When this website started a year ago (it was called GeekedOut.se back then), one of the ambitions was to gather the best, most powerful and interesting phones in the world – and the best only, with specifications, previews, reviews, and all the top hands-on videos. However, that section of the site proved to be one of the least visited, as people mainly came here to read the various guides and tutorials. Since guides and in-depth articles also are a lot more stimulating and fun to write, the Top Phones section has been more or less abandoned. It will live on, however, as occasional posts like this one, listing the most powerful and promising phones in the world.
The devices in this list haven’t necessarily been released yet, because let’s face it, such a list would be less entertaining and availability varies across the globe anyway. If you’re about to buy a new phone, and want to make sure that you get one that is state-of-the-art, has great specifications and is pushing the boundaries of mobile technology, I think it’s fairly safe to say that you can’t go wrong with any of these five devices. You’ll probably notice that they all more or less share the same basic specifications (hello, Snapdragon), and it is mainly the screens that vary. So here they are, the Top 5 Phones in the World Q2 2010, that I know of, and in my humble opinion.
Specifications:
Status: Coming soon
OS: Android Donut with future OTA upgrade to Éclair
Weight: 220g
Screen: 5-inch, TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch
Resolution: 480×800 pixels (WVGA)
Camera: 5MP with autofocus and dual LED flash + VGA front facing camera
Memory: 512 MB ROM + 2 GB non-user accessible microSD for apps and files
Card slot: microSD
CPU: Snapdragon 1GHz processor
RAM: 256 MB
Networks: Quad-band GSM, HSDPA
Dell may advertise the Streak as a tablet, but I call it a smartphone with a frakking colossal display. It may merely have half the RAM of the other devices on this list, and it will launch with Android Donut, but the Streak has the largest screen of them all, and its massive size will definitely offer some advantages. Needless to say, the Dell Streak comes loaded with accelerometer, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, aGPS and a digital compass as well.
Specifications:
Status: Expected Q4 2010
OS: Windows Phone 7
Weight: 170g
Screen: 4.1 inches, Samsung OLED capacitive touchscreen
Resolution: 480×800 pixels (WVGA)
Camera: 5MP with autofocus
Memory: 1GB internal storage + 8GB memory card included
Card slot: microSD
CPU: 1GHz QSD8250 Snapdragon processor
RAM: 512 MB
Networks: Quad-band GSM, UMTS
The recently revealed Windows Phone 7 device Dell Lightning will launch with GPS, compass, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, accelerometer, FM radio, a 1400 mAh battery and full Flash support including video playback. Judging from the pictures, this is one good looking phone, and I especially like the portrait slider form factor with a QWERTY keyboard.
Specifications:
Status: Available late April, 2010
OS: Android 2.1 Éclair
Weight: 130g
Screen: 3.7 inches, AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
Resolution: 480×800 pixels (WVGA)
Camera: 8MP with dual LED flash, autofocus, geotagging
Memory: 8GB internal storage
Card slot: microSD
CPU: Snapdragon 1GHz processor
RAM: 576 MB
Networks: Quad-band GSM, CDMA
Full Specs at PhoneArena.com
If I were to buy one of these phones myself, I would probably pick the HTC Incredible. If it only came equipped with a slide-out hardware QWERTY keyboard, the Incredible would have been fairly close to the device of my dreams. Engadget loved the Incredible, and the phone is basically a slightly improved version of Europe’s HTC Desire, which in turn is a Nexus One with a few minor enhancements (it runs HTC Sense, has an FM radio, etc).
Specifications:
Status: Expected Summer 2010
OS: Android 2.1 Eclair
Weight: 170g
Screen: 4.3 inches, 128K colors, TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen
Resolution: 480×800 pixels
Camera: 8MP with LED flash and autofocus, capable of recording 720p video
1.3 MP front facing camera
Memory: 1GB internal storage + 8GB memory card included
Card slot: microSD
CPU: Snapdragon QSD8650 1GHz processor
RAM: 512 MB
Networks: CDMA / EV-DO / WiMAX
Full Specs at PhoneArena.com
When the Windows Phone HTC HD2 was announced, people craved a device with equally impressive hardware running Android, and HTC made sure they got what they wanted with the Evo 4G (a.k.a. Supersonic). The Evo has a huge display; 4.3 inches, and to my knowledge that size is currently the second largest available on a smartphone (the screen on the Dell Streak (Mini 5) is 5″ ), and it looks massive in the pictures. Here’s a size comparison with 3.5″ and 3.7″ screens. Some other noteworthy features are HDMI out, a 1500mAh battery, kickstand, FM radio, a digital compass, accelerometer, proximity sensor, light sensor, aGPS, 3.5 mm audio jack, Wi-Fi and of course 4G. The HTC Evo also features the acclaimed and incredibly customizable HTC Sense UI with social network integration. What more can I say? I want one.
