Top 10 Things To Consider Before Buying A New Smartphone In 2017

If a group of people is asked which is the best phone in Nigeria, in 2017? We will gather a lot of responses that might leave us to doubt if we must get a better smartphone.

Have you also been looking for the nicest smartphone in Nigeria this 2017? You want it to have all the features you need? Going for Samsung or Infinix is not the best thing you should be told, rather you should know these top 10 things to consider before buying a new smartphone in Nigeria.

1. The smartphone OS

OS simply means "operating system." It defines the complete system on which the smartphone operates. Just exactly like comparing different windows in computers. We all know Window 8 is different from window 7, and so as Window Vista.

Each of these operating systems has their pros and cons. An example of smartphones operating system is Jellybean (4.0), lollipop (5.0), marshmallows (6.0), and nougat (7.0) which is the latest OS as at the time of writing this post.

Now, I think it is now left for you to choose the best OS that suits your purpose. Initially, many people (I too) would like to go for the latest OS because it comes with different and new features.

Brose through features of different OS and find what suits your purpose.


Must read >> Why My Android Devices Hang And Freeze, And How I Solved The Problem

2. Battery capacities

In Nigeria today, an average man cannot even enjoy a smartphone with a small battery capacity. The country's electricity is not encouraging. Besides, who would like plugging his smartphone in electricity in few hours interval? No, people want to use their smartphone for days without charging it.

Battery capacity is one of the most important things I always care about when I want to buy a new smartphone. Thank God that the smartphone producers now understand how electricity supply works in Nigeria. They are now manufacturing smartphones with higher battery capabilities.

An average battery a capacity I can recommend you go for is 3000maH and above. With this, you can use your phone for days depending on your usage.

3. Availability of spare parts and accessories

This is a very crucial part, but most of us do overlook it. If you're a type that love shipped products, you might also like to order your smartphone from foreign countries. But how sure are you that the spare parts and the accessories are available in your location?

A friend of mine asked his friend to buy a smartphone for him while he traveled. Due to this friend's carelessness, he broke the screen. Up till this time of writing this post, he has not been able to get the screen. He was told that he needs to go to where he bought the phone.

Alternatively, he can order for the screen, and it could be shipped. Now, let's calculate how much extra money he needs to spend if he must order for the screen.

I understand that phone meets your requirements, but I advise you take your time to confirm if the phone's spare parts and accessories are very much available and accessible.


Read also >> How To Set A Password For Your WiFi Hotspot

4. Product Reviews

How many products have you bought that you checked the reviews before you bought them? Product reviews can tell you if a smartphone you desire is not bad for you.

Before you, some people must have used the phone and must have left a review. Gathering facts from reviews would ascertain you if the smartphone is worthy buying or not.

You can search for smartphone reviews online. Go to any search engines and type the keyword: "product + reviews." For example, searching for “Tecno DP7CPRO + reviews”. Facts you gather should tell you what next to do.

5. ROM, RAM, and the processor.

These three things are essential features you must look out for if you want to have a good experience using a smartphone.

ROM is the inbuilt storage space of the smartphone. It is here that you save your files like pictures, audios, videos, etc. A superb smartphone must have a well-built storage space, at least 16 GB of storage.

The ROM accounts for a number of apps you install on your smartphone while the processor deals with the response rate of activities you carry out on the smartphone.

Why would I go for a smartphone with lower ROM space when new and exciting apps are created every day? I wouldn't want my smartphone to hang or freeze either, so I need a smartphone with a bigger processor.

At least, the smartphone you should be going for should have 2Gb RAM and 1.4ghz octa-core or hexacore processor. However, there are smartphones with 8Gb RAM and ====

6. Camera megapixels

Of you're a selfie lover, I bet you can't do without this. How could you be sharing blurred photos on your social media accounts when smartphones with higher pixels are available?

Some people would go to the extent of borrowing friends' phone to snap pictures when they have their phone. They are only ashamed of their own smartphone's camera pixels.

A smartphone camera pixel is what gives you a poor or good quality in your pictures. The higher a camera pixel is, the higher the quality of the pictures it snaps.

