Shopper's Guide to Smartphones

Now that everyone is in the midst of the holiday season shopping rush, many people are making crucial decisions about what gifts to buy. Topping the lists of many eager gift recipients this year are the ever-popular smartphones. The primary difference between a smartphone and your run of the mill cell phone is the smartphone's capability to perform tasks such as web-browsing and employing the use of the millions of applications, or apps, for anything as trivial as searching movie times to tracking stocks and accessing files from your home computer.

The dilemma faced by many shoppers is the fact that each smartphone comes with a list of pros and cons. Weighing the many factors involved in such a purchase may be confusing. However, the primary list of things to consider is affordability, speed, versatility, and customer service. Each smartphone that you encounter on the market has varying levels of reliability in each of the aforementioned attributes.

As far as affordability is concerned, it is important to remember that the ultimate dollar amount paid goes beyond the price-tag in the store. Because smartphones process a high level of data, service providers will charge more than the typical rate for standard phone service. Speed is an issue that is contested by providers - some claim that 3G networks are reliable and fast, while others tout 4G as being superior. Versatility is not a huge factor, but do consider that some phones have more features than others. Finally, be sure to research the service providers of certain phones, as some providers will only support certain phones (e.g. AT&T is the only provider for Apple's iPhone).