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Benefits of Cell Phones (back to top)

 

In today's fast paced world, where being in continuous touch both with family members as well as office colleagues is imperative, a cell phone has become almost as prevalent as the clothes on your body. In addition to giving peace of mind to the carrier, the cell phone combines utility and value with entertainment potential. As was mentioned earlier, the cell phone is no longer just a phone. On the contrary, recent surveys have revealed that the deciding factor, nowadays, for the purchase of cell phones is more the additional features the phone offers rather than the actual phone features.

 

As far as the phone features are concerned, cell phones offer extras such as: call waiting, transfer to voicemail, automatic network selection, automatic redial, speed dialing, and call divert, among many other innovative features. The most recent dialed numbers can be viewed as well as any missed calls that were not answerable. The caller ID feature displays the caller's phone number on the cell phone screen. Most cell phones double up as organizers and calendars, allowing reminders and alarms to be set. The built-in phone book can store more than 200 to 300 phone numbers inputted by the user. Text messages with embedded images can also be sent using cell phones, which the recipient can view on his/her phone.

 

The wonders of the Internet could not be left far behind. Cell phones, today, act as full fledged Internet access devices, enabling the user to visit websites, send emails, and even download phone wallpapers, ringtones, and/or MP3 files. Game aficionados can engage in a whole array of single-user and multi-user games designed exclusively for cell phones.

 

The cell phone is now a still and movie camera too. The intrinsic digital camera with a more than adequate megapixel range, allows photography enthusiasts to click photos anytime and anywhere. Short movie clips can also be recorded, their duration dependent on the phone's memory.

 

The cell phone seems to have something in it for everyone, including music lovers. In addition to receiving signals from radio stations, many phones also come equipped with an MP3 player.

 

The Global Positioning System (GPS) feature on most recent phones shows a person where he happens to be at that moment, the area name being displayed on the screen. All said and done, the cell phone is a versatile piece of technology and people now even wonder how they ever lived without one in the past.

 

1. How Cell Phones Function (back to top)

 

A cell phone, in its most basic form, is actually a radio which functions through the transmission of electromagnetic waves between itself and a base station having a powerful antenna. However, unlike a radio or a walkie-talkie that works on the half-duplex principle, cell phones use full-duplex technology. Half-duplex signal transmission implies that signals are transmitted across only one frequency allowing only one party to talk at any point of time. The full-duplex cell phone, on the other hand, uses two distinct frequencies for sending and receiving voice data. This enables a simultaneous two-way conversation.

 

Now, the transceiver of most cell phones has a range of around eight miles. Thus, when the cell phone user happens to be greater than this distance away from the base station, it stands to reason that the cell phone will cease to function. If that were the case, it would go against the basic goal of the cell phone of providing unlimited mobility. However, there was an ingenious workaround devised for this drawback -the division of a large area into cells of approximately ten square miles, each cell having a base station.

 

The cells are hexagonal in shape and touch each other blanketing an entire city, and on a larger scale almost the entire world. This system ensures that a cell phone is always within the range of a base station. When traveling, the cell phone seamlessly migrates to another base station on moving from one cell to another.

 

Each individual cell phone gets registered with a mobile telephone exchange with a unique code; this code identifies the phone, the phone user, and the service provider. When the phone is switched on, it communicates with the base station and compares the System Identification Code (SID) it receives from the station with the SID that is programmatically embedded in the phone. Thereafter, an automatic registration request is sent to the mobile telephone exchange, which keeps a track of the cell in which the phone happens to be, so that the phone can be alerted to an incoming call. The telephone exchange allocates a dual frequency range to be used for the phone, enabling two-way communication.

 

When a user is approaching the border line of a particular cell, the base station in that cell detects the depleting signal strength, and at the same time the adjoining cell detects an increase in signal strength from the same phone. The two base stations now work in tandem till the point when the phone is intimated to automatically change frequencies and fully merge into the new cell. Thus, a mobile user is in a perpetually 'always reachable' mode.