Specifications:
Status: Expected Summer 2010
OS: Android 2.1 Éclair
Weight: 118g
Screen: 4 inch, 16M colors, Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
Resolution: 480×800 pixels
Camera: 5MP with autofocus, touch focus, geotagging, face and smile detection
Video recording 720p @ 30fps
Memory: 8/16GB internal storage
Card slot: microSD
CPU: S5PC110 Hummingbird 1GHz processor
RAM: Yet unknown
Networks: Quad-band GSM, HSDPA
Full Specs at GSMArena.com
Its competition is fierce, but I still think the Android über-phone Samsung Galaxy S deserves to be at the top of this list. Let me explain why. The Galaxy S is currently the only high-end device with a large, Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen. As I mentioned when I built my own imaginary superphone a while ago, Super AMOLED is 20% brighter, has 80% less sunlight reflection and uses 20% less power than traditional AMOLED screens. Super AMOLED displays also offer better contrast. Since Engadget called the screen on the Galaxy S “jaw-droppingly beautiful”, “bright and crisp” and “stunning”, I am prone to believe the stats.
Another feature that makes the Galaxy S stand out, is its S5PC110 Hummingbird chipset – currently the world’s fastest Cortex-A8 based processor. The Hummingbird can process a whopping 90 million triangles per second, which currently is three times faster than any other smartphone. Here’s a comparison:
- Motorola Droid: ~7 million triangles/s
- Nexus One: 22 million triangles/s
- iPhone 3GS: 28 million triangles/s
- Samsung Galaxy S: 90 million triangles/s
- PlayStation 3: 250 million triangles/s
- Xbox 360: 500 million triangles/s
The device naturally also features the by now standard goodies like Wi-Fi, a 3.5mm audio jack, accelerometer, proximity sensor, micro-USB port, aGPS and a digital compass. It also comes with a stereo FM radio with RDS. On top of that, it’s only 9.9 mm thick, even though it has a 1500 mAh battery! And yes, the Galaxy S comes with the much talked about multi-touch as well. We have however yet to see how much RAM this bad boy is packing, but with with the other specs in mind, I can’t imagine Samsung would include anything less than 512 MB, or it would bring down the overall impression of the device.
I’m not sure how Samsung’s custom Android UI measures up to, lets say, HTC Sense (I think Sense is hard to beat), but I’ve heard reports that the UI of the Galaxy S blows the competition out of the water.
A Pro version of the device with a QWERTY keyboard is rumored, and if you are to believe exceptionally well-informed Russian phone guru Eldar Murtazin, the Pro version will arrive. For more information about Samsung’s superphone, you can check out Engadget’s Galaxy S related posts.
You might have noticed (and objected to) that all of the phones on my list run Android, except the Dell Lightning that is powered by WP7. I’m glad that Android devices finally are getting more powerful hardware, and I would probably only have included one Android phone on a list like this six months ago. I intentionally didn’t add any Windows Mobile 6.5 devices, even though plenty of them have some serious hardware, like the HTC HD2 and Toshiba TG02, because not only is the OS obsolete to begin with, but it’s also a platform that won’t see any more significant updates, due to the arrival of Windows Phone 7.
For the same reason, I ignored all current Symbian^1 devices. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my Nokia N97 (even though it comes preloaded with a wide range of bugs) – of the phones that I’ve owned, it’s probably my favorite since the Nokia N73. I just don’t think a handset powered by Symbian 5th Edition deserves to be on a list of devices that are supposed to be state-of-the-art, since Symbian has failed to live up to the standard’s of a modern smartphone OS. Regarding processors and RAM, current Symbian handsets are far behind the competition as well. However, that might change with the rumored Symbian^3 device Nokia N98, or N8-00, or whatever they decide to call it, that will have a 12MP camera with Xenon flash, and supposedly a 4″ capacitive touchscreen. I paid no attention to present or upcoming iPhones, because, with only the slightest hint of irony, I think the iPhone sucks and I hate Apple.
Do you think this is a fair list? Would you like to re-arrange it or put some entirely different phones in there? If so, which ones, and why? I considered adding the Dell Thunder, the LG GW990 with a 4.8-inch screen, the projector phone Samsung i8520 and the Nokia N900. To me, though, the five devices on my list all seemed like better choices.
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