To say mobile phones are important today is an understatement, which in turn underscores just how remarkable it is that they weren’t even available to the general public just a couple decades ago. Anyone alive to see the 1980s—truly a long ago time of hairspray, shoulder pads, and bad New Wave synth music—will have known what life was like before mobile phones, and yet today we consider them to be a practically indispensable part of modern life. No matter who you are or what your interests may be, the fact of the matter is you need a mobile phone to connect with everyone from colleagues and friends to the rest of the world.

Here are a few things to consider when it comes to shopping for a mobile phone.

Size and Style

One of the great things about mobile phones is that they offer a truly amazing amount of potential and computing power—all in the palm of your hand. As such, you certainly want to take size into consideration when it comes to purchasing a mobile phone. On the one hand, you want to find a phone which can easily fit in your pocket and in the palm of your hand. On the other hand, companies love to advertise increased size when it comes to some design elements, especially screen size.

Style is another thing to consider. With our phone usage on the rise, their visibility and thus status in our daily lives is likewise increasing. You thus want to find a phone which is sleek, slim, and can pull off a great balancing act when it comes to form and function.

Overall Compatibility

We live in an age flooded with different tech gizmos and gadgets. On the one hand, that’s great insofar as it offers us a wide selection of items from which to choose. On the other hand, however, maintaining compatibility with all these different machines can be tricky. You therefore want to be sure that whatever mobile phone you buy is compatible with your other tech gadgets. After all, digital technology is all about increasing communication, and you don’t want to spend all that money on a new phone to find it can’t connect with or “talk” to your laptop, or vice versa.

Phone Features

Of course, the most important aspect of any item are the actual features it offers, and that’s certainly true with mobile phones. There are countless apps available for download from a likewise numerous amount of online stores—no matter what your needs, it seems, as the saying goes, “there’s an app for that.” Of course, that app existing and that app being available for or compatible with your phone are different matters altogether. As such, when searching for the best mobile phone in Australia—or anywhere else, for that matter—you want to consider not just how much battery life a unit has or what the resolution of its camera might be (important though those qualities are) but likewise what apps and other features are available for it as well.

All this and more can help you get in touch with a great new mobile phone.