A camera with 13 Megapixels at least, should snap stunning pictures, although there are many other smartphones with higher cameras pixels as high as

7. Network type

You should also know the network type that the smartphone supports. You won't like spending ages to load a page. A better smartphone should support the highest network type.

I can still manage a smartphone that supports 3G network upward, as at the time of compiling this post.

8. Security features

Most Android users have confidential files that are stored on their smartphones, which are not worthy to be seen by other people. Some smartphones now come with fingerprint lock and facial locks.

These locks are not only meant to log unauthorized person so access the phone, but also to make sure that confidential files are kept safe.

Security features are upgraded in smartphones, depending on the OS of the smartphone. For example, Jellybean has the pin, pattern, and password as its main security features, while lollipop includes voice unlock feature.


See How I Minimized The Rate At Which My Android Eats-up My Data Bundle

9. Repair center

It bothers me a lot when I hear people traveling across states before they get their phones repaired. I understand that you don't like a commercial phone repairer. You want an expert, if possible, a staff of the manufacturing company.

How near is the smartphone's repair center before you buy it? Consider this. And if you think traveling to repair the phone worth it, well, I only advise you look at other factors that are mentioned in this post.

10. Your pocket

You have finally gone through the specs, reviews and other critical factors you needed to check, and now a certain phone has come to your mind. I hope you consider your pocket.

Prices of smartphones in Nigeria varies, depending on the maker of the phone. For instance, Samsung products are known to be expensive than Tecno or Infinix products of the same features.

Here, you need to cut your coat according to your coast. Don't buy a smartphone that leaves you broke at the end. Search for prices of different phones before you choose to buy the phone.

Conclusion:

Don't take risks that are not worth taking, when buying phones. Don't be too rush to consider the above 10 things before you buy a new phone in 2017

If this post has opened your eye, and you found a fact in it, why not sharing it to your social media accounts for someone might benefit from this piece.

What other thing do you consider before you buy phones? Sign in as anonymous to comment without verification. 

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How To Set Up Custom Email Address In Android Smartphones

So many android users don’t know the power of the feature “email” in their phones. They only think it can only be used to send and receive emails from regular email providers like yahoo mail and google mail. Little do they know that this feature or app can also be used to receive custom emails from custom email providers like Zoho.

Custom emails are emails for business. They are customized for businesses and websites/blogs. An example of a custom email is "admin@easymadeblog.com". Custom emails look professional for use.

If you own a blog or a business and you use custom email, I am sure you cannot be connected to the PC 24/7. Besides, you won't want to log in several times to your email provider website to check or send new emails.

In order to avoid this stress, I have come with new easy-made steps to set up your custom email address with the POP or IMAP settings provided by your email provider. This enables you to get an instant alert whenever you receive a new mail from your customers. You can as well use this mail, after setup, to send emails to your customers whenever you want.

Pause! Did you know you can also activate your email in your Java phone? Read  How To Activate Your Email Service On Your Java Phones

Follow these steps below to set up your own custom emails on your android device:

Step 1 >>> Open your email app on your android smartphone.

Step 2 >>> Tap the "option" button, and tap the”settings” option located at the bottom

Step 3 >>> Tap the “add account”

Step 4 >>> Enter the custom email in the provided box (e.g, admin@easymadeblog.com). Then tap the “MANUAL SETUP” button

Step 5 >>> Choose the account type you would like to use. In this tutorial, I use the(personal IMAP) setup option

Step 6 >>> Input the password of the account you used to sign up on the website of your email provider. Then, tap the “next button”

Incoming server settings

Step 7 >>> Edit these form sections to match your settings:

                Server: Your server address is provided by your email provider

                Security type: Usually “SSL/TLS (all certificates)”. But if provided by your email provider, use what is provided

                Port: Always provided by the email provider

Leave other sections untouched! Then, tap the “next” button.

Outgoing server settings

Step 8 >>> Edit these form sections to match your settings:

                Smtp Server: Usually provided by the email provider

                Security type:  Usually “SSL/TLS”. )”. But if provided by your email provider, use what is provided

                Port: Always provided by the email provider

Then tap the “next” button

Your account is READY!

Step 9 >>> Give the account a name you want it to appear and a name you want our customers to see when you send them emails.

