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Mobile phones are just now beginning to be as vital to North Americans as they have been to Asians. I was always surprised to see how frequent people had changed their cell phones in Asia. It’s not exaggerated to say you can pretty much foresee what’s coming to store shelves in the next six to twelve months by looking at the models that are currently available in Japan or China. 3G network in cell phones is the newest revolution worldwide. North America had a spotty 3G network that has only really been revamped recently in order to deal with increasing demands for faster data transfer speeds from mobile customers. