BELLAMYBUDIMAN

A recent mishap with my friend’s iPhone led me to write this post. Since smartphone users are sprouting everywhere not — whether they need it or simply bought it for the sake of style — I think I’d like to tell a few things to note before you decide to jump into the smartphone bandwagon.

Why a Smartphone?
Actually the first question that you must answer is whether you need a smartphone or not. Do you use your mobile phone only to make phone calls, text messages, or dead simple amateur photos? Or do you use it extensively to cater your daily technological needs? If deep down there you feel that the former is the answer, then you should stop here. Don’t ever think about buying a smartphone, just stick with your current dumbphone and off with your life. Trust me, you’ll save everyone the effort, including yours.

What Can I Do with a Smartphone?
After you decided that you have more to do with your cellphone besides calling people and texting, there is a plethora of things that you can do with a smartphone, be it an iPhone, an Android phone, a BlackBerry, or for-the-love-of-God-why-the-hell-did-you-buy-it-are-you-insane, a Windows Mobile phone. Just in case you didn’t know, you can, for instance, stay connected throughout the time with online messengers, check emails on the go, connect to social networking sites, browse the internet, or play better games. Note that, some of these functions are also readily available on regular dumbphones, so I can’t stress enough that if you don’t need the experience, then stick with your current dumbphone and off with your life.

What to Prepare
Assuming that you have decided that, okay, you needed a smartphone, well that means you will need to successfully add another bill to your tertiary needs. And that is a postpaid cellular plan. Why not prepaid? Well, in my opinion, I’d rather not have a credit-less phone in a middle of an important task. And wouldn’t it be silly when this happens:

A: “I just knew that your iPhone has Shazam on it. Can I try it?”
B: “You can’t. I haven’t topped up my credits.”

That’s just straight lame. Okay, I’m pushing it, but you get the idea. If this is the case, again, you’d be better off with a dumbphone where you can less worry about your cellular credits. Additionally, you will also need a fully functional computer within your possession. The reason is on the next subject.

Why Do I Need to Sync?
This is probably the most important subject of all. When you have a smartphone, then YOU WILL NEED TO REGULARLY SYNC with your computer. Hell, even if you have a sync-capable dumbphone, you should regularly sync as well. This ensures that you will always have a backup should something happened to your phone and you lost all your data, your contacts, important text messages, and so forth. And this is also why you should sync it only to a computer that you have access to at any given time and preferably yours.

You Will Need a Bit of Technical Consciousness
When you’re using a dumbphone, you could probably survive with a single operating system version throughout the entire life of that phone. But not with smartphones. Technologies evolve as well as smartphone operating systems, and every smartphone manufacturer would most probably recommend that you keep your phone updated to the latest software version to get the latest bug fixes, improved battery life, or new features. So if you’re getting a smartphone, keep this in mind and make sure that the least you can do is to make upgrades yourself, and not to nag to others if they can help you do this for free. Otherwise, for the fourth time, you’d be better off with a dumbphone. I’ve seen numerous people who bought iPhones just because they wanted to stay “up-to-date”, but give friends headaches when it comes to upgrading its software, especially with unlocked iPhones.

In a nutshell, having a smartphone doesn’t mean that it’ll take care of itself. It needs you to take care of it so that it functions properly, and can help you with your tasks. A smartphone is an improvement to your mobile life, and not an obstacle. If you see it as a potential problem in the future, then it’s simple. Just don’t buy one.