[UgaBYTES] Mobile Phones: When style dictates your choice

[Cleopa Timon Otieno]

Mobile phones are increasingly becoming efficient and convenient tools for
communication and at a greater rate reducing the over reliance on the
traditional PC. With the high end sets many can transact business, view,
send or respond to e-mails, blog, send and receive pictures etc while on the
move.

The market is now awash with different phone makes, advertised every week,
on the billboards, television, magazine and online advertisement,  It is
sometimes difficult to find unbiased information from the commercial
attacks. Buyers, however, find it difficult to make informed choices.

"There are buyers who don’t know what they want in their phone," says
Samsung phone co-ordinator, East and Central Africa Martin Njoroge.

Top-notch brands such as Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and Motorola make
handsets at regular intervals. The latest handsets on the shelf are blended
with style and high-end functionality.

Always after deciding on a provider and plan, finding the best phone to fit
one’s lifestyle is the next stop. There are phones targeting each category
of consumers.

Phone manufacturers have different classes of consumers in mind and that is
why a company may categorise its products into style, multimedia,
infotainment, essential, connected and business.

*Business phones*

Irrespective of the category a buyer falls in, features like charger, mobile
tracker and longer battery life should be primary.

To this category, multi-tasking is a way of life. There is so much to do,
and such little time to accomplish them. A device that suits your busy
lifestyle should be an all-in-one phone, a phone that can do just about
everything, a gadget that can save you the additional bulk of lugging the
laptop and PDA. But software applications and battery life are just as
important to ensure you work through the night.

"Consider a dual SIM handset, the new dual SIM bar means business and its
top skill is well tucked under the battery. What you get is quality of
build, large keyboard and a friendly handling," says Mr Njoroge.

Some of the features of a dual SIM handset include two different cards
active at same time, micro-SD memory expansion, FM radio, Bluetooth with
A2DP, MS Office document viewer and snappy user interface.

An ideal business phone incorporates essential tools with multimedia
lifestyle features. For instance, it should offer communication with
Bluetooth and USB among other applications to let you easily connect to
other phones, PDAs, laptops, PCs, printers. The smart Bluetooth accessories
help you exchange data, pictures and video clips. You can stay connected to
the world anywhere, any time.

Connected with a fairly active lifestyle, sometimes you’re not in the right
environment to talk. Whether it’s just too loud in the club, during a
business meeting, or spotty reception on the subways, text messaging
provides a convenient way for your friends to leave you short notes that you
can conveniently answer with your fingers later.

*Speed typing*

To you, function matters more than form. And you probably prefer a full
QWERTY keyboard to make life easier on the thumbs. With all the text
messaging jargon you go through, you have experienced the pains of
predictive text and you are out for speed typing.

But that’s not all you care about. A large screen provides more lines of
text to view. And multimedia messaging and a built-in camera are probably in
your mind as well. Regardless, we don’t have to tell you a picture is worth
a thousand words; most likely you’ve already found all the ways to speed and
efficiency.

*Image quality*

The full-size QWERTY keyboard is a widely spaced key to accommodate texting.
Dolby Mobile sound brings a deep and rich listening experience while a sharp
3.2-megapixel camera with built-in flash features Intelligent Shot and
Facial Makeover to improve the image quality. Other features include
Bluetooth, stereo capability and web browsing.

Phones under this category should posses a faster processor, longer battery
life, an internal compass, voice control features and an improved
3.0-megapixel auto-focus camera with video recording capabilities. The
handset uses the OpenGL for high-quality 3D graphics for faster and improved
mobile gaming. Users can watch more videos, listen to more music, browse the
Internet or use their favourite applications.

*Instant navigation*

The iPhone 3GS for instance supports 7.2 Mbps HSDPA for faster networking
speeds. It can cut, copy and paste text. It features a new built-in digital
compass for instant navigation.

The compass shows travelers, which way they are headed and rotates as they
change direction. It is also integrated within maps so it automatically
orients any map to the direction they are facing.

BUsing IMES identification that each phone has, you can trace a phone .

The IMES code is individual to each phone. When you lose your phone, you can
refer the code to your network provider to trace back the cell phone, or at
least block the apparatus.

*Source: - The East African Standard.*
-- 
Cleopa Timon Otieno
www.ugunja.org , www.kenyatelecentres.org
P.O.Box 330-40606, Ugunja
Cell: +254-720-950-220
skype: timonson1