I'm going to go over a few main aspects that I look at when purchasing a phone. A little backstory...i love phones. I use mine for everything. I'm using it right now to post this. Everything I have written has been done on my phone. There are some things I look at when buying a phone, as I feel they're the most important.
I personally own the OnePlus 5, Slate Grey 64gb/6gb Ram model.
I need my phone to be a powerhouse. I'm not talking a huge battery, I'm talking the RAM, and specifically the processor. The latest processor for Android devices is the Snapdragon835. Alongside 6gb of ram, my current phone never flinches. I play tons of games, music, streaming movies and my device never as much as hiccups. There is nothing more annoying to me than when my phone just stops... Nothing showing any activity. It's absolutely frustrating.
Another thing I look for is the camera. Everyone uses their phones these days for taking pictures and videos. What good are those memories if they are blurry or out of focus or way too dark? Not very good in my opinion. Every photo I have taken and uploaded to Steemit has been taken with my phone. I don't own a DSLR, and this phone almost makes me feel like I don't need one. The only reason I would like to buy one is that I would like to get more into photography, because this phone opened up a new world for me in that aspect.
I really like to customize my device. I mean rooting, jailbreaking, you name it, I've done it. I look for a device that is friendly in regards to that. Samsung, while amazing phones, have Knox Security. Named aptly for being super tough to get through and unlock the bootloader to root your device, and definitely not for the feint of heart. While as other companies are a tad more simple to achieve this, almost none will replace your device if something were to fail. Oneplus on the other hand, doesn't void your warranty if you unlock the bootloader on your device. It's fantasticly Developer Friendly. If you are all about security, Samsung is definitely your best bet in the Android world. iPhones are also very secure.
Battery life of the device is also something to think about when purchasing. As a rooted user, I have more control over what consumes my battery. I average around 6 and a half to 7 hours of screen on time on a daily basis. That's including the games I play, the stories I read, everything. That figure is amazing for me. I know that I can leave the.house for work at 50%, be there all day and have no worries about my phone dying. If I ever fall asleep with my phone at 20%, there is a feature on OnePlus devices that is called Dash Charging. You can plug your phone in at 20%, take a shower and get ready and by the time you are done your device will be 70% or higher. "A days power in half an hour" is the company's slogan. While battery consumption is based solely on the usage, there are a lot of preventative measures your phone company and you can take. The better the processor, the less power it will use when just barely using the phone, and it will consume less under heavy loads.
Applications draw a lot of power when not even in use. Facebook and Facebook messenger are huge drainer, along with other social media platforms. They are constantly waking your device and causing it to perform some function to drain your battery. The more developer friendly your device company is, the more control you have over these instances.
Im not going to talk much about the looks of the device. They are all rectangular, and thin. They are all usually covered with a case so the asthetics are usually lost. I personally have a dbrand skin on my phone, so you cannot even see what it truly looks like without taking it off. Bezels or no bezels isn't much of a big deal. Sometimes I feel as if the bezels help keep my hands and fingers out of the way of the screen. Then other times the edgeless display looks a tad fancy. I don't mind the bezels.
Waterproofing is something I feel is starting to gain importance. I don't mean like going into the shower, but going on a walk and then a rainstorm hits type of protection. It's always nice knowing your device won't get fried because of a downpour. My current device, although not IP67 certified, has proven to be quite water resistant. Videos have shown the device submerged for 5 minutes and still fully functional. Anything with an IP67+ should have the same results.
Well, I think this will be all for now. Feel free to follow me for more content regarding photography, phones and gaming.
I hope you all enjoyed the read as much as I enjoyed writing it.
-Sent from my OnePlus 5. (haha)
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