Sony-Ericssson didn’t have a very good year in 2009 – its phones just lacked that elusive je ne c’est quoi. But 2010 promises to be a better year altogether, with the launch of the excellent Sony-Eriksson Vivaz. The Vivaz has pizzazz.

Visually beautiful with its graceful curved design, the 3.2 inch touchscreen has a respectable resolution of 360×640 pixels. The camera boasts an impressive 8.1 megapixels, with a photo light, geotagging and autofocus. And, very impressively, it’s capable of 720p HD video recording. With built-in GPS, the Vivaz also comes with Bluetooth along with WiFi and 3.5G HSPA for speedy data transfer.

There’s also a neat TV-Out function which allows you watch any videos you’ve recorded on your HDTV. The Symbian S60 5th edition operating system easily integrates applications with YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter and if the phone turns out be as good as it seems, Sony-Erikson are in a for a happier time this year.

Image Source: Google Images

It may look a little on the chunky side – more Wayne Rooney than Richard E Grant – but this robust little number is packed with attractive features, not the least of which is the hefty 16GB of on-board memory.

This can be doubled with the insertion of a microSD.  The Samsung i8510’s camera is also droolingly wonderful, with 8 megapixel sensor, auto-focus and superb panorama mode (and it also has a slow motion video record feature). It’s a slide phone, with mechanical navigation keys visible when opened, and it also sports the much requested 3.5mm headphone jack.

You’ll be able to download a range of software, including Google Maps and Opera Mini to browse the web. Connectivity is excellent; the phone boasts WiFi, GPS, and HSDPA, and you can play DivX movies. Or just listen to the FM radio. And it could just outperform the Nokia N96 – Nokia might need to keep a beady eye on Samsung from now on!

Image Source: Google Images

Built on the Windows Mobile 6.5 Operating System, the Acer neoTouch S200 (also known as the F1) sports a dazzlingly fast 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. And unlike Acer’s previous efforts in the handset design stakes, this one looks a good deal more stylish and it has a much better resistive touchscreen than any of its predecessors.

It might have been even better if Acer had opted for a capacitive screen, though – resistive screen need quite a bit more pressure to detect your finger or stylus. The screen resolution is not half bad, though, at 800×480 pixels, and as quad-band phone it’ll work just about in any country in the world. Along with GPS and Bluetooth, it comes with HDSPA and WiFi, giving it creditable connectivity.

The phone is slightly marred by the still rather cumbersome Windows Mobile interface with its annoyingly multiple menus – iPhone and Android are good deal simpler to use. But the speed of that Snapdragon processor will make you gasp.

Image Source: Google Images

A new tweak in the Samsung Omnia class comes with the classy, high performance i8910. Not only does this gorgeous little techno-gem have a fantastic 8 megapixel camera, it can record and playback HD video at 720p. There is simply no other phone on the market comparable in image quality, which is not surprising given the stunningly sharp 16 million colour, 3.7 inch AMOLED screen.

Samsung’s infamous TouchWiz user interface ensures a highly responsive touchscreen, and the phone comes with a generous 16GB of integral memory, which can be increased by a further 32GB with a microSD card. It boasts 7.2 Mbps HSDPA so you can download hefty files effortlessly, and it also supports DLNA allowing you to display your photos on a DLNA-equipped HDTV.

Even though the phone has the same music player as the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic – which is a dedicated music phone – the i8910’s bigger and better screen just makes the whole music experience far superior. It’s close to perfection.

Image Source: Google Images

To be frank, it resembles a bar of soap at first glance, but the Palm Pre actually has a highly responsive touchscreen with crisp, vivid display. And the shape grows on you – it’s exceptionally nice to hold. Connectivity is in the good to excellent range, with WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and GPS.

The smooth user interface on this WebOS phone, with its multi-touch and gesture capability, is sheer ecstasy to play around with, and it also has a small but handy slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard. The ‘deck of cards’ feature on the UI is worth a mention – all the apps you have open are displayed as small icons which together make up the homescreen.  Tap one and you’ll see a delightfully satisfying ripple animation before the app opens up.

If you want to close it, just flick it with your finger to the top of the screen. And the phone slides open into a gentle curve, caressing your face as you talk. Neat.

