DS Forums

 
 

Your most important feature in a phone


View Poll Results: Pick one feature that is most important to you
Looks (including materials, thickness etc) 1 2.00%
Apps/Eco system 12 24.00%
Battery Life 17 34.00%
Screen Quality/Type (LCD/OLED) 1 2.00%
Web browsing experience 0 0%
Audio quality (speakers and headphones) 1 2.00%
Peformance 9 18.00%
Storage capacity 0 0%
Price/bang for buck 7 14.00%
Overall size 2 4.00%
Voters: 50. You can't vote on this poll right now - are you signed in?

Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 04-03-2016, 12:56
finbaar
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 3,921

It is now pretty much impossible to buy a totally crap phone these days - Samsung Galaxy Ace anyone? So what is your one most important feature after OS choice? And why?
finbaar is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 04-03-2016, 13:03
finbaar
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 3,921
I have missed out "Manufacturer" as really that is kind of covered in OS choice.
finbaar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 13:07
Minardi
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Midlands
Posts: 502
Camera quality. It's the bit I use the most. It won't surprise you to know I'm still using a Lumia 1020.
Minardi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 14:32
preecey
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Swansea, Wales
Posts: 146
For me the most important to least important features are as follows:

Battery Life
Performance
Screen Quality/Type
[Camera Quality would go here but isn't in the list]
Price
Storage
Web Browsing Experience
Apps
Looks
Audio Quality
Size

Recently got rid of my iPhone 6 due to financial troubles and bought a Smart Ultra 6 to tide me over. To be honest I'm amazed how good the battery life of the SU6 is when compared to my old iPhone. It lasts significantly longer and am averaging 6 hours of screen on time from a full charge!
I know the iPhone doesn't publish screen on statistics but it would die at, I'm guessing, the 4 hours mark.
Plus while having a go of my sister's iPhone 6 recently has made me vow to never to back to a sub 5 inch device. The screen size and quality on the SU6 is something that has made me stick to 5.5" screens in the future.
preecey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 14:45
Rich_Allen
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Sheffield, England
Posts: 733
Battery life
Storage (definitely need more than the 8 Gig on my current Iphone, so many songs I want to download)
Quality of games to download
Price of said games
Price of songs
Size of the phone itself (not too big, not too small)
Rich_Allen is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 15:08
fmradiotuner1
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: TheEssexSunshineCoast Clacton
Posts: 15,222
voted for Battery Life as the others like better camera you could just have a camera to use.
after this maybe performance though most places you can make calls or text now days.
fmradiotuner1 is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 15:47
DiandalScotland
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Central Scotland
Posts: 718
I think you need more than one decision. I prefer google android to apple iOS Reasonable ROM + RAM If device is upgradeable to newer software, decent camera, 4g data , unlocked , ....
DiandalScotland is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 18:53
PrinceGaz
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Posts: 8,175
For me:

Price -- obvious factor unless you have a spare £700 or so you don't need
Overall Size (and weight) -- the lighter the better, it has to be carried around all day
Battery Life -- dead battery == no phone
Apps -- a smartphone without apps isn't smart
Storage capacity -- either internal or on an SD card, the apps and other stuff need space
Performance -- it has to run those apps well (web browsing exp is covered here too)
PrinceGaz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 19:29
Orbitalzone
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Sussex
Posts: 12,173
urmm.... reception and call quality is the most important function of a phone, for me anyway. Probably something no one else needs on a phone I guess!
Orbitalzone is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 20:05
ney
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Scotland, Dunfermline Area
Posts: 10,705
For me performance would be at top followed by battery life then storage capacity.
Im also not to keen on having a Windows OS phone or a phone over 5.4inches.
I have so far never spend over £400 on a phone.

Darren
ney is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 20:27
dearmrman
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Utopia
Posts: 10,191
The ability to make calls...everything else is irrelevant...it's a phone.
dearmrman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 21:10
alan1302
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: West Yorks
Posts: 6,180
The ability to make calls...everything else is irrelevant...it's a phone.
Not really these days - it's a computer that one feature of is to allow calls. Phones have moved on from just being a phone.
alan1302 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 21:35
PrinceGaz
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Posts: 8,175
The ability to make calls...everything else is irrelevant...it's a phone.
A smartphone is now really a portable computer, and for a significant proportion of users, the ability to make voice-calls on it is almost a legacy feature which is nice to have available, but something rarely used.

Why make a traditional voice-call when you could do a video-chat over the net, using free wifi when at home? Or simply type what you want to ask into an IM app?
PrinceGaz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 23:01
Mark Smith
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Norfolk/Suffolk
Posts: 2,192
The ability to make calls...everything else is irrelevant...it's a phone.
That's fine, you can get a phone that can only make calls (and simple text messages) for probably £20 if you buy £10 of airtime. For the rest of us who don't want to carry around a separate phone, calculator, camera, satnav, wifi hotspot, e-reader, personal assistant, music player, electronic wallet and video camera, a smartphone is a single device that does all those things and more.

