Tips for buying mobile phone:

If you are going to buy a mobile phone, the following tips may be useful.

1. Know your requirement and your budget first.


2. Basically , there are two types of handsets- GSM and CDMA.
   Knowing the difference between GSM and CDMA will help you choose the phone and carrier as per your needs.
   GSM phones have SIM cards. The removable SIM card allows phones to be instantly activated, interchanged, swapped out and upgraded, all without carrier intervention. The SIM itself is tied to the network, rather than the actual phone. Phones that are card-enabled can be used with any GSM carrier.
   The CDMA uses an equivalent, a R-UIM card.CDMA carriers require proprietary handsets that are linked to one carrier only and are not card-enabled. To upgrade a CDMA phone, the carrier must deactivate the old phone then activate the new one. The old phone becomes useless.
   CDMA has been traditionally faster than GSM, though both technologies continue to rapidly leapfrog along this path. Both boast "3G" standards, or 3rd generation technologies.
   Roaming coverage: GSM carriers, have roaming contracts with other GSM carriers, allowing wider coverage of more rural areas, generally speaking, often without roaming charges to the customer. CDMA networks may not cover rural areas as well as GSM carriers, and though they may contract with GSM cells for roaming in more rural areas, the charge to the customer will generally be significantly higher.
   
   International Roaming: If you need to make calls to other countries, a GSM carrier can offer international roaming, as GSM networks dominate the world market. If you travel to other countries you can even use your GSM cell phone abroad, providing it is a quad-band phone (850/900/1800/1900 MHz). By purchasing a SIM card with minutes and a local number in the country you are visiting, you can make calls against the card to save yourself international roaming charges from your carrier back home. CDMA phones that are not card-enabled do not have this capability, however there are several countries that use CDMA networks. Check with your CDMA provider for your specific requirements.
   
   The chief GSM carriers in the United States are Cingular Wireless, recently merged with AT&T Wireless, and T-Mobile USA. Major CDMA carriers are Sprint PCS, Verizon and Virgin Mobile.
   In India,major GSM operators are Airtel,Vodafone,Idea cellular.While there are only two CDMA operators RelianceMobile and TataIndicom..
3. If you plan to GSM operators, then while buying handset,check whether it is triband,quadband or dual band. Dual band phones don’t work in foreign countries.While triband and quadband phones work in foreign countries.
4. Check for the number of contacts and messages the phone can store.This is practically , a very important feature that people generally forget to think of while buying.
5. FM radio:
   Even low end phones nowadays have good quality inbuilt fm radios. Radio in mobile phones do not work without the headset. Also while buying make sure whether the radio works in loud speaker mode or just in the earphone mode. Some low-end radio phones do not play loud speaker radio.
6. Music player
   The music player in phones vary in quality with the price range.Sony Ericsson brought about a revolution in the mobile phone industry by introducing their music dedicated “Walkman” series in the market.If music is your priority make sure of the follwing things before buying a phone:
   
   
   
   • The phone has enough memory to store all your music or preferably it has extendable memory.
   • It supports the maximum type of formats like mp3,aac,avi,wav etc.. for eg. Most sony ericsson phones don’t play avi or wav sounds,while nokia supports both the formats.
   • Try to have a demo of the media player before purchase to make sure whether it suits your needs and if the quality matches your personal preferences.
   • Be sure about the file transfer facilities available.A datacable or a Bluetooth makes it easy and convenient to transfer media files.
   • I would personally recommend you to go for the sony ericsson walkman series if music is your opmost priority.
7. GPRS ,MMS and Internet:
   GPRS in simple terms is mobile internet.It help surf mobile sites using your phone.Mobile sites usually start with wap intead of www. Many WAP sites have come into existence is the GPRS is becoming more and more popular.GPRS is most useful in checking mails on the go,using mobile messengers,and downloading media to your phone.GPRS is usually charged on per kb transfer basis by mobile operators.Using java softwares like opera mini(mobile browser),you can surf almost any site using your mobile phone.
8. Camera:
   The quality of the picture taken by the phone depends on the following factors:
   
   • The resolution of the camera (it maybe anything from VGA (640*480) to 5 Megapixels.Recently Samsung introduced 7 megapixel camera phones)
   • The lens used.(High end nokia phones use Carl-Zeiss optics which provide a very high quality image. But that doesn’t mean that phones which do not have such lenses are bad camera phones)
   • Additional features
     Built-in flash:This helps in taking photos in darkness,albeit the flash is not very powerful except in high-end phones.
     Autofocus:It improves the quality of the pictures taken compared to phones without autofocus camera.
     Bestpix:Typical of SE phones,it takes a series of pictures and helps you get the best shot.
     Nightmode:it helps capture better pictures even in bad light.
     Macro mode:Useful to take close up shots.
   
