Multimedia Smartphone: Apple iPhone 3G (AT&T)
The Apple iPhone didn't invent the all-touch category, but it might as well have. Since its introduction almost 2 years ago, every other manufacturer has been playing catch-up. The Apple iPhone 3G almost deserves all of the hype. It has a snappy interface, a great screen that won't scratch and the best music and media playback in the industry. Plus, who could have predicted that the iPhone would now be a top gaming platform? With Sim City, Brothers In Arms and Crash Bandicoot, renowned developers are lining up to support the Apple iPhone OS, and the system seems poised to take on the Nintendo DS for gaming supremacy. The iPhone is more than a device, it's become a platform unto itself, but first and foremost it's the best all-touch phone on the market.
Business Smartphone: RIM BlackBerry Storm 9530
BlackBerry customers demand a superlative typing experience for corporate e-mail and messaging, so RIM broke out of the box quite a bit with the RIM BlackBerry Storm 9530. Eschewing the iPhone's standard onscreen QWERTY, or Samsung's favorite haptic feedback tricks, RIM came up with an entirely new idea for touchscreens with the Click Through technology on the Storm. It's a touchscreen that clicks, and we love it. It might turn off some all-touch users who don't like pressing actual buttons, but in our tests we found our typing to be more accurate, and the Click Through feature opened the door for some innovative control ideas, which helped to manage BlackBerry's still list-heavy interface. Don't believe the naysayers. Once the bugs are worked out, this will be an all-touch phone that makes waves in the industry for a long time to come.
Windows Mobile Professional phone: HTC Touch Diamond (Sprint)
HTC had the best jump on the all-touch race when the Apple iPhone started sprinting ahead, as the company had already designed the original HTC Touch with the TouchFLO interface. With the new lineup of HTC Touch Diamond phones, the HTC TouchFLO 3D interface is looking better than ever, with a design that is not only polished and clever-looking, but also quite useful, as well. HTC brings lots of information and control to the top-level screen, where you can do everything from controlling media playback to reading new messages to jumping right into a call. Plenty of all-touch phones act cool and try to mimic the iPhone's paradigm. With the Touch Diamond, HTC is trying new ideas and, in some ways, these are proving to be better.
Multimedia feature phone: Samsung Instinct (Sprint)
The Samsung Instinct was probably the first serious competitor to the iPhone's throne, though it was never supposed to be as smart as the latter device. Instead, Samsung and Sprint focused on delivering an innovative, new interface design loaded with the best features that the carrier and manufacturer could offer. Before the Apple iPhone had 3G networking or GPS or voice dialing, the Instinct had them, and still manages to outclass the iPhone on turn-by-turn directions and other features, like voice recognition (for dialing and searching on the Instinct). Even better, all-touch fans who want MMS messaging or a replaceable battery will find the Instinct still tops its rival. Among the so-called iPhone clones, the Samsung Instinct is still tops.
Mobile TV Flip Phone: Motorola Krave ZN4 (Verizon Wireless)
The Motorola Krave ZN4 is an interesting take on the all-touch design. To protect the touchscreen, the Krave ZN4 uses a transparent cover, but this cover also has some touch capabilities, so you can still use some of the phone's features while the flip is closed. It's a neat trick, and a very cool look on a phone we've been anticipating since we met its Chinese cousins. The phone has a great feature set, especially support for Verizon Wireless' V Cast Mobile TV service, which far surpasses the standard streaming videos most U.S. users are used to seeing. Still, the interface was a bit of a letdown, and we wish the phone had more advanced Web browsing and newer, more polished carrier-supported apps.
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