There are hundreds of Android phones in the market now, ranging from the low-end devices to the high-end ones. Thanks to its policies, Google has so many mobile phone manufacturers that use Android on their products. As a result, customers have wide choice when they decide to purchase an Android phone. These phones are not the same and it is always difficult to choose the best one when you do not know which one may best suit you. This article shows two things that you should take into consideration when you buy an Android phone.
RAM (Random Access Memory)
This term is quite common since computer science started to emerge. When it comes to phones, even the oldest models that ran on Symbian or Web OS, RAM was so important to the phone’s performance. For Android, RAM is of higher importance as this operating system requires heavy usage of RAM for better performance but some may not have any idea about it. Let think it this way: low RAM, slow phone.
When other features of the phone you want to buy have attractive specifications but the capacity of its RAM is to low, the phone may be useless, especially when you want to upgrade to newer Android versions.
Unlike Apple’s iOS or Microsoft’s Windows Phone, which are best adjusted to even the low-end phones so that the phone can run very well with only 512 MB of RAM, Android has a different story. Newer Android versions means higher RAM to be used. The phone would response slowly when RAM is not enough for large amount of data.
The least RAM for an Android phone for now should be 1GB, the higher, the better. It will be great for multitasking or higher usages of the display or camera. So now you know why the Samsung Galaxy S6 runs like an Audi when your Alcatel One Touch is just like a tortoise.
Versions of Android OS
The second thing you should bare in your mind is the version of the OS. It is of the same importance as RAM.
Like iPhone has the iOS, where you can see number 7, 8 and 9, Android has different upgrades too. Since it was introduced, there are so many versions with different code names. They are Cupcake (1.5), Donut (1.6); Eclair (2.0 – 2.1); Froyo (2.2 – 2.2.3); Gingerbread (2.3 – 2.3.7); Honeycomb (3.0 – 3.2.6), Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0 – 4.0.4), Jelly Bean (4.1 – 4.3.1), KitKat (4.4 – 4.4.4, 4.4W – 4.4W.2), Lollipop (5.0 – 5.1.1) and the latest Marshmallow (6.0).
The newer versions have more improvement for better user experience, which means they can run the latest apps and features. At this time, it is advised to use Lollipop and forget the older ones. Remember this so you will not end up with a nicely designed phone that runs a medieval operating system.
These two are not all that make the best phones. You should also pay attention to the specifications of ROM, processor, GPU, camera, speaker and so on. We will try to give you more advices so you can choose a phone that best satisfy your need.