Introduction to buying a mobile phone
The Mobile Phone is now an every day consumer item. In many developed markets every adult now has at least one mobile phone with youth culture adopting them as the must have gadget or fashion accessory. One thing that cant be denied is that they are now part of every day life, essential for work and play and that technology has moved on to offer a huge variety of mobile phone products and gadgets. This buying guide will help you think about what you want to buy and explain some of the key features you should understand and consider in your next mobile phone purchase. You should also use the vast amount of mobile phone reviews that are available on the web to see what other consumers think about each model.

The first step is to sit down and think very carefully about what you want the phone for. Is it going to be used for work calls where you want maximum batter life and a good contract for high volume every day use to landlines and various networks. Alternatively it may be for personal use, a fashion accessory that needs to look cool and have all the latest gadgets and functions so you can wow your friends. Make sure you really understand what you are buying the phone for and how you will use it to help make the right choice. Just going out to buy a cheap mobile phone could end up very expensive indeed.

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Mobile Tariffs
This can be a complex and overwhelming area to consider when purchasing a phone but ultimately it will determine how expensive your phone purchase will be. Ideally you will understand how you use your phone, for example do you call other mobile phone networks often, use your phone mostly in the week at peak times, make overseas calls or send lots of text messages. This data will help you determine what mobile phone deal is right for you? There are two types of mobile phone package to consider
Contract Contract deals are the most popular. The user will commit to a minimum of 12 months at an agreed monthly fee. This will include a number of free calls and text messages and often with additional incentives like cash back, free gift or free handset insurance. However be very careful to examine the full detail of the contracts. For example you may take a low monthly deal and only get 50 minutes a month of free calls to landline phones. If you then go over that time limit and make lots of calls to other mobiles you may end up paying heavy premium rates. The good news for consumers is that the major mobile networks are very competitive in saturated markets and there is endless choice, just take time to find the best deal for your requirements. You also get a large range of all the latest mobile phones, often for free or at very cheap prices as the networks make more from these longer term contract deals.
Pay As You Go or PAYG These deals are ideal for people who just want to pay for what they use. It is essentially a prepay system and is easily topped up when ever you need more credit. The downside is that you usually get a more limited choice of phones, often need to pay a fee for the phone, although still subsidised and the calls will be more expensive than on a contract deal. This is a popular choice for students or parents buying phones for their children where they wish to manage the budget.
Sim Free it is still possible to buy a mobile phone without a contract or PAYG deal in place. As these wont have the Sim cards are they are often called Sim Free phones. The modern mobile phone is a small box of high tech gadgetry and buying the newest models with out a contract or PAYG can cost you more than 400. The mobile phone networks subsidise the cost of the hardware with the profits they make from

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Mobile Phone Style
Phones have come a long way since the first models were launched. Talk to mobile phone users as they will roll off their preferences. From Silver mobile phones to ultra slim mobile phones or flip mobile phones to pink mobile phones. Mobile phones with 2 mega pixel digital cameras or mobile phones loaded up with java games. Mobile phones have even started to cross over into fashion and mobile computing with introductions of models like the LG chocolate mobile phone or the Blackberry. Many people like the reliable and solid performance of Nokia mobile phones, the current market leading manufacturer where as other like the wafer thin and slim Motorola Razr range. Samsung have come to the market in a big way bringing technically enhanced displays and strong styling. Finally you had the marriage of former mobile phone producer Ericsson and the electronics giant Sony to produce the Sony Ericsson phones. The new range includes the Walkman branded media player giving them a competitive edge in the market. One thing that is clear is that a mobile phone today can be your personal organiser, digital camera, MP3 player or portable radio. It is an accessory that says a lot about the person using it and continues to evolve at an astonishing rate. If you are about to buy a mobile phone its often a lifestyle statement.

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3G Third generation Mobile Phones
It came in a storm when mobile phone networks paid billions to get new licences for third generation or 3g mobile networks. This was the advent of high quality data streaming allowing Mobile phone users to get access to content and services youd only expect to see on computers. The launch wasnt quite up to the hype but all mobile operators now offer enhanced services and new networks like Three (3) provide a lot of additional content and services with popular TV shows, sport and video games now coming online. These services vary depending on what and who you are using so make sure you investigate this is you want to use your mobile phone to its maximum capacity. Also make sure you fully understand any additional charges for using these services.

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Battery Life
This does vary by model but most modern mobile phones will now give you anything from 40 100 hours. It is still important to give your battery a full 24 hour+ charge when you take the phone out of the box and obviously the batter will suffer wear over time. It will also depend on how you use your phone. If you just send lots of text messages you can expect batteries to need charging infrequently. However lengthy calls and heavy use of rich media will see you needing to charge every other day. It is important to run batteries down occasionally and then give a full charge. Partially charging every night may speed up the battery degradation.

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Additional Features
Media players the latest mobile phones usually have some form of media player. This allows you to store your images, video clips and music. Motorola have made a feature of giving phones a music maker application where as Sony Ericsson provide the walkman branded media player for your multimedia requirements.
Nokia in particular have made FM radio standard on many of their handsets. The quality is good but like all radio you need access to good clear signals for clear transmission. It can be very frustrating trying to use this on trains for example.
One of the most popular innovations for mobile phones over the last few years has been the addition of a digital camera function on the handset. Users have quickly taken to sending MMS (Multimedia Messages) and recording short video footage of friends and family. The video quality is still usually very low and storage capacity is very limited, often only allowing 10 15 second clips but this is constantly improving. A Nokia N95 provides a large LCD display, 5 mega pixel digital camera, wireless connectivity, web browser, MP3 Player and GPS navigation functionality.

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Mobile Phone Games
All mobiles come with a selection of games and things have moved on from classics like snake which was initially installed on every Nokia phone. You will often see commuters passing the time of a long trip whilst playing a round of golf or a game of poker. Importantly you can now also download games or subscribe to services so if this is something important to you then make sure you investigate what your phone has installed.

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WAP
This is the term that refers to the technology that allows smaller web pages for internet access on a mobile phone.

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GSM
The Global System for Mobile. This refers to the frequency bands used around the world. A tri-band mobile phone will allow you to use it in most regions around the world. More recently quad-band phones are available to cover all four existing frequencies for use any where in the world.

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Predictive Text
This is a common tool that allows the phone to interpret the words you are typing by a single touch rather than multiple tapping of keys to select the correct letter. Once you are familiar with it you will find it accurate and quicker than normal text messaging.

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Bluetooth
A technology used to connect electronic devices wirelessly. This can prove very useful if you need to connect your phone to a laptop.

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Mobile Phone Ringtones
All mobile phones come with a number of free ring tones on the phone. Most phones will now come with Polyphonic capabilities providing high quality sounding music. Downloading ringtones is now common and available from numerous websites. You can usually find anything and download it as a ringtone including a number one hit from the charts or a blockbuster soundtrack from the movies.

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Mobile Phone Accessories
This is becoming ever more important as people look to make the most of all the extra multimedia functionality. Manufacturers like Nokia and Bose have been quick to build speakers and headphones to enhance the music capabilities for customers. Also legislation and frequent usage have combined to make hands free and car kits essential for many people. ,Car Kits ,Headsets ,Phone Covers ,Batteries ,Chargers

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