“Upgrade Your Life: How to pick the best cell phone”

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Upgrade Your Life: How to pick the best cell phone Posted: 17 Nov 2010 09:00 AM PST Few gadgets are as useful — or as personal — to us as our cell phones. We take them everywhere we go, pressing them against our ears and tapping away on their keypads, and we rely on them for keeping in touch while we're on the go. Needless to say, choosing the wrong phone could be a costly misstep. In the latest episode of Upgrade Your Life, Yahoo! News's Becky Worley serves up some must-have advice on picking the right cell phone for you. [Click here for more episodes of Upgrade Your Life!] Among Becky's tips and tricks: 1. Test reception before you buy As any iPhone owner will tell you, even the coolest cell phone on the planet won't do you much good if you can't get a signal. While you can check a coverage map to see if your home is located in a given carrier's coverage area, there's still a chance that your phone's signal display will flat-line the moment you step into your living room. The solution? Test some actual phones from different carriers in your house. No, your local carrier won't give you a loaner to try, but you could always ask your friends — hey, you could even have a cell phone party, with the top prize going to the pal whose handset gets the best signal under your roof. Related: AT&T coverage map Sprint coverage map T-Mobile coverage map Verizon Wireless coverage map AT&T Ranked Last in Consumer Reports' Best Cellphone Service Survey [All Things Digital] 2. Compare rate plans What's the most expensive part of buying a cell phone? It's not the actual sticker price, of course, but rather the monthly bill you'll have to pay. With the average cell phone bill costing about $47 a month [PDF], according to CTIA, the industry's international trade association, a typical wireless subscriber in the U.S. will end up paying more than $564 a year for a cell phone, and that's not even taking into account the price of the hardware. So make sure to compare competing rate plans carefully before you sign on the dotted line. Each carrier offers its own twist on individual and "family" plans, along with different bundles of voice minutes, unlimited night and weekend minutes, text messages, and data. Becky also recommends Validas.com, a site that will analyze your uploaded cell phone bill and pinpoint areas for potential savings. The site charges $5 and up to upload your bill, but the money you'll save will more than cover your expenses, Worley promises. Another option: BillShrink.com, a site that analyzes both cellular and pay-TV bills. Related: Validas.com BillShrink.com 3. Smartphone, or feature phone? Know the different between a smartphone — think the iPhone, or other advanced handsets like Android phones and BlackBerrys — and a more basic handset (also known as "feature phones") before you buy. Generally speaking, a smartphone is like a pocket-size computer, good for sending email, browsing the Web, running apps, and playing 3D games; they even make phone calls, too. Nice, but all those data-hungry features don't come cheap; expect to pay anywhere from $15 to $30 a month in 3G data charges on top of your voice and SMS fees. Feature phones, on the other hand, are far more basic. Typically, they're all about voice calling, as well as sending and receiving text messages. Some feature phones also have MP3 players, bare-bones Web browsers and email, while others even have some limited, "locked-down" apps from the carrier. Keep in mind, however, that the more email you send or Web pages you browse, the more you'll have to pay in data charges — even on a basic cell phone. So, what type of phone should you get: a smartphone (like the iPhone or the Motorola Droid X), or a feature phone? That depends on you. Wish you could surf the Web, fire off emails by the dozen, stream Hulu and Netflix videos, and play Angry Birds while you're on the go? Then you should probably be shopping for a smartphone. Just want to talk, or send text messages? A feature phone should do nicely — and it'll be a lot cheaper, to boot. From Yahoo! Shopping: Cell phones 4. Size matters Used to be that the hottest new cell phones were also the smallest. (Remember the Motorola StarTac?) Nowadays, however, the coolest handsets are getting bigger and bigger. Witness the HTC Evo 4G and the Motorola Droid X, two red-hot Android devices from this past summer, both of which sport massive 4.3-inch displays. There's nothing like a big screen when it comes to surfing the Web or watching a mobile video, but those jumbo displays also mean extra bulk; don't expect the Evo 4G or the Droid X to slip in your pocket without making a noticeable bulge. Worley's suggestion: Consider how you plan on toting around your phone. Will it live in your purse or briefcase? Then bigger is better. Want to keep it in your pocket? Look for a handset with a svelte profile. 5. To QWERTY or not to QWERTY? Probably the biggest decision that smartphone shoppers will have to make (that is, besides iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone) is whether to go all-touchscreen, all-the-time, or snag a handset with an actual QWERTY keypad. Smartphones with "virtual," on-screen QWERTYs tend to be thinner and lighter than their keypad-packing counterparts, and they're great for firing off messages without having to futz with a slide-out QWERTY tray. But many users — particularly BlackBerry veterans — prefer real QWERTY keypads they can actually feel with their fingertips. If you do decide to go with a handset that has an actual QWERTY keyboard, make sure to try before you buy. Slide-out QWERTY keypads tend to have larger keys than those on candy-bar style devices, but they're also bulkier overall. Handsets with their QWERTYs in plain view, below the screen, tend to be smaller and thinner, but the keys can be maddeningly small. Be sure to test-drive both styles, and choose wisely. 6. Check your carrier's return policy Any reputable carrier will give you between 15 and 30 days to return the phone for your money back. As Becky suggests, don't be afraid to take advantage of this policy once you've wrung out your new handset. Not happy with what you got? You're better off returning it rather than getting stuck with a phone you hate for two years. Check your carrier's return policy before hitting the "buy" button, though. While you'll usually get the purchase price of the phone back, you may have to pay a restocking fee (typically about $35), and you may also be on the hook for activation charges and any voice or data fees you've incurred. Related: AT&T return policy Sprint return policy T-Mobile return policy Verizon return policy — Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! 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