Choosing a Cell Phone

• Decide if you need a basic phone (no internet) or a "smart phone". Internet access will cost you a monthly service fee and you will need to be sure you don't go over your budget if you exceed the limitations. Often an unlimited plan is a safe thing to do as cell-phone companies can be rigid and charge you overage fees if you do exceed the amount. Since it is hard to know when you go over the limit, having unlimited bandwidth frees you from this worry.
• Choose a phone that has buttons you like. Too small? Too big? Hard to read? Not visible at night? Click not to your liking? These are all button considerations you should assess.
• If you drive or have poor cell phone reception at a location you frequent, you can get booster repeaters and other equipment that will improve your reception. Talk to your phone company or search for "cell phone repeater" online to see what might work for you. Note: these can get expensive, so choose carefully.
• Look at your old phone (assuming you have one). If it is showing a lot of wear and tear, or certain types of damage, consider getting a different case type or place to keep it. A belt-clip may be a solution. If you run, consider an arm-band holder.
• Blue tooth: These are great ways of getting hand's free talking and answering. A blue tooth headset can be a single ear or a full headphone. Consider the full headphone if you are in noisy situations. The headphone also is nice if you might use a smartphone to listen to music, books, or movies.
• Screen-saver covers. If you want your phone to last a long time, and you take your phone to places where it can get scratched easily (you work in a sandpaper factory, do a lot of web and water surfing at the beach, or any really gritty environment) consider getting stick on screen savers.
• Can go into vibrate mode? Most phones these days do. Try it in the store if you can. How hard is it to get into vibrate mode? How hard is it to change the ring volume? If it is hard and you frequently need to do this operation, you might want to consider another phone.
• Travel by air? Need to have a phone that is easy to get into airplane mode.
• Smart phone: Data plan: Do you "surf" a lot, or do you only use the internet occasionally?
• Smart phone: GPS? If you use the phone to get "unlost", try out the gps functions. Easy to deal with on the road? Can you use voice? Does the GPS application read directions to you? Is the volume loud enough (do you need a quieter car?)
• Can you change the ring volume easily? Is it loud enough? Quiet enough?
• Before you get to the phone store, check with friends, family, anyone you meet, to find out if the coverage is good everywhere you go. Most phone companies have maps online that you can use to see if it works well enough for you. Bad coverage can mean dropped calls, or no calls at all.