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A mobile phone is a portable device that allows you to communicate wirelessly. Or as we prefer to call him, your most personal possession. Day and night at your side and big panic when you forget him. The current telephones can roughly be divided into three categories; low-end, mid-range and high-end. Which one you need we'll explain here.

Low-end

The simplest category is low-end, consisting of low-budget phones that, despite that, have quite a bit to offer. The simplest are so-called dumbphones without a touch screen and without the ability to run apps. They often cost a few tens and are ideal for those who don't want an extended telephone. Useful as an emergency phone or for seniors. Something more extensive are feature phones. They can do a bit more like taking pictures, looking up simple web pages or even WhatsApping. These phones are usually under 100 euros and very suitable as a festival phone. And then there are smartphones from between 100 euros to 200 euros. These are the most extensive, but to reduce costs, they are provided with simple specifications and simple materials such as plastic.

Mid-range

By far the largest category is the mid-range phone. With this so called middle class, you can get away with it without spending a fortune for it. In terms of price, these phones are between 250 and 500 euros. Because the competition here is so fierce, there are sometimes real gems among them, although we often detect inferior phones. So pay special attention to reviews from other buyers. There are also brands that focus mainly on mid-range phones, particularly from China, including Honor, Xiaomi and ZTE. With these phones, please pay attention to what the manufacturer promises about software updates. Usually these models get less attention than the much more expensive high-end phones. The Android One models from this series then have a plus because they are guaranteed to be updated for a few more years.

High-end

And then you've got the cream of the crop; high-end. These are the most comprehensive smartphones, often referred to as flagships. These models often have many new features, the most beautiful screens and the best cameras. This is reflected in the price that starts at 500 euros and can go up to 1000 euros or even above. Many manufacturers have a high-end smartphone in their range that is updated every year. High-end telephones have a high gadget content for which people sometimes even want to queue up. For this category of phones it can be useful to take out a subscription where you pay the purchase price staggered. Don't forget last year's flagships. They are often hugely reduced in price and probably don't miss out on the features you necessarily need.

Most popular phone brands

By now you would think that only Apple and Samsung still make phones, but nothing could be further from the truth. Our site now has 173 different brands. Most of them you can forget, but a few are worth a look. Click below from the list of most popular phone manufacturers to go directly to that overview.

• Apple phones
• Samsung phones
• Xiaomi phones
• HTC phones
• Sony phones
• LG phones
• Motorola phones
• Nokia phones

Mobile phone history

Although for years people fantasized about a cordless phone, the first mobile phone didn't see the light of day until 1973. The prototype of Martin Cooper and John Francis Mitchell of Motorola weighed 2 kilos, mainly because of the large battery. It would then take until 1983 before the first commercially available mobile phone came on the market. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was a lot lighter at 1.1 kilo, cost almost $4000 at the time and you could call it for half an hour. Then he had to spend 10 hours on the charger. We've come a long way.

ATF

It would be quite a few years before the mobile phone became commonplace. This was largely due to the rollout of a national telephone network. Most national networks were rolled out in the early 1980s. In the Netherlands, this task was assigned to PTT, now KPN. The first Dutch network was ATF; the abbreviation of car phone. It was mainly telephones built into cars and boats that made use of this.

Greenpoint

The analogue ATF soon ran up against its limits and was succeeded by Greenpoint. This digital system had a limited range and was available at various locations in the Netherlands, including petrol stations. The mobile phones that could deal with Greenpoint were initially called Kermit but that name was eventually replaced by Greenhopper. Greenpoints operated from May 1992 until 1 January 1999.

GSM

From then on the GSM network was introduced which stands for Global System for Mobile Communications. GSM is seen as the second generation and therefore sometimes called 2G. GSM masts appeared throughout the Netherlands and it would become the first nationwide network, not only in the Netherlands but also elsewhere. In addition to voice, data and SMS can also be sent over it. SMS, which could send messages of up to 160 characters, turned out to be the reason for many people to buy a mobile phone. In 1995 PTT Telecom's monopoly on telecommunications was abolished and the MT2 consortium was allowed to compete. In September 1995 they entered the market as Libertel and are now known as Vodafone.

Generations

Sending data became more and more important for a mobile phone, but the GSM standard was not strong in that respect. The introduction of packet switched data led to many new data standards and generations. We'll sum them up for you below.

The latter are known by most as 4G, although it is officially given the term 3.9G. Real 4G is LTE Advanced which is offered here in the Netherlands as 4G+. In addition to data, the 4G standard is also well suited for voice transmission. Eventually we will see this so-called VoLTE (Voice over LTE) will herald the end of the GSM network.