Best smartphones on the market

Choosing a smartphone is a very personal thing. It’s not an exaggeration to say it’s a commitment. With wireless contracts working the way they do, you need to choose one you’re going to be happy with for two years, or at least until you become eligible for an upgrade. In order to make that choice, you have to weigh several factors, including the features and capabilities of the phone, the kind of wireless network coverage you’ll get, what carrier offers it (especially if it’s an exclusive offering), and the big one—cost. But there are other, more personal reasons to take into consideration. Everyone’s needs and expectations are different. One person may buy a phone purely for personal communications, while another needs something to support a business. And the cost, well, that’s going to depend not only on how much you can spend, but what your idea of worth is. No one can make those personal decisions for you, but we can consider the specs, features, advantages, and disadvantages, and come up with an idea of which smartphones deserve your attention. So that’s what we did. These 12 devices are the ones we consider to be the best smartphones on the market right now. Contrary to the way many “best of” lists are set up, this one is not in rank order. In fact, it’s in alphabetical order so as not to be biased. We’re calling these the best because of the features they offer, and yes, there’s some opinion thrown in there based on the research we do every day to keep this blog current and informative. But we’re not going to insult your intelligence by telling you what to think. We’re simply presenting information in order to help you make informed decisions. Each smartphone is listed with its main specifications—the ones most people look at when they’re choosing a smartphone. The one feature you won’t find listed is price. That’s because prices can vary for devices offered by more than one carrier or retailer, and can change from day to day depending on rebates or special deals offered by carriers and retailers. Also note that the word network can refer to several things with regard to cell phones—wireless or wired, CDMA or GSM, 3G or 4G. For the purposes of this list, network refers to 3G or 4G. Another category on the list, Wi-Fi, simply lets you know the device has that capability. In addition, battery life is indicated with two numbers separated by a slash. The first number is talk time; the second number is standby time. If anything isn’t clear, you have questions, or you think we’ve left off a great smartphone that deserves some love, let us know in the comments.

BlackBerry Bold 9650

Carrier: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile
Network: 3G
Touchscreen: N
Keyboard: Y
Camera: 3.2MP
Camera Flash: Y
Onboard Memory: 512MB
Memory Card Slot: Y
Battery Life: 5/312
Weight: 4.8 oz
Display: 2.4 in
Resolution: 480×360
Operating System: BlackBerry OS
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: Y
Browser: BlackBerry
Extras: Optical trackpad navigation; video recording
Pros: Access up to ten e-mail accounts; thousands of apps available; plenty of social networking integration
Cons: Not a lot of onboard memory, almost making a memory card a necessity; small display compared to other smartphones

BlackBerry Curve 9330

Carrier: Sprint, Verizon
Network: 3G
Touchscreen: N
Keyboard: Y
Camera: 2MP
Camera Flash: N
Onboard Memory: 512MB
Memory Card Slot: Y
Battery Life: 4.5/252
Weight: 3.7 oz
Display: 2.4 in
Resolution: 320×240
Operating System: BlackBerry OS
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: Y
Browser: BlackBerry
Extras: Speakerphone; music player; digital camera zoom; video recording; voice command capable
Pros: Social networking integration; tons of apps available; several accessories available
Cons: Limited onboard memory, so memory card is almost a necessity; not a large screen in comparison with other smartphones

Droid Incredible

Carrier: Verizon
Network: 3G
Touchscreen: Y
Keyboard: N
Camera: 8MP
Camera Flash: Y
Onboard Memory: 8GB
Memory Card Slot: Y
Battery Life: 5.21/146
Weight: 4.6 oz
Display: 3.7 in
Resolution: 480×800
Operating System: Android
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: Y
Browser: WebKit
Extras: Speakerphone; music player; predictive text input; built-in photo editing
Pros: 1GHz Snapdragon processor is super fast; good talk time battery life
Cons: Poor standby battery life; a little clunky to hold

HTC Evo 4G

Carrier: Sprint
Network: 3G; 4G where available
Touchscreen: Y
Keyboard: N
Camera: 8MP
Camera Flash: Y
Onboard Memory: 1GB
Memory Card Slot: Y
Battery Life: 6
Weight: 6 oz
Display: 4.3 in
Resolution: 480×800
Operating System: Android
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: Y
Browser: WebKit
Extras: Sprint TV;
Pros: Dual cameras, front and rear facing; more than 35,000 apps available in Android Market; Snapdragon processor is lightning fast; mobile hotspot capable, supporting multiple users simultaneously
Cons: Battery life is sorely lacking

