You looking at your 2 year old smartphone and wondering why should you buy the newer model. It claims to have a new snapdragon 801, or 800 or if you’re lucky the snapdragon 805, bigger battery, better screen and high mega pixel camera and so on.

But do these improved specs matter? Depending on what and how you use your phone, they may make no difference whatsoever. But a more powerful processor can make a world of difference depending on your smartphone usage.

Newer processor aren’t all about being more powerful unless you’re into gaming. They have many other benefits too. Battery consumption generally improves as the newer processors can handle more tasks more efficiently and also run at a lower clock speed for more mundane activities.

But another aspect of more powerful processors on board relate to improved camera prowess. Historically cameras are all about decent optics with big bulky lenses, pixel size and speed. This is still true for now, but as technology improves processors can start to remove the need for complex optics since brute computing power undertaking at lightning speeds will be able to produce similar results without the bulk. So a snapdragon 800 processor will not be able to offer the same camera trickery as the newer snapdragon 805. So it photography is your thing , then this may be worth noting. Obviously, well written camera firmware and software is another vital part.

However, if photos are merely uploaded to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or anything similar, then a cheap Moto E phone will suffice and all internal specs will be irrelevant to you.

So do you worry about the specs?