Final step >>> Check or uncheck the boxes for how you want the account to behave. Very self-explanatory. Then, the “next” button.

Your custom mail should now appear on the email tabs of your email app. You can now send and receive new emails right away from your android smartphones.

Read also >>> 5 Main Reasons Why People Don’t Like or Comment On Your Facebook Posts

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How To Set A Password For Your WiFi Hotspot

After a lot of requests from fans on how to use a password for their WiFi Hotspot, I have decided to come up with a well explained and easy steps to take to successfully lock your WiFi Hotspot with any password of your choice.

What is WiFi Hotspot?

According to Wikipedia, A hotspot is a physical location where people may obtain Internet access, typically using Wi-Fi technology, via a wireless local area network (WLAN) using a router connected to an internet service provider.

In other words, a hotspot is where you can connect your Wifi network to enable you to browse the internet.

I remember a day while I was still teaching in a secondary school. In the evening, I would wait behind to do one or two things before I go home. There was now this day I was trying to connect to the internet, fortunately for me, I found a WiFi Hotspot. Luckily enough, the Wifi Hotspot was not set to password. I downloaded all files on my wishlist and watched youtube videos until it was no more going through.

It was the next day that my proprietor had the complain that all his whole data was used up. "The network providers are wicked!" He said. In his mind, the network provider scraped off the data. But I know in my mind that I was responsible for it.

"Next time, he would set a password for his WiFi Hotspot" I mocked.

Setting a password for the WiFi Hotspot is very essential, especially for those who connect their phone data with another device (e.g. PC). The steps are very easy, but not everybody knows this. And that is why I'm sharing you the steps with the picture for illustration.

Step 1 >>> Go to settings, on your android device

Step 2 >>> Tap "more" as seen in the image below:

Step 3 >>> Click on "Wi-fi Hotspot"

Step 4 >>> Select "Tethering & portable hotspot"

Step 5 >>> Enter the name you want your hotspot name to appear as, and tap the security tab to select "WPA2 PSK"

Step 6 >>> Enter your password. You can set the number of the maximum user to 1 if you don't want your WiFi Hotspot to be shared with more than 1 user. Then click on "save"

 In a single view, you can set a password for your password with this image below:

Don't forget to share the post to your social accounts. A friend might need it. Let me know your experience via the comment.

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Why My Android Devices Hang And Freeze, And How I Solved The Problem

Hanging or freezing is a term that is used to describe a situation when your device performance slows and deviate from the average performance. For example, when you tap a task to be done (let’s say you open an app) on your Android device, if the time it takes to perform this task is more than the expected or stipulated time, your device is said to be hanging or freezing.

Freezing or hanging is one of the most annoying things that happen, and no one wishes to encounter. It irritates a lot to the extent of throwing the phone away because it delays you to perform your task.

Lately, I noticed one of my Android devices that frequently hangs anytime I switched on my data. I was so worried that I had to find a quick solution to it. Even a few days old device can hang, if not properly used or taken care of.

Why does Android device hang?

  

Your Android smartphones and tablets can hang because of the following reason:

#1.       Installed apps are too many on your device

When you install apps on your device, they are stored in the Random Access Memory (RAM). The amount of free space on your RAM determines how much apps you can install on your device. The lower the amount of free space on your RAM, the chances of getting your device hanged or frozen.

#2.       Running too many apps at one time

In most cases when we open an app, we do not normally close or shut them down. We only press the exit button thinking we have closed such apps. We would then go ahead to open another app, making the apps to run in the background. When these apps are many, they also affect the RAM too causing the device to hang or freeze.

#3.       Running heavy or incompatible application

Some apps are bigger (in files) than your Operating device system. For example, running the Facebook latest app in a device of Android version 3.0 or below. The app is going to open but will cause your device to hang because it is too heavy for that OS.

#4.       Presence of malware and viruses

When your device is contacted with a virus, you begin to notice some different changes. One of the changes includes hanging and freezing. Malware and virus can make your phone hang for as long as possible.

