Table of Contents
Android Phones
Smartphones have become the swiss army knife of digital tools. They are ubiquitous, portable, and multipurpose with a wide range of available applications.
There are many different smartphone manufacturers. We recommend comparing smartphones from popular manufacturers when choosing one. The main difference between smartphone manufacturers is the operating system, the most popular ones being Android and iOS. Most applications are available on all popular operating systems, but there are some exceptions. There are also differences between the technical features of smartphones. Higher-end smartphone models have a more powerful processor, more storage, higher-quality screen and cameras, and longer battery life. However, better features are more expensive, making the budget a limiting factor when choosing a smartphone. We recommend at a minimum of 64 GB of storage, high-quality front and back cameras for better photos, videos, and video calling experience and choose a screen size such that the phone is comfortable to carry and handle.
Next, we focus on smartphone settings. They are important for security and privacy reasons, as well as health and productivity reasons. Smartphones store sensitive personal information, such as email accounts, financial services, and password managers. The sim card inside the phone is tied to the phone number, which some services use for authentication. To protect the phone, we should change the default pin code on the sim card and use pin and biometrics to open the phone from the lock screen.
We can reduce distractions and smartphones’ addictive potential by turning off notifications on applications by default. Turn on notifications only for vital applications or selectively allow important notifications inside an application. We can reduce adverse effects to sleep from smartphone screens’ by turning on the evening mode, which reduces blue-light in the evening.
We should only install applications you trust and favor web applications when they are available to reduce security risks. Avoid installing unnecessary applications, and be careful with free applications. If the company’s or organization’s revenue does not come from paying customers or donations, they usually advertise to users and mine and sell user data. We discuss applications for specific tasks on subsequent pages.
Currently, I am using Samsung Galaxy S9 as my Android phone. I recommend using PopSockets, which makes smartphones easier to hold with one hand while typing messages, watching videos, or using the front camera.