News
Buyer's Guide: The Best Monitors 
Mobile Phones
Florence Legrand
Updated: November 16, 2009
Updated: November 16, 2009
Product Surveys, Tests and Guides
If you can't find the right mobile phone for you here, go ahead and check the full range of tests in our mobile phone product survey or, more rapidly, in our buyer's guide.
In 2009, mobile phones continued to break new ground. More attentive to what users want and to social changes, manufacturers continue to combine features--phone, camera, music, Internet, e-mail, GPS--that keep on extending the capacities of their phones. Two years after release, Apple’s iPhone is still an example for the competition to follow, especially in terms of the success of the AppStore.
The frame of reference for phones over the last few months has settled around the touch screen, sometimes backed up with a physical keyboard and a lighter, more stable operating system (Android, Windows Mobile, OS X Mobile, Symbian) to harness the potential of your phone and give it a nice-looking, practical and customizable user interface. While not all phones have all this, progress has definitely been made.
Stay in touch
Some see the phone as providing new freedoms, while others say we’re becoming increasingly dependent on our favourite communications accessory. You have to admit that it doesn’t look as if we’ll be dispensing with it in a hurry! With the word smartphone now in common parlance, mobile phones have rarely been out of the news this year.
The simple idea that mobile users wanted to carry on with what they’d been doing at home has been enough to see social networking flow onto mobile networks. After customization, mobiles now give us real time feeds on the latest tweets or what our Facebook friends are up to. The Motorola Dext has gone as far as developing the Motoblur system to manage all your social networking sites instantaneously.
2009 has also been the year of the virtual boutique. Apple’s AppStore, now with over 100,000 applications, leads the way. The competition have been struggling to offer alternatives under their own brands, with more or less well-stocked stores. Such apps let you go further in the customization of your phone. You can add to functionality according to your desires or needs. Phone companies are competing less in terms of the product itself and increasingly in terms of associated services.
2010?
This year our wish list is fairly close to what we were asking for last year. Not that things haven’t improved, but the makers of this consumer mass market product par excellence can do better yet.
- Battery life: users are asking more and more out of their phones and two days of battery life (we’re not greedy!) is not an easy target for the manufacturers
- Nice screens: this year Samsung started fitting some of its mobiles with AMOLED displays and the results were amazing: better contrast, viewing angles and energy consumption! This last point might prove promising in terms of improving battery life ...
- Green: sustainable development hasn't passed the technology world by. After lots of well-meaning greenwash, we are seeing some results, even in this market segment that is in many ways the very model of over-consumption. LG and Samsung are both bringing out phones for the end of the year that charge using solar energy. Some manufacturers are starting to use recyclable materials and or build in solutions such as a message to let you that your phone is fully charged.
- Design: black and glossy designs--and the scratches and greasy fingerprints that go with them--continue to dominate. Perhaps it’s time for a comeback for matte (follwing the example of the car industry), or other less fragile materials such as Teflon, used on the back of the HTC Hero? Plus it really would be nice to have more of a choice! Why do all these phones look so much alike?! All tastes should be catered for! We want to see more variety like the tangy Genio Touch, or the originally shaped HTC Hero or New Chocolate.
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Best value |  |
We love it |  |
Green |  |
Best of the best |
Our favourite
Simple but full of features
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Apple iPhone 3G S
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Yup, the iPhone again! The 3G S ain't perfect but it remains the smartest smartphone out there. Its responsive multipoint screen is a real advantage but that’s not all: simplicity of use, style, interface, display of webpages (not to mention the numerous sites that have a special iPhone display mode), access to the AppStore and all its apps, the list goes on! The only drawback: if you use it a lot, then you're going to need to be ready to recharge it a lot!
| A BlackBerry for anybody: BlackBerry Curve 8520 |
A promising touch screen Windows Phone: HTC HD2 |
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| An entry-level BlackBerry to satisfy mobile internet users who want a keyboard for mailing. Fast to start up, light, sober, shapely, the Curve 8520 also has good battery life. Not 3G however--just Edge and WiFi. |
The Hero is a successful combination of Google's Android OS and an original design. It has a great finish, a fast multitouch screen and a powerful but attractive user interface. For surfing, it's a serious competitor to the iPhone 3G S. |
With a big bright screen, the successor to the Touch HD seems to have undergone some nice improvements. We haven’t tested it completely yet but in terms of what we’ve seen, this Windows Phone looks promising, especially its fluidity and responsiveness. |
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Smart but pro: Nokia E75 |
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| With a brand new OS, exemplary rapidity and a slide keyboard, the E75 gives you professional features at a very reasonable price. It isn’t up there with the best BlackBerrys--but nor is its price. |
The original, tangy-looking Genio Touch is aimed firmly at the young. Easy to use, it doesn’t have a very high-end spec but does what it says on the can and handles social networking nicely. How much? Nice and cheap. |
Accessible, with a nice big screen, the Jet is a good entry into the world of advanced multimedia phones. The only drawback is that it's based on a closed OS. |
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Pro with no concessions: BlackBerry Bold 9700 |
Eco-friendly: Samsung Blue Earth |
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| We haven’t actually seen the Bold 9700 yet but its spec is similar to the 9000, then improved and with some of the innovations of the Curve 8520. It promises to be a 100% pro-orientated phone that does everything to an excellent standard |
A multimedia phone, the N86 takes good photos. It will satisfy users looking for a solution to take over from their compact digital camera when necessary. With a good multimedia interface, it’s nice for watching video on. |
The first multifunction phone with a solar panel, you can recharge the Blue Earth without plugging it in! We've tried it out and it's very easy to use and we love the idea of having a different way to recharge it. |
Mobile phones at a glance:
| Responsiveness | Intuitive |
Professional |
Multimedia | Internet | |
| Apple iPhone 3G S |
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| BlackBerry Curve 8520 |
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| BlackBerry Bold 9000 |
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| HTC Hero |
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| HTC Touch HD2 |
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| Nokia E75 | |
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| Nokia N86 | |
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| Samsung Blue Earth |  |
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| Samsung Genio Touch |
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| Samsung Jet | |
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| Our Icons | |
Best value | |
We love it | |
Green | |
Best of the best |  |
Watch out |