Image Source: Google Images

You’ve seen the Viewty, savoured the Chocolate, and played with the Cookie over your coffee. Now it’s time to meet LG’s latest, and charmingly inexpensive smartphone, the Pop.

iPhone is entirely to blame for our present obsession with touchscreen phones. But LG Pop will give you a responsive touchscreen for a fraction of the cost of a 3GS. It’s especially aimed for all of us ‘unsophisticates’ who don’t need to synch our email contacts to our phone, or turn-by-turn Sat Nav, or constant access to the web.

We’re just looking for a cool-looking touchscreen phone, and the LG Pop delivers just what we’re after. The 3 megapixel camera’s not outstanding but it’s perfectly reasonable for the price and the 3 inch touchscreen is gorgeous. You’ll also get an MP3 player, video player, web browser video camera and expandable memory. It’s a stunner!

Image Source: Google Images

To start with the less spectacular features: The Acer Liquid has a faintly ‘plasticky’ feel, and the processor slightly underwhelms, offering 768MHz instead of the widely anticipated 1 GHz speed. But it’s a thumping good Android smartphone with a deliciously sleek design, nonetheless.

While you’re listening to music, gazing at photos or surfing the web, multiple applications will run cheerfully in the background without a glitch. The virtual keypad has the hint of a delay in responsiveness, but nothing to get into a hissing fit over. As you’d expect from an Android phone, it comes with Google Maps and first-class Gmail support.

You can even merge your Facebook contacts with your address book, although the procedure is a little cumbersome. The screen is a creditable 3.5 inches, and it’s just about the most stylish phone Acer have yet produced. It doesn’t match the glamour of the HTC Hero, but it doesn’t pretend to. And it’ll more than simply ‘do.’

Image Source: Google Images

This phone could really have been The Daddy, but it’s sadly turned out to the Diddy instead. A phone with a stunning 12 megapixel camera, a fabulous music player, huge touchscreen, aGPS and Google Maps, Bluetooth and WiFi Connectivity should have been a stunner, a killer cell phone. Instead, it’s a bit of a damp squib. Why? Because it’s headbangingly unreliable.  And it has poor battery life. Plus, it doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack.

It does look gorgeous, however. If only design lines could have been matched with equally brilliant technology. The Sony Ericsson Satio is a Symbian phone, and it’s looking increasingly necessary for the company to drop this OS. So many people returned their phones in ‘09 that Phones4u and Carphone Warehouse dropped the model from their sales just weeks after its release, citing ‘software problems’ as the reason. The company insists that a software update has rectified the problems. Hmm … the jury’s still out.

Image Source: Google Images

Well, it may not be a touchscreen phone, but it’s one of the slimmest and most stylish looking cell phones on the market. Don’t be put off by the hybrid alphanumerical/QWERTY keypad – it’s surprisingly easy to use and pleasingly tactile, too.

Just press once for the first letter depicted, twice for the second (using predictive texting function simplifies this even more with a bit of practise). You can even listen to your SMS messages and emails in a ‘Stephen Hawking’ synthetic voice.

You’ll also get GPS governed maps, turn-by-turn navigation and a free trial service to Nokia Maps. In addition to Bluetooth and WiFi, you’ll also get HSDPA so you can download hefty files at a nifty pace. And the battery is fabulous, easily delivering up to 3 days of life with a single charge. A candy bar with real class!

Image Source: Google Images

This big-brained, super sleek new cell phone from Google is a stunner. The touch screen alone will have you drooling over it; not only does it look fabulous, but its ‘multitouch’ function enhances the screen’s responsivity brilliantly and there’s a clear, stylish virtual keypad.

The contacts app is superb – just tap on a picture of the person you want to contact and you’ll instantly be presented with a series of options (call, email, message, or just map his address). The new Android 2.1 OS is still not as smooth as the iPhone, but it supports multiple email accounts and the connectivity is excellent.

And the 5 megapixel camera easily beats phone’s meagre 3. It also has a Bose-style noise cancellation feature which wipes out wind or traffic rumble on the other end of the call. Voice recognition technology enables you to control the phone and compose emails by talking to it. Overall, it may not be revolutionary, but it’s not half good.

Image Source: Google Images