Having changed cellphones at a frequency of about 1 a year, I have learnt much from my past regrets and mistakes in cellphone selection. I would just like to take this opportunity to share some of my experiences and lessons, and hopefully will assist you in avoiding the same regrets and mistakes that I have made. I am by no means an expert in cellphones and what I have to share basically comes out of personal experiences, so do decide for yourself which points are relevant to yourself and your situation.

I believe that selecting the next cellphone is quite an important decision, one that will be staring you in the face (almost literally) and accompanying you to many places. As such, I have broadly classified 3 broad areas that you should be aware of when making this decision.

The 2 areas are:

1. Aesthetics
2. Usability

1. Aesthetics. First lets talk about aesthetics or how the phone looks in your eyes. I understand that this point may sound quite redundant and most people will have consciously or sub-consciously taken this into account in their cellphone selection. However, I still feel that it is important to point this out.

a)Beauty is in the eyes of the Beholder. I have made the mistake of choosing usability over aesthetics before, being the practical guy that I am. While that is not a gargantuan mistake, it slowly gets to you when you are not completely satisfied with your phone looks. This will become more evident when newer models appear (very shortly) that has the same functions but look so much better and you begin to feel so tempted to change your model after a short period of time. Of course, this is no problem if you have cash to burn. But if you are like me, who needs to be careful of every single cent, it is not so easy (or cheap) to change a phone within a few months. I shall not be-labour this point, but do realize that this is an object that you will be looking at a lot and you definitely want something that is pleasing, or at least mildly satisfying, to your eyes.

b) Size. Size is another important factor, which I think you need to seriously consider. I have loved phones for their functionalities but decided against buying them because I cannot comfortably carry them around in my pocket and wearing a clip is just not a fashion statement I like to make. I suppose this point affects more males than females (not meaning to be sexist) just based on the fact that guys do not carry hand-bags (or at least most don't) and we either put them in our pockets or on our belts. Therefore, do think about whether the size of the phone is going to be a potential problem for you particularly if its too long, thick or big in general. You will definitely feel the effects of the size very shortly and you will not be surprised if you have considered it and accepted the consequences of your decision.

2. Usability. Going on to usability or functionality, we can go deeper in depth with this area. I have highlighted several key points within this area that you should consider when purchasing your next cellphone:

a) Assessment of needs. The first and foremost thing you should be doing is to be completely honest with yourself about your needs of this new phone and what you expect to be realistically doing on it. It does not make sense (at least for me), to expect to use your phone like a laptop to take minutes in a meeting, no matter how much you hope to be able to achieve that. Do you actually see yourself using your phone the way you expect? Many people have bought smartphones or PDA's only to realize that they actually have very little use of it, besides the occasional game while standing in line. So be honest with yourself and determine the scope of your usage.

b) Phone Operating System (OS) Platform. Every phone uses an OS to operate and you should be aware the pros and cons of each OS or at least generally. The symbian OS is definitely less versatile and powerful compared to the palm or windows mobile OS. The processing power is also affected by the OS of the phone. You can do a quick search of your potential phone's OS to understand the pros and cons of that OS.

c) Phone Lags. Nowadays, as phones become more and more complex, with huge applications and functionalities, ironically, it has also increased the lag of using the phone. Even simple applications like retrieving your phone book or writing a message in the Short Messaging System (SMS), can potentially be laggy. So do ask yourself if you can live with a lag on some phones. Another note, I have managed to convince myself I can live with the lag only to regret the choice a few weeks down the road, when you have to face this lag every single time you write a SMS (approximately 20 a day?).

d) User-Friendliness. I cannot over emphasize on this point. Making a wrong decision in this point is a big mistake, with a capital B. No matter how much you like the phone and certain functions, I believe that user-friendliness should never be compromised as it will almost certainly continue to haunt you for the rest of your phone's life. Do test out how many button presses it takes to reach your most used applications (e.g. phone book, SMS, saving of new numbers, etc). On average, it should not take more than 2 button presses. Are programs easily assessable from any part of the software? Can I easily save new numbers that are dialed on or call to my phone? Can I configure my phone painlessly or do I need to go through a myriad of confusing menus just to change my ringtone? Are all applications viewable from a main menu? Just some questions you should be asking.

e) Expandable memory. If you intend to use your phone for listening to music, or carrying documents, you will want to take note of this point. Also so consider your possible future uses. I have owned a phone that uses SD-card as the expandable memory. A few months later, I have successfully converted the SD-card into a portable storage device as well since my laptop has a SD-card slot as well as most of my collegues. Since the phone goes wherever I go, I carry my most important documents or stuff I need for reference in my SD-card, which I can retrieve anytime especially in situations when I do not expect. Do think about how it can complement your life as well.

f) Connectivitiy. In this day and age, you cannot afford to ignore this point. I have recently (a few months back) purchased a new phone that does not come with wi-fi capabilities. At that time, I have rationalized that it is so expensive to use wi-fi to surf the net and surfing on the small screen is no joy either. Thus, I accepted this constraint, concluding that it will not be a big loss. Just a few weeks back, my government rolled out an island FREE wi-fi service that will last for 3 years. Guess I do not need to elaborate the feelings I have right now. Also, with all the information exchange going on right now between collegues and friends, you would definitely want to have at least Bluetooth and infra-red capabilities.

g) PC Synchronisation. A larger and larger number of phones comes equipped for you to synchronize your PC contacts, calendar, etc with your phone. This makes the data transfer from your old phone to your new one so much easier and also allows you to keep a consistent list of contacts, appointments, tasks, memos, etc. Of course, if you do not have a PC (which is rare nowadays) or you don't feel the need to synchronize your phone with it, then you can ignore this point. But, just a warning, that you should look to the future, and as your contacts and appointments expand, if you see yourself meeting clients and having meetings on the go, keying in new data on your laptop or computer and transferring it over to your phone is so much more painless than having to type at the tiny screen of your phone.

h) Applications. As phone becomes more and more powerful, there are greater varieties of 3rd party software becoming increasingly available to all types of phones. Think about what applications you would like your phone to have, that is not already found inside and do a search for potential applications that you can purchase subsequently. The new symbian UIQ3 will definitely have a much smaller variety of applications available to you compared to the well-established palm or windows mobile applications. So take time to browse through the web for the availability of other software as you will find it frustrating when you realize that there are not many essential software available to your phone.

These are the few more important things you should take note of when you are out shopping for your next cellphone. Needless to say, you should also talk to your friends, especially those who already own the same phone you are planning to buy or at least those who have phones with the same characteristics and OS. Surf the web for tons of reviews of most popular models and this will give you a very good sense of what people are unhappy about regarding the phone of your choice. You can refer to my website ((www.atlantiz.sg)) which I have set up out of interest and frustration in compiling reviews, for a list of reviews of various products including cellphones.

Hope this article has been a useful reminder to you and good luck in your search of your next cellphone!