Phone – an ultimate companion on the road

Each of us has our favorite item that they take with them while traveling. We can all agree that money and documents are necessary to travel. But the mobile phone is the most versatile gadget you can take with you on the road. Since there are smartphones on the market their value on trips is constantly increasing with daily new uses and applications available. I will try to make an overview of what phones can do for us today.

I identified these 7 areas of use that are explained in detail below:

Communication

The primary function of any phone is communication via call. Later it was extended with SMS to texting. MMS later introduced multimedia. Today the internet is the main data transfer channel. It is cheaper to pay for data than calls to the operator. Email as a basic service on the internet was the first step. For calls, it uses VoIP protocol. Among many apps on phone most common are Whatsapp, Viber, Skype. Also, there are additional chat apps like FB Messanger, Google Hangouts, Telegram, Signal … The last level is collaboration tools that include chat, voice, video, sharing resources. The biggest players on market are MS Teams (replacing Skype), Cisco Webex, Google Meet (replacing Hangouts), Zoom. There are different types of Social Media Platforms:

• Social networking (Facebook, Linked In, Google+),
• Microblogging (Twitter, Tumblr),
• Photo sharing (Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest), and
• Video sharing (YouTube, Facebook Live, Periscope, Vimeo).

Camera

The second most used feature on smartphones is the camera. In the beginning, it was one weak camera and today there are phones with up to 5 cameras. Resolution of photos goes up to 108 megapixels and for video up to 32 megapixels with 60 frames per second. After capturing a photo or video it is possible to edit it (crop, filters, resize, …) and later share it with your friends on social channels.

WWW

World wide web is mot important service on the internet. Users find needed information or news on Google Search, Translate, Maps; Wikipedia, Tripadvisor. Also, they find tickets for trains (Bahn.de), flights (Skyscanner, Kayak), or car transport (Bla Bla cars, Uber). Accommodation is the next area where one can find a solution on the www (Airbnb, Hostels.com, Booking.com).

Enterteinment

People seek entertainment and smartphone offers many options. It all begins with multimedia, video, and audio. Also, books can be read on the phone, ie. guides (Lonely Planet). A big portion of fun users finds in playing different games, offline, or online.

Productivity

Now many of the tasks that most jobs require can be done with your phone. A big part is mentioned in the communication chapter. Most documents (text, table, presentation, pdf) created in suits from Microsoft or Google can now be read and even edited (basics).Other bussines application as ERP, DMS, CRM and other can be accessed via smartphone. So remote working is now possible from almost anywhere.

Wallet

You don’t need to worry about exchange rates, be afraid of carrying around big sums of cash, storing boarding passes, and other functions you need classic wallet until now. All of this can be done with your smartphone.

Misc

There are many different tools that can your smartphone be used for. That would be a torch, mirror, calendar, compass, GPS, find my phone, scanner, a virtual assistant (Siri, Voice, Cortana). And many different Apps on Google Play and App store (GasBuddy, Priceline, TripIt, Withlocals, PackPoint, Hopper, Mobile Passport, MileIQ, Expensify, HotelTonight, WiFi Map, XE Currency Converter, Stay fit, Hipmunk, LoungeBuddy, Circa World Time, AccuWeather)

Savings (money, space, weight, time)

I was reluctant to buy my first mobile phone, but at one birthday party I got three and since then I have it. OK, I lose them often. But I learned it can save you many things on a trip. The first thing is you will save on space because you will have now all devices, maps, and books in one small place. This also means less weight, so this is a great solution for us that like packing lightly. Now that you can access information all the time you can gather needed intel while riding the bus. Most important is that you will cut on expenditure, while you don’t need to buy extra devices.

iPhone vs. Android

The biggest question when you are deciding what phone you will buy. Apple has its closed family of products and with that connectivity is better. Also, this means a more stable operation of applications, but Android has a bigger choice. When Jobs was still around it had an advantage in user experience and technical solutions. Nowadays competitors caught and even surpass them. iPhone is also a status symbol and more expensive in general. A big factor in the decision is the political issue USA vs China. On this blog, 75% of traffic is mobile. One third of those are iPhone, most among single brands of phone but still behind Android with 2 thirds. I’m not telling you what to buy. You will find the best choice according to your preferences. No matter what you choose let it be a good assistant while you travel.

Accessories

• charger (if we would like the phone to live more than a day), wireless
• case (protection from damage, water)
• power bank (back up with big consumption)
• international electric adapter (cover most the plugins around the world)
• extra SIM (buy at arrival to the location, reduce costs)
• extra memory card (for all data)
• car mount, selfie stick, camera lens attachments, gimbals, tripods
• headphones (noise cancel) or bluetooth earbuds, speakers
• smartwatches