Mobile Phone Buyer's Guide

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The mobile phone revolution looks to be unstoppable. The chunky house bricks of the 1980s have been replaced with lightweight, slim handsets incorporating the latest in communication technology allied to a strong sense of fashion. Prices of handsets range from nothing to several hundreds of pounds - a range caused by the eagerness of the network owners to entice us on to their expensively acquired airspace. As a result of this competition, it is now perfectly possible to find yourself being given the latest phone, combining voice, data, camera and video in a handset sometimes considerably smaller than your hand "absolutely free". To avoid being dazzled by such offers you will need to keep your wits about you in the maze of features available. This guide will give you everything you need to know about the features that really make a difference. And we will give you some helpful advice on how to navigate the tariff jungle.

What you need to know when choosing a Mobile Phone...

With the number of mobile phones on the market and the variety of tariffs, features and extras on each, picking the right phone can be something of a nightmare. To simplify matters we have identified three types of user and outlined the type of phone that might suit them best.

Key features

As with many electronics goods, features on handsets come in two types, the essential and the differential. The former is what you really need to think about because these will dictate how well the handset works for you. The latter are more for entertainment, but knowing something about them will help you make the right choice.

Ergonomics: With the exception of 3G models, which need to retain at last some screen size to make the most of their multimedia content, handsets have reduced in size rapidly. A common weight for a handset is around 100g. This is partly to do with the fashion element - small being beautiful ? but flip-tops, rotating screens, flip-out and fold-out keyboards have all been tried by manufacturers as they struggle to add more features while retaining at least some ease of use.

Battery life: Expect anything between 40 and 100 hours between charges depending upon the particular phone and the usage it is put to. Recharging time will also vary between models. Other factors that will affect battery performance are: colour screens and video transmissions and poor network coverage where the battery has to work harder to maintain a signal.

Predictive text: If you are going to be doing a lot of texting - remember the 160 character text feature is largely an accident - then predictive text can help you reduce the chances of thumb strain and let you converse more quickly in the lingua franca of our times.

Camera phones: Almost standard these days on anything except the most basic handsets, the digital cameras in phones have a smaller number of mega pixels available than most digital cameras, typically 0.3 rather than the 3.0 common in dedicated digital cameras. This means picture quality will suffer. But it does not seem to stop the unfettered use of them at sporting and cultural events.

Colour screen: Increasingly common, the main advantage of a colour screen is that it displays web pages and pictures on your phone better and can be useful for games players.

GPRS: General Packet Radio System is the means by which second generation or 2G mobile phones can connect to the Internet. A GPRS enabled phone can collect e-mail and view WAP pages. Costs for such services are based on the amount of data received, though some contracts include elements of GPRS time.

GSM: The Global System for Mobile Communications uses three frequencies for phones, 900MHz, 1800MHz and 1900 MHz. A dual-band phone will work on two out of three frequencies (900MHz and 1900MHz). These are the frequencies used in Europe, Asia and most other places except the United States (which uses 1800MHz). A tri-band phone will operate on all three frequencies and therefore, in theory, will work anywhere in the world.

Bluetooth: This is a technology that enables electronic devices to communicate with each other without being physically connected. Bluetooth equipped phones can be used via a wireless headset and can connect to PCs wirelessly to transmit information. Infrared enabled phones have similar capabilities but the infrared ports of the various devices you are transferring data between need to be in line of sight.

MMS: Multimedia messaging is used by camera phones to send pictures, sound and text all in one message. The recipient needs to have an MMS phone; otherwise they receive a text asking them to access a website that will display your message.

Ringtones: Part of the fashion element of the mobile phone, polyphonic ringtones can be downloaded straight to your phone and even linked to specific callers.

Services: As speeds of transmission increase and video quality improves providers are increasing the number and types of service available to subscribe to. The latest news, weather, and sporting results can all be accessed via the latest mobiles.

3G: The 3G set of technologies available in the latest phones allows the delivery of multimedia content to you in a device that you can hold in the palm of your hand. Content providers have barely scratched the surface of what they can, in theory and for a price, beam to you whenever you want it. Sporting highlights, latest films, video messages, and online gaming all are likely contenders for services your network provider will offer through your handset. The drawback so far is that the "killer application," live video calls to other handsets, is not, because of a combination of poor network coverage and new handsets, of high-enough quality to make subscribing to such a service worthwhile for anyone but the earliest of early-adopters. If take-up does increase you may find your voice calls getting cheaper via this route.

WAP: WAP pages, essentially web pages adapted for the smaller screen, are now accessed by mobile phone users to get the latest information on a range of topics from results to shopping.

Tariff choices: Getting to the bottom of tariffs can be extremely difficult. Most tariffs are scenario-based and rely on you knowing what pattern of calls (daytime, evening, weekend), texts, voicemail and other services you are going to be using. If you can not find a scenario that fits your profile exactly in the various online calculators that let you compare tariffs across all the networks our advice is to take a pay-as-you-go package for a short time, with an itemised bill, and then review your choice with real data to hand. There are two basic choices of tariff: pay-as-you-go or a monthly contract.

Pay-as-you go, or more accurately, pre-pay calls allow you to make calls on the handset as long as you have sufficient credit. You can top up your credit with vouchers, swipe cards, and in some cases even from cash machines. The advantage is you only pay for services you actually use (and there's no surprise bill at the end of the month). The disadvantage is that call rates tend to be higher than contracts and that your choice of handset may be restricted.

On a monthly contract actual call rates can be cheaper, but you will need to sign up for a minimum of 12 months and normally pay by direct debit. For your set amount each month you get a number of call minutes, texts, and other services. But if you exceed the amount in your plan then you will pay for the extras at a per call rate. Contract users usually have more choice of handset - the more expensive ones are often only available for contract payers. Most networks charge less for calls to users on the same network. And if you are signing up to a tariff that offers free minutes make sure these are cross-network - so you can call whoever you like.

Porting authorisation code (PAC): If you are switching networks and want to keep your current number then you will need a PAC from your existing provider which you give to the new provider. Tariff changes and upgrades with the same provider usually mean you can keep your old number.