With hundreds of handsets to choose from, it can be tough to find the right one. Here’s what you need to know to dial up the perfect phone.

In the age of apps, smartphones get all the buzz these days, but half of the cell phones sold in the U.S. are still feature phones: camera phones, music phones, waterproof phones, texting phones, or just plain voice phones.

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We’re recommending smartphones to more and more people now, but there are still reasons to get a simpler device. It’s not just about being a Luddite. Maybe you want to save on monthly fees by avoiding a smartphone’s $10-$30 data package, you don’t want to give your teenager the power to buy apps, or you just don’t want to be tethered to the Internet all the time.

Unlike smartphones, feature phones are a matter of “what you see is what you get.” They don’t receive magical software upgrades or run thousands of additional apps, as does the iPhone 4, for example. Most do more than make calls, though you can find phones that only make calls, if a basic phone is what you want. But most feature phones include some combination of a camera, a basic Web browser, e-mail, and text messaging apps, and music and video players. Those features will usually be inferior to even budget smartphones, but they’re perfectly usable.

Feature phones are typically less expensive than smartphones. They’re available in a much wider range of shapes and sizes, and on a broader range of plans including prepaid options. Monthly service fees for feature phones are generally less expensive too.

Ready to find your new phone? Here’s what you should consider before you start shopping:

First, Choose Your Carrier
Because all the national carriers sell a wide variety of phones, choosing your service provider should be your first move. Start with our Readers’ Choice Awards to see which carriers came out on top. Here’s a quick rundown of what each one offers:

AT&T boasts nationwide coverage and a terrific selection of phones, particularly for texting. It has dramatically improved its service quality in the Northeast over the past year. But service plans for more powerful feature phones are so expensive, you might as well get a smartphone. It’s also the worst-rated carrier by our readers.

Cricket and MetroPCS are “unlimited” carriers that offer much lower rates than their competitors and don’t require contracts. But they aren’t available everywhere, and have a somewhat limited selection of phones.

Sprint is relatively inexpensive, and offers some neat media services and a solid high-speed network. It also has the most open approach to third-party apps, letting its subscribers add a wide range of Java applications to its feature phones. Sprint has two prepaid brands, Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile, that sell phones without contracts.

T-Mobile offers cutting-edge phones at relatively low monthly rates and enjoys a reputation for good customer service. It’s the only carrier that offers a monthly discount in exchange for paying full price for your phone up front. But its network can be weaker than the other major carriers’ in rural areas.

U.S. Cellular is only available in about half the country, yet it consistently gets great scores on our Readers’ Choice Awards because of its strong commitment to customer service. This year the carrier started the “Belief Project,” a new customer-service plan offering perks like free battery swaps and replacements for damaged phones.

Verizon Wireless is famed for its excellent network quality and good customer service. Its prices can be higher than the competition, but when it comes to voice quality, many Verizon phones excel. That makes Verizon a perpetual leader in our Readers’ Choice Awards.

You may also see unlocked phones on the market that work with GSM networks such as AT&T and T-Mobile but aren’t sold by the carriers. These handsets are often imports. Because they’re generally more expensive than carrier-approved-and-subsidized phones, few are sold in the U.S. But you can find a few bargains, such as the affordable Sony Ericsson Naite, in case your AT&T or T-Mobile phone breaks and you need a replacement.

Next, What Are Your Feature Priorities?

Because feature phones do almost everything, you should decide what capabilities you need or want most. Start narrowing down your choices by first ranking the five major categories of features in order of importance: voice quality and capabilities, messaging, camera, media playback, and Web/GPS/games/miscellaneous. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to concentrate on a more narrow selection of feature phones.

If you’re big on text messaging, you want a phone with a QWERTY keyboard. If you’ve got a small child, a camera is probably important. If you want to ditch your iPod, keep an eye out for good media features.

Since it’s a given that you want your calls to sound good, you may feel you should focus mainly on voice rather than other features. You don’t need to worry too much about that. The vast majority of phones sold today have solid voice capabilities. Paying attention to your other feature needs, and then double-checking to make sure the phone you choose delivers on voice quality, makes it easier to sift through a long list of handsets.

What to Look for: Voice

Reading reviews and trying out a phone before you buy it are the best ways of gauging voice quality. Most phones fit into a broad middle range of reception and sound quality. But you can still find phones that are uncommonly loud or have a lot of “side tone,” that is, the feedback of your own voice in your ear (which can help you avoid yelling into the phone).

