I’m not suggesting that people stop buying expensive smartphones. I certainly won’t. I merely offer this advice because the holidays are a popular time to buy a smartphone, but not everyone wants to spend top dollar to get one. Fortunately, now’s a good time to jump in.

But do your homework and make sure the phone you’re looking at has been well-received–even reviews dating back a year–and make sure it’s running relatively recent software and decent hardware. With Android, you’ll want a phone that runs Android 2.3 or higher, and with Windows Phone, you’ll want a phone running “Mango,” also known as Windows Phone 7.5. All iPhones run iOS 5, so you’re fine there. Try to get a smartphone with at least a 1 GHz processor and a rear-facing camera with flash so you can snap photos in low light. And of course, make sure you like the phone’s look and feel enough not to be repulsed every time you take it out of your pocket. If you can find a smartphone that meets those criteria for less than $50–and it shouldn’t be that hard anymore–more power to you.