The Mind-Boggling Complexity of Buying a Phone in 2024

Last week, my phone died. It had served me well for a long time, so no complaints there. The only problem is, I hadn’t realised just how complicated it is, in 2024, to choose a phone if you’re buying a new one. Well, I guess it probably isn’t that complicated for the very rich. In that case, you either buy an iPhone 16 Pro Max that currently retails for Rs 1.45 lakh (if you’re an Apple fanboy) or a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (if you’re an Android loyalist) that’s currently priced at Rs 1.22 lakh. And that’s it, you’re done, you get the best of everything at a price that’s completely unaffordable for the rest of us.

So, how is it for the rest of us, mere mortals who only want to spend something like Rs 15-25,000 and genuinely believe even that is too much to spend on a phone. The choices, in that price range, are simply mind-boggling and the complexity is off the charts. Here are some things you must consider and evaluate. The processor. Snapdragon and MediaTek are two frontrunners right now, and both make a wide range of processors that are available at many different price points and come with a wide range of different capabilities. The battery. How big is the battery? What is the charging speed offered? Does the phone come with a charger bundled with it, or would you need to buy a charger separately. Screen size. How big? Is the display panel an IPS LCD or AMOLED? Display resolution? Refresh rate? If you drop the phone (which you inevitably will, at some time or the other), is the screen likely to shatter on impact or is it shatter-resistant? Is it Gorilla glass? If yes, which version of Gorilla glass? If not, what other kind of glass does it have? The cameras. How many? Two, three or four? What type of cameras? The resolution, in megapixels? Wide-angle, telephoto? Sensor size? Video-shooting capabilities? What about audio? How are the speakers? Does the phone have dual, stereo speakers or does it have mono output? Is there a socket where you can insert a headphone jack? What about support for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision? HDR support? What about software updates? How many years of software updates is the manufacturer offering? Does the phone have AI capabilities?

Finding answers to all of the above isn’t always an easy task. In fact, buying a 20,000-Rupee phone may well be more complicated than buying a 10-lakh-Rupee car, since the automotive world simply doesn’t offer as vast and complex a range of options. Heck, finding the right wife might be easier than finding the right phone, especially if you're really choosy and aren't easily satisfied. 

So, one must repeatedly go to Amazon and Flipkart and various phone manufacturers’ websites to compare specs and prices, watch a hundred phone reviews on YouTube and, if you have a teenaged son in the house, ask for his opinion since that is likely to be useful. The first time you ask your teenaged son about what phone he thinks you should buy, the standard first response is likely to be ‘iPhone.’ More often than not, said with a casual nonchalance and a certain boredom. Your son thinks you aren't very bright if you even consider getting anything other than the latest, greatest iPhone. But when you try to explain to him that an iPhone costs about as much as your monthly take-home pay and that you simply can’t afford to buy one (and/or that you believe it’s just plain stupid to spend Rs 1.45 lakh on a phone), your teenager might relent and offer some suggestions that might actually be useful.

Once you’ve found an answer to all your questions, evaluated those answers carefully (preparing an Excel sheet for comparative analysis may be useful), and eliminated the phones that do not match up to your requirements and expectations, you would have hopefully found at least one or two phones that you believe offer the best value proposition. That is, all the features you need/want, at a price that you’re willing to pay. The next step is to again go to Amazon and Flipkart and search for the best deal that you can get for the phone you want to buy. See if a sale of some sort is already going on, or if one is coming up anytime soon, in which case you just save another 2-3,000 Rupees. That’s important, because nothing makes us Indians happier than netting a good bargain.

Finally, pay up and wait for your phone to arrive. Congratulations on having successfully navigated one of the most difficult, fiendishly complex decision-making processes of our time. Regarding you and new phone, which Amazon / Flipkart will tell you is arriving soon, I can’t say that may the two of you live happily ever after. That’s because you will, inevitably, repeat the same process of getting yet another phone after 2-3 years. But may the two of you fall deeply in love and spend many, many happy hours every day in each other’s company.

Smartphones and humanity. Together forever. Till death do us part.

Also see: The phone that I really want, but haven't been able to buy