#5.       Keeping too many cookies, caches and log files

Each time you play games and get to a new level, log files are automatically stored in your phone memory. Some websites and apps that use the Internet (like Facebook, Firefox, etc.) store many cookies on their web pages to reduce bandwidth usage and server load time. These web caches and cookies are temporarily stored on your phone, and they consume space on the phone memory, anytime you view these web pages, your cookies increases and this may cause slowness in the performance of your device

#6.       Using heavy launcher for your device

A Launcher can be described as a theme that smartphones use to display on the home screen. Every Android smartphone come with a default launcher. The default launcher that the smartphone comes with is originally designed for the smartphone. So when you use any other launcher different from the original launcher (especially, when heavy that the original launcher) can make your device to hang or freeze.

#7.       Small amount of storage space (ROM)

Your Android device can also hang because you have a limited amount of storage space on your device. Some smartphones have a very low amount of ROM or storage space while some have up to 32 gigabytes. If most of your files like music, videos, and pictures are saved on your phone storage (internal memory), it can result in phone hanging and freezing.

What I did to prevent my Android smartphone from hanging.

It is very simple! Yes, you read the first sentence well. It does not cost you any amount. You only need to take to the pieces of advice below.


Read also >>> How To Download Videos On Facebook Directly To Your Android Device

#1.         Avoid installing too many apps on your device

If you have too many apps installed already on your device, try and uninstall those you’re not using.  You can even go further to delete them from your storage. Go to Settings => Apps => Downloaded => Uninstall the unnecessary apps you are not using, to free spaces on your RAM

However, if you must install too many apps, install them directly or move the installed apps on your SD card. To do this, go to Settings => Apps => Click on apps you want to move => Move to SD card

#2.       Always shut down apps you are done with and clear your ram

I have discussed this in one of my Android tutorials, you can read it here. To shut down apps, you are done with; just swipe them away from the list of the apps running in the background and clear your RAM immediately you are done with all the apps

#3.       Don’t frequently update your apps to the latest version (unless the latest version is smaller in size)

Most updated apps come with new features. This makes most of these apps to increase in size. With this fact, you cause your phone two different problems. One is, the space that the app was already taking increases in size; thus eating more space of your ROM. Second is that the new features added to these apps might not be compatible with your phone’s operating system (OS). This is because the app developers like to update their apps to meet the latest OS.

There was a certain time that Facebook updated their app, many users of the new app wrote a lot of bad reviews about the app on Google Play Store. Below is one of the captured reviews:

#4.       Do anything to prevent your device contacting malware or viruses

Avoid connecting your phones to laptops and computers you don’t own. Viruses can be contacted through this means. If you are not sure that the computer is free of malware, do not connect your phone to it for any reason.

Be very cautious when installing third party apps because some of them have viruses. To avoid this, download your apps from a trusted app market like the Google Play Store.

#5.       Install an effective antivirus on your phone

Frequently scan your phone with an active antivirus to detect the presence of virus or malware. If found, delete them immediately and restore your factory settings. To restore your factory settings, go to Settings => Backup and reset => Factory data reset (always backup your files and data before you do factory reset)

#6.       Frequently clear caches of your apps

As it was explained above, catches; cookies and log files are automatically stored in your phone memory. Therefore, you need to clear them to free space on your phone manually. To clear the cache of any app, go to Settings => Apps => Select the app => click on clear caches. You may not necessarily clear the data because when you clear data, you may lose some saved states in your apps.

#7.       Use cloud storage or Google drive to store future files

Cloud storage or Google Drive is an online storage owned by Google. It allows you to save files up to 1 gigabyte of data. You can move all the files you don’t need on a daily basis to this storage and delete them from your phone storage to have free space.

To have Google drive storage, you only need a Gmail account. Then download “drive” from any trusted app market. This will allow you to have an option to send your files to drive.

Anytime you want to move your files to this storage, simply mark the files you wish to move and click on the share symbol. Expand if necessary, and then select "drive."

. You can now follow the steps and successfully save your files on this storage.

To access the files, you have moved, simply log in to your drive mobile app or go to www.drive.google.com.

If these tips are carefully followed, you will save yourself from the frustrating problems of hanging and freezing.

