With so many smartphones available in the market, it becomes a tough job to choose the right one. Every smartphone comes with its own pros and cons and because of that, it gets confusing for the customer to choose the perfect one. Hence, in this guide, we are going to tell you the Top 5 things to keep in mind before buying a new smartphone in 2020 so you can make the right choice. Without waiting further, let’s get started.
1) Processor
Choosing a smartphone that comes with the right processor should be your priority when you are looking to buy a new smartphone. Currently, smartphone processors are divided into three types – Low end, mid-range, and flagship processors that offer top-notch performance.
If you are someone who is looking for a smartphone just for calling and texting then a low-end processor will do the job well. As of now, Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 is a popular processor in this category. Moving on, the mid-range chipsets are offered with the smartphones that are priced between ₹10,000 to ₹24,000. These chipsets are almost perfect, offer good performance and along with that, they can handle heavy games too at Medium/ High settings. Currently, Qualcomm Snapdragon 712, Snapdragon 675, MediaTek Helio G90T and Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G are some of the popular mid-range chipsets.
In 2020, we are expecting the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765, 765G and Samsung Exynos 980. These chipsets are said to offer better performance when compared with the present mid-range chipsets that are popular in the market.
Moving on to the flagship processors, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus and Apple’s A13 Bionic chipset are the most powerful chipsets in the market right now. Apple’s iPhone 11 series comes with the A13 Bionic chipset and Android Smartphones like ASUS ROG Phone II, OnePlus 7T Series and Realme X2 Pro come with the Snapdragon 855 + chipset. Both the chipsets offer top-notch performance and can run games at the maximum settings possible.
In 2020, we have our eyes on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset and Apple’s next-generation chipset which are expected to launch soon. If you are planning to buy a flagship smartphone this isn’t the right time to buy and we’d recommend you to wait 4-5 months so you can get the best device that comes out.
2) Display
Next up, Display is another important hardware component that you should keep in mind while purchasing a smartphone. As of now, there are two types of smartphone displays popular in the market- LCD and AMOLED and no doubt AMOLED display is the best thing that you can get right now. It gives you more vibrant and punchy colors, deep blacks and also saves battery life. You also get support for Always-on display if your smartphone has an AMOLED Panel.
Refresh Rate and HDR support is another important factor that you should keep in mind when it comes to Display. In 2019 we’ve seen some flagships that ditched the standard 60hz refresh rate and offered a 90/120hz refresh rate. Next year, we can expect smartphones with a better display and higher refresh rate even in the budget segment.
3) Battery
iPhone users, I know your struggle. Battery capacity is the next thing that comes on our list and you know how important that is. When it comes to battery life nothing is an overkill. The more battery capacity a smartphone has, the better it gets for the users. Currently, most of the mid-range and premium smartphones are coming with a 4500/5000 mAh battery capacity and with this, the smartphone easily lasts up to a day.
Along with the battery capacity, the charging speed of a smartphone also matters. For mid-range devices, any smartphone which comes with support for 18W fast charge is good enough. Currently, the Realme X2 Pro is the fastest charging smartphone in India as it comes with support for 50W SuperVOOC fast charging. In 2020, the charging speeds are surely gonna go up as we recently saw companies like Xiaomi introduced Super Charge Turbo 100W fast charging technology.
4) Widevine L1 Support
Imagine spending Rs.50,000 on a smartphone and realizing that it can only run videos only in 480p on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and other video streaming services. Sucks right? Here’s where the Widevine L1 support comes in the game. Widevine L1 is Google’s digital rights management system which is required to stream Full HD videos from OTT services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. If your smartphone doesn’t have Widevine L1 certification it won’t be able to stream HD content on OTT services and hence making sure that a smartphone comes with Widevine L1 support becomes important.
This is something that isn’t listed on the specification sheet which means that you’ll have to check it manually. To check whether your smartphone has Widevine L1 certification or not simply download the “DRM Info” app and head to the Widevine CDM section. If it says “L1” in the security level it means that Widevine L1 certification is present on your device.
5) Software and UI
The last thing which comes on our list is the Software and UI on which the phone is running. Anything with Android 9 Pie or Android 10 is good for you as of now. There is hardly any smartphone right now that offers you full stock android experience and companies are shipping out their smartphone with custom operating systems based on Android like MIUI, Funtouch OS, ColorOS, OxygenOS and more. These operating systems bring a lot of additional features which help the users in their day to day life.
My personal favorite is MIUI because of its looks, feel and additional features but you should settle for the OS which you love the most.
So that’s all for this guide. If we were helpful let us know in the comments below and for more guides like this make sure you check out our “Guides” section.