 

2. Purchasing Criteria (back to top)

 

With rapid strides in cell phone technology and the number of phone models in the market increasing almost on a daily basis, picking up the right phone can be a task demanding adequate attention. In order to facilitate your final decision, we suggest that you consider the following parameters for consideration:

 

• Radiation Levels: The adage 'Heath is wealth' is universally acknowledged. No technology or convenience can justify a health risk. Mobile phones work on the electromagnetic transmission, which could have detrimental effects on the health of an individual ranging from brain tumors to impotency. Nowadays, all mobile phones need to have a Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) certification. This a limit laid down by health authorities, which indicates the amount of radiation exposure safe for humans. A mobile phone's radiation emission should be much lower than this safety limit.

 

• Network Compatibility: The phone you are using should be supported across the network frequencies used by your GSM operator, which commonly span 4 bands -850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz. Mobile phones with dual or tri-band facility make a better purchase option.

 

• SMS and MMS: Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) are features that enable you to type and send messages containing text and images to another cell phone.

 

• Internet Facilities: With the all-pervasive presence of the Internet in every sphere of life, having web access on your mobile phone would be a great advantage. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a standard specifically designed for gadgets such as cell phones, to recognize pages created in Wireless Markup Language (WML). General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enables visiting web sites, downloading files from the Internet, and even sending and receiving MMS messages.

 

• Push-To-Talk (PTT): This feature bypasses your regular service provider's billing activating the walkie-talkie feature of your phone allowing you to engage in communication with more than one user simultaneously.

 

• Phone Memory and External Memory Upgradation: In order to save contacts in your address book, download Internet files, save photos and movie clips, store ringtones and MP3 files, among many other uses, the importance of the memory of the phone cannot be over emphasized. In addition to having a large intrinsic memory, if a phone has a slot for insertion of another memory stick, all the better. Memory sticks come in capacities of 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, and 1 GB.

 

• Display: While the display screen may be either monochrome or color, having a color screen is of advantage, what with the advent of built-in cameras, MMS, and Internet access. The quality of the display depends on the resolution that is represented as the number of pixels per inch, and color depth which is the number of colors that can be displayed. The higher these values are, the better the display.

 

• Touch Screen: This indicates navigation by touching the icons on the screen. This may not be deemed to be an essential feature and does in fact add to the cost.

 

• Infrared Connectivity: This feature enables data transfer between cell phones. A nice feature to have if you would like to share data between cell phones, but most consumers consider it 'non-essential'.

 

• Bluetooth: Bluetooth technology can be used for a number of applications including secure wireless data transfer, and hands-free access to your cell phone via a Bluetooth compatible headset.

 

• USB Port: Using the USB (Universal Serial Bus) port, the cell phone can be connected to a computer enabling file transfer between the two devices, transferring images taken by the phone, or downloading mp3s to name a few.

 

• Integrated Digital Camera: This is a very useful feature. New phones offer state-of-the-art cameras ranging from 1 Megapixel upwards. While higher resolution results in better images or movie clips, the file size is larger and occupies a greater space in the memory.

 

• Battery: Commonly, Lithium-Ion batteries are used in most mass produced cell phones due to their greater energy storage capacities versus traditional batteries. Phones having batteries offering longer standby times (greater than 72 hours) and talk times (greater than 8 hours) are preferred.

 

3. Making the Decision (back to top)

 

Following a complete introspection on your requirements and preferences with regards to the various features mentioned above, you should compare cell phones offered by the various manufacturers, facilitated by searching on comparison shopping sites such as www.smarter.com.

 

Buying a new cell phone or upgrading your old cell phone requires a lot of research and time, judging by the number of models available in the market and the innovative features offered by each. After factoring in sales and service, in addition to the warranty offered by the manufacturer, most consumers will come back to one simple criteria: '...but how does it look'?!?!

 

Buying a good cell phone requires investment of a reasonable amount of time in researching and evaluating the various contenders. The trick is to strike the perfect balance between price and functionality; and the best way to begin is to find out exactly what your needs are. Hopefully, you now have more information to help make your purchasing decision more informed, now go find a great cell phone!