The Nexus One phone and the iPhone 3GS present as attractively sleek and slimline phones, with curved edges which makes them both comfortable to hold and use.

Just beneath the display screen on the Nexus One are four touch-sensitive buttons: back, menu, home and search, and a trackball. Dotted around the edges of the phone are the power button, a 3.5mm headphone socket and a micro-USB port. The 3GS, like its predecessor, has a “home” key at the bottom of the front surface, volume, sleep/wake buttons on the edges and access to the applications is via the touchscreen.

The iphone has a 3.5” touchscreen display, measures 115.5mm by 62.1mm by 12.3mm and comes with a reputed 256MB of RAM, and storage of up to 32GB. The Nexus One houses a 3.7” touchscreen display, and measures just 119mm by 59.8mm by 11.5mm. The phone comes with 512MB of both RAM and ROM, and a microSD  slot to accommodate a card of up to 32GB.

The most noticeable problem with the Nexus One is that the colours are somewhat oversaturated, especially with red and orange. Additionally, it is problematic to view the screen in bright light.

While a 5 megapixel camera is built into the Nexus One, which produces sharp and detailed images, the 3GS sports a surprisingly low 3 megapixel camera, although it does have autofocus when compared to its predecessor, although it does appear to over-expose photos. The Nexus One’s Gallery application is user-friendly and includes a pan and scan slideshow, which makes for a fun photo-browsing experience.

Looking at the insides of these phones, the 3GS is pretty quick in flicking between homescreens, scrolling through lists and when using Spotlight. When it comes to the games department and the use of high density graphic applications, the latest iphone certainly has the power to keep the gamer content, compared to the Nexus One whose gaming capabilities are not of the highest quality. Homescreen navigation on the Nexus One is swift and straightforward. An improvement in the Nexus One over its predecessors is the useful “home” icon which allows the user to zoom in on icons, and scroll through them, over the homescreen currently in use. To this end, there are accessible homescreens available.

Both phones are host to a range of other functions including Google Maps, a music player, a touchscreen keyboard and audio recognition. Each phone does have its own merits, depending on what additional functions and capabilities the user seeks.

The Hero is the latest mobile phone release by HTC, and features its own new user-interface HTC Sense, which allows the user to customise their handset accordingly.

HTC HERO

Although it is a thin and light phone, it has a solid feel to it, weighs 135g, and measures 112mm in length, 56.2mm in width and 14.35mm in depth. It comes with 512MB internal memory, which can be boosted with a microSD card.

The Hero is an attractive-looking device, with a sleek 3.2” touchscreen. A virtual QWERTY keyboard feature is accessible in both portrait and landscape modes which is reasonably fast to use and impressive.

HTC Sense allows the user to customise their phone by adding their selected widget-based applications to their homescreens. It also encourages the user to organise how they wish to access people and content in their lives in a manner most appropriate for them.

The presence of pinch-zooming and the possibility of opening several browser windows make browsing on this sleek and fast touchscreen easy to use, even when using the WiFi connection. A trackball at the bottom of the device is very handy for navigating around web pages. Flash support and player allows the user to enjoy their favourite clips on YouTube.

There is a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, built into the Hero, although a flash function is lacking. Photo quality is acceptable although it is no replacement for a dedicated point-and-shoot camera. A built-in video recorder is also available.

Other features of the Hero mobile phone include an MP3 player which supports the usual music file formats, digital compass, Bluetooth connectivity and GPS.

The Samsung Tocco Lite mobile phone is a striking touchscreen phone with an easy-to-use interface, offering features to be expected of any new phone released onto the market thesedays.

Samsung Tocco Lite

A light and compact phone, the Tocco Lite weighs 93.5g and is 104mm long, 53mm wide and 11.9mm deep. It comes with 50MB of internal memory which is expandable by up to 16GB when using a microSD card.

A touchscreen QWERTY keyboard is available which is ideal when using the email service. The built-in accelerometer allows the user to switch easily between portrait and landscape modes, perfect for viewing photos and surfing the net using the in-built WAP web browser.

The Tocco Lite comes with a 3 megapixel camera which has digital zoom and flash. For the price at which this is being retailed, picture quality is acceptable although it can never replace a dedicated camera. A Smile Detection function allows the user to take a photo as soon as the camera detects the subject is smiling.

The user has access to video recording capabilities, capturing footage at up to 15 frames per second. The high screen resolution of 240 by 400 pixels allows for a clear viewing pleasure of videos.

A built-in FM radio with RDS and MP3 player allows the user to enjoy their preferred radio shows and favourite tracks.

Bearing in mind that this is an inexpensive phone, the Tocco Lite lacks GPS, Wi-Fi and 3G, although it does support USB and Bluetooth connectivity.

LG KC910 Renoir

The LG KC910 Renoir is a classy touchscreen phone that is suitable for both personal and business use. Its 3” touchscreen is highly responsive and users can select widgets to appear on the screen.

For a phone that has some great features it weighs only 110g, is 107.8mm long, 55.9mm wide and 14mm deep. It has 70MB of internal memory and supports external memory of up to 8GB via a microSD card.

The Renoir mobile phone has an incredible 8 megapixel camera with Schneider Kreuznach optics, an auto as well as a manual focus and a Xenon flash. Picture quality is very high even in low light surroundings due to its ISO sensitivity, as is the video recording quality, which can capture video footage between five and 120 frames per second.

LG has integrated Dolby Mobile, which gives it an excellent music player system and provides a powerful bass to add to the listening pleasure. It supports the playing of virtually all digital music formats and has an in-built FM radio. The user is never lost for entertainment choice as this device supports DivX and Xvid which allow the user to enjoy watching videos on the go.

The touchscreen user interface is very easy and smooth to use. The phone supports both a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard and a keypad for virtual T9 predictive texting.

The KC910 mobile phone comes fully equipped with assisted GPS, high HSDPA speeds and with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.

LG KC 910 Renoir