Tiles" that dynamically update to show relevant information. This makes for a simpler, "glance and go" experience than can be found on other platforms, but power users may not find as much customization as they'd like. Each tile brings you into an App, but many of them are actually "Hubs" that bring together functionality that is usually separate on other smartphones. For example, the Music Hub can play your own music, Pandora, or stream Zune music all from the same interface. In general, the focus for Windows Phone is to let users find what they're looking for with fewer steps and the platform essentially delivers on that promise.
App selection on Windows Phone isn’t great, but many of the important, big-name apps are represented; recent additions include the popular Words With Friends and new versions of Twitter and Facebook that help close the performance and functionality gaps with their Android and iOS cousins. Be warned, though: if you’re looking for the latest and greatest apps, you’ll almost always have a far easier time with an iPhone than you will here.
Nokia’s involvement in the platform has produced some fascinating (and colorful) devices like this year’s Lumia 920, but its success is far from guaranteed — neither Microsoft nor its OEM partners have yet scored that blockbuster hit would cement Windows Phone’s status as a contender. Depending on your personality type (and the social games you want to play), having a “different” phone can be an attractive proposition or a huge pain.
RIM needs a big hit to stay relevant, and it also needs to convince current users that they’re better off staying in the fold
Put simply, BlackBerry is in stasis right now: while you can technically buy a BlackBerry device on most carriers, we certainly wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re in a position where you absolutely have to (IT department policies at your place of work, for instance).
The reason for the freeze is the impending release of BlackBerry 10, the QNX-based platform set to succeed today’s BlackBerry 7. It’s a total rewrite of the operating system and a huge gamble for RIM — it needs a big hit to stay relevant, and it also needs to convince current users that they’re better off staying in the fold rather than going to the greener pastures of Android or iOS (or even Windows Phone).
And with BlackBerry 10 not being fully unveiled (along with details on products and carrier availability) until late January of 2013, it’s impossible to recommend buying any BlackBerry that’s currently on the market — none will be upgradeable to the new platform. If you count yourself among the BlackBerry faithful, hang tight or take the leap to a competing operating system. RIM has promised both QWERTY and full touch models next year, so believers in physical keyboards — a feature the Canadian company has long been known for — have nothing to worry about.
In cellphone terminology, a "form factor" is the physical style of the device. No doubt you're familiar with several of them:
That's not all, though. Other form factors include the portrait QWERTY slider (which is similar to the landscape QWERTY slider except that the keyboard slides out from the bottom of the device, not the side) and the flip, which used to be a dominant style in the old dumbphone days.
Which form factor is for you? Slabs are so popular because they're always the thinnest and most attractive phones available, and on-screen keyboards have gotten good enough in the past couple years on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone to make physical keyboards unnecessary in most cases. Still, some users strongly prefer having a physical QWERTY keypad available, and most carriers offer one or two landscape sliders in their lineups for those individuals — but the selection is never as wide as it is for the slabs.
Even among landscape sliders, the quality of the keyboard varies dramatically from model to model: take the original Motorola Droid, for instance, which had a famously hard-to-use flat keyboard without any key separation. You were almost better off having no keyboard at all! If you plan on getting anything but a slab, you'll need to test the keyboard before buying.
The market is absolutely flooded with smartphones of all sizes, styles, platforms, colors, and manufacturers. How are you supposed to wade through all that data so you can make an informed decision?
It helps if you know which specs are important and which ones aren't. Android phone manufacturers have really taken a liking to throwing out numbers — megapixels, gigabytes, gigahertz, the list goes on — in an effort to demonstrate why their devices are better than the next guy's, but the reality is that many of those numbers have very little to do with how good the phone actually is in day-to-day use.
Let's start with screen size. You'll be met with a lot of phones touting displays of 4.3 inches or larger (some as big as 5 inches!), but bigger is most definitely not always better: depending on the size of your hand, it can actually be very difficult to use a device one-handed once you get into that range. In fact, the trend is toward larger and larger phones these days — even the iPhone is larger now — and choosing a smaller-screened phone unfortunately usually means choosing a lower-end device. Our best advice is to take advantage of the return period to see if you can live with a particular screen size — and to accept that modern smartphones just aren’t quite as pocketable as they used to be.
Screen technology is another big selling point. Many manufacturers throw out trademarked terms like "Super AMOLED Plus," "ClearBlack," and "Super LCD" to describe the technology underpinning the displays in their phones. Broadly speaking, most recent, high-end smartphones offer displays that are radically better than those that were on offer even a couple years ago. You should still pay close attention, though, because something that doesn’t seem to bother you after ten minutes in the store could easily drive you nuts a year into ownership.
AMOLED and LCD each have their advantages. AMOLED displays have much better contrast, more vibrant color, and use less power on user interfaces that show a lot of black; LCD, meanwhile, has superior outdoor viewability in direct sunlight and is generally regarded to offer more "realistic" color. Both technologies can (and often do) look fantastic, but if you're looking for the absolute best, we generally prefer the LCD displays found on the iPhone and some HTC devices to the AMOLED displays found on most Motorola devices. Samsung, although it uses AMOLED, also tends to have very good screens.
