The first quarter of 2013 has already seen a multitude of new mobiles released, including the anxiously awaited Samsung Galaxy S4. And there are some great new features around too.
If you're thinking about buying a new mobile, then these new features are something that you might want to be on the look out for. Today we're talking about the features that are being seen on new mobiles, and whether or not they're worth going for...
New Mobiles Have 4G...
All of the newly released top end models on the market are 4G capable phones, and we're even starting to see 4G as somewhat standard in mid-range models. 4G is a new form of internet connectivity that promises faster mobile internet speeds, smoother downloading, and is capable of streaming video much better than regular 3G.4G is definitely a good thing, and it is a feature that we're looking for on a new mobile. However, there are a couple of down sides. The first is that 4G isn't available all over the country, with plenty of customers still only being able to connect over 3G networks.
Plus, some mobile phone operators still don't have either 4G networks or 4G plans, so it's important to check what's available in your location through your operator before making a 4G decision. The second problem is that with 4G internet speeds are so fast that it's pretty easy to use up your calling plan's data allowance unless you've got unlimited data, so watch out for those extra charges.
...and Bigger Screens...
The majority of recently released high end phones have screen sizes hovering around the five inch mark, and mid rangers rarely fall below four inches any more. In general, this is great. A larger screen not only makes for a far better viewing experience for videos and internet pages, but it also makes typing on the on screen touch keyboard far easier and more comfortable.And with the kinds of screen resolutions that we're seeing nowadays, the display quality on these big screens is pretty awesome. But, and there's always a but, these five inch screens are making for mobiles that are getting a little ridiculous in size.
It's still possible to slide a five inch screen mobile into your top shirt pocket, but only just. And with the announcement of Samsung's new Mega phone, with a massive 6.1 inch screen, we can't help but think that things may be starting to get out of hand.
...and Bigger Processors...
Processing power is good. With all the things that we expect our phones to do nowadays, not to mention the fact that we like multi-tasking and running lots of applications at the same time, we definitely need a powerful engine under the hood. With good processing power in the 1.5 to 2 GHz range right now, we've got some serious power. |
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Even better, smart phone manufacturers are heading away from the traditional single processor model and heading more and more towards better dual or quad core processors, so we get even more power. The Galaxy S 4 is a great example, coming with a massive octo-core processor.
And these are smart processors too. The S 4 can use all eight processors on demand, but it's also smart enough to know when it's not necessary to use all eight, and will switch some of them off so that you can save on battery power.
...and Intelligent Screens...
Whilst it's been common for a while that your smart phone's screen can detect movement on the screen and not go into sleep mode, we're starting to see screens that detect motion directed towards the screen and not switch off. Detecting movement on screen means that you can safely watch a video or movie without your phone switching the screen off to save battery power.However, detecting motion directed towards the screen means that the screen can tell when you're looking at it, reading a web page, say, and not switch off. Even better, the Galaxy S4's smart screen will detect the motion of your eyes, and automatically scroll down pages as you're reading. Anything that stops us getting our greasy finger prints on that fragile touch screen is good by us.
...and More Memory...
Whereas just a couple of years ago 16 GB of internal storage was seen as top end (with the exception of iPhones, which have always had huge storage capacities), nowadays new top end releases are more likely to come with 32 GB or even 64 GB of internal memory.Now, we all like to take hundreds of pictures and have them available to us on demand, and even to keep plenty of albums to listen to on our phones, but we have to wonder whether this increased storage is really necessary, or if it's just a marketing ploy. 64 GB is a lot of storage, more than the majority of people will ever use.
On top of that, with cloud storage and the use of apps like Dropbox becoming ever more common, it's not really necessary that most of us keep everything on our phone. We can simply connect to the internet and grab the picture we want from our online storage (which is usually free, as opposed to the premium prices we're paying for big memory phones).
...and Big Prices...
And finally, something that we really don't like, is that big phones are still coming at big prices. The past couple of years have not seen mobile prices drop, as we would have expected, but instead new top end devices are coming at more and more expense. All three of the top high end mobile phones on the market retail for well over five hundred pounds. We do like a lot of the new features that we're seeing, but we are paying for them...
Sam JonesAbout the Author:
Sam Jones knew that some of the new mobiles had better features than his current handset. He decided to upgrade so logged on to uSwitch to find what deals were available.