scots’ Top 5 Handsets for 2009

Now that O2 have effectively priced me out of the running for the iPhone 3G S I’ve been giving some thought as to what I might choose as my next handset. In thinking about it I ended up asking myself another corollary question; what are the most exciting handsets of 2009? I’ve compiled a list of the five handsets I consider to be the most interesting this year. Agree? Disagree? Let me know …

In no particular order:

Palm Pre

This wee beauty has certainly been generating some serious headlines in the blogosphere and it’s not too hard to see why. A good mixture of features in a compact form with a choice between a multi-touch capacitive touchscreen and a physical QWERTY keyboard make it appeal to business and casual users alike. The synergistic approach to combining information is also sure to appeal. The downside is that it has apparently been nabbed as an exclusive in the UK by O2; let’s hope the pricing is more sensible for the Pre …

Sony Ericsson Satio

This will be Sony Ericsson’s tour de force for 2009; it’s heavy hitter. The feature set excites me because it does pack a hell of a wallop, but I keep being pulled back to that resistive touchscreen and attached stylus … ugh. Still it looks the part; packs a 12.1 MP camera, and combines the best of Cybershot and Walkman; what’s not to love about that?

HTC Magic

The phone the G1 should have been many might say, and they’d be right. I was impressed with the responsiveness of this wee beastie, and whilst the feature set isn’t exactly top of the line it’s that Android OS that contains the real magic, making the handset a breeze to use and promising future fun long after the handset is bought through new apps from the market. It’s only the second Android handset to be released, but the lessons from the G1 do seem to have been learnt (for the most part).

Nokia N97

Big Daddy this handset should be called. Ok maybe not. At any rate it’s one of the grande dames of the 2009 mobile portfolio. Feature wise it crams them in and provides the user with a real mobile platform for everything from blogging to taking decent pictures to playing games to making calls of course. It’s that all round appeal that interests me. It might not be the absolute best device in each category, but it does have the ability to cover them all to an adequate degree. Price is of course a bit of a downside, but then you only get what you pay for.

iPhone 3G

Why the 3G and not the 3G S? Price. Pure and simple. For what customers are being asked to pay for a 3G S over a 3G the former is just not worth it given the limited feature set it offers over the 3G. With the 3G cheaper and sporting most of the same features the 3G is still the iPhone of choice for this blogger and an iPhone, even an old one, is still an exciting handset.