10 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying and Using Smartphones

They couldn’t run Angry Birds, but traditional telephones had one thing today’s smartphones lack: utter simplicity. Buying one was easy: Red or white? Rotary or push button? Using it a breeze: Pick up, dial, speak.

Smartphones now on the market are pocket-size computers, and of course, that’s been a boon to both work and play. Send a file? Check. Review a document? No problem. Check in for tonight’s flight? Done. But as they grow ever more capable, smartphones bring some of the same challenges as computers: namely, how to get the most out of them while avoiding any pitfalls. For all-too-many users, that’s a goal they don’t quite achieve. What follows is a look at 10 common smartphone mistakes — and how to avoid them.

1. Skip the bargain model. Sure, an iPhone 4 for $0 is mighty tempting. But those free or near-free older phones come at a cost. To get that special pricing, you’ll generally have to lock yourself into a two-year contract. In the process, you’ll be locking yourself into yesterday’s technology. “[That] older model will quickly show its age,” says Jeff Richardson, a partner at Adams and Reese in New Orleans, who also runs the iPhone J.D. blog ( iphonejd.com). “Attorneys should spend the extra few dollars to buy the current model.” Keep in mind, too, that the latest model may have a feature that more than justifies the additional outlay. An iPhone 5, for example, works with fast 4G networks — something the 3G-compatible iPhone 4 doesn’t.

2. Read the fine print. Depending on your carrier, and the device, an upgrade may trigger changes to your plan — sometimes undesirable changes. At one law firm, an attorney who frequently travels overseas inadvertently lost his unlimited in-network international plan after switching to a new phone. “The device upgrade triggered a reset on the international plan, [resulting] in several hundred dollars in roaming fees,” says the firm’s CIO. “You are often stuck with the plans [that are in place] at the time you get a new device, so be sure you check before you order that new phone.”

3. Bigger isn’t always better. Smartphones have seen a growth spurt of late, not just in popularity but in screen size. Displays between four and five inches are now commonplace, and some vendors aren’t stopping there. Samsung, for example, offers a 5.5-inch screen on its Galaxy Note II smartphone, and will soon be launching a 6.3-inch behemoth — the appropriately named Samsung Galaxy Mega — in Europe. Often these large screens look terrific, with high definition displays. But big screens mean big phones, and suddenly it’s like you’re carrying a small tablet. That’s fine if you want a small tablet. But unless you plan to read documents, annotate PDFs, or watch a lot of video on the go, you may find that a smaller screen means a more portable, more pocketable device that gets the job done.

4. Plan ahead if you plan to travel internationally. It’s something seasoned business travelers know well, but can quickly trip up novices: When you travel abroad, your phone is running on another carrier’s network. That means roaming charges; often very costly roaming charges. One way to avoid these fees is to simply turn the phone off, or put it in "airplane mode" for the duration of your trip. You’ll still be able to use Wi-Fi for checking email, surfing the web, and making voice calls via Voice Over IP services such as Skype.