These days, the mobile phone market is saturated with a lot of smartphone brands and models, all boasting various features. If you’re the average smartphone user and you use your phone for the usual texting, calling, emailing, and social media browsing, then you can find a lot of models that will fit your needs. But if you’re a frequent traveler, you might have to look a little deeper. People who travel frequently, either for work or for leisure, have various specific needs that need to be addressed.
Travelers get on planes, hop on buses, and switch trains so often, and they often don’t stay in one particular spot for very long. In short, they are always on the go. For this reason, they need a mobile phone that is able to keep up with their fast-paced lifestyle. This article aims to present a top selection of the best mobile phones for travelers, but before we get on to that, let’s talk about the features that travelers should look for in a phone.
Features of the Best Mobile Phones for Travelers
Big Screen
When you’re travelling, you’re bound to have a lot of downtime, meaning you spend a lot of hours just waiting—in airports, bus stops, train stations, and even in hotel rooms. During those times, you might want to be able to watch YouTube videos or catch up on your favorite shows and movies. You might also want to chat with your loved ones back home. For this reason, you’ll want a phone that doesn’t just boast a big screen via edge-to-edge image technology but also has amazing picture display quality and high resolution. And because you’re outdoors a lot when you travel, your phone should have amped-up brightness for better visibility.
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Good Sound Quality
Aside from picture quality, the best phones for travelers should also have good sound quality. When you’re travelling on a bus or train, you want a fully immersive experience when listening to music or watching videos. You want to have a phone with which you can use over-the-ear, noise-cancelling headphones that can give you theater sound features.
Ingenious Camera
As a traveler, you want to capture and immortalize the memories of your trip. It can get tiring having to lug around a bulky DSLR camera, so sometimes it can be more convenient instead to have a phone you can take pictures with. Thankfully, today’s mobile phones are built with that technology, with the latest models even having a triple rear lens setup. This means that you have more ways to take pictures of things, and it also ensures that they are great pictures.
Long Battery Life
Because you spend most of your time on the road, you want a phone with long-lasting battery life. Having to constantly charge your phone can be a pain. It can also be annoyingly inconvenient when you’re trying to find your way through an unfamiliar place via Google Maps only for your phone to suddenly die on you. Of course, you can always take a power bank with you but it’s always nice to have a phone that goes for hours.
Expandable Storage
Taking lots of pictures and videos of your trip can eat up a lot of space on your phone. There are many phones out there in the market with varying memory capabilities, but to get the most advantage, a memory space of 128 GB is ideal.
Connectivity and Speed
While on your trip, you’ll want to upload your pictures and videos to your social media right away and chat to your loved ones back home, so a phone with strong connectivity is a must. As much as possible, look for phones that have high-speed processors and fast Wi-Fi capabilities.
Now that you know what to look for in a phone, here’s a list of the best mobile phones for travelers that are out in the market right now.
Best Phones for Travelers
1. Motorola Moto G6
Motorola has always been known as one of those brands that offer both quality and affordability. This latest flagship device by the brand is packed with an excellent set of features, yet it is priced at a more pocket-friendly rate compared to other brands.
Despite its cheap price, it has a complete glass finish, so it looks like a very sophisticated, high-priced phone.
It has a Snapdragon 450 processor, a 3 GB RAM, and 32 GB storage.
It has a microSD card slot so you can expand your memory.
It has a 5.7-inch display with an 18:9 aspect ratio for that fully immersive experience.
Its 3000 mAh battery can go on for hours.
2. Asus Zenfone Max 4
While this phone does not come with any exceptional features, it more than makes up for it with its strong battery performance. It is also in the range of “affordable but reliable” phones, so you can be sure that you’ll get your money’s worth.
It has a dual camera setup with a wide-angle lens so you’ll always be sure to get those versatile shots.
It has insufficient storage, but it has a memory card slot that allows for expandable storage.
It also has fast charging capabilities, and its dual SIM feature can be helpful when you’re abroad and have to use international SIMs to get around.
3. Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus
While this is widely considered to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 9’s lower-priced cousin, you can still expect a powerhouse performance from this model. One of its most robust features is its camera, with which you can shoot professional-looking pictures.
Its dual aperture and brilliant low light photography features enable you to get vivid pictures even in dim environments.
Its infinity display gives you that immersive experience you’re looking for while viewing pictures or videos.
It is also water-resistant, so you don’t have to worry if you’re outdoors and it suddenly starts to rain.
4. LG V30
This model is packed with all the features you would want in a travel-oriented phone. It has a powerful processor, a strong battery backup, and an excellent camera. It is a practical phone that also manages to live up to your expectations.
It has massive storage, ensuring that you will always have enough space for your photos and videos.
LG’s brilliant display technology is featured in this phone, and its wide-angle camera lens allows you to shoot the most vivid pictures.
It also has excellent audio quality, another feature that LG is known for.
It has a water-resistant feature so you can always enjoy your travel moments without having to worry about getting your phone wet.
While this list is not expansive and there are certainly more phones out there in the market that can also be suited to your travel needs, these models are good choices on their own and should be enough to catch your interest about what to look for in a good travel phone. Ultimately, the basics of a reliable phone for travel is good camera quality, a dual SIM feature, and a long-lasting battery.