Few days ago I started writing “Smartphone Buyer’s Guide” a series of articles to make it easier for your pick one Smartphone which is exact fit for your needs and price. Here mainly I’m trying to clarify marketing jargons which is the major barrier for many people to understand the specification of those gadgets.
In the previous article I was talking about Processorwhich is the main contributing factor for the strength of the device. Here comes the explanation of “Storage Options” the next factor you should consider.
Quick Catch-up
RAM
RAM or Random Access Memory is a direct contributing factor for the speed of your Smartphone. Lesser the RAM, lesser the performance. All the applications you are opening will consume RAM to store different data required to function.
Generally any Smartphone would have 512MB of RAM. If you take a look at high end Smartphone there will be 1GB of RAM. In addition to size of RAM you will have to consider the speed of RAM as well, which will be indicated as DDR2 or DDR3 etc. However most of the Smartphone specifications do not mention speed of RAM.
If you need to run lots of applications simultaneously of course you need lots of RAM. It’s same with Gaming. But if you are a light user, mainly doing email checking, web browsing etc. an average size RAM would be enough for you.
RAM is a serious contributing factor for price of Phone. Most of cheap devices are having lesser and lower speed RAM.
After considering general applications of most of Smartphone I recommend you to go for device at least having 512BM of RAM.
Internal Storage
This is persistent storage space you have where you can store applications and other data. Normally any Smartphone would be having at least 2GB internal storage. Same as RAM this is also a price factor, so most manufactures introduce different version of same devices having different internal storage such as 16GB, 32GB or 64GB.
In most of the Smartphones all your contacts, SMS and calendar notes will be saved in internal storage. In addition some of the applications also will be installed to internal storage and use part of its space to function. Therefore you must buy Smartphone with considerable amount of internal storage. For contact, SMS and calendar notes only 2GB would be enough.
If you are a heavy multimedia user of course you need lots of internal storage. In that case you better go for largest possible internal such as 64GB. However having large internal storage is not a good solution for heavy multimedia users. You need expandable removable storage options as well.
Expandable Storage
Expandable storage in your Smartphone is letting you to plug external storage medium. It normally comes as MicroSD card slot and you can separately purchase and plug in to expand the storage.
Best part here is most of the Smartphones are having hot swappable card slots. That means you can change the card without restating device. This comes in handy for the people who are watching lots of movies on the run.
For most of the general Smartphone users just the internal storage would be enough. But if you have specific requirement for extra storage make sure the device you are going to purchase is having expandable storage options.
Wrapping Up
For most of the average Smartphone users below configuration would be ideal.
- 512MB or 1 GB RAM
- 16 GB Internal storage
- MicroSD card support up to 32GB
Same as processor, storage is a cost factor, a serious one. So before you buy the device, plan what sort of activities that you will be doing and how many different types of storage need to perform them. Then you can buy the best device with optimum level of storage which saves lots of money for you.
In the next article I will be talking about the Display which is the most confusing feature in Smartphone.
Tags: #Smartphone #Storage