You Have Your New Phone . . . Now What?

So, you spent all that time researching what phone you want to move up to. It was a battle – friends are all split with different phones, co-workers too, and mom & dad are still on their 1980’s style flip phones, so they are no help! For most it comes down to a battle of sixes, as in iPhone 6/6+ or one of the 10 Samsung Galaxy 6 phones out there or maybe you considered a Windows Phone – which is growing is market share pretty quickly.

Setting Up Your New Smartphone

Regardless, you now have your shiny new super-powered phone in your hand and you have no idea what’s next.

I wanted to share some steps to help make this transition simple and pain free.

• Charge it up – I know this is boring and not any fun, but I have had new phones come fully charged, empty and everywhere in between. You need a fully charged phone to start because there will most likely be updates you phone will need to download, and normally you need a full charge to do them. Plus you want to make sure you have a full charge to start so you can start you battery life the right way.
• Load your old data, media – pics, videos & songs – Since you properly backed up all of these things from your old device . . . oh wait, you didn’t? Some phones let you save items to your SIM card, mainly your contacts, this is a good place to start, but there are many other services available in the cloud which make backing up all your media easy. Some examples are the Verizon Cloud, iCloud and there are many more options, but you need to use one to make it nice and simple. So if you have a lot of data and media on your old phone, keep it simple, back it up in the clouds and download it to your new shiny phone.
• Make your phone yours – customize your apps and/or widgets. There are many ways to customize your phone, put your apps where you want them, set your pages and folders up the way you want them. Play around with your setup, have fun and decide on something you are comfortable with.
• Learn about your device – You have an instruction book or website to go to and read all about your device, but that is so 10 years ago. Instead, watch some YouTube videos on how to customize and learn about your phone. Or you can attend free classes at your Apple Store or Verizon Store to learn about your phone. Also, Apple has free classes as well to help you learn your way around your new device.
• Turn on automatic backup – make sure everything that is important to you is backed up automatically. Again, use the cloud, Verizon Cloud, iCloud, One Drive – use any or all of them, just keep your data and media safe!
• Accessorize, keep your device safe and have fun – As you know by now, these phones are not cheap and they are not cheap to replace. Protect it. Put it in a case, use a screen protector. These cases can be colorful and even include pictures. Cases are a great way to express yourself and protect your investment, they are a must. There are tons of different accessories available, check out  eBay and Amazon for some great deals!

The last thing I will advise you about a new phone is to really learn about what it can do, most people use their phone for texting, email, videos, pictures and sometimes phone calls. Just about every phone can do that, but these new high end phones can do a lot of things to make life easier for you, find out about them and use them to get the full experience out of your phone.

Good Luck!