Smartphone Buying Guide: 5 Tips for Finding the Right Phone

 

5 Quick Tips

• iOS is easier to use; Android gives you more choice. If you're torn between iOS and Android, opt for an iPhone if you want something that's easy to use and gets both the hottest apps first and the timeliest software updates. Android is better if you want more hardware choices and more affordable options.

• Don't pay more than you need to for a phone. While the iPhone 8, Galaxy S8 and premium Android phones start at around $700 and cost upward of $1,000, there are great cheap unlocked-phone options below $500 and even some solid choices for less than $300.

• Get the right size screen. Buy a phone with a screen smaller than 5.5 inches if one-hand use is important to you or if you have smaller hands. (See Best Small Phones for more.) Get a bigger-screen phone if you like to watch a lot of videos, play games or want to take advantage of the multiwindow mode in Android. Still, phone-makers are now making big-screen phones, such as the 5.8-inch Galaxy S8, that fit comfortably in one hand thanks to larger 18:9 aspect ratios.

• For a phone's display, color quality and brightness matter more than resolution. A 4K screen on a phone is nice to have but kind of overkill. Pay more attention to how bright the display is, so it will be easy to see outdoors, and how colorful the panel is (AMOLED panels are better than LCD in this regard). The very latest phones offer high dynamic range (HDR) for displaying even more colors.

• Ignore camera megapixels. Along with battery life, the camera has become the most important smartphone feature. Pay attention to specs such as aperture (lower numbers are better) and special features such as dual lenses and optical image stabilization. Ignore the megapixels. See the Best Camera Phones for our top picks.