If you have an opportunity to demo phones before you buy (in a carrier store, for instance), turn them on and turn them from side to side so you're looking at the display from an angle. Do the colors wash out? Do blacks start to look gray or white? Is there a noticeable gap between the surface of the touchscreen and the display itself? These are all signs of a lower-quality display. It may not bother you in practical, day-to-day use, but it's something to keep in mind.
The camera can be a big source of "spec overload," too. Just because a phone has a high megapixel count (often 8 or higher) doesn't mean it can take good pictures! A good smartphone camera, like any digital camera, is a symphony of hardware and software that includes quality optics, a good sensor, and image-processing software that's up to the task. When you're shopping for a smartphone, there's no real science to sniffing out the best cameras by looking at specs, unfortunately — your best bet is to read reviews and try them yourself. When you’re in the store, ignore the specs and just take some photos. Shake your hands a bit, try to test the low-light performance, and have your subjects move around. If you can’t get good photos in the a store environment, you can bet you won’t get them at home, either.
bigger is most definitely not always better
Just because a phone has a high megapixel count doesn't mean it can take good pictures!
The processor suffers from the same affliction as the camera: bigger numbers aren't always better. Much ado is made over quad-core processors these days, but in reality, there's very little benefit to these extra cores unless software is specifically written to take advantage of them. Android doesn't yet have all these issues ironed out, and it's not uncommon for phones with extremely beefy quad-core CPUs to stutter and lag just the same as older single-core models. Likewise, the processor's clock speed doesn't necessarily mean much: it's generally true that a higher clock speed (say, 1.2GHz or 1.5GHz) indicates better performance, but the amount of work that a processor can do per clock cycle varies from model to model.
That's not to say that you should ignore processor specs altogether, but be aware that most smartphones sold today — even inexpensive models — offer ample performance for everyday tasks. And it's really about the experience you have, not the processor's capabilities.
Similarly, the battery capacity — usually measured in mAh, or milliamp-hours — isn't an exact indication of how long the phone will last before it needs a recharge. The rate of battery drain is influenced by many things, including the number of apps running (which can be especially high on Android), the size and technology of the display, the speed of the processor, and the radio technology in use. Phones with LTE radios, for instance, drain at a considerably higher rate when LTE is turned on than phones without, so an LTE phone with a 2,000mAh battery might not last as long as an HSPA-only phone with a 1,700mAh battery. Quoted talk times are a slightly better indication, but as with the camera, your best bet is to keep an eye on reviewers' experiences.
If accessories are important to you, the iPhone tends to have a broader ecosystem of products available for it. You may have heard that Apple changed the connector on the bottom, moving to a smaller plug it calls the “Lightning connector.” That means that your old chargers and docks won’t be compatible without an adapter — but the Apple ecosystem moves is pretty fast and new accessories are already starting to become available. The consistency of the iPhone's design and the fact that it's such an overwhelmingly popular device all means that accessory makers support it more enthusiastically than any other phone on the market.
Of course, some accessories — Bluetooth headsets and car kits, for instance — are essentially universal, though some may have certain features that only work with certain devices. Here again the iPhone tends to win out, with compatibility with products like the Nike FuelBand and other health tracking products.
That's not to say that such accessories aren't available for other phones — carriers are usually very careful to ensure that a wide line of accessories are available with each new smartphone that they launch. Most smartphones use microUSB for charging nowadays, which are cheap and plentiful. Some phones — including many on Verizon — also offer wireless charging. It seems like a silly trick to set a phone down on a pad to charge it instead of plugging it in, but you’d be surprised how convenient it can be.
We've broken down the basics of software platforms and hardware choices, sure, but now it's time to get into some specifics. Unless you actually define yourself by your smartphone (something we don't recommend, by the way), chances are that you have some specific needs in mind. We can't identify every single use case scenario here, but we're going to try to hit the big ones.
Today's smartphones can be great mobile gaming platforms. It's not just that they're always with you, it's that there are some really solid games available for them. If you're a hardcore gamer or just want to get in a game of solitaire while waiting in line, there are two options we can recommend. First, iOS. It has the largest library of games and the best quality of games of any smartphone platform, period. iOS also has "Game Center," which offers some social networking features to connect with other gamers. The second option for Xbox users is Windows Phone. Your Xbox Live profile is built right in and Microsoft has teased us with the promise of turn-based gaming with Xbox console users. Microsoft hasn't fully lived up to the potential of Xbox integration with Windows Phone, but it has brought on some serious partners and there's a growing library of decent games.
It used to be that serious email users all went to BlackBerry, but RIM is launching an all-new OS next year and we can’t say whether it will continue to lead there. Until we know, you’ll want to look at other options. Windows Phone 8 has a strong Exchange experience for corporate users, but pretty much all smartphones have at least basic push email support for Exchange. If you're a Gmail user, there's nothing better than Android for a true Gmail experience.
Texting is king for a large swath of users and it's not limited to just SMS. Some people still swear by the BlackBerry Messenger service, but there are lots of alternatives these days. iPhones offer iMessage, a free alternative to SMS that automatically works with any modern iOS device and gracefully falls back to SMS when necessary. There are apps for Android as well, but they require both you and your friends to have apps installed. When all else fails, Facebook Messenger is another viable alternative.
