Advice: Choosing an Android Device for GPT Part 1
I blogged earlier about why GPT earners probably want an Android device
rather than one that runs iOS. The purpose of this blog is to help you choose
an Android device.
The following blog post aims to explain the many variables that will
determine how much you can make online. Some of these variables warrant their
own blog topic, so I won’t go into tremendous detail here. However, I have
plans for upcoming blog posts that will go into more detail.
Phone Versus Tablet
All else being equal, tablets will cost more than phones. I presume
this is for two major reasons. First, there’s more expensive hardware. A big
screen will cost more (I assume) than a smaller screen. Second, there are more
phones out there than tablets (another assumption of mine).
What to Look For: Price
When I first started shopping for GPT devices, I looked for a brand
name with the best hardware specs. I also looked for something that was cheap,
but price was not the most consideration for me. Now I realize this isn’t
always the best thing to do, at least if you want to get the biggest bang for
your buck. But on the other hand, getting the cheapest device possible isn’t always the best strategy either.
Obviously, getting the cheapest phone possible is great, but you still
need a phone that will last a long enough to not just recoup the cost of the
phone, but make a decent profit, too. A $20 phone isn’t worth it if it’ll only
earn 50 cents per day and it breaks after one month. You need it to earn 50
cents per day for 40 days just to break even. But you’ll want to make enough
money after that to make it worth your time to make the order, set up the
phone, babysit it and so on.
Now most cheap phones will let you break even and make a decent profit
after that. But let me give you the following hypothetical.
In one scenario you can get a $10 phone running Android 5.0 Lollipop.
It has 1 GB RAM and 8GB of storage and a decent quad core processor. As I write
this, Android 5.0 is the de facto operating system minimum for most GPT apps
(CashMagnet and some Perk apps excepted, although Perk apps don’t run very well
on KitKat). And let’s say it gives you one good year of operation making 50
cents per day.
In another scenario you can get a $20 phone that runs Android 7.0
Nougat. It has 2GB RAM and 16GB of storage with a decent quad core processor.
And let’s say it gives you 2 good years making 50 cents per day.
On the one hand, getting the $10 phone is a good decision because spending
$10 now and $10 in 12 months is better than $20 now because you have the $10 to
spend on something else or put to good use in other ways for the next 12 months. But on the other
hand, in a year, you’ll have to spend the time finding another phone, placing
the order and setting it up. Then there’s the down time for when the $10 phone
breaks and you don’t have your new phone yet. It’s simply easier to spend $20
now and now have to worry about your phone for two years instead of one. In my
view, the second scenario (if you can afford it) is the better option since
time is the single most valuable resource in the GPT economy. But the first
scenario isn’t a bad decision either.
Also, I understand that most real world situations won’t work out like my hypothetical.
For example, there’s no way to know that a phone that costs twice as much will last twice as long (or earn twice as much). There are so many factors that could change your
results, such as brand of phone, whether it’s new or used, the update cycle for
GPT apps, what apps you run on the device and your battery management strategies.
So this is another reason to go cheap now and buy the $10 phone. But in my
personal experience, buying a name brand phone pays off. The only farming
phones I’ve had fail on my have been two used LG Fuels (which I got from a
reseller who didn’t do any refurbishing) and a Google Nexus S (which I got from
a yard sale). And each of these lasted about a year or so (they cost about
$5-$12 each). All of my Samsung phones are going strong.
What to Look For: User Replaceable Batteries
No matter how careful you are with power management, your batteries
will fail over time. And If you keep your phone plugged in all the time, you’ll
probably experience battery failure (such as battery bloat) sooner rather than
later. It’s nice to have the ability to replace the battery when the rest of
the phone is still perfectly usable. Sometimes you can replace the battery
yourself with relative ease, but other times, it takes a lot of time and effort
to do so and may not be worth the time and money.
More of the review in Part 2.
Comments
Post a Comment