HTC Hero

Carrier: Sprint
Network: 3G
Touchscreen: Y
Keyboard: N
Camera: 5MP
Camera Flash: N
Onboard Memory: 512MB
Memory Card Slot: Y
Battery Life: 420/750
Weight: 4.76 oz
Display: 3.2 in
Resolution: 320×480
Operating System: Android
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: Y
Browser: WebKit
Extras: Camera auto focus; video recording capability; digital compass; trackball and enter button; Sprint TV; visual voicemail
Pros: First HTC phone to employ HTC Sense intuitive user interface; HTC ExtUSB, a mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one; integration social networking apps
Cons: Low resolution screen compared to other smartphones; little onboard memory

iPhone 4

Carrier: AT&T
Network: 3G
Touchscreen: Y
Keyboard: N
Camera: 5MP
Camera Flash: Y
Onboard Memory: 16GB or 32GB
Memory Card Slot: N
Battery Life: 7/300
Weight: 4.8 oz
Display: 3.5 in
Resolution: 960×640
Operating System: Apple iOS
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: Y
Browser: Safari
Extras: Digital Compass; video recording; now available in white
Pros: Retina display; tens of thousands of apps available
Cons: Antenna issues, but resolved with bumper or case

LG EnV Touch

Carrier:Verizon
Network: 3G
Touchscreen: Y
Keyboard: Y
Camera: 3.2MP
Camera Flash: Y
Onboard Memory: 250MB
Memory Card Slot: Y
Battery Life: 4.33/408
Weight: 4.92 oz
Display: 3 in
Resolution: 480/800
Operating System: BREW
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: N
Browser: LG
Extras: Speakerphone; recording capability; voice command recognition; document viewer; Dolby sound
Pros: Flips open to reveal full keyboard, making it good for users who prefer a QWERTY keyboard for texting; two screens; made for multimedia messaging
Cons: no Wi-Fi; a little clunky

Motorola Droid X

Carrier: Verizon
Network: 3G
Touchscreen: Y
Keyboard: N
Camera: 8MP
Camera Flash: Y
Onboard Memory: 8GB
Memory Card Slot: Y
Battery Life: 8/220
Weight: 5.47 oz
Display: 4.3 in
Resolution: 480×854
Operating System: Android
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: Y
Browser: WebKit
Extras: Speakerphone; music player; recording capability
Pros: Dedicated camera button; tons of onboard memory; large display screen, great for web browsing; 512MB RAM
Cons: Browser can be a little slow

Nokia N8

Carrier: Unknown; possibly T-Mobile
Network: 3G
Touchscreen: Y
Keyboard: N
Camera: 12MP
Camera Flash:
Onboard Memory: 16GB
Memory Card Slot: Y
Battery Life: 12/390
Weight: 4.76 oz
Display: 3.5 in
Resolution: 360×640
Operating System: Symbian^3
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: Y
Browser: Nokia
Extras: Music player; video capture at 25 frames per second; FM radio and transmitter; predictive text input; voice command capable
Pros: High resolution camera produces crisp images; Zeiss optics; very large onboard memory; comes in several colors; capacitive touchscreen; flash supported browser
Cons: Not out yet; slated for October release; it’s listed here for the sheer power it’s packing

Palm Pre Plus

Carrier: Verizon
Network: 3G
Touchscreen: Y
Keyboard: Y
Camera: 3MP
Camera Flash: Y
Onboard Memory: 16GB
Memory Card Slot: N
Battery Life: 5.5/350
Weight: 4.89 oz
Display: 3.1 in
Resolution: 320×480
Operating System: Palm webOS
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: Y
Browser: HTML Web
Extras: Music player; speakerphone; mobile hotspot capable
Pros: Double the memory of the Palm Pre; slideout QWERTY keyboard, great for texting; thousands of apps available; switch between apps without closing (deck of cards multitasking)
Cons: Long boot-up time (about two minutes)

Samsung Epic 4G

Carrier: Sprint
Network: 3G; 4G where available
Touchscreen: Y
Keyboard: Y
Camera: 5MP
Camera Flash: Y
Onboard Memory: 1GB
Memory Card Slot: Y
Battery Life: 6.5/216
Weight: 5.46 oz
Display: 4 in
Resolution: 480×800
Operating System: Android
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: Y
Browser: WebKit
Extras: Slideout QWERTY keyboard; speakerphone; music player
Pros: MicroUSB connectivity; Sprint’s version of the Galaxy S phone, with more features than any other version; large display area; excellent talk time battery life
Cons: Honestly, we couldn’t find one. If you know of an issue, let us know in the comments.

T-Mobile myTouch 3G

Carrier: T-Mobile
Network: 3G
Touchscreen: Y
Keyboard: N
Camera: 3.2MP
Camera Flash: N
Onboard Memory: 8GB
Memory Card Slot: Y
Battery Life: 7/384
Weight: 4.1 oz
Display: 3.2 in
Resolution: 320×480
Operating System: Android
GPS: Y
Bluetooth: Y
Wi-Fi: Y
Browser: WebKit
Extras: Camera auto focus; music player; speakerphone; miniUSB connectivity; audio jack
Pros: Available in a few colors; integrated maps feature; trackball navigation
Cons: Not the most feature-rich or powerful smartphone out there; probably better as a starter phone