If you’re primarily interested in voice and you’re looking at AT&T or T-Mobile, focus on 3G phones. Those carriers’ 3G networks offer superior voice quality to that of the 2G networks. The major downside is that AT&T and T-Mobile 3G phones have about half the battery life of 2G phones.

Important voice features to look for include no-training voice dialing, Bluetooth headset support, and a standard (3.5mm) wired headset jack. Yes, there are still super-simple phones out there that basically only make calls. The Samsung Haven on Verizon Wireless and the Motorola i335 on Sprint are voice-only phones.

What to Look for: Messaging

Quick-messaging devices, otherwise known as texting phones, are are tremendously popular right now. If you intend to text often, get a plan with unlimited text messaging—it’ll likely save you money in the long run. The best phones for heavy messaging have full QWERTY keyboards, like the Verizon Wireless Samsung Intensity II and T-Mobile’s Samsung Gravity 3. You may also want to check that the phone supports threaded texting, a feature that groups together all text messages from the same sender.

Don’t expect e-mail or IM on feature phones to give you a full smartphone experience. Feature-phone e-mail programs typically download your e-mail in text-only mode, without attachments, and feature-phone IM programs often won’t let you access your AIM buddies. Sprint’s e-mail program, on handsets like the LG Rumor Touch, is the best of the bunch, supporting multiple accounts and some attachments. If you have a Sprint or and AT&T phone, you may be able to run a free Gmail client with conversation view and search support.

What to Look For: Camera and Media

Let’s be completely honest here. The best camera phones and music phones nowadays are all smartphones. For a few years, feature phones with the good cameras and music players flourished. But especially now that the Android OS is popular, phone manufacturers have decided that anyone who wants to take decent pictures or replace their iPod probably wants a smartphone.

Feature phone cameras can still satisfy casual users who just want snaps to post on Facebook or Twitter. Look for a phone with at least a 2-megapixel camera. Keep an eye on reviews to see which phones take washed-out, compressed-looking photos and which take bright, clear shots. It’s harder to find a good video phone. If you want to post your videos online or burn them to DVD, look for a handset that captures 640-by-480-pixel videos, at 30 frames per second or better. One of the few good remaining options is Verizon’s LG enV Touch VX11000.

For music, you want a phone with a 3.5-mm headphone jack, so you can listen to your songs with standard headphones. If you get a phone with a 2.5-mm jack, or even worse a proprietary one, you’ll need a clumsy adapter to use quality headphones. As an alternative, look for a phone that supports stereo Bluetooth wireless headphones.

The best non-smartphone music experience is on Verizon Wireless with V CAST Music with Rhapsody; these phones sync with the powerful Rhapsody music program on Windows PCs. The freeware doubleTwist does a great job of syncing both PCs and Macs with some LG and Sony Ericsson phones. Another option is iTunes Agent, an open-source app that lets you sync some phones with iTunes.

What to Look for: Web/GPS/Games/Etc.

Some phones have decent browsers that display most Web pages; others have basic WAP browsers. If you want to surf often on your phone, look for a model with the Opera Mini Web browser. All Sprint and some T-Mobile phones let you download Opera Mini, and some AT&T phones come with it pre-installed. Most current phones come with some variety of for-pay GPS capability—but be sure to get a handset with a loud speakerphone so you can hear the directions.

For the accident-prone, some phones, like AT&T’s Samsung Rugby II or the G’zOne Ravine for Verizon Wireless, are even ruggedized or waterproof.

How to Get the Best Price

Once you’ve made your handset decision, it’s time to head to your carrier’s store, right? Maybe not. The best deals you can find on feature phones are almost always online. Five places to look:

1) Your carrier’s own Web site will likely have prices that are considerably lower than what you can find in a brick-and-mortar store. And you can often find online-only instant rebates.

2) You can find amazing deals on Amazon.com if you’re switching carriers. You may have to send in a mail-in rebate form, however.

3) and 4) Wirefly.com and LetsTalk.com are reliable, competing cell-phone stores with their own exclusive offers.

5) Finally, true cheapskates should look for used phones on eBay. Especially if you’re hoping to spend under $50 without signing a new contract, you can often find great deals on last year’s models.