14 DAY TRIAL // Before we'll tell you a Happy New Year, we wanted to share our impressions on some of the smartphones that were launched on the market during the ongoing year. This top 10 smartphones of the year includes what we believe to be the hottest smartphones that were pushed on shelves by makers around the world, regardless of the operating system they ran under or the markets where they were available at the moment. They might not be the best phones of the year, but they surely managed to stir the waters a little, both prior and after their arrival on the market.
We consider the HTC HD2 to be the leader of the smartphone market in 2009. It is one of the handsets that landed on shelves with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor inside, something that gives it a lot of power to play nicely with that Windows Mobile 6.5 flavor it runs under and with HTC's Sense solution the Taiwanese maker pre-loaded on it. The first Windows phone to sport Sense, and also the first one to feature a capacitive touchscreen display, the HD2 is expected to receive an update to the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 operating system from Microsoft, something that should make it even more appealing than it is.
Most of you might be already aware of the specs the handset comes with, so we won't look at them already, but we should mention that its large touchscreen display is complemented by a thickness of only 11mm, by great connectivity options and enhanced integration with social-networking sites. Some voices suggested previously that HTC did with HD2 what Microsoft was not able to do with Windows Mobile, namely it improved the user experience to a level where everyone was happy. Already available in a wide range of markets all around the world, one should agree that HD2 deserves the leading position in this year's top smartphones.
Apple's iPhone 3GS comes in on the second place mainly due to the fact that its huge popularity is built on the performance of its predecessors. It still lacks that multitasking capabilities other phones have, yet it already made a lot of fans around the world, even if it has been available for purchase for less than half a year. It is appealing, it managed to impress Korean users enough so as to start a price war on the mobile-phone market in the country, and will help Apple gain a little more market share in the year to come, that's for sure.
We'll place Motorola DROID on the third position on our top mainly due to its huge potential. It was capable of proving that an Android phone was not a princess, and that Motorola could make an impressive comeback on the market, after being said to near its end in the first half of the year. DROID will soon arrive on a wide range of markets around the world under the name of MILESTONE, and its large touchscreen display, as well as the QWERTY keyboard and the Android 2.0 flavor of Google's platform should appeal a lot to users, that's for sure. It might face a great competition from Nexus One when it gets launched next year, but, for now, it is one of the nicest Android phones out there.
HTC Hero is yet another Android-based mobile phone that managed to bring a new user experience into the equation. HTC included the Sense solution on it when delivering it to the market, and it has rapidly become one of the most popular handsets of the year. It was the third device from HTC to have landed on shelves with Android on board, and is expected to receive the Android 2.1 flavor of the OS when it becomes available, meaning that more enhancements are set to arrive its way. Hero is placed on the fourth position in our top even if it was seen as the best device of the year by some, mainly due to the fact that HTC was late in providing its users with updates to the newest iterations of the platform.
Moving forth, Nokia N900 lands on the fifth position, courtesy of its appealing design and of the Maemo 5 platform that was pre-loaded on it. However, it is one of the mobile phones to have arrived pretty late to the party, something that shadowed its image as a whole. The N900 is just starting to make its presence felt on the market, and, based on the hype it has already created, it should be able to prove itself as one of the most successful handsets of the next year too. Unfortunately, Nokia said that it would launch only one Maemo phone in 2010, so N900 won't have too many brothers to play with after all.
Samsung Omnia II is another great handset that saw the light of day in 2009. Running under Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, the phone boasts an impressive AMOLED display, delivers great multimedia features, as well as impressive connectivity options and Internet-browsing capabilities. One can carry a lot of music and videos with the phone, courtesy of its large memory space, and the TouchWiz 2.0 UI it comes with can provide an appealing experience to users, that's for sure. All in all, its lower CPU and RAM specs make it fade in front of other devices, and it only arrives sixth in our list, but it is one of the smarpthones worth purchasing.
Canadian mobile phone-maker Research In Motion also delivered appealing handsets throughout 2009, including the Tour, Bold 2, Storm 2 or the Curve 8530. Among them, the Bold 9700 seems to be the hottest of them all, mainly for the business-oriented features it arrives with, but not being limited to them. A wide range of connectivity options are also present with the device, and it can also deliver a great Internet-browsing experience, as well attractive multimedia features, something that easily puts it on top of other BlackBerry smartphones of the year. However, its lower CPU, memory and camera specs only drive it to the seventh position in this top.
While the nicest devices can be easily spotted among others, it is rather hard to distinguish among smartphones that come to the market with about the same features and capabilities. We'll have the Nokia N97 on the eight position, even if there are other smartphones that might have had what it takes to be placed here. It is the nicest Symbian device of the year in the end, and that helps it a lot. However, its OS interface makes it fade in front of much more appealing solutions, even if there are other features that attract users towards it, including the QWERTY keyboard it comes with or its connectivity options.
Sony Ericsson Satio, a “multimedia powerhouse” as its maker describes it, comes in on the ninth position. The phone hasn't arrived too long ago on the market, and has been also stricken by a series of software issues that has determined its maker to halt the sale for a while. It is still unavailable in a wide range of markets around the world, tough it should arrive in more of them in the not-too-far future. The device is worth mentioning courtesy of its 12MP photo snapper, and of other entertainment features it comes with, though its true potential is yet to be unveiled.
The last handset we'll mention here has seen its share of popularity long before it arrived on the market, though it began to fade soon after launch: the Palm Pre. Announced in January, it was launched in the US in June, a few weeks before the iPhone 3GS was unveiled, and that hurt its performance a lot. Its webOS platform was something new when unveiled, and that appealed to a lot to users, yet the marketing campaign it saw was not the most impressive one, hence the results. For what it's worth, Palm Pre is one of the best smartphones the world received in 2009, thus deserving a place in our list.
As noted at the beginning of the article, these are our opinions on what can be considered the nicest smartphones of the year that is to end. You might consider other smartphones as worth mentioning here, or some positions in the top as being a little different, and you can easily share them with us by leaving a comment below. Whether you agree or not, we still wish you a Happy New Year.
