With all the various models offered by cell phone service providers, it can be confusing when deciding which cell phone to buy. And of course, cell phone technology continues to improve rapidly, bringing even more features to the newest cell phones on the market. But here are a few guidelines regarding what you can expect to get when you buy a cell phone.

First of all, remember that the cell phone is not the most important part of this communication equation, the network is. So choose your cell phone service provider first, based on the quality of performance and customer service as well as other usability factors.

Once you have your cell phone provider in mind, it's a good idea to visit their store to physically inspect the phones that they have available. This is important because you can't tell very much about how usable a cell phone is simply by a picture. Usually, it's necessary to actually hold them and see how easy they are to use in order to determine how well a particular phone will meet your needs.

Generally speaking, you'll find that most cell phones are broken down into three categories, basic phones, advanced phones, and smart phones.

The basic phone these days is capable of both making voice calls and text messages. This kind of phone is probably the best choice for most consumers, as they are the most inexpensive phones that you can buy and are relatively easy to use. They may not have some of the fancy capabilities that you'll find in the more advanced phones, such as photos, video, and Bluetooth capability for wireless headsets, but for basic cell phone usage they are hard to beat.

The more advanced phones these days offer extras like being able to shoot photos and videos and send them to others over the cell phone network, or store them on built-in memory cards. They may also include music players and options for storing music files. And another very popular feature on more advanced cellular phones is Bluetooth capability allowing for use of a wireless headset. Of course all these extra features come at a price, usually up to two to three times the cost of a basic cell phone.

The most advanced cell phones on the market these days are called smart phones and are kind of a combination between an advanced cell phone and a PDA, or personal digital assistant. The main advantage to these kind of cell phones is that they eliminate having to have two pieces of electronic equipment to carry with you at all times by combining them both into one unit. Of course, these models can not only perform all the functions of an advanced phone, but they can also allow you to schedule appointments, keep track of addresses, and even access e-mail. These are by far the most expensive cell phones though, commonly costing several hundred dollars.

As you can see, there is a wide variety of cell phone models to choose from. But before you buy, be sure that you know exactly what features will be most important to you in daily usage, and then buy the cell phone that best meets those needs.