Mobile Phones are operated using QWERTY Keyboard (like Blackberry), Touchscreen (like the PDAs) and Keypad.

The display is better known as the screen. It shows icons, messages & instructions and functions.

The display can be LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), TFT LCD (thin film transistor liquid crystal display) or Graphic. The LCD makes it easier to use as a backlight illuminates the display panel in the dark.

In recent years, displays have all evolved into full graphic displays that are capable of displaying graphics, pictures, video and text at various resolutions.

Number of Colours displayed on the screen of the mobile phone. Mobile Phones come with following colours 4k (k-Thousand), 65k, 262k, 16.7millon colours.

Resolution measures the sharpness of the display or screen. Mobiles Phones are available in the following display resolution 128x128, 128x160, 176x220, 240x320. Resolution represents the smallest piece of the screen that can be controlled individually. Each one can be set to a different color and intensity (brightness).

The number of pixels that can be displayed on the screen is referred to as the resolution.

Most of the Clamshell mobile phones have two displays, the Primary display (the inner display) and the Secondary display (the outer display).

Secondary Display shows information about the incoming number on the mobile phone, clock, picture or screensaver.

There are three types of batteries available in the market today: Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) and Lithium Polymer. Lithium Ion and Lithium Polymer batteries are known to be superior in quality. Lithium Polymer is even slimmer (thinner) and lighter than the Li-Ion battery.

Lithium batteries are generally preferred over NiMH batteries as they are lighter and have a larger power capacity. The most important feature of Lithium batteries is that they can be recharged as many times as possible without its capacity reducing (due to memory effect, which reduces the capacity of NiMH batteries over a period of time, if you charge the battery without discharging it completely). To reduce memory effect in NiMH batteries, you must charge the battery only when the power is depleted completely.

As the mobile phones have limited memory, phones have the provision to extend or increase the memory to save the data.

When the internal memory of the mobile phone gets full, the extendable memory helps in saving the data on a SD, SDMicro or MMC.

When the internal memory of the mobile phone gets full, the extendable memory helps in saving the data on a removable media like MMC, SD, microSD, MiniSD.

It indicates the maximum limit of the Extendable Memory supported by the mobile phone. Some mobile phones support upto 4GB and more extendable memory.

Resolution is made up of building blocks called pixels. A million pixels together are called a mega pixel. Its on the resolution, which is composed of elements sensitive to sunlight, that the image is created. Each of these elements registers one of the points (called pixel) that create the picture.

Higher the number of pixels the better quality of pictures will be and also gives larger size prints.

This is an inbuilt light used at the time of taking a photograph from a camera mobile phone. There are two types flash - Photo Light and Flash.

Photo Light is always on and works more like a beam on the subject image which is to be captured. Whereas Flash is more like a camera flash where the light works in synchronization with shutter. The light comes on only at the time when photograph is taken.

Many camera mobile phones let you record short clips of highly compressed, low-resolution video in VGA format (640 x 480).

These low-resolution movie modes cannot replace the high-quality video you get from a digital camcorder, they can be another fun way to capture faces or events.

WiFi stands for Wireless Fidelity. It allows wireless access for devices like mobile phones, computers, printers etc. without using the cables.

It helps in accessing the internet without any cables within a limited area.

Bluetooth is a short range wireless technology that connects electronic devices, including cell phones, printers, digital cameras or palm top computers. It is designed to exchange data at speeds up to 720 kbit/s and at ranges up to 10 metres.

Mobile phones come equipped with a built-in bluetooth chip that uses a wireless frequency for communication between computer and mobile phone devices. This is basically an interface meeting the Bluetooth standard. For e.g. a laptop with a Bluetooth connectivity can communicate with the mobile phone with bluetooth capability within its range.

In Bluetooth one doesn’t have to make a line of contact between the ports of the two devices like infrared as it works on a wireless frequency and works on a frequency which is fixed for bluetooth enabled devices.

Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than that of visible light, but shorter than that of radio waves. Infrared radiation has wavelengths between about 750 nm and 1 mm.

Many infrared equipped mobile phones require you to activate the infrared port each time you use it. Refer to the documentation that came with your phone for instructions, or contact your service provider.To connect using IR, the device with which you want to connect must comply with Infrared Data Association (IrDA) requirements. The preferable distance between the two devices in infrared connection is from 3 inches to a maximum of 3 feet. There must be no obstructions between the two devices. The IR ports of the two devices must point to each other.

You can use IR to send and receive phone book entries (business cards) and reminder notes.

A small connector on the mobile phone where a USB cable can be connected to transfer the data or images is known as USB connector.

. One end of this cable will be attached to the mobile phone and the other end will be a normal usb connector which can be connected in the computers USB port and the data can be transferred between the devices through the software provided by the mobile phone manufacturer.

The best feature is powering low-consumption devices without the need for an external power supply.

EGPRS is an advanced version of GPRS. It allows a faster data transfer capability which allows mobile phone user to access the larger data.

With EGPRS one can access normal websites also on their mobile phone which was not possible with GPRS. GPRS activated mobile phone can only access websites which are specially made for GPRS.

