How Can I Learn to Use a Smartphone

[sendintheclowns]

The Asus has a fast 2.3 processor, 4gb of RAM and 64gb of storage. Seems like overkill to me, but a great price for the specs.

Asus also sells several versions of the Zenphone-2 with 2 & 4GB Ram, 16-64GB Rom for a lot less money. Scroll through this Lazada page and maybe you'll see one more suited to your needs

http://www.lazada.co.th/shop-mobiles/asus/

Thanks, dddave. I used to sssstuttter too. I am also looking at upgrading from my basic phone, to an

Asus Zenfone 2 Laser ZE500KL 16 GB 4G LTE. I have a problem with Lazada, specs being in Thai.

Do all phones in this price range (4-6000 baht) have an expandable ROM?

Also, can I ask, as a general guideline, is 16 Mb of RAM adequate? Most Asus Zen 2 models on sale have only 16Mb of RAM.

Pushing my luck - my main interest in buying any type of smart phone us to acquire the option to hotspot and tether with my iAir ( which doesn't have cellular option). I have read up on tethering. Do I need to read up on this, some more, before buying anything.?( off topic: It was so short- sighted to be tight-fisted, when buying the Air. I suspect that I will sell my Air and buy an Asus pad) . thanks for any guidance.

[sendintheclowns]

Anybody had experience buying a refurbished smart phone from Lazada? Thanks!

I'd be hesitant, especially where you are not an experienced user. Something could be wrong with the phone but you might not recognize the problem and think it's just you. The small difference in price does not really justify refurbs, especially with an online retailer such as Lazada that gives you only 14 days to return it.

I know a lot of Apple refurbs are showing on Lazada, 4s's for under B10,000 but they can be found at physical shops as well and even though you'll never get a refund if anything goes really wrong, you'll at least have someone to throw it at.

Seriously, if you haven't already pulled the trigger and bought a phone, try to buy your first from an established dealer like JayMart or Power Buy or Power Mall. Nobody gives money back but at least you'll have more of a chance of getting service.

thanks! My original thoughts were to buy a refurbished iPhone 5S, as I don't want to spend more than 4-6000 baht. I have wifi at home and on my Air. Now, I am focused on finding a new, discounted phone with a 12 month manufacturers warranty and upgradable ROM .which automatically disqualifies IPhone. I realize that you get what you pay for ( an older model, earlier version of OS).

[honu]

There seem to be a few different discussion points going on at the same time, and although I'm not expert I'll add my take.

I use a Samsung phone, a Note 2, kind of dated now, but I've never had any trouble with it, and it was high enough spec'ed that it's still not obsolete in terms of doing what most other phones do. It works faster and is more stable than my work laptop, a Dell, but of course Android is a bit limited compared to Windows. It's relatively easy to use though, until you want it to do something that's not easy to do, but I wouldn't recommend going to Apple just because Apple fans like them better. It has a stylus but I don't use it. It seems to me that screen size affects how easy it is to use the phone-screen "buttons" to type, so I can't really imagine that working on a 4 inch screen, or working well on a 4.5, but it's not so bad on the relatively larger sizes (Note is 5 1/2).

The original point was more about how to learn to use Android. Asking a kid or a bargirl would sort of work, but it's a good point, it's not easy to find basics on what your phone might do, or how to get it to ramp up functions, which apps might be of interest. As far as the most basic basics, getting it to take pictures, learning how to use a Facebook app, or Whatsapp, or Line, those are not an issue, quite easy to do.

So the question comes down to what else everyone is staring at, why smart phones are so interesting or useful, besides chatting on the same sites as everyone else. This site might be a reasonable test-case; for some reading this site on a smart phone wouldn't come up, for others that might be part of the point. You can buy an inexpensive CCTV camera and use a smart-phone app to see what's going on in your house, all the time, or do thousands of other things, but it depends on what someone wants or needs. It makes a lot of sense to use the phone to replace a camera for most functions, and of course for communications. Google Maps alone might justify owning one, but that leads back to there not being an easy way to figure out what basics apply to you; the bar-girl or child might miss that in a tutorial, even if they use it.

Issues like pictures back-up are sort of the next level, but it's good to get to that level. We just had a two year old tablet glitch in such a way that we lost the memory, and although I've got my phone saving pictures to Google Photos (which is free, and not difficult) my wife didn't set that up.

[sendintheclowns]

There seem to be a few different discussion points going on at the same time, and although I'm not expert I'll add my take.

I use a Samsung phone, a Note 2, kind of dated now, but I've never had any trouble with it, and it was high enough spec'ed that it's still not obsolete in terms of doing what most other phones do. It works faster and is more stable than my work laptop, a Dell, but of course Android is a bit limited compared to Windows. It's relatively easy to use though, until you want it to do something that's not easy to do, but I wouldn't recommend going to Apple just because Apple fans like them better. It has a stylus but I don't use it. It seems to me that screen size affects how easy it is to use the phone-screen "buttons" to type, so I can't really imagine that working on a 4 inch screen, or working well on a 4.5, but it's not so bad on the relatively larger sizes (Note is 5 1/2).

The original point was more about how to learn to use Android. Asking a kid or a bargirl would sort of work, but it's a good point, it's not easy to find basics on what your phone might do, or how to get it to ramp up functions, which apps might be of interest. As far as the most basic basicsb, getting it to take pictures, learning how to use a Facebook app, or Whatsapp, or Line, those are not an issue, quite easy to do.

So the question comes down to what else everyone is staring at, why smart phones are so interesting or useful, besides chatting on the same sites as everyone else. This site might be a reasonable test-case; for some reading this site on a smart phone wouldn't come up, for others that might be part of the point. You can buy an inexpensive CCTV camera and use a smart-phone app to see what's going on in your house, all the time, or do thousands of other things, but it depends on what someone wants or needs. It makes a lot of sense to use the phone to replace a camera for most functions, and of course for communications. Google Maps alone might justify owning one, but that leads back to there not being an easy way to figure out what basics apply to you; the bar-girl or child might miss that in a tutorial, even if they use it.

Issues like pictures back-up are sort of the next level, but it's good to get to that level. We just had a two year old tablet glitch in such a way that we lost the memory, and although I've got my phone saving pictures to Google Photos (which is free, and not difficult) my wife didn't set that up.

Thanks for the tip about backing up photos .