Buying guide: What new smartphone to buy in 2009

April 23, 2009 |

Buying guide: What new smartphone to buy in 2009

By Leslie Poston

Buying guide: What new smartphone to buy in 2009 Before you can even catch your breath from the last round of new mobile phones to hit the market, the next wave is upon us. As with all technology, sometimes the present we buy our self or others may be obsolete in a matter of months.

If you didn’t already buy your next mobile phone when we talked about touch screen phones in December, you’re in luck. You’ll be able to take advantage of some of the new releases scheduled to hit stores in coming months.

Samsung Mondi

Samsung Mondi People are drooling over this large-screen touch phone with QWERTY. How large is the screen? A whopping 4.3 inches of LCD touch screen surface, WiMax capability, the ever essential QWERTY keyboard for the heavy texters our there, and a massive 4GB of memory.

A fun and useful feature of the Samsung Mondi is the TouchWhiz integration, designed to work over Windows mobile as an application overlay. In previous models TouchWhiz only ran applications that were native, but the next generation will also run Internet applications.

The Mondi offers social networking support in the form of Fring, uses the Opera internet browser instead of clunky Internet Explorer, and offers widgetized customization. We saw the widgets designed to customize the phone in the Samsung Omnia this year as well.

Tech Specs:

• Windows Mobile 6.1

• Microsoft Outlook and Windows Mobile Office

• WiMAX Mobile Internet Access

• WiFi Access (BTv2.1+EDR)

• GPS: Route 66 Navigation with Preloaded Maps

• 4GB of Internal Memory

• Direct Push/Mobile Email (POP3, IMAP, SMTP)

• Supports Instant Messaging and MMS

• 3.0 Megapixel Camera and Camcorder

• Bluetooth ® 2.0

• Opera 9.5 Web Browser

• HDMI TV Out

• Supports Multiple Video and Audio Player Formats

LG Xenon

Another phone featuring QWERTY and some decent screen real estate, the LG Xenon is set to be released in 2009. Curvy and colorful, it also packs a punch for it memory capabilities. It can be expanded up to 16 GB, a huge deal as more and more applications turn to the mobile Web.

Another interesting feature of this phone is the chiclet style keyboard. First utilized by Apple in their laptops, the chiclet style keyboard is easier on the hands and is becoming more and more popular among the end user.

The touch screen on the LG Xenon is not as roomy as the Samsung Mondi, but the expandable memory makes this phone tempting for the business or multi media user. Additionally, LG seems to be breaking into Samsung’s territory, enabling some customizable widgets on the touch screen that are reminiscent of the Omnia and now the Mondi from Samsung.

Tech Specs:

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE

• Dual-band UMTS/HSDPA (850MHz/2100MHz)

• 950 mAh battery

• 105.5 x 53.5 x 15.8 mm

• 240×480 2.8-inch LCD

• 3 megapixel fixed-focus camera, with VGA video capability

• 100MB of memory with microSD support up to 16GB

• Bluetooth 2.0

• USB 2.0

• Wi-Fi

• EMP U330 Lite Chipset

Palm Pre

The Palm Pre has been getting buzz for a while now, starting months before its launch. With a clunky design and heavy feel, you might wonder how it made the list. Where the palm Pre innovates is in its always-on connectivity and high speeds during use.

If you can get over how clunky the phone is, it might be worth a look. The other features are nice but it is the Internet connectivity and some other features make this phone worth a try for the business user. It is being touted as the phone that “think one step ahead of you”.

Tech Specs:

• Palm® webOS™

• 3G EVDO Rev A

• 3.1-inch touch screen

• 24-bit color

• 320×480 resolution

• HVGA display

• Physical QWERTY keyboard

• Microsoft Outlook® email with Microsoft® Direct Push Technology

• POP3/IMAP (Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, etc)

• Integrated IM, SMS, and MMS

• Built-in GPS

• 3 megapixel camera

• LED flash

• Extended depth of field

• Ambient light

• Accelerometer

• Proximity

• Audio Formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV

• Video Formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264

• Image Formats: GIF, Animated GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP

• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g with WPA, WPA2, 801.1x authentication

• Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support

• 8GB of user storage (~7.4GB user available)

• USB mass storage support

• Bluetooth tethering

• MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed

• 3.5mm stereo

Coming soon

Apple iPhone 3.0

The next generation iPhone is rumored to be coming out in the summer. This is a don’t miss item if you are an iPhone lover, though many of its specs remain the same as the last generation iPhone.

Tech specs and release date not yet available

HTC Magic (The Google Android G2)

googleg2_150 Very little is known about what will make this different, or better, than it’s G1 counterpart. It is clear, however, that people are clamoring for this phone. Its own app store definitely makes it a contender against Apple. It is most likely to be released to T-Mobile over the course of the summer.

Tech specs and release date not yet available

Motorola Evoke

motorolaevoke_150 This slim phone has a slider that calls up a regular phone number interface. To get to a QWERTY interface you have to call up a software option. The beauty of this upcoming phone release is how light and airy it is, and how versatile and attractive the slim look and feel is. It doesn’t have a special app store like the others, but it is on the list for being one of the more interesting looking phones to hit the market in recent months from Motorola.