What happened to the old days when a phone was designed only to make and receive calls? Now you can SMS, MMS, use Bluetooth, infrared transfer and take pictures. In short, your tiny cellphone is now a powerful communication/entertainment/personal assistant device!

To begin, in order to find a cellphone that can satisfy your needs, it’s important to understand what features you require.

SMS - Short Message Service is a feature that is now offered by most mobile cellphones. More popularly known as text messaging, the basis of this service is to send a short message written in text from one mobile phone to another. Each message can be up to approximately 160 English characters long.  If you constantly find yourself stuck in board meetings, areas, or other situations where you cannot talk on your cellphone, you can choose to communicate through text messaging. While not a necessary feature to have on your phone, it can come quite handy when you need it. Check your service provider to see how much it costs to send a message. Its usually a standard fee unless you purchase a special package.

Also, you might have heard of Premium SMS or PSMS which is a service that is offered by your service provider as well as third party companies. This service is about sending you text messages with updates of news or entertainment pieces. It can range from anything like sports score update, to joke of the day. You will have to do a little research first to see if the PSMS you’re looking for is available in your local area. One important note about these PSMS’s are their cost. In addition to the original cost of receiving a SMS, many of theses PSMS companies will charge an additional fee for the PSMS. Another factor potential subscribers should pay attention to is the time length of the service. Some companies send daily PSMS to their subscribers, so the charges can rack up quite quickly if you don’t place it under control.

MMS - Multimedia Messaging Service is a feature offered by more modern cellphones. Essentially this service is similar to text messaging, but with the addition of multimedia items. For MMS, you can include a picture, video, audio, e.t.c alongside a text message. If you’re an avid fan of messaging, you’ll stand a higher chance of using this service. If your mobile cellphone comes equipped with a digital camera, you can snap a couple of shots for your MMS message. Cost for MMS differ a little from a normal SMS. The charge is based on how much data you send through their system. They’ll probably charge by kilobytes (kb). Check your service provider for exact costs.

IrDA or Infrared - IrDA stands for Infrared Data Association. Basically this feature is a form of wireless data transmission. IrDA capable devices can send data to each other, but only within a short unblocked distance. If you enjoy customizing your phone yourself, but do not have a data cable for your mobile cellphone, you can consider IrDA to transfer your data from your computer into your phone (Note: this is only possible if BOTH devices are IrDA compatible). However, because of the limitations of IrDA, I would not suggest relying on it to transfer large packets of data, nor rely on it to transfer very far.

Bluetooth - Bluetooth is the name of a feature that allows electronic devices to connect, exchange and communicate information to each other. Think of it as a much more developed version of IrDA. Like IrDA, Bluetooth (or BT), can wirelessly transmit data between electronic devices. The difference here is that the distance is greater, and for cellphones, BT can usually transmit within a 10metre radius. There is also an upgrade in speed as transmission speeds can reach up to 2.1 Mbit/s. This feature is useful for cellphone users who like to transfer data between their computers and other mobile phones. BT is vital if you intend to heavily share pictures, music, e.t.c, or other larger data items. If possible, I recommend a Bluetooth 2.0 capable phone, which is a more up-to-date version of BT.  

Other then data exchange, Bluetooth is also designed to wirelessly communicate and connect with other BT compatible devices. This means that you can purchase a BT headset and connect it to your cellphone wirelessly. This is an extremely useful feature if you find yourself chatting away while trying to accomplish other tasks. Your hand will not be tied up holding your cellphone. Many other devices are now starting to incorporate BT; products such as digital cameras and printers can now be controlled wirelessly through Bluetooth.

These are the major features that most cellphones are equipped with nowadays. Finding a cellphone that matches your needs does not have to be headache, as long as you know what you need from your mobile phone. Make sure the phone you want has the features that you need.

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