Understanding Mobile Phone Specs
I’ve been reminded of my Advertising Class whenever i do some sort of explanation for the listeners of my radio show about the specification of various mobile phones. This advertising catch phrase serves me as a guide: “Emphasize benefits, not features.”
Applying that to mobile specs, it simply means what does the spec meant to us? What can i get from it? Specs are technical terms if not jargon. Ordinary mobile phone users can’t siphoned it without getting a nose bleed. As a tech-communicator on-the-air, my role is to translate the specs as simple as possible to a lay man’s comprehension.
So, let’s start understanding these specs of Nokia C203 courtesy of gsmarena.com:
Touch and Type = it means the phone has a touch display screen and a keypad where both can be used to type your messages or to navigate the phone. As you can see in the image, this phone has a slider keypad.
2G Network = It means this cell phone is only capable of GPRS and EDGE networks and no 3G or HSDPA or HSUPA. Still sound technical? It means you can’t experience full-browsing in this phone nor it has video calling capability.
If you go down further the list under DATA, you would find it has no WLAN. It means no WiFi that would connect you to cyberspace.
The fastest connection you can achieve while connecting to your telco is only a little over the GPRS data rates of 56-114 kbit/s. EDGE, by the way, is an enhanced GPRS and it’s a pre-3G technology.
GPRS and EDGE are both SMS/MMS capable but internet surfing is only via WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). However, an Adobe Flash Lite enhance the net experience of this phone to play video on-screen.
TFT Resistive Touch Screen = there are two touch screen categories: resistive and capacitive. Smart phones have capacitive screens for maximization of its internet apps. Capacitive touch screen uses our body’s capacitance to react. Thus, you can’t use your fingernail or any piece of insulator like the stylus to interact with the screen interface. While the resistive touch screen is capable of being interacted with stylus or your finger nail. Even unintentional rubbing the surface of the screen with your pocket sleeves could make the screen react. You can use two or more fingers at a time when dealing with capacitive touch screen while resistive screen is not multi-touch. However, most resistive touchscreen can recognize handwriting using a stylus or even your fingernails.
MP3/WAV ringtones = MP3 is a compressed sound format and has a 1:1 time-to-file size ratio. Meaning, for every minute sound file the size is 1mb. While the WAV (wave) has 1:10 ratio because it’s a full-sized format. Between the two, WAV has a better quality but it eats up much of your phone’s memory.
MicroSD up to 32gb = it means you can expand the memory of your phone by inserting a memory card whose capacity is up to 32gb. This phone has a built-in 10MB memory space.
Photocall = you can assign an image for every contact. The moment you’re calling/receiving calls the picture of your contact appears on the screen.
Bluetooth and USB = You can connect this phone to another device or PC using a wireless mode through bluetooth or connect a cable through its USB port.
Primary and Secondary camera = Primary cam is the rear camera principally used to take shots while the secondary camera is the front-facing camera for video calling or self-portrait shots.
SMS & MMS = This phone can send/receive text messages (Short Messaging System) and also images, videos and ringtones (Multi-media MessagingService).
GPS – Global Positioning System is only available in smart phones which can pinpoint your exact coordinates.
DUAL SIM = this phone is capable of using two SIM cards simultaneously as both cards are active.
EASY SWAP SIM= means one of the SIM card can be taken out from the slot even without shutting down your phone. It’s also called HOT SWAP.
PREDICTIVE TEXT INPUT = the phone will complete the text while you’re writing by predicting the words you’re writing. However, this feature is oftentimes annoying especially if we write in our vernacular.
STANDBY, TALKTIME, MUSIC PLAY = illustrates how long the battery would last.
SAR EU – it’s the European standard of the Specific Absorption Rate of mobile phones. SAR measures the mobile phone electromagnetic signal (radiation) that our body can absorb. The EU standard is 2 watts/body kilogram while in the U.S. the ceiling is 1.6 watts/kg. This phone is way below the limit.
Smart phones have more specs and the features are dependent on the make and manufacturer of the unit.
