Samsung Instinct (Sprint)
 There were plenty of iPhone clones and all-touch phones this year, from the LG Dare to the Motorola Krave ZN4, but the Samsung Instinct is the one that stands alone as a good phone on its own right. It's plenty responsive, packs in a great feature set, and has even seen some improvements since we took a look at the phone's mid-year launch. It's an impressive effort, and comes closest to the smartphone experience, without being obnoxiously smart.
Nokia 5310 XpressMusic (T-Mobile)
 Music and cell phones go well together, and we appreciate a phone that focuses primarily on music and calling, without worrying too much about a host of other multimedia and Web features. The Nokia 5310 is a phone that understands music, and handles calling well, too. We love being able to jump into the music with a single button press, and we're thankful that Nokia and T-Mobile have included all the accessories and ports necessary to make music easy. There are more advanced music phones out there, but the Nokia 5310 keeps it simple and gets it right.
Samsung Rant (Sprint)
 The Samsung Rant is a phone that fits the times nicely. As interface designs are becoming more important, the Rant gets Sprint's excellent One Touch interface app, which is a useful and productive menu system. As more users access e-mail and social networks from their phone, the Rant provides easy access to e-mail accounts, including corporate e-mail, and a robust slide-out keyboard. Most importantly, as new users find their budgets crunched, the Samsung Rant comes in at a great price, only $50 at launch. We were skeptical at first, but the Rant won us over quickly, and became one of the easiest phones of the year to recommend.
Sony Ericsson W760 (AT&T)
 If you want to step up from a simpler music phone into a real multimedia feature phone, the Sony Ericsson W760 is the best you'll find on the U.S. market. The phone has a great look and feel to it, and solid features all around, especially the Walkman music player app, which is one of the best, easiest-to-use music players on a phone today. The W760 is also a fine Web browser, and has plenty of bells and whistles to play with and impress your friends. We liked the polished interface with its innovative themes. We were also pleasantly surprised to find this a tethered modem powerhouse, and when we used Sony Ericsson's software to connect our laptop to the Internet, we saw mind-boggling clock times. This phone's an all around winner.
LG Decoy (Verizon Wireless)
 There are so many reasons why the LG Decoy is a great idea. It kept us from losing our Bluetooth headset. It gave us a convenient way to charge our phone and headset together. It pairs quickly and easily. Besides the headset, though, the LG Decoy is still a strong phone on its own. It may not impress, but it had a solid interface design, great GPS performance and a nice mix of 3G features. Plus, as we contemplate our second traffic ticket for talking on a cell phone, the LG Decoy looks like a better idea every day.
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