Best Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide

Here’s the Best Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide

If you’ve been confused by the sheer number of smartphones available and can’t work out which one you should buy, then you’ve come to the right place. After testing hundreds of mobile phones, we’ve sifted through all of the reviews to bring you the definitive list of what’s commonly available. We’ve even got a handy buying guide to help you narrow down your choice.

Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide

Smartphones are so useful that they’re already near-indispensable in our lives, but finding the right one for you and your budget can be tricky, especially when there are so many expensive contracts to sift through. To make things easier, we’ve rounded up everything you need to know about buying your perfect smartphone as well as what you need to know about picking out a contract.

Best Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide, Which smartphone operating system do I need?

The first, and probably most important, decision to make is which operating system you want your phone to run. This will dictate what the phone is like to use, which features it has as standard and the apps you can install on the phone to add to its capabilities. There are three main choices: Apple iOS, Google Android and Windows Phone 8.1. All are slick, modern operating systems, but each offers a very different user experience and the handsets available with each OS vary widely.

iOS is only available on Apple’s own smartphones. Its big rival Android has made some great gains in terms of smooth operation, but iOS still feels like the slickest OS, as the phone never seems to judder or slow down – something which can happen on even high-end Android handsets. Some argue that its interface is a bit simplistic, and it’s not as customisable as Android, but there’s no doubt it’s incredibly easy to use and the latest version made it more open than ever before. See our full iOS 8.1 review for more information.

Apple iOS is also still the best-supported OS with the widest range of apps, although Android is very close behind. Finally, Apple is very good at providing updates for older handsets, so you’ll very likely be able to download and install the latest version of iOS when it’s released.

Best Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide, Android is iOS’s biggest competitor and is by far the world’s most popular smartphone operating system, running on around 80% of smartphones. Any handset manufacturer is free to make a phone with Android, which leads to a huge choice of smartphones at a wide range of prices. For this reason, most people will end up choosing an Android smartphone, as all the choice means it’s easy to find one that exactly fits your requirements. There are many different versions of Android available, but Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) or higher is recommended, as older versions are now outdated and may not have comprehensive app support.

On top of this, manufacturers customise their own version of Android, which means that the experience differs. For example, Android 5.0 Lollipop review explains how the latest version works, but the experience differs a lot between different manufacturers; our reviews, explain how Android behaves on that particular phone. These customisations mean that Android update process can be pretty painful, with the latest version of Android often taking months to arrive on a particular handset, as manufacturers have to make their operating system customisations work with the new Android version. If you’re wondering if your handset will get an upgrade, read our Android Lollipop update guide for the full lowdown.

There’s a huge range of apps available in the Google Play store, and the number almost matches the number available in Apple’s App Store. Android app quality is also improving, but iOS apps generally still have the edge. Also, while app makers will almost always make a version of their app for iOS, not all apps make it over to Android.

The third main smartphone OS is Windows Phone 8.1. This is also available on phones from different manufacturers, but Nokia (now Microsoft) makes by far the most. Windows Phone is a highly accomplished OS, which is incredibly smooth and intuitive to use. We love its Live Tiles, which are large icons that display information from apps, such as your latest calendar appointments.

Best Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide, There are a couple of disappointments on Windows Phone, though, as there are nowhere near as many apps available for the platform as on Android and iOS. However, Microsoft is constantly updating the Windows Phone Store with new apps and services and the selection is improving rapidly. Before buying a Windows Phone handset, check that there isn’t an app missing from the platform which you can’t live without, and read our Windows Phone 8.1 review.

What should I look for in a smartphone display?

As most smartphones are controlled entirely with their touchscreens, the size and quality of a handset’s display is highly important. A larger screen will make everything easier to read and is particularly useful for web browsing, but a big display makes for a big phone which you may find harder to carry around.

Screen resolution is also important. The latest Android phones have Full HD (1,920×1,080) or above screens, so everything is incredibly detailed. However, this resolution isn’t strictly necessary: a 1,280×720 (or thereabouts) resolution still provides plenty of detail, while an 800×480 screen is fine for a budget model. A screen’s pixel density, measured in pixels per inch (PPI), will give you can idea of how clear and sharp text will appear on a screen; a smaller number of pixels stretched across a huge screen, for example, will lead to jagged edges.

Screen technology can be important, with Super AMOLED screens and LCD the two main technologies. In Super AMOLED screens, each pixel is self-illuminated, rather than filtering through light from a backlight as on LCD screens, so you get better contrast with deeper blacks, as well as lower power consumption. The disadvantage is that such screens use PenTile sub-pixel arrangements. In a traditional display, there are three sub-pixels per pixel (one red, one green and one blue), which combine to create a final colour; PenTile screens typically use two sub-pixels (one green and alternate red and blue). The result is that AMOLED screens may not have quite the colour accuracy of LCD models. Our reviews tell you how good each screen really is.

Best Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide, Battery life and performance

A modern smartphone is a proper computer, with most models having at least dual-core processors, if not quad-core. Some phones even have eight cores, with four lower-power cores dedicated to less-intensive tasks. The speed of a processor determines how fast each handset is, how slick the OS feels, and how the phone copes with complicated web pages, but you can’t tell this from specs alone.

Best Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide, to test performance we run a web browser benchmark on each phone and also a 3D test to see how well a handset can cope with modern games. We also play a video on repeat to test each phone’s battery life; some phones will cope with a couple of days away from the mains, but most phones need charging every day. Our guide to smartphone battery life gives more detail and shows how the top 60 phones of 2014 compare.

How much smartphone storage do I need?

Having enough storage space is vital. Apps, especially games, take up plenty of room, and you’ll also need space for your photos, videos and music. All phones have a certain amount of onboard storage, but a handset’s pre-installed apps can eat into that. Our reviews will tell you if there’s not much space left for you to use.

Some phones let you expand their storage with microSD cards. With 32GB cards costing less than £20, this is a cheap way to add more capacity. Generally speaking, a minimum of 8GB of onboard storage is fine if there’s a microSD card slot; 16GB should be the minimum otherwise. Some cheap phones only have 4GB of onboard storage, so you’ll definitely need to add a microSD card to get the most out of your smartphone.

Do I need 4G on my smartphone?

Best Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide, All smartphones support 3G, but only some models support 4G (LTE). 4G is incredibly fast, but 4G contracts can still be expensive. Prices are coming down, however. Bear in mind that all smartphones have Wi-Fi built in, which will help you cut down on mobile data use when you’re on your home or a guest network, as well as letting you take advantage of super-fast data speeds.

How should I buy a smartphone?

Best Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide, You can get smartphones from £80 all the way up to around £1,000, but this largely depends on how much you’ve got and how you want to pay. Generally speaking, buying a phone unlocked and SIM-free is the best option, as you can use any SIM you like and sell the phone when you want to upgrade, but you do have to have the money up-front. Don’t buy a PAYG phone, as you’ll end up paying the SIM-free price, but with your phone locked to a network (with the exception of on Three, which doesn’t lock phones). If you can’t stomach the up-front cost, then go with a contract, but work out the total cost of it over the period to make sure you aren’t getting ripped off: if you can afford a bit more up-front, you’ll most likely save over the contract’s length.

Article: Best Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide

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Best Smartphone 2015 Buying Guide