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1. Blackberry Bold 9700
The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is the second in the series of Bold phones released by RIM. The first one was ingeniously crafted, with a definitive style that was unmatched in the market. Its successor has managed to trump the first phone admirably.
The Bold 9700 has a number of performance tweaks up its sleeve. The operating system works much faster, applications load seamlessly and the processor has been amped up. The website browsing experience is greatly heightened compared to the first Bold overall.
An interesting addition to the new Bold is the replacement of the track ball by the track pad. Reminiscent of the 5-way directional keypad often found on older phones, the track pad is much more sophisticated otherwise. The pad supports swipe gestures for scrolling like on touch screen devices.
The phone comes packaged with a case, which is meant to be clasped onto the belt. The phone recognizes the magnet of the case clasp and automatically goes on standby.
The phone has a rather sad 3.2 megapixel camera and the screen size is on the smaller side. However these are complaints that are common to almost all BlackBerry phones. On the whole it is a brilliant device.
2. Sony Ericsson Satio
The Sony Ericsson Satio is a true camera phone. It packs in 12 megapixels of crystal clear image quality. The slider at the back protects the camera from all environmental hazards. When opening the slider, the camera function comes on automatically - and the reverse is also true.
The Satio incorporates many firsts for Sony: it has the latest Symbian Touch operating system. Also for the first time, Sony has put in a microSD expansion slot instead of their proprietary format. There are buttons on either side dedicated to bringing up the camera and the music player without having to navigate through the menu.
There are multiple customizable home screens as well, with widgets and intelligent contact interactions built into the applications.
The Satio is a classy device, both in looks and in performance. It is a little on the higher side, in terms of price, but we still think the phone is absolutely worth every shiny penny.
3. Samsung i8910 Omnia HD
The Samsung Omnia HD is everything anyone could possibly want in a phone. Don't be fooled by its elegant good looks, nor by the slim lines and sleek design, the Omnia HD is without a doubt a well-equipped smartphone.
Considering Samsung has bestowed the tag of HD, those features are expected to be top-notch: they most certainly are. The screen is a gorgeous AMOLED display, which all the better to display graphics that are handled by a dedicated graphics card. The phone packs in a sturdy 600 MHz processor, as well as a far from shabby 8 megapixel camera.
The phone runs Symbian S60 5th edition, although the native user interface has been tweaked to display Samsung's TouchWiz 3D interface. There is a highly customizable menu, within an easily navigable smartphone.
Definitely worth the asking price, the Samsung Omnia was the first to bring HD to mobile phones; it met the challenge head-on.
4. Motorola DROID
Certainly one of the most anticipated devices to come into the market lately, The Motorola Droid is enjoying great success right now. It has the latest version of Google Android as the operating system, and some fairly daunting specifications besides that as well.
The design of the phone is what strikes a powerful first impression - boldly sharp edges and very solid feel to the phone. There is a hardware QWERTY keyboard, which slides out from under the screen. The keyboard tray has a directional pad and juts out a little when closed. The bit that juts out has the microphone, and probably accounts for the excellent audio quality of the phone.
The Motorola Droid is the first multitouch device that sports the Android operating system. Additionally, seeing as it is Google, there is the first hint of the Google Maps Navigation - a turn-by-turn navigation tool, mostly seen only in dedicated GPS devices.
5. LG BL40
Don't be fooled by its extra long size, the LG BL40 is anything but a cumbersome mobile device. It certainly has an unusually large screen, with orange detailing on either side, and a silver piping that runs alongside the device.
The screen is huge, making for extreme viewing pleasure. Websites, when viewed in landscape, don't require any left to right scrolling at all. The video player is understandably excellent, with support for many computer file formats. The camera is a relatively modest 5 megapixels, but the main feature of this phone is the screen.
The phone has quad-band GSM, putting it above most phones released around the same time. It also has a 1.1 GB of internal memory, which isn't much but the microSD expansion slot takes care of that particular hassle.
The phone is reasonably priced, considering the features that it has. It is certainly not a cheap phone, but won't set anyone back a great deal either.
