Shopping for a phone is often as tedious as finding the right fit in garments. There are the newest and sometimes unheard of (you’ve to keep yourself updated all the time!) ingredients added to the mobile phone feature plate, which makes the decisions even more tough. Then again there is the question of your money’s worth – a device that always stays with you, if not chosen right, can be a real pain. Size and design of the phone apart, there are a bevy of features you have got to take your pick from and remember while one phone is better at most of the newest feature additions it offers, it might suck at the crucial and more standard ones. There are also those with features we never use – a decision you repent for as long as the device lasts.

So the smart tip here is to whittle down what you need and what you are likely to use most in a phone. To illustrate, a phone offering Bluetooth with A2DP shouldn’t be your pick if you don’t care for music.

So before you make a decision about buying the right smartphone – let us look at some of the non-smart phone options that could fit your bill.

If you are a music lover, you would desire a mobile phone that gives you sonic company. Evidently, you need to look for phones that offer good sound quality through efficient speakers and earphones, expandable cards for additional storage of music files or Bluetooth headsets. In my opinion, Sony Ericsson reigns in this category with their Walkman series (see the latest Walkmans), although Nokia and Motorola (see the latest in Moto music) are not far behind. In fact, Nokia’s N series pushed the market statistics with its multimedia offerings; the N73 Music Edition is by far the most highly rated music phone from Nokia’s stable.

If you are not much of a music aficionado, instead prefer to capture every opportune moment a camera deserves, look for phones that offer good resolution and sufficient storage space. The camera resolution or clarity is decided by the megapixels as well as the quality of the lens; these days, mobile phones pack in superior quality lens – of the kind seen in good quality digital cameras. The Nokia N95, for instance has an inbuilt cam with Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens. Integrated flash is an added advantage, allowing you to click better pictures even in low light (the N82 integrates a Xenon flash). The high-end K-series phones from Sony Ericsson deserve your attention for camera features, especially the K850i, while Nokia’s N series continue to offer tough competition.

Gamers do not have much of a choice when it comes to non smartphones as very few games capable of providing a true gaming experience are available. So the choice is to look out for phones that support Java applications. Usually most of the Sony Ericsson and Nokia phones support Java applications including games.