Let me hear your experience via the comment

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12 Different Apps I Use On Smartphone To Blog Conveniently

Reading this post might be very useful for newbie bloggers who has no PC yet, and want to blog conveniently. Even if you're already a top blogger, you might still learn one or two things in this post because I don't believe in walking with PC everywhere I go. 

Did you find that virtually all my blog posts are updated with an Android tablet? The posts pictures are designed on the same tablet. My blog template is also edited using the tablet. Virtually everything I do is done on this tablet because, as at the time of this post, I don't own a PC yet and I blog conveniently. Your smartphone can be used too. 

I'll now unleash the top apps I use that makes blogging very easy for me on Android device. I'll tell you the works I use each of them for. 

Here they go:

#1.  Adobe Reader 

I use this adobe reader to read pdf files. I also use it to preview my blog's template in XML version. Adobe reader can read all text documents and displays it very clearly. 

#2. Bloggeroid 

Bloggeroid is a blogger app that allows me to post blog contents instantly, and if I wish to save as draft or scheduled posts. I can easily open the app and type my content and right away, also add images to my blog posts. The app also supports image attachments. I can also add and edit the picture caption and properties via this app for image optimization. 

3. Chrome

Chrome is a browser app from Google. Current bloggers should know this. Chrome app on smartphones actually works like Chrome on PC. It displays the web version of any site you open. The only thing about Chrome is that I can't  download Chrome extensions on my smartphone. But at least, It does the work I need. 

• Read also >> How To Take Full Screenshot Of A Web page, The Easiest Way

#4. Cloud console 

Bloggers who know about Google Webmasters tool and search console really needs this app to monitor their blog search analytic results. It helps me to track my traffic very well. I can add sitemaps to my google search console dashboard through this app. It's a very useful app for serious bloggers. 

#6. Email 

I use this app to send and receive email messages instantly, as I set it to 10minutes sync.  I have up to 5 email accounts I set up only on this app. My Gmail, Yahoo mail, domain mail, Nokia mail, etc. can easily be created on this app and receive notifications instantly. 

#7. Firefox 

In case I didn't want to use the Google Chrome to surf the net, this is what u use. Firefox is also an important Web browser that also works exactly as it does on PCs. If I want to enjoy it well, I set my phone to auto-rotate and use the landscape to surf the net. Very interesting 

#8. Nairaland app

Recently, I heard that Nairaland is also one of the websites I can get more traffic to my blog. So I checked it out and download the app for easy access. When I installed the Nairaland app, it automatically installed 2 apps. One is their home page, while the second is section. I can access the Nairaland forum to read posts, comments and create new posts. It gives me much easy access than checking the forum.

#9. Photo Resizer

I came across photo resizer when the need arose to resize some pictures pixels and/or file sizes. I wanted to register for something one day and needed to upload a picture. The picture I liked to upload was big in file size to what I was asked to upload. So I easily reduce the file size through this app

When time comes to upload pictures for my posts, this app is very useful because I wouldn't want to slow down my blog with a large amount of data of pictures. So I resize to little amount of  at most 30kb

• Did you know you can hide your IP address on Chrome for FREE? Read This Article NOW

#10. Pix Art

With pix art, everyone is an artist. Honestly, I've never used a PC to design my blog's images before. It's this pix Art. 

Pix Art is a very powerful image editor that has several features to edit images to taste. If you're exquisite using Pix Art, you can make it work for you, even like Photoshop on PC. I practiced it very much, and that's why I'm a bit perfect using it. 

#11. Twitter + Facebook 

These two apps are used to check how well my blog post feeds are doing. I believe most people have these two apps. They're also essential apps for bloggers. 

#12. WPS

This is really my Microsoft Office software in PC. It has Microsoft Word, Microsoft power point, Microsoft Excel and can view all word document files. 

Sometimes if I don't want to go online, I can use this app to get my blog posts typed. Then, copy and paste when I go online. This app also allows me to edit my blog's template. When I'm online, I'd just log into my blogger dashboard and copy all my HTML codes in the edit HTML and paste it in the word editor of WPS. I Can then modify the code conveniently, and then copy and paste back to the edit HTML. 

But I always back up my template before I carry out this operation.

