This review or rather an opinion is for people who dont want to change their mobile every now and then and those who are money conscious.Others please avoid reading this review.
This review is only based upon my knowledge of nokia and sony ericsson phones.there may be errors so pls comment out them.the budget that I have kept in my mind for people reading this review is less than or equal to 7500.
It has been nearly 3 weeks since I am searching for a mobile phone. I have learnt quite a few lessons within these 3 weeks.Owning a mobile might not be a great thing for some people but for a few people like me it is something special.Based on my experiences till now, I would like to write down a few steps for buying a mobile for such people.
- Have good idea of what all features you need.
a.)style: candy bar, fold, slide.depends on personal taste.candy bar design have long lasting effect than fold or slide which may get damaged after 2 or 2.5 years.
b.)colour:black, white, red, green etc etc.again depends on personal taste.white phones may get soiled soon but they do not reveal the finger prints so often, black phones reveal finger prints but are more resistant to soiling.
c.)keypad layout:some phones may look pretty good due to their keypad layout but it may affect ergonomics.
d.)quality of materials:plastic, metal etc.:plastic phones.will easily get scratched if you are a frequent user and pull out the phone everytime out of your tight jeans pockets.but they are cheap. Metal phones are more resistant to scratches, expensive, long lasting, have better finish etc etc.Also the colourcoating may peel off from the plastic but not from metal.
After you have decided the style lets get into a battery life. Nokia phones generally tend to have more battery life than SE but SE is also competing in this field, lately though.
e.)Battery life:If you want long talk time then go for phones having battery capacity above 1000mAh(milli ampere hour).otherwise, if its listening to music/radio and less talking/smsing then 700mAh would suffice.
f.)Voice clarity/Antenna reception:Again nokia phones tend to score here more than SE, though it is a slight advantage.I have no idea about samsung or motorola.What I have observed is that it all depends on the piece u buy.if you are unlucky then u will end having bad call voice clarity.otherwise most of the phones are good in this.
g.)Camera:frankly I would like to say u better buy a digicam rather than using ur phone as a camera for this budget range.Use ur phone camera only if you dont have ur digicam around you.Also some mobile phones may have this so called digital zoom.actually digital zoom is useless.what needed is optical zoom which 95% of camera mobiles dont have.
h.)Connectivity:Most of the phones in this price range come with bluetooth/usb.will come in handy.
i.)Music:SE phones have much better music(whether it is mp3 or radio) than nokia.
j.)Durability:Again it a matter of luck.if you get a defected piece(or which may get defected after few days or months).you will suffer a lot because the after sales service provided in india by SE or nokia is very very poor.if you are lucky, then your phone wont bother you for about 4 years.
2.)OK so now you have deiced upon the features.The best place to browse for a phone is the internet(not the best place to buy).first go to nokia or SE website, feed in the requirements.then you will definitely find atleast 5 phones having those features.then again go to google to check prices of the models that you wish to buy.this may be painstaking(becuz it will take from 3 or 4 days to 3 or 4 weeks to decide which mobile you are buying) but rewarding.
3.)Find a store in your locality.BUT.before purchasing, just check about the store at different website like mouthshut, complaintsboard.in etc etc.you must be very careful at this stage.bargain if you can(.get a friend who bargains nicely if you want) .but after all dont care about how much you pay.pay attention to the mobile and the features you want in it.some mobiles come with datacable+memory stick, some dont.so if you buy a mobile which doesnt come with usb cable(but if u need to purchase it) u will end up paying the same amount as the model which comes with usbb cable.same is the case with memory stick.micro SD cards are cheaper than memory stick(M2)(SE compatible).these things will help you to chose the mobile which fits your budget.
Whew.the above mentioned are only my personal views.the experiences which I went through when I chose a mobile for me.these are just pure personal views any reader who finds any shortcomings pls comment on them.