Samsung Captiva

Part of the Galaxy S series, the Captivate is by far AT&T's most powerful and feature-rich Android device, boasting a gorgeous Super AMOLED touch screen, a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, and some great multimedia features. Captivate delivers and is a great alternative to the IPhone 4.

Like many of today's touch-screen smartphones, the Samsung Captivate features a slate design that's not particularly sexy. In fact, it's rather lackluster, but the look is clean and simple. At 4.18 inches tall by 2.5 inches wide by 0.39 inch deep, the device is a bit of a handful, but Samsung managed to keep the handset pretty thin, so you can still slip it into a pants pocket. Plus, the Captivate has a much more solid build than the Vibrant, which comes at a price of a little extra weight (4.5 ounces vs. 4.16 ounces), but we much prefer that to a cheap-feeling mobile.

The front of the device rocks a 4-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen, which supports 16 million colors and a WVGA resolution (480x800). It's one of the best-looking screens we've seen on a smartphone, showing off rich and vibrant colors and a sharpness that makes text easy to read. Aside from the brilliance and crispness of the display, there are a number of other advantages to Super AMOLED screens, including wider viewing angles and improved responsiveness. They also consume less power.

The Captivate's touch screen was responsive and fast. We were able to quickly swipe through the various home screens and menu pages, and the scrolling experience was smooth, as was the pinch-to-zoom gesture. The display also has a six-axis accelerometer, which comes in handy for gaming, and it was fast to change the screen orientation whenever we rotated the phone.

Below the screen, are four touch-sensitive Android shortcuts: menu, home, back, and search. On the left side, there's a volume rocker, and a power/lock button sits on the right. There's a 3.5mm headphone jack on top, as well as a Micro-USB port, which is protected by a sliding cover. As usual, the camera is found on back.

The RIM BlackBerry Torch 9800

The RIM BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the first device to ship running BlackBerry OS 6 and will be available starting August 12 for $199.99 with a two-year contract. The slider phone--a first for RIM--brings together a touch screen and a physical keyboard into a solid, compact design. The new OS brings some much-needed and welcome additions, including a better browser, an enhanced multimedia experience, and improved user interface. Sure, in the grand scheme of things, none of this is new but at least it puts RIM back on track. It's just unfortunate that RIM didn't upgrade other parts of the phone, such as the display and processor, as the Torch doesn't quite stack up to some of the latest smartphones. Still, there's enough there to keep BlackBerry fans happy.

The BlackBerry Torch marks new territory for RIM. It's the company's first slider phone and isn't meant to be a one-off design, but rather, the start of a new series. RIM and AT&T actually began work on the device about a year and a half ago, and when creating the phone part of the goal was to offer a design that not only combined the best of all worlds--touch screen, full keyboard, and track pad--but also a familiar experience to previous and current BlackBerry users.

The Torch's shape is a little bit BlackBerry Storm and a little bit BlackBerry Bold. The look is certainly appropriate for the corporate scene, where BlackBerrys still dominate. In its closed state, the Torch measures 4.4 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick and weighs 5.7 ounces. It's a rather hefty handset, but it feels very solid, with a textured soft-touch finish on back. It's also thin and short enough to comfortably slip into a pant pocket.

On front, the Torch features a 3.2-inch half-VGA (480x360 at 188 pixels per inch) capacitive touch screen. Overall, the display is clear and bright enough for reading text and viewing Web pages, photos, and video. However, compared with many of today's smartphones, such as the HTC Droid incredibleand Samsung Captivate, the difference in resolution is noticeable and Torch's screen falls a bit flat.

HTC Touch Diamond II

The HTC Touch Diamond2 is said to be the new evolution of the HTC Touch Diamond, that has been made easy to fit perfectly in the hands of the buyers. Touch Diamond2 has a larger 3.2 inch high resolution wide screen VGA display for a greater viewing area in a design just 137 mm thick. The Diamond 2 also includes a new touch sensitive zoom bar for even faster zooming of web pages, e-mails, text messages, photos or documents.

Combined with the HTC's Touh Flo's 3D experience with a people centric communication approach and the HTC's new Push Internet Technology, the Touch Diamond2 offers an advanced touch experience that is optimized for one-hand use operation.

The Touch Diamond2 brings the most sophisticated capabilities to a broad consumer audience looking for the professional benefits of a smartphone without a sacrificing size, looks or functionality with fifty-percent better battery life, a five mega-pixel auto focus camera, expandable memory, gravity sensor and an ambient light sensor.

HTC Aria

Android or iPhone? The Aria is an Android phone thrust into Apple's land, namely AT&T. As HTC's flagship phone, the device competes directly with the new iPhone 4.

They both have a large touch screen display, 5.0-megapixel cameras and music players, Wi-Fi and high-speed HSDPA Internet and Bluetooth and GPS capabilities.

But there are slight differences between the two -- the iPhone 4 has a higher-resolution screen, while the Aria has an expandable microSD slot. Android integrates Google's online services -- Gmail in particular -- along with a sense of openness and hardware choice. Apple's iPhone has a best-in-class user interface, a stylish build quality, the largest available mobile app catalog and tight media integration through iTunes.

There is no doubt these two phones are top-of-the-line. So smartphone buyers will, no doubt, be asking: How does the Aria stack up against the iPhone?HTC decided on a minimalist design. The Aria sports a black and chrome look, with a slytlish dark face. It's also small -- nearly 10 percent shorter and 20 percent lighter than the iPhone -- for a very pocketable and very good feel in even the smallest of hands.

But the trade-off is a smaller touch screen. And the Aria's 3.2-inch display is nearly a half-inch smaller than the iPhone's.Below the display, four capacitive-touch buttons -- home, menu, back and search -- are etched into the glass. They're completely smooth, which means users will have to look at which button they're pressing. An optical joystick below that helps users navigate through the menus.The back of the Aria has a 5.0-megapixel camera, without flash, and a speaker grille. When the back cover is removed, the battery and microSD card are revealed -- both which aren't accessible on the iPhone.

Around the sides of the device, there's a micro-USB port for charging and connecting to a computer, a 3.5mm headphone jack to use headphones and a volume rocker.Overall, the Aria is a well-designed visual package: from the hardware to the software, everything is black with chrome accents and gives a cohesive and professional feel, rivaling the industry-leading iPhone.It's also very light and won't put a strain on your hand if you talk for hours.

While the Aria is not a top-end smartphone, it can hold its own against its more expensive devices.Out of the box, the HTC Aria comes with a standard battery, USB wall charger, headphones and the customary user guides and manuals. and an envelope to recycle your old phone -- all encased in an eco-friendly package.