Palm Pre
 The Palm Pre and the new Palm WebOS stole the show this year. The phone itself is an exercise in simplicity. With the right combination of capacitative touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, we can't help wonder if Palm didn't just beat Apple at their own game. It's got a superior feature set inside and out, with the first TI OMAP3 chipset to market in a smartphone, and all the bells and whistles you could hope for, including fast networking, GPS, Wi-Fi, an accelerometer plus a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor. Basically, everything the Apple iPhone 3G has and more. Plus, we haven't even scratched the surface with the Palm WebOS, which is a slick-looking touch interface that retains Palm's minimum-clicks appeal while taking full advantage of the phone's hardware. Recent reports are telling us that the phone will have some innovative location-based features that will take advantage of the unified PIM features. Hopefully we'll see this device on the market sooner rather than later, as it looks like it could be a winner, and both Palm and exclusive launch partner Sprint could use a real winner right now.
Pharos Traveler 137
 At infoSync, we think that GPS and location-based services are going to be a major part of portable communication devices into the future. But while most feature phones and smartphones can handle basic GPS navigation with their sub-par aGPS sensors, Pharos has been leading the charge to include real, full-powered GPS on their Windows Mobile devices. In the past, we've had trouble using the primarily touchscreen-only devices with the stodgy WinMo Professional interface, but for their newest generation of phones, Pharos has wisely enlisted software house SPB to make the Windows Mobile UI easier to use. They have also included a more customer-friendly navigation package, with updated software and some pay-as-you-go plans if you only navigate once a while. We think there's a lot of room for improvement, but the new Pharos devices, with the Pharos Traveler 137, are leaps and bounds better than the old Pharos 600 GPS phone, so we're curious to see what the GPS-maker can come up with next.
LG GD910 watch phone
 Of all the new phone designs we saw at CES 2009, there was one that made us feel we had to have it. For most gadgeteers, the watch phone represents one of the ur-gadgets, a gadget that inspired gadget dreams. Surprising that the closest a major manufacturer has come to a real, inspired watch phone on the market has been Sony's clunky Bluetooth watches. For that reason, we were very impressed with LG's touch-senstive, 3G watch phone. The interface looked simple and easy to use, and the phone went beyond simple calling functions to multimedia and even some Web tasks. We could see this phone becoming a regular second in our phone lineup, if it performs as well as we hope. Unfortunately, LG hasn't announced plans to bring the LG Watch phone stateside, but support for U.S. networks means it might be a hot import around father's day (hint-hint).
RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900
_it00.jpg) Arguably the most important new phone in T-Mobile's CES 2009 lineup is the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900. Some may scoff and say we've seen much better from RIM this year. The Curve 8900 has the newest version of the BlackBerry OS, so it looks very much like a smaller version of the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9000. But as much as we liked that high-end device, remember that the Curve is not only the best selling BlackBerry, it's one of the best selling phones period, and the BlackBerry Curve 8900 is a sleek, modern update to an already wildly popular smartphone. Plus, it gets access to T-Mobile's unlimited HotSpot calling plan using UMA over Wi-Fi. This phone isn't the top of the line for RIM, but we're sure it will be a huge seller when released in February.
Motorola MOTOSURF A3100
 If we were at first underwhelmed by Motorola's first touchscreen Windows Mobile phone, it's because the concept is so familiar to us. It's an all-touch device with a specially-created interface will help users navigate Windows Mobile, and hide as much of the business-phone OS as possible. Almost every major smartphone manufacturer has one of these, and the only thing unique about the MotoSurf seems to be the trackball / touchscreen combo, which we hadn't seen before. Still, we wouldn't count this one out. Motorola has gained quite a following with the reliable and sturdy Motorola Q, and we suspect that the new Motorola A3100 will appear in numerous forms, perhaps even with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The interface needs to be more responsive and deeply useful, but we already know that Motorola can build a solid phone with great call quality, so we're curious to see what fruit springs from this new design tree.
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