With General Packet Radio Service or GPRS you can be continuously connected to higher capacity Internet-based services. Just turn on, tune in, and download - whenever you like. GPRS is the perfect bearer for many kinds of applications: Multimedia Messaging, Imaging and Internet Browsing.

GPRS facilitates instant connections by utilising packet switching technology where information is transmitted in short bursts of data over an IP-based network. All your information can be sent or received immediately as the need arises at a higher transmission speed. No dial-up modem connection is necessary. This is why GPRS users are sometimes referred to be as being "always connected".

GPRS facilitates several new applications that have not previously been available over GSM networks due to the limitations in speed of Circuit Switched Data (9.6 kbps) and message length of the Short Message Service (160 characters). GPRS will fully enable the Internet applications you are used to on your desktop like web browsing, email, chat, telnet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) over the mobile network.

WAP refers to Wireless Application Protocol, which is a set of communication protocol standards used for accessing the internet on mobile devices like phones, PDAs, etc. We have various versions of WAP available - 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1.

WAP enables easy and quick exchange of information via e-mails and also provides easy access to the internet services such as weather forecast or online booking of cinema tickets etc.

Advanced Audio Distribution Profile or A2DP means streaming high quality audio from one device to another over a Bluetooth connection. For example, music streamed from a mobile phone to a wireless headset.

A2DP was initially used in conjunction with an intermediate Bluetooth transceiver that connects to a standard output audio jack, encodes the incoming audio to a Bluetooth-friendly format, and sends the signal wirelessly to Bluetooth headphones that decode and play the audio.

This is beneficial as it does not require any cables while playing the music using a bluetooth headset.

An e-mail client is a computer program used to manage e-mail.

An application that runs on a personal computer or workstation and enables you to send, receive and organize e-mail. It is called a client because e-mail systems are based on a client-server architecture. Mail is sent from many clients to a central server, which re-routes the mail to its intended destination.

One can send or receive emails using mobile phones with WAP or GPRS connectivity.

Mobile Phones with Email Client Feature support the following types of Email Account IMAP, POP3, SMTP.

Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS) or Picture Messaing is an extension for Short Message Service (SMS) in mobile phones.

An EMS enabled mobile phone can send and receive messages that have special text formatting (such as bold or italic), animations, pictures, icons, sound effects and special ring tones.

MMS or Multimedia Messaging Services is a universally accepted standard that allows you to send and receive rich media messages comprising of text, sounds, images and video to and from MMS capable handsets. MMS confers the ability to send still images such as mobile postcards, mobile pictures, mobile screensavers, mobile greeting cards, mobile maps and business cards. Additionally, in the future moving images, cartoons and interactive video will also be supported by MMS.

MMS messages can be sent either to another MMS-enabled mobile phone or to an e-mail address. Photos, sound and video clips can also be downloaded to your phone from WAP sites, transferred to the phone via an attached accessory, such as a digital camera, or received in an MMS message. Your MMS enabled mobile phone can also store it for later use. Multimedia messaging is dependent on GPRS. The existing GSM networks need an MMS-C (Multimedia Messaging Service Centre) to support multimedia messaging.

MMS will add colourful images, animations and sound clips to your messages.

Dual Band is a switch that allows you to switch between two transmissions that are adopted by Asian and European countries.

In India, we use the GSM 900 band. European and Asian countries use the GSM 1800 band. You cannot use a phone in a country where your GSM is not supported.

A tri-band phone operates on three frequency bands, GSM900, GSM1800 and GSM1900

It is a switch that allows you to switch between three transmissions that are adopted by Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and Australia.

A Quad Band phone operates on four frequency bands, GSM 850, GSM900, GSM1800 and GSM1900.

Having more than one frequency in one device is useful to enable roaming between different countries.

Flight Mode option allows the user to switch off the mobile phone feature on his phone and use it only as a pda or an mp3 player. This allows the user to use the pda or mp3 function of their mobile phone in areas where they are not allowed to use their mobile phones like airplanes, etc.

Some Mobile phones provide you with an in-built currency convertor to calculate the equivalent value of money in another currency.

This function is different from that of the calculator as it directly converts to another currency on inputting the amount to be converted to the other currency.

Helps in quick currency conversions.

This feature gives you the option of speeding up the process of entering text by using a built-in dictionary.

As you type in the first two letters of any word, the in-built dictionary of the phone suggests the most likely words that you plan to use based on all possible combinations. So, instead of searching for the next letter and pressing the key again, you may choose to accept the suggestion. The user has the option to reject the automatically suggested words and allow the phone to suggest yet more options.

A smart function that saves time while sending emails, faxes and SMS messages.

PTT or Push To Talk is a button on the mobile phone that is pressed when needing to transmit with the radio on the tuned frequency or channel provided by the Mobile Service Provider.

This feature is widely used in Two-Way Radio (Walkie Talkie). Some Nokia mobile phones have this feature.

Java is a high-level programming language. Java is used some mobile phones to install applications and games.

Java enabled mobile phones have versions like Java MIDP 1.0 and Java MIDP 2.0. MIDP is a specification published for the use of Java on embedded devices such as mobile phones and PDAs.

The mobile phone comes with an inbuilt dictaphone or a voice recorder, which can record your voice/conversation. In most mobile phones, this function can be activated by holding onto a button on the right-side of the phone.