What is the best Android? Technically there is no such thing as “The best”. As Android users or soon to be users, we have an enormous selection at our disposal. It all comes down to what suits your needs most. The most powerful Android isn’t always the best one. There are a lot of key features you will want to look at.
Main features you should look for straight away:
- Dose it have camera flash?
- Dose it have a front camera?
- A wide range of accessories?
- How old is this phone?
- What operating system does it come with? (Will there be updates soon?)
- Is this company coming out with an upgraded model very soon? (don’t want to get stuck with last years model)
- How much can I sell it for on private sales? (incase you want to upgrade in the future)
- How much internal memory? (Some phones only come with 2 to 4Gb of memory. Upgrading this adds to the overall cost of the phone)
- How is the battery life? (Music playback; some phones advertise 12 hours music playback, others up to 32+. Pay close attention to this.)
Some stores will only tell you what you want to hear to make a sale, so I recommend finding these facts before shopping. My friend bought a Samsung Galaxy S Captivate. The battery advertises 12 hours of music playback, it also has no flash and the phone is nearly a year old. When he learned this after showing me his new phone he became unhappy with it, learning how many newer and better models there were to choose from. He tried to exchange the phone (had been less then a week) and they refused. He’s stuck with a dated phone that he’s not entirely happy with due to lack of research.
On to the issue of refunds and exchanges. I recommend to all my readers, friends, and family to ALWAYS buy their phones full price from either Futureshop or Bestbuy. The reason behind this is they both offer a 14 day return policy on undamaged phones. This means a 14 day free trial for you.
Brand names are very important, not only do they give you an idea what the phone will look like, they will also tell you the quality and features of the phone. HTC is famous for their sense UI (User Interface) and loads widgets specially made just for HTC sense phones. They also offer lots of social media tools. Brands like Acer on the other hand are your budget brand phones. They have only been in the business of Android phones for approximately two years and their quality of phones are less then desirable. The Acer Liquid MT offers some cool LED light notification features, but it fails at nearly everything else compared to other brands.
When it comes to cameras, remember that higher megapixels doesn’t always mean a better quality picture. Every phone, every company has their own style and software used to run their cameras. Some work fantastically, where others may fall short in low light conditions, moving pictures, or blur very easy from hand movement. These key features are paramount in a great functioning camera.
All these things I listed and talked about are what I consider key features. As I said at the beginning, “It’s about what suits you most”. Some of you may not agree with everything listed or perhaps you feel I missed some key features that are worth mentioning. If that is the case, please feel free to add to this list with your own concerns and things to look for.