2009 has seen a selection astonishingly mind-blowing smartphones arrive on shelves, and now it's time to decide which the cream of the crop. Let's take a look at the three contenders for greatest phone of this year.
Nokia N900
We start by acknowledging the best smartphone in Nokia's range. Their latest smartphone is the first of a new breed; it is the first phone in history to include the brilliant Maemo OS (which was previously to be used only in Nokia's internet tablet range). Say hello to the Nokia N900. The Maemo OS provides the Nokia N900 with a finger friendly interface, and in addition to that, the phone comes with a built in QWERTY keypad, so it has therefore got more methods of interacting with the phone than just the touchscreen. It's not solely about the UI, however, because the Nokia N900 is packed with top-end features. A 5 megapixel camera makes for superb photos, the media playback is stunning, and with HSDPA and GPS, the Nokia N900 certainly isn't short of connectivity options.
Palm Pre
However, in the world of phone interfaces, one single phone canes both of the other handsets on this article, without a doubt: the groundbreaking Palm Pre. This is simply because the Palm Pre is designed on a totally bespoke OS known as WebOS, that is undoubtedly the slickest, most user-friendly operating system that has ever been released. As well as simple gesture controls and finger sweeps for EVERY action with the phone, the Palm Pre also brings in tight synergy between its various apps. Book a cinema ticket using one app, and the Palm Pre automatically updates the calendar with the time. Multitask loads of different apps, and be amazed as you watch the Palm Pre run without even breaking a sweat. In the world of interfaces, basically, the Palm Pre is unbeatable!
HTC HD2
So, we have the Nokia N900 with its Maemo interface, and then you've got the Palm Pre, which features WebOS. And then there's the HTC HD2; it holds the record for the largest screen found on any mobile phone. Coming in at a whopping 4.3 inches, it is truly vast, and the WVGA, 800x480 resolution makes it genuinely easy to interact with things like scrollbars and drop-down menus. However, the HTC HD2 actually does a very good job of making it so you don't have to drill down into the normal Windows menus that often, because sitting atop the operating system, the UI is HTC's brilliant Sense UI, where every interaction happens by way of a range of finger swipes and sweeping gestures. It is truly intuitive, and it (as well as the truly awesome 1GHz Snapdragon CPU) is what makes the HTC HD2 such a pleasure to use. Of course, it's not all about being raw processing power, a phone needs to have good features and the HTC HD2 has them in spades, from the 5 megapixel camera, through GPS, to incredibly fast HSDPA internet access (not to mention the superb Opera Mobile web browser), which is why many people see it as the best mobile phone EVER.