Latest In-Depth Expert Cell Phone Reviews

LG Glance

Overview What's Good: Durable device with good call quality and strong battery life. What's Bad: No 3G; gold battery cover may be a bit of an overkill. Introduction What happened to candybar devices? We've seen twisting devices, sliding QWERTY keyboards, flip phones, and more, but the age-old bar phone seemed to fade into the sunset. Not so...

Samsung Omnia HD i8910

Overview What's good: the 3.7" AMOLED touch-screen at 360 x 640 pixels looks fantastic; the 8 MP cam is probably the best I've used on a phone - for still photos and video, which are easily shared; 3.5mm audio jack doubles as TV-out; comes with 8 or 16 GB of internal storage and supports microSD up to 32 GB; 1500 mAh battery and good sleep...

HTC Hero CDMA

Overview What's good: same beautiful display found on G1 and myTouch; optimized version of HTC's Sense improves performance over earlier version; possibly the best virtual keyboard design currently available (though it will require more powerful hardware to surpass iPhone keyboard performance); 5 MP cam with elegant custom interface; 3.5mm audio...

Motorola Clutch i465

Overview What's Good: Call quality; fantastic speakerphone. What's Bad: Battery life; somewhat cramped keyboard. Introduction There's no doubt that Sprint's Nextel brand and the accompanying iDEN technology has been behind when it comes to new industry concepts. While CDMA and GSM companies have been enjoying feature-rich devices, iDEN users were...

LG LX290

Overview What's Good: Build quality; fantastic reception; battery life is respectable.What's Bad: No EVDO; picture quality is poor; font size may be too small for some. Introduction Despite the seemingly endless talk about smartphones, there's still a market for regular, reliable cell phones. Quite frankly, we doubt that grandma (most, at least),...

Nokia Twist 7705

Overview What's Good: Unique design; phenomenal QWERTY keyboard. What's Bad: Battery life could be better; potential long-term build quality concerns. Introduction In today's wireless market, phones seem to be standard when it comes to design. There's the candybar design, the ever-popular flip phone, and the sliding form factor, but the Nokia...

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Black

Overview What's good: great looks; 3.2 MP auto-focus cam; MMS; Wi-Fi; Bluetooth, FM radio; accelerometer; proximity sensor; resistive touch screen is pretty sensitive; under $300; cool new home screen; a great little media player. What's bad: no 3G; although adjusted for touch screen use, Symbian S60 still doesn't feel like a touch OS; on-screen...

HTC Ozone

Introduction The HTC Ozone with its slim form factor and green keys is a departure from some of the more bulkier form factor smartphones many think of when they think about a Windows Mobile phone. The smartphone sports a Windows Mobile 6.1 OS, 3G connectivity, stereo Bluetooth, a 2-megapixel camera, and an e-mail set up tool that’s so easy...

Samsung Highlight T749 Fire

Introduction The Samsung Highlight is a slim touch screen cell phone that has a lot going for it: 3G connectivity with T-Mobile’s Web2Go interface, 3-megapixel camera, solid battery life, and impressive call quality. Plus the cell phone even comes with included headphones that work with the Samsung proprietary headset jack. In short, if you...

Samsung Instinct HD

Overview What's Good: Nice design, complete with HD video-out for digital media fans. What's Bad: Some lag when browsing, erratic reception at times, and mediocre battery life. HDMI cable (to view HD videos on TV) isn't included; costs $30. Introduction Following the popular line of Instinct devices, Samsung has taken the brand to a new level with...

Samsung Rogue SCH-u960

Overview What's Good: Absolutely stunning AMOLED screen, 3.5mm headphone jack instead of Samsung's proprietary connection, EVDO Rev. A, good camera. What's Bad:The layout of the QWERTY keyboard is a bit frustrating due to the placement of the navigational keys. Introduction Coming in as the replacement to the error-prone Samsung Glyde, the new...

Samsung Comeback SGH-t559 Frost Silver Cherry

Introduction With the wireless market becoming increasingly saturated, manufacturers are relying more and more on unique designs to appeal to buyers.  While it's inevitably going to be a love or hate design, the Samsung Comeback is unique, and is a welcome addition to the T-Mobile lineup.  Will its quirky design and features impress, or...

LG LX370 Silver

Introduction In this day and age, it seems as if smartphones are the talk of the town.  Everywhere you look, it seems like the pocket computers are dominating our society.  With the media centering around the Apple iPhone, Palm Pre, BlackBerry Tour, and HTC Hero, it's easy to understand why regular phone launches rarely get the respect...

HTC Touch Pro2

Introduction We're always talking about revisions when it comes to BlackBerry, Palm, and Apple, but rarely do Windows Mobile users get to share the same joy. For some reason, manufacturers think that boxy, bland Windows Mobile devices with a basic screen and a simple keyboard will suffice, and as a result, we get an endless supply of similarly...

HTC myTouch 3G White

Overview What's good: *extremely* customizable - both inside and out, sleek design, excellent touch screen, the "with Google" brand means that it's open and ready for modification.What's bad: no multi-touch, stock Google keyboard not as good as third-party replacements, no camera flash, a little more power would be nice, major software problem...

Nokia N97

OverviewWhat's good: cool slider form-factor, widgets, 3.5G, 5MP cam with dual LED flash, 3.5" 640 x 360 pixel display, N-gage gaming. What's bad: maddeningly glitchy software was not improved by a recent update; operating system has not been properly reworked for touch screens; bad reception and poor call quality; unpredictable behavior; nag...

Samsung Ultra Touch S8300

Overview What's good:8MP auto-focus cam with *bright* dual LED flash; 30 FPS wide screen video; lovely, high-contrast 2.8" AMOLED capacitive touch screen at 400 x 240; great phonebook and in-call UI; TouchWiz now has more widgets and a multi-panel home screen; accelerometer, GPS, proximity sensor. What's bad: typing is a serious chore; browsing is...

HTC Hero

Overview What's good: Killer virtual keyboard; Sense UI is inviting and full of wow; gorgeous 3.2", 320 X 480 display with oleophobic coating; design is sophisticated but makes a statement; 3.5mm headphone jack; 5MP cam; Teflon on select colors; Hero represents a new day for Android. What's bad: You need to go without the Sense extras for a...

Samsung Exclaim M550 Blueberry

IntroductionWith back to school time rapidly approaching, carriers are launching devices aimed directly at the school-age crowd. Offering a design similar to the Helio Ocean 2, the Samsung Exclaim offers the best of both worlds in a rare form factor - a dual sliding mechanism with a typical numeric keypad and a QWERTY keyboard. As a result, the...

BlackBerry Curve 8520 Black

IntroductionDescribed by many in the tech circle as the "BudgetBerry," the BlackBerry Curve 8520 represents a renewed push by RIM to appeal to first-time smartphone buyers. Scrappier than its BlackBerry siblings, one can immediately notice the cheap build quality, but as a result, the Curve 8520 offers a level of durability that other BlackBerry...