What to Look for while Buying a 3G phone:A Buying Guide

We have been hearing a lot about 3G for a very long time.Time and again 3G auction got delayed for one or another reason.,now probably private operators will launch their 3G services and then it’ll be 3G everywhere.Although BSNL & MTNL already have launched their services in all metros and many other cities of India.

Many of us would be interested in using this service and since 3G compatible handsets are required ,would be planning to buy one.Here in this post I’ll write on what features to look for while buying a 3G phone.I’m writing this post as only after purchase of a 3G handset for my friend ,I got to know that the handset doesn’t have a front camera and thus video calling is not possible.It’s quite frustrating to learn that the handset which one has bought, doesn’t support an important feature of 3G. Before I write on features,take a brief round up on the services available through 3G which are not possible on 2G.

Video calling High Speed Broadband on mobile phone (3G & 3.5 G)
Mobile TV and many applications which are bandwidth hungry or require high speed internet

Before zeroing on a 3G handset we should look for following features in the handset:

Dual camera(Front & Back) for Video Calling: We should check that whether the handset has both front and back camera or not.Front camera is required for video calling.Many of the handsets do not have front camera.Sometimes the small light sensor available on handsets misleads us and we mistakenly consider it to be camera.SO beware and check the feature thoroughly.Some of the Nokia phones which are 3G compatible and do not have front camera are Nokia 2730,E-51,E-63.

Handset is 3G or 3.5 G (HSDPA) compatible: Some of the handsets are only 3G compatible while some are more advanced and are 3.5 G compatible.The later one also known as HSDPA enabled give download speed upto 3.6 Mbps and upload speed upto 384 Kbps. The 3G handsets gives download and upload speed upto 384 Kbps.This brings the huge difference in data speed.So be sure to buy 3.5G handset if want to access very fast internet.
Operating system of the phone:Mobile applications are buzzword these days and running bandwidth hungry applications on 2G sucks.With 3G one can really harness the power of these umpteen number of applications to their full extent.But the catch is majority of the applications run on Symbian platform and thus doesn’t run on Samsung and Sony Ericsson phones.Since major market share is still with Nokia so most of the applications are made keeping Nokia phones in Mind and thus works best on Nokia phones.For example BSNL & MTNL Mobile Tv works only on Nokia and some Sony Ericsson Models.
Screen Size:If you are comfortable using touch phone better to go for this or go for one which has slider keypad because such phones have bigger screen.Bigger screen gives better Mobile tv and and video calling experience.Samsung Star 3G ,Omnia & Corby(I tried it through streaming link) gives better mobile Tv viewing experience than on the high end expensive Nokia phones like E72.