Bonus App

SwiftKey is my keyboard. With SwiftKey, I'm very faster than using PC to type. It corrects my spelling errors automatically. I can type 5 lines of words without looking at the phone's screen. I'm very convenient using SwiftKey.  

You wanna get any of these apps? Simply go to your Google play store, and search for the name. Make sure you download the latest version, for a better experience. 

However, you may be confused about anything, let me know via the comment. I'd be there to respond to you.

Tell us other apps you use on smartphone to blog conviniently!

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How To Download Videos On Facebook Directly To Your Android Devices

Did you know that so many Facebook users find it difficult to download videos directly to their mobile phones? It's very straightforward and easy, and that's what I'm here today to teach you.

Although many Internet gurus already know so many tricks or ways to download Facebook videos, yet many still don't know. And anything I feel some people don't know, I always like them to know.

However, I have not found out if this trick to download videos can be done on the Facebook app. So to get it done, you need to use a browser like your mobile browser, Uc browser or any other Web browser. Simply follow these steps below to get it done

Step 1 >>> Log in to your Facebook account on the browser and head directly to where the Facebook video you want to download is located.

Step 2 >>> Simply "touch and hold" the video to display 3 options like the one in the screenshot below:

Step 3 >>> Tap on the "Show video URL"  button, then copy the address

• Read >>> How To Hide Facebook Chats Of Specific Persons From Friends Or Intruders 

Step 4 >>> Open another tab, and then go to www.fbdown.net. Then, paste the video URL you copied into the box provided and tap "download." See the screenshot below:

Step 5 >>> Another page will open. This is where your final download link is. You would see a tiny link to finally download your video. Tap on this link and your download should start immediately. 

Did you now see that to download videos from Facebook is as easy as anything? But yet, most people do not know this. You may also share your experience if you know this already via comment, or share this post with friends who do not know as well, using the share buttons below. 

See you next time! 

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How I Minimized The Rate At Which My Android Eats-up My Data Bundle

Android smart phones have provided so many services that make many more people to go for them than some other phones. But something keeps hindering people on using the smartphone to surf the web. Today, you shall know how to minimize the rate at which your Android Smartphone eats-up your data bundle.

Recently, one of my friends confessed to me that the way his android eats-up his data bundle has made the phone useless to him, when it comes to using the phone to browse. It is not everybody that can afford to subscribe to unlimited plans. And that's a good reason for publishing the post


Read: FIRSTBANKing On Android Smart Phone ; How To Install,Use And Other Features

Before we go on, do you even know what consumes your Megabyte (data bundle)?

Obviously, you might not. But, I'm going to tell you.

Things That Consumes Your Data Bundle

Normally on Java and Symbian phones, it is when you open an application that works with data that your Megabyte will be used. By this way, the phone stops to use your data immediately you log out of the app. But on Android phones, once you switch on your data, it starts to eat the data even you don't open any app on it. The apps run on background data.

This way I describe Java and Symbian phones is the same way your android phones also run. Unbelievable, isn't it? If you still disagree, Uninstall all your apps then switch on your data and confirm if the problem still persists..

Now, you've confirmed it? The good news now is that, there is a solution to stop all the unsuspected apps that eats-up your data from doing so. How?

Disable The Apps That Eats Your Data Without Uninstalling Them

Every android phones have this feature to disable unwanted apps that eats your data without uninstalling them. This is How with just four easy-made steps + screenshots to help you:


Read also : 6 Practical Ways To Extend Your Android Devices Battery Life

Step 1 >>> Locate the "settings" icon on your phone and navigate to "data usage".

Step 2 >>> You will need to switch on your data here. Then, locate "Set mobile data limit" and check the box. Then a pop up comes, press OK

Step 3 >>> Now from that same page, navigate to where the list of these naughty apps are. Your apps should be displayed according to the rate at which they use it. Click on these apps that you don't always use

Step 4 >>> Navigate down to "Restrict background data" and click. A pop up will appear, click OK.

Do these for all your unwanted apps, and you will be free from quick extinguish of your data bundle. 

NOTE: If you do this to some apps like "Facebook messenger and Whatsapp", once you minimize the app, you won't be able to receive instant messages until you return to the app.

 Tell me what you think about this in the comment section.

Have a wonderful moment!

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