When you get your new phone, there are a few things you need to do to make it run faster. It won’t be a trifle about which apps to install or which beautiful backgrounds. This is a complete professional-grade guide on what you should do with your new phone.
Of course, you will want to transfer all your apps and data from your old phone. But you also need to make sure it’s worth saving and making it as safe as possible.
Check New Phone
We expect everything to be fine right out of the box, but when was the last time you really checked? Do it now when it is still under warranty and you still have time to pick it up.
- Look at all the seams where the glass meets the body.
- Check all ports to make sure they are set correctly.
- Browse all the items that come in the box with it.
- If you can open the case and check the battery, do so.
- Remove the SIM card tray and microSD card tray, if applicable.
- Take a close look at everything for cracks. The seams should be the same width around the entire perimeter. Also, there should be no discoloration or protruding plastic pieces.
- Stubs must be properly inserted into their ports. There should be no wiggle room on phones. If the cable plug does not stay in the port by itself or is loose, something is wrong.
If you notice any of these problems, write them down right away. Take pictures if you can. If it doesn’t meet your standards, please return it.
Charge the phone for eight hours
When your phone has passed a visual inspection, start charging it. Do not turn off your phone and let it charge for eight hours. Overnight stay is the easiest.
There are several theories about the best way to charge your phone, but the first time you need to make sure it’s fully charged before you start setting up your phone. That way, it won’t die halfway through an app installation, data transfer, or phone operating system update.
Set up the new primary phone
Do the bare minimum to set up your new phone. Each phone has a different set-up procedure, often including a security setting, so go through that. If there are operating system updates for your phone, apply those as well.
Ideally, operating system updates provide better security and functionality, so it’s best to always apply them.
Some phones will want to initiate data transfer from the old phone to the new one. If this step can be easily completed later, it might be worth postponing. We still don’t know one hundred percent that the phone is good.
Phone Checkup, Part 2
Our first check was just physical. We will also need to do a functional check. If the phone fails this functional check and all of our data is outside of the old phone, you will have to transfer it back to the old phone so that you can return the new one.
When we examine the phone this time, we’re going to check:
Cellular
If the phone won’t connect to the cellular network or easily disconnect it, nothing else matters.
You can test this by getting in and out of places where your old phone might have dropped calls. If it drops calls earlier than your old phone, it might not be so good. Keep in mind that natural cell signals vary in strength even when you are in the same place.
Screen function
- Is the screen darker or brighter than others?
- Are there dead pixels?
- Is the entire screen touching correctly?
- Is the touchscreen calibrated so that when we touch one point, it registers there?
Port function
- Plug in your headphones and try them out. It works?
- Static or crackling?
- Does it adjust the volume automatically when headphones are plugged in so that your eardrums don’t pop out?
- Connect the charging cable. Does the phone start charging right away?
- Shows what is charging? Try using a wall charger and a USB port on your computer.
- Once connected to a computer, can I transfer files back and forth?
Camera test
Take multiple pictures with all cameras of the phone and in all possible modes; still, video, panorama, slow motion whatever the modes. Are the pictures coming out the way they should? Use all methods of capturing an image, for example, press a physical or on-screen button and a voice command.
Check your wireless connections
Make sure your new phone connects to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices and maintains a reasonable distance. It should stay connected to your Wi-Fi anywhere in your home that your other devices can connect to.
For Bluetooth, you should be able to stay connected at least 30 feet from the Bluetooth device if there are no walls between the phone and the device. However, these two tests are not definitive. If we have a problem, the problem might be with the WiFi or Bluetooth devices, not the phone. Check with other devices if you have them.
If your phone has NFC capabilities and you use services such as Apple Pay or Google Wallet, you should check this as soon as possible.
Check your GPS. If you can set your phone to find your location using only a GPS signal, do so. Then check your phone’s map to see if it accurately pinpoints your location. If you are standing in an open field, your phone’s GPS should be accurate to within 16 feet. How do we know? We will not find out, but we will find out if the GPS is turned off and says that we are two streets away.
Check your phone sensors
Several sensors are built into smartphones. It can be a gyroscope, magnetometer, accelerometer, proximity and light sensors.
The gyroscope detects the position of the phone. Check it out by turning your new phone over and seeing if it does what it should. When turned sideways, your phone display should switch to horizontal mode. If you turn it over, the screen turns off on many phones.
The magnetometer is closely related to GPS. Think of it like a compass. Open your phone’s compass app and see if it finds north and changes direction if you turn.
Proximity sensors are used to determine the distance between the phone and other solid objects. It uses a combination of an infrared light sensor and an infrared LED. The LED shines with infrared light that we cannot see, and the infrared sensor captures it. This way, your phone knows it’s near your ear and turns off the screen.
Light sensors detect the brightness of light around your phone. This is the sensor used when your camera is in auto flash mode. If it is bright enough, the flash will not fire and vice versa. Here’s how we can check it.
Some phones have built-in barometers. The barometer measures atmospheric pressure. It can be used to determine how much above sea level we are and if there are impending weather changes. Not all phones have them. If you have, there will be an application that can access it and show you if it works.
Most phones now have a fingerprint reader used for added security. Set up security to request a fingerprint and check it. If you can’t easily get into your phone with the fingerprint sensor, it might be defective.
Set up phone security
Since the smartphone is an electronic extension of our life, we need to keep the phone secure. Identity theft is growing exponentially. The fact that we have everything from our family photos to government documents and bank and credit cards stored on our phones makes them an attractive target for thieves.
- Protect your phone. Provide the highest level of security. For most phones, this means setting up fingerprint lock. This is a high level of security and convenience. Why not?
- Configure the ability to remotely wipe data from your phone. If your phone is lost or stolen, you can wipe it remotely from any computer.
- Encrypt your phone. If you encrypt all the data on your phone, even if someone steals your phone and somehow copies all the data from it, that data will still be useless to them. They might be able to decrypt it with enough time and resources, but it’s much easier for them to just steal ten more unencrypted phones. Criminals are usually opportunists. When things get difficult, it’s not worth their time.
Finally, physically protect your new phone. Get a good case for it to protect it from bumps and drops. It won’t be a bomb shelter, but it will keep the phone going until the next update.
Good to go
Now that your phone is fully tested and secured, you know it will work for you for a long time. Sure, it’s not nearly as fun as just turning on your phone, playing games or posting photos, but it ensures you can do it anytime in the future.
Plus, it’s not as long a process as you might think. This entire process, in addition to waiting for the phone to charge, transferring data and encrypting it, takes only about half an hour. Then it’s time to use the phone for several years.
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