Cell Phone Ringtones

Amp up your cell phone with a sleek new ringtone that is just as personal and unique as you. With a unique ringtone you'll no longer be one of twenty people reaching to answer their phone in a crowded room - when your phone rings there will be no doubt who that call is for.

Ringtone Types

There are three major types of ringtones - monophonic, polyphonic and realtone.

Monophonic Ringtones:

Monophonic ringtones are only capable of playing a single type of musical tone at a time. If forced to use a monophonic ringtone you will most likely be disappointed with the sound quality, but the good news is that unless you are rocking a cell phone from the turn of the century you will likely have options other than a monophonic tone.

Polyphonic Ringtones:

Polyphonic ringtones can play many types of tones at a single time, which gives greatly increased tonal quality compared to monophonic. Playback of polyphonic sounds will be much closer to the "real" sound, but can depend upon the complexity of the sound to be reproduced. Testing a polyphonic ringtone out ahead of time is often a good idea to see if it meets the sound quality which you desire.

Realtone/Truetone Ringtones:

Realtone ringtones are encoded using a high fidelity format such MP3, AAC, or WMA format, and are the latest and greatest evolution of the ringtone. You may also hear a Realtone ringtone referred to as a Mastertone, a Truetone or a Superphonic Ringtone. With the high sound reproduction quality of Realtone, ringtones using such technology are often excerpts from popular songs or TV/movie themes.

Choosing a Ringtone

With the hundreds of models of cell phones on the market today, obviously we cannot list the ringtone types supported by your particular handset, so a trip to your owner's manual or the website of your cell phone manufacturer is a great first stop. Of course, any of the variety of ringtone providers available today will also be able to provide you with the pertinent information.

When choosing a provider of the ringtones it always make sense to look at alternatives besides simply the company providing your cellular service - AT&T, Verizon, etc. You may find that providers such as CrazyFrog, Thumplay and others are able to provide a larger variety of ringtones. Monthly plans from companies such as these are great for those who wish to use a variety of ringtones on their cellular phone while others may find that purchasing ringtones A la cart simply makes more sense for them.

Cell Phone Games

With their  higher resolution color displays, most mid-level and up cellular phones produced within the past several years are able to serve as good platform for mobile gaming. Many games are produced exclusively for mobile phones while others are slimmed down versions of console games, but in either case these games can serve as a great distraction to fill those boring breaks at work, school or home.

As with ringtones, cell phone games can be purchased from the company which provides your cellular service or a number of other companies. The variety can vary widely from one company to another so it is wise to shop around. Also, plans that offer a large number of games each month for a fixed rate each month is appealing to many while others may find that purchasing a single game at a time makes the most sense for them.