How to Find a Smartphone That Meets Your Needs

In the 21st century, a smartphone is almost as important as food, shelter, and running water. We need them to access many services, communicate with others, manage our money, and even do our work.  In some instances, you may even need a smartphone to buy everyday essentials or gain access to your house, car, or office. 

Therefore, there is almost a guarantee that you’ll need to have one of these pocket-sized computers, even if you’re operating on a budget.  The original iPhone, when it launched back in 2007, cost £250. But today, you can very easily spend more than £1,000 on a flagship handset from Apple, Samsung, or a long line of other manufacturers. 

Thankfully, you don’t actually need to blow the best part of a month’s wage on a phone as there are plenty of cheaper options that are suitable for many people. Instead, it’s best to find a handset that meets your needs and therefore avoid paying for unnecessary bells and whistles. 

Basic Usage

If all you plan to do is make phone calls, doom scroll through Twitter, send a few WhatsApp messages, and read the news, then you can essentially buy any smartphone. There’s no need to buy an expensive option as a budget option like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11, Nokia C21 Plus, or a refurbished iPhone 8 will all work perfectly. Each cost less than £200, so you won’t be breaking the bank. 

Games

Smartphones have really helped to increase interest in gaming over the last decade as hundreds of millions more people now have devices capable of playing them. 

The range of titles available on smartphones is vast, starting at simple casual games like Angry Birds and working all the way up to blockbuster names like Call of Duty.

Smartphone owners in the UK and many other countries also have access to online casinos through their mobile browsers and dedicated apps. This opens up thousands of additional games, including traditional card and table games. Mobile casinos generally offer multiple versions of well-known titles, so instead of just finding one version of blackjack online, players can choose from variants like Premium Blackjack and High Roller Blackjack. 

While you won’t get the best experience with the cheapest handsets on the market, you’ll find that most games will run on most smartphones released in the last few years. Even resource-intensive first-person shooters can run on the majority of devices, they’ll just turn down the graphics settings and take a little longer to load. 

If you plan on gaming on a regular basis, you’ll want at least a mid-range device like OnePlus Nord CE 2, the iPhone SE 3, or the Google Pixel 6a. However, you may get a slight performance improvement with a more expensive model. 

The cameras installed on smartphones in recent years have changed radically. They’ve gone from having a single sub-HD sensor to being able to capture photos and videos in 4K. 

Of course, if you’re a diehard photographer, you’re not going to throw out your DSLR and replace it with an iPhone, but you’ll be able to take some seriously beautiful snaps with a smartphone. 

All smartphones are capable of capturing decent images, but the “Pro” models from manufacturers like Apple, OnePlus, and Samsung usually get you the best photography features. 

For example, the iPhone 13 Pro contains three 12 MP sensors, a wide lens, an ultrawide, and a telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. It also packs in a 3D LiDAR scanner to add depth to images. 

The OnePlus 10 Pro packs in a 48 MP wide lens, an 8 MP telephoto lens with 3.3x optical zoom, and a 50 MP ultrawide lens. You’ll notice that it has higher resolutions for its cameras, though these aren’t directly comparable because Apple uses AI to boost image quality. 

OnePlus’ latest Pro model also has the ability to record 8K video footage at 24fps or 4K at up to 120fps, a level of quality that most people’s eyes won’t be able to appreciate. 

These handsets are more expensive though. The OnePlus 10 Pro will set you back £799 while the iPhone 13 Pro costs an eye-watering £1,087.