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Qwerty Smartphones: Best Buys
Reg Hardware recommends...
Group Test Among the nine smartphones reviewed on the previous pages, there are no duds, and in fact the standard is generally very high. Whether you favour the BlackBerry, candybar style or like you have a keyboard that can be pulled out for occasional use and tucked away the rest of the time is a matter of personal preference, so neither approach has been given particular weight here.
Before checking out Reg Hardware's recommendations, here are all the handsets that made up this group test:
- Blackberry Bold 9700
- HTC Touch Pro 2
- LG InTouch Max GW620
- Motorola Milestone
- Nokia E72
- Nokia N97 Mini
- Palm Pre
- Samsung Omnia Pro
- Sony Ericsson Aspen
You may also want to check out Reg Hardware's Qwerty Smartphones Buyer's Guide.
Of the candybar handsets - the BlackBerry 9700, Nokia E72 and Sony Ericsson Aspen - the first two are great phones and worthy of Recommended awards.
The Palm Pre is an odd case, perhaps, since it's a slider, but unlike all the others of this type, it retains a portrait orientation when the keyboard is revealed.
The remainder - the HTC Touch Pro 2, LG GW620, Motorola Milestone, Nokia N97 Mini and Samsung Omnia Pro - Motorola's Milestone and Samsung's Omnia are excellent handsets, attaining Recommended awards. But they're (just) pipped by the HTC Touch Pro 2, which hides away the aging Windows Mobile 6 platform behind a bright, fresh UI and, crucially for this group test, delivers a very fine, utterly usable Qwerty keyboard. Not new but still widely available, it's the Editor's Choice. ®
Qwerty Smartphones Group Test