A mobile phone, cell phone or hand phone is an electronic device used to make mobile telephone calls across a wide geographic area, served by many public cells, allowing the user to be mobile. By contrast, a cordless telephone is used only within the range of a single, private base station, for example within a home or an office.

A mobile phone can make and receive telephone calls to and from the public telephone network which includes other mobiles and fixed-line phones across the world. It does this by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator. 

In addition to telephony, modern mobile phones also support a wide variety of other services such as text messaging, MMS, e-mail, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business applications, gaming and photography. Mobile phones that offer these more general computing capabilities are referred to as smart phones. 

The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing 2 kg. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first to be commercially available. In the twenty years from 1990 to 2010, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12.4 million to over 4.6 billion, penetrating the developing economies and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid. The WHO released a report on 31 May 2011 classifying cell phone radiation as a "carcinogenic hazard." 

Types of Mobile Phone

Basic Mobile Phone It is the simplest and the most original of all the mobile phones that you would see in the market. The cheapest of them all, it is sold in maximum numbers. Though with cost of technology falling and customer expectations rising most of the basic mobile phones now come with value additions like ring tone options, etc. Most of the mobile phone brands offer basic models.

Smartphones These phones are for those who want a single gadget to be fully loaded so that it can serve any and every purpose - from communication to computing and from entertainment to productivity. Smartphones do multiple tasks from email and web browsing to playing music, capturing and playing videos, storing and managing data and many other functions too. These have higher price tags but the features they offer fully justify their price. RIM's BlackBerry, Nokia's N97 and Apple's iPhone are some of the most popular smartphones. Most of the latest mobile phones fall in this category.

PDA Phones Personal Data Assistant phones are the favorite companion of business executives. Running on operating systems like MS Mobile Pocket PC and Palm OS these are offered by HP, PalmOne and the likes. In fact the mobile phone market has become so demanding, dynamic and competitive that the line that divides smartphones from PDA phones is fast fading.

GSM/CDMA Mobile Phones GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) are the two most important and commonly used networking technologies and your phone would be designed to work on either. Both the technologies have their own pros and cons and same get transferred to the corresponding mobile phone. The latest innovations though have now made it possible to use both the technologies in the same mobile phone. See Dual SIM Mobile Phone for more.

Advantage

There are lots of communications devices in the market and one needs to buy such a device, which has most of the essential functions in it. In order to buy such a communication device one should be aware of its advantages as well.

There are many websites, which provide accurate and up-to-date information about most of the latest mobile phones. If you have sufficient amount of money then you can buy some of the efficient communication gadgets. However, one should always buy handsets that have been made by reputed companies like Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and many more.

Today, with the arrival of internet facilities, it has become quite easy to get information about various mobile phones. There are many websites, which belong to mobile phone retailers apart from the ones which are maintained by the mobile phone manufacturers. One can visit these websites to read the details about some of the latest communication devices. In addition, these websites also publish many reviews on good handsets. You should read the good reviews and enrich your knowledge on the latest mobile communication technologies like Bluetooth, GPRS and Wi-Fi.

Today, most of the mobile users like to have mobile communication phones, which are slim and sleek. If a handset is slim and sleek then the user can hold it in his hand quite comfortably. He can, therefore, keep on talking for a long duration. So when you buy such a handset then make sure that it is slim and sleek at the same time.

Those human beings who like listening to music can go for communication devices, which are specifically designed for enjoying music. Most of the latest music-centric mobile phones have got digital speakers, which let music lovers enjoy various kinds of music in an extraordinary way.

Such good communication devices should also have good memory power so that the users get store enough information in their day-to-day lives. Apart from this, one can buy mobile phones, which have good camera features. Most of the latest mobile phones are mostly multi-purpose gadgets, and are used for taking excellent pictures and video recordings.

The other advantage of buying fantastic handsets is that these, normally have an outstanding email system. And, indeed one should make sure that the kind of mobile phones being bought has an efficient email system. If you have got this feature on your mobile phone then you would hardly feel the need of using your personal computer.

It is not that one can buy a good mobile phone only if one pays a huge amount of money. If you are looking for buying a good quality gadget at a cheap price then you should try your best to make use of numerous offers on expensive communication gadgets. These offers or rather discounts reduce the cost of these expensive communication devices and thus, they save you lots of 'priceless' money.

Disadvantage

•    Some people (especially teens) get so much addicted to cell phones for talking, video, messaging, games, etc that they forget the real purpose of the phone and waste large part of their time in unnecessary interaction over their cell phones.
•    Nothing more can be a distraction for a teacher in the classroom, when a student’s phone rings. Cell phones are increasingly becoming a problem for the schools during classroom hours and are becoming a means of cheating during examinations and other kinds of ability tests. All this is really bad and does hurt the future of the student, who doesn’t realize that he/she is him/her-self responsible for it.
•    Health of those living in the vicinity of cell phone towers is becoming a growing concern. Towers result into an area with concrete development along with destruction of natural features (vegetation etc) around the place. The towers also emit strong electromagnetic signals, which can be health hazard for those living nearby and who are getting exposed to strong radiations continuously during a good span of their lives.
•    While remaining in touch is good thing but sometimes it becomes annoying to have to deal with continuous incoming phone calls. You are on a vacation and your boss calls up, how does that sound!
•    Cell phone monthly bills are usually more than a landline bill. Sometimes, we may not require to have a cell phone but we still buy one and start paying monthly bills; so it increases our monthly/recurring expenses.
•    Use of hands-free (wired/blue-tooth) can at times pass on loud sounds to our ears which can result in weakening of ear-drums. Nowadays, one can download lot’s of songs, so keeping the hands-free glued inside your ears for long hours can really affect the sensitivity of ears in the long run of life.
•    There have been cases of cell phone blasts, due to the excessive heating up of it’s battery. This can be a fatal issue; although rare.
•   No joke, the surface of a cell phone has millions of bacteria and virus on it and that can be a strong reason of immediate skin problem on face or can result into other internal infections wherein the microbes creep inside the body through mouth or other openings.
•    Some use the keypad excessively; due to size restrictions the buttons and keypad of the cell phone are not natural for human hands; so excessive and prolonged typing can be an issue for fingers and finger joints.
•    The continuous exposure of signal to and from our cell phone can be a cancer concern, although to a meager amount- research is still going on. However, the mobile phone industry has long resisted any suggestion of a link to cancer, though it accepts that mobile phone radiation does affect the electrical activity in the brain.
•    The battery parts and other electronic parts of a cell phone can be environmental hazard if not disposed off properly through approved means.
•    A cell phone can be helpful while driving and talking in case of urgent matters but increasingly it is becoming cause of accidents because it deviates the attention of a driver; human brain can do only one thing at a time (however small span of time it may be).
•    It can be a big time distraction and nuisance in calm and silent places like libraries, cinemas, restaruants, etc. Some cell phone users lose the sense of deciding when and where they can talk on the cell phone and where they can’t, without slightest consideration for the fellow beings around.
•    The mobile phone advertisements through messages are becoming a pain for the cell phone users.
•    Your SIM can be exploited as tracking device and if you’re an important person then that can be a big concern for you.