   Also make sure that the camera lens does have a lens-cover.It reduces chances of damage to the lens.
   The more the resolution,the more space a picture taken will occupy.For eg. A typical 2mp camera phone occupies around 250-500 KB memory.
9. Blue tooth facility:
   Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology used today for connecting and transferring information between devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, PDAs, printers, digital cameras, mice and keyboards.
   As different devices use different cables and plugs to connect to other devices, it can be tricky to move data around -- most phones have a unique, proprietary port to serve as an interface, for example. Bluetooth defines wireless standards that allow data to be transferred between such devices securely, easily and, of course, free of cables.
   
   Here are the advantages:
   Cable-free, so less messy leads to worry about
   Interoperability - In most cases, you can use your portable Bluetooth device to connect with other existing Bluetooth points, without having to carry a data lead and CD of drivers around with you
   Here's an example of some of the things you can do with today's Bluetooth:
   Use your PDA and mobile to surf or check emails on the move
   Transfer files (such as mp3s and photos) to and from your mobile
   A wire-free headset for your mobile
   Backup your PDA or mobile to your PC
   Use a Bluetooth GPS device for satellite navigation on your PDA, laptop or mobile.
10. Infrared facility in mobile phones:
    Infrared is a wireless file transfer method ,which has become less popular these days because of Bluetooth which has more features.
    Infrared works only at a very close range (5-7cms),and has a slower speed compared to Bluetooth.You can transfer files like mp3s,pictures,videos etc using infrared.
    The infrared technology works through the straight line connectivity which works by in sight feature. It means your infrared port should be must pointed towards the other phone you wish to connect.
    Today mobile having low memory acceptance also featuring Bluetooth has resulted in minimum use of infrared.But still for unknown reasons, mobile phone manufacturers still provide infrared ports!(alongwith Bluetooth).
11. Global positioning system , road maps
    High end phones have GPS systems,even google maps.But these features are not practically that useful for a normal mobile user.So wasting your bucks for GPS systems does not make that much sense unless you are an adventurer or a spy!!
12. Videography:
    The quality of the video taken by the phone mainly depends on the resolution of video the phone supports.Typically for mobile phones,it may vary anywhere from 176*220 to 640*480 .
    The higher the resolution ,the better the quality.
    Another important aspect is the frame rate.But most mobile phones these days have 15 frames per second rate.
    So if video shooting is your priority while buying a phone then you may check for the resolution for shoot and frames per rate.
    Normally in the mid-range,Nokia phones give a better video quality compared to other phones as they support a higher resolution(640*480).But in almost all mid-rang to high-end phones,the video quality is average.
13. Video call
    Nowadays phones have a secondary video camera in the front having low resolution which can be used for video calls.But these facilities being not provided by operators (esp. in India) , its practrically useless!Also these cameras cant even be used for normal photo capture purpose,thus if you are buying it,you are not only wasting some money but adding some unnecessary weight to your phone!
14. If you plan to purchase it on credit card, and will repay in more than six installments, then it is better to convert it into loan from the credit card company, ranging from 6 to 18 installments. This will not only reduce the loan interest, but also reduce the monthly burden. Check out for tenure and minimum amount with the credit card company for this. Normally, companies like HSBC allows Rs. 2,000/- while ABN AMRO allows Rs. 5,000/-.
15. If you want to use mobile banking like-
    Transfer your funds to any bank account.
    Pay your utility bills.
    Make balance enquiries.
    Make cheque book request, get cheque status and issue ‘stop cheque’ instructions.
    Recharge your prepaid mobile.
    View details of your credit card account, DEMAT account and loan account, etc.
    
    For this basically java enabled handsets is required. May check the compatibility on the concerned bank’s website, if providing such facilities.
16. Check out the following sites for more guidance.
    http://univercell.in/
    http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/
    http://www.mobile-review.com/index-en.shtml
    http://sony-ericsson-stuff.blogspot.com/

Update 1 (12.04.09):

Unbranded Chinese mobiles to be useless soon in INDIA:

As per the report published in The Times of India (04.04.09), around 30 million mobile phones- or about 8% of all mobiles in the country- will become useless by the end of this month of April 09. These are unbranded Chinese mobiles that do not have IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers and pose a serious security risk.

All mobile phone service users have been directed by the department of telecommunication to disconnect these phones.

All mobile phone service users have undertaken to acquire the necessary equipment to track these Chinese phones and discontinue their services by the end of this month of April 09.They already missed two deadlines – January 6 and March 31.

IMEI:

IMEI is a 15 to 17 digit code which appears on the operator's network whenever a call is made.

The IMEI number is also used by the GSM network to identify valid devices and therefore can be used to stop a stolen phone from accessing the network.

If the Mobile phone is stolen, the owner can contact their mobile network provider and ask them to disable a phone using its IMEI number. With an IMEI number, the phone can be blocked from the network quickly and easily. It will be useless even if SIM is changed because IMEI number is stored in the phone itself, not on the SIM cards.

The IMEI can be displayed on most mobile handsets by dialling *#06#.  It is usually found printed on the phone underneath the battery.

Update 2 [25.01.2014]: 

LG G2 , LG G PRO 

 LENOVO VIBE X SMARTPHONE 

SAMSUNG S4 & SAMSUNG S4 MINI

[Update: 10.05.14]