6 Touch-Screen Class Smartphones compared

Words Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

(Published in Speed Magazine, August 2010 issue)

Touch-screen phones have become the new arena of competition in consumer electronics. With each new model, companies showcase everslimmer bodies, added form and function as well as unveil new design elements. This year, it is all about larger screens, pixels-per-inch, new materials, and bigger HD-capable cameras, as well as different approaches to the touch interface.

The iPhone 4, with a fully revamped iOS4 and an aluminosilicate glass enclosure is still the top dog, especially now that it has the highest resolution "Retina" display plus a front-facing camera and a gyroscope for motion gaming.

We've seen the Samsung Galaxy S and as far as 4-inch super smartphones go, this is the top Android device in nearly all aspects. Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10 is sleekness personified and Nokia's N8 is a monster phone that's a culmination of all the great products that the Finnish giant has done to date. The dark horse picks from HTC and LG, the Legend and BL40 respectively, have a lot going for them.

Let's look at the Class of 2010 and marvel at the most stunning selection of touch-screen phones we've seen to date.

HTC Legend

The HTC Legend looks completely different from anything HTC has done before. Looking at this sleek beast of a phone with its unibody aluminum construction and superb industrial design, one might come to the conclusion that Apple designed it and not HTC.

All-aluminum phones are a rarity mostly because of the cost but also because that lightweight and rigid metal is known to interfere with the radios. The HTC Legend has quadband GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, an Internal GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi (b/g only); that it can manage all those antennas within a tight aluminum enclosure is nothing short of an engineering miracle. An added plus is that the HTC Legend runs on the sweet-looking Sense UI that offers useful widgets and updates for news, weather, and social media all atop of the Android 2.1 (?clair) OS. It's like the best of both worlds, really.

To top it all, there's that 3.2-inch AMOLED screen, which is crisp, bright, and clear, and manages to play back video impressively. The HTC Legend is a gorgeous phone that's functional as well and showcases a bold approach we wish more handset makers would take.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10 is a sleek beast. It boasts a 4-inch 24-bit color screen, multi-touch, multimedia powerhouse that's running on Google's Android OS but which has Sony's own Timescape and Mediascape overlays to put social media and multimedia front and center.

Timescape integrates Twitter, Facebook, email, and photos of your contacts on to the main screen where you can easily swipe and touch to communicate with them. Mediascape is all about quick access to online and locally stored videos and music.

We're psyched about the Xperia X10's 8.1-megapixel camera with face recognition and geo-tagging capability and smile detection plus touch focus-which is even better than many of the standalone point-and-shoot models out today. The 1GHz CPU, quadband capability, and 1500 mAh battery are all topnotch features for a topnotch phone that at 4.7 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 0.5 inch deep, is unbelievably light at 4.8 ounces.

Samsung Galaxy S i9000

If gorgeous had another name it would be called Samsung Galaxy S. Sporting the exclusive Super AMOLED display on its 4-inch 800 x 480 screen and a standby time of 625 hours, it's clear that Samsung is gunning for the top spot as far as Android super smartphones go.

The Samsung Galaxy S is incredibly light for such a heavy-hitting device. Once you get over how incredibly bright and pretty its screen is, you realize that there is so much you can do with it. Android apps look better on the bigger screen. Samsung has put their TouchWiz widget and functionality apps on top of

Android 2.1 to better integrate social media and frequently used applications and while we're usually wary of overlays over the OS, we've noticed that it enhances the Galaxy S experience.

Samsung is determined to be a contender in the high-end smartphone space and the Samsung Galaxy S has what it takes to be a serious challenger to established favorites.

Nokia N8

It seems like Nokia has been on vacation for a long time in the smartphone space after a series of so-so devices and their focus on redefining their Ovi store strategy. With the Nokia N8, it has become clear that they've waited patiently to unleash a monster phone in every respect.

Check the specs: 12-megapixel camera capable of HD video recording, a 3.5-inch AMOLED capacitive screen, a front-facing camera for video calls, Pentaband world phone capability, HDMI video out, and an anodized aluminum body.

Beyond those features, consider that this is the first device to run on the Symbian 3 mobile OS and ushers a new era for the dominant phone maker. Nokia is building in gesture support for additional functionality. We're very excited to see where this is going.

LG BL40 Chocolate

LG's got a lot of fans for its line of chocolate candy bar phones. The LG BL40 comes with a wide 4-inch WVGA TFT touch-screen, a 5-megapixel camera with the famed Scheneider-Kreuznach Tessar lens, and a unique Dual Screen user interface that takes advantage of that widescreen real estate.

The LG BL40 is not in essence a smartphone but a connected feature phone. As such, it offers a lot of built-in functionality, most important of which is a Web browser. You also get access to Google Search and widgets for music and video playback.

The LG BL40 improves on an already well-loved design and, while a bit less geeky than the competition, may be perfect for some users who want a fashion phone with features and Internet smarts.

Apple iPhone 4

The iPhone is back, again. This time Cupertino's tech-missile sports a 1GHz Apple A4 processor, 512MB RAM (double what the iPad has), a spanking new ultra clear 960 x 640 resolution Retina display, a scratchproof all-glass (aluminosilicate) enclosure, and a new steel antenna that is actually integrated into the frame. We get a gyroscope as well which turns the iPhone 4 into a cool gaming phone.

The devise also features a 5-megapixel camera and the ability to shoot HD videos at 720p resolution and a front-facing camera that ties into Apple's new Facetime video calling app (good only for Wi-Fi). Add the spanking new and multitasking friendly iOS4 to the mix to make this the most evolved iPhone to date.

Count in the 250,000 available apps in the Apple app store, iTunes music, and movies, then you realize that the iPhone 4 is the phone, the mobile OS, and the app store platform to beat this year-but it is way ahead of the competition.

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For full stories, grab a copy of SPEED's AUGUST 2010 issue in bookstores and newsstands near you.