Shopping Product Reviews

Basics of Android smartphones that everyone should know

sims and sd cards

These are often confused with one another, and since they have very different functions, it’s important to know the difference.

A SIM card is provided by your phone company (Verizon, Tracfone, AT&T), usually free of charge, and contains information such as your phone number and contacts. It is normally quite small and white in color.

A micro SD card can be used in most smartphones and is used to store things like photos, music, videos, and documents. Micro SD cards can be purchased almost anywhere, including Walmart, CVS, and even eBay. These cards come in sizes like 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128 GB.

If your phone has a removable back, the SIM and SD card slots can be found by removing the back of the phone. Otherwise, a small drawer located on the top or side of the phone contains the SIM and SD cards. A special key is required to open this drawer and should have been included with the purchase of the phone.

Starting screen

The home screen is similar to the desktop of a computer. It’s the home screen, the one you’ll use the most, and your phone returns to it every time you press the home button. More screens can be added to the right or left of the home screen and can be accessed by swiping in any direction.

Apps installed by Play Store will automatically appear on your home screen. It is also possible to drag apps from the app drawer to the home screen or from one screen to another.

Notification

Your smartphone uses apps to perform thousands of functions. These apps like to send notifications to keep us updated. YouTube, for example, will notify you about a video you can enjoy that has just been uploaded. Whereas a weather app will send weather related notifications and your messages app will show you the messages as you receive them. Swipe the notices to the right to clear them or click “clear all”.

notification bar

The notification bar is at the top of the screen and typically displays the time, current battery charge, and Wi-Fi/data strength. The notification bar can be extended by sliding down. When extended, quick settings like WiFi, data, location, and Bluetooth are revealed.

drawing application

The app drawer is where you can find and launch any of the apps on your phone. It can be accessed from the bottom of your home screen (or any you’ve added) in one of two ways:

Clicking on the circle icon (usually white) with several holes or dots

swipe up

Home, Back and Recent keys

The home key will return you to the home screen from any screen or application and is located in the bottom center of all smartphones.

The Back key will take you back to the previous screen. If you reply twice, you will exit an application.

The recent key reveals all open apps. Swipe apps right to exit and close or click “close all” to close all open apps. This is quite important, as not closing an app properly will slow down your phone significantly; especially after several are left open.

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