You would need quite a big bag to carry around separate devices for all the things a smartphone in your pocket can do!

Although I must admit it would sometimes be nice to have one feature old phones were good at that modern smartphones are not, battery life that lasts more than a day. Having said that, one of my work colleagues has an iPhone 5s which she only charges twice a week, but she does only use it for sending texts and the odd phone call, so even smartphones can last a long time if you only use them as an old-fashioned phone.
Mark Smith is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2016, 23:44
binary
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 636
So what is your one most important feature after OS choice? And why?
Ability to play Crazy Frog ringtones. Why? Well why wouldn't you want to?
binary is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2016, 09:05
prking
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Weston-super-Mare
Posts: 9,167
In my opinion there several important "features" missing from the list. For example security, call quality, ruggedness, reliability etc etc
prking is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2016, 09:08
ney
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Scotland, Dunfermline Area
Posts: 10,705
Not really these days - it's a computer that one feature of is to allow calls. Phones have moved on from just being a phone.
I agree for I now use a phone 10% of the time to make calls.
I seem to use phone more for texting and playing music as well as using Facebook and at times surfing the web. I also whenever I can use the phone on Wi-Fi.

Darren
ney is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2016, 11:47
d123
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,993
Why make a traditional voice-call when you could do a video-chat over the net,
I couldn't think of anything worse for around 90% of my calls. I presume you don't use a phone for business use? Or call anyone other than close family?
d123 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2016, 12:56
Orbitalzone
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Sussex
Posts: 12,173
I couldn't think of anything worse for around 90% of my calls. I presume you don't use a phone for business use? Or call anyone other than close family?
My thoughts exactly, for business users reliable voice connectivity is paramount, of course good reception is also required for good data, hence my original comment about good reception which is essential for most smartphone features to work.
Orbitalzone is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2016, 13:44
BKM
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 6,288
In my opinion there several important "features" missing from the list. For example security, call quality, ruggedness, reliability etc etc
Plus camera quality - a vital one for me!
BKM is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2016, 14:18
beans0ntoast
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 932
I voted battery life, as it is very important for me - however, what is even more important than that (and not listed) is the ability to pick up a signal in a weak signal area, i.e. how good is the aerial system?

It's no good buying a £500 phone and then realizing that it drops out in a poor signal area, or prematurely drops to 2G (despite 3G/4G being available - cough cough Galaxy S4 cough cough!) - when a much cheaper phone holds onto 3G/4G for longer and picks up a signal where your expensive phone can't!
beans0ntoast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2016, 14:47
Pencil
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 4,252
Battery life

That's why I prefer sleek phones with removable batteries. Then when you're travelling, you can take a spare with you and still enjoy your stunning handset.

Sleek phones with big, built-in batteries are ok, but over time, the amount of power it can hold diminishes and you then have to pay the manufacturer obscene amounts of money to put in a new one or put your trust in dodgy phone shops who I've known to replace batteries with much smaller capacity versions.
Pencil is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2016, 22:50
PrinceGaz
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Posts: 8,175
I couldn't think of anything worse for around 90% of my calls. I presume you don't use a phone for business use? Or call anyone other than close family?
Truth be told, I haven't actually made a video-call myself with my phone, but I do have Skype installed on it and it is therefore one of those things it could do. I was suggesting things you could use a phone for other than traditional voice-calls.

At the end of the day, for me a smartphone is primarily a personal-organiser with the bonus of internet connectivity; I use it mainly the same way I used my Psion 3c over twenty years ago (even as far as the apps I install, which back then I received through the post on 3.5" floppies). Apps, apps, apps: thats what smartphones are all about. You should have an app for everything you are likely to need to use it for.
PrinceGaz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-03-2016, 23:20
ShaunIOW
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Isle of Wight
Posts: 7,829
For me it's:

Physical size (as I hate the current trend for large phones ie >4.7")
Battery life (and a removable battery is desirable)
Storage (plus must have removable storage as well)
Audio quality for listening to music through headphones and a built-in speaker
Call quality
Price (<£350 sim free)
Apps
Looks
Can access the internet/email (although I only use this in an emergency or if bored when out)

Things that are nice to have, but not really essential as I only use them sparingly are decent camera and GPS.
ShaunIOW is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-03-2016, 11:33
The Sack
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: S6 1SW WTID UTO FTB
Posts: 6,327
Went from a Nexus 5 to a Moto X Play.

48 hours standby with 8 hours screen on time is just fantastic, best £240 ive spent (phone wise)
The Sack is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:18.