All of the major platforms offer Facebook and Twitter apps. iOS and Windows Phone also offer integration right in the phone itself, if you want Facebook information in your contacts. Some Android phones do have decent social integration, but the experience varies so much from device to device that you'll need to look at each phone individually to see if it offers the features you want. We should note that as of this writing, the iPhone has the best and fastest Facebook app, though it’s not terrible on other platforms.
If you are looking to do office-style work beyond email, Windows Phone does the best job of handling Office documents out of the box. It also integrates with stuff like Sharepoint if you're in a corporate environment. iOS is a close second here because of its wide selection of quality office-compatible apps.
There's no getting around it: the people who invented the iPod and iTunes bring the best music and movie experience with iOS. You can download music and movies directly to your phone and stream to the Apple TV. If the iTunes ecosystem isn't your cup of tea, the second best option right now is probably a Windows Phone, which offers subscription music via Xbox. If the letters DLNA mean something to you, it's possible you're geeky enough to get an Android phone into the center of your media life. That option will take some work, though.
With the rising popularity of streaming music, that’s a consideration as well: Rdio and Spotify are available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, while MOG is currently available only on iOS and Android. Windows Phone also has Microsoft’s Xbox Music Pass, a $10 monthly service that basically gives you all-you-can-eat access to Xbox Music’s extensive catalog (which, in many cases, is deeper than the one you find on streaming-only services like Spotify).
Android wins here, hands-down. The free Google Maps and Google Navigation that comes on every modern Android phone has the best mapping and directions available, including the ability to do both offline with a little pre-planning. Windows Phone is a very close second, with Bing Maps (or Nokia maps) offering decent mapping services. Apple’s Maps on iOS still needs a lot of work, but it does offer turn-by-turn directions and Apple is promising to improve it quickly.
This one is less about the phones and more about the network. You're going to want to pick a carrier that works where you travel. In general, Verizon has the best coverage in the US, but most of its phones don't work internationally. AT&T and T-Mobile use the same networks as the rest of the world. International travelers will want to think seriously about getting a phone that is unlocked to use cheaper pre-paid cards while abroad. If you're really worried about data prices, you should know that BlackBerrys do the best job of limiting your bytes and Nokia phones offer really great data tracking options.
Although it doesn't have the highest megapixel count, the iPhone is usually the best option for people who want to use their camera as a phone. It's not just that iOS does a really great job of taking quick photos, it's that there are more and better photo manipulation apps for iOS than anything else out there. If having the best camera sensor is your thing, there are a few Android phones (and if you're really serious about it, some Symbian phones) that offer better sensors with higher megapixel counts, but you may need to go back to your computer for post-processing. Be prepared to do some research. Nokia is also pushing hard in this space, but its cameras sometimes require a practiced hand to get a great shot.
Now you just have to buy the darn thing
Now that you've made a decision on your carrier and your phone, you're almost there. Now you just have the buy the darn thing. A few pieces of advice on that.
First, you need to decided where to buy it from. You can go directly to your carrier's store. This is often the best option — it means you will get personal help from somebody and you'll be establishing a direct relationship with the company that you'll be paying monthly. If you find a cheap price online for your phone, don't let us stop you, but be sure to read the fine print. With third party sellers there may be a second early termination fee — those cheaper prices sometimes mean less flexibility if something goes awry.
Speaking of things going awry, there's no guarantee that you'll like the phone you've chosen. Make sure when you buy you find out exactly what the return period is and that you do everything you can in that time to make sure your phone is going to work for you. AT&T recently decreased its return policy from 30 to 14 days, too, so take note and don’t get stuck.
Finally, your smartphone will likely come with a one-year warranty from the manufacturer, but it's usually easier to handle warranty issues directly with the carrier. Most carriers also offer some sort of extended warranty plan for a monthly fee. This plan will cover a lot, but it will almost never cover water damage (which all phones have detection dots for). With most consumer electronics, it's best to skip the extended warranty from the seller. With phones, however, it's not such an easy call. The monthly fee is often reasonable and sometimes also makes it cheaper to replace the phone if it gets destroyed or lost. If you are hard on phones, it's worth considering.
Yes, smartphones are indeed like cars: intimidating to buy, available in all shapes and sizes, and no single one is right for everybody. But if you pick your carrier first — then pick your platform — there's a good chance you'll only be faced with a few smartphones that fit your needs. And remember that even once you sign your name on the dotted line, you're not trapped; you've still got time to back out and pick something that better meets your needs. No sweat.
Now that we've given you a crash course in all things smartphone, some of you will feel empowered to go forth, compare carrier plans, read some smartphone reviews, and put the screws to your local customer service agent about whether or not you'll be able to play Angry Birds Star Wars. Still looking a specific recommendation? Always keep an eye out for high scores on our ever-growing list of smartphone reviews. Also don't forget that you can head over to the Products section on The Verge to easily search, browse, and compare phones. And lastly, you can find our most recent picks for the best phones right here.
Go forth, compare carrier plans, read some smartphone reviews!
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