On The Lookout For A New Android? Bear These Tips In Mind.

30.8.11 The Reporter 0 Comments

When buying a cellphone, a cellphone user would usually look for these features:

• The phone's form factor: Candybar, touch screen or QWERTY
• A great camera
• Bluetooth
• Whether it has WiFi
• Whether it has 3G
• How many SIM cards it can accommodate
• Internal memory
• Expansion memory limits (maximum SD card size it can accommodate)
• Whether it has a media player or FM Radio
• Whether it has a free-to-air TV or not

For those who are concerned about the phone's stability and resistance to malware, they may consider the phone's OS as well. A lot of people choose and adhere to certain brands for that very reason. On the other hand, if you are an Android die-hard, we'd recommend that you look out for these features when looking for your next Android:

• ROM size
• RAM size
• CPU type and speed
• Maximum SD Card expansion size

After these factors, the ballgame is yours.

ROM means "Read-Only Memory." It is basically the hard-drive of your Android device. Unlike other phone models, where you can store and execute apps from your SD Card, Androids carrying the Android OS version 2.1 and below will not be able to host the App 2 SD application, which allows your Android to keep and run your apps from your SD Card. So if you're carrying an Android with versions 2.1 and below, you would have to content yourself with the ROM size that your phone came with.

You see, most Androids come with ROM sizes from 256MB to 512MB. If you're an app freak, you'd get mad at your Android when you max out the memory the moment you try to install your third Angry Birds pack. Just to illustrate, a 512MB ROM can house around 25 apps ranging from 48KB to 22MB. And you would have to leave around 20MB so that your phone won't give a warning notification that your internal disk space is getting low. The moment you leave only 15MB free, your phone will constantly "complain" that it's getting low on space. Something a power user will definitely get annoyed with.

RAM (Random Access Memory) and the CPU (Central Processing Unit) speed are crucial in determining how fast your Android will go. The CPU brands trusted by Android device makers are Qualcomm and NVIDIA. The more powerful phones use the Snapdragon model, but any phone using a Qualcomm chip is great. NVIDIA's Tegra 2 claims to be blazingly fast, on the other hand. While the higher the processor speed, the faster the unit should be, 600MHz with 256MB RAM is good enough, actually. Just keep a Task Killer handy for when you max out your RAM.

Lifehacker constantly claims that rooting your Android is the best way to go. Indeed, if you're annoyed by the apps that your manufacturer installed on your unit, rooting is a great way to delete those apps and install apps of your own preference. You get to free up ROM space and you have the privilege of installing more apps that you prefer.

Indeed, when you'll be on the prowl for your next Android, bear these features in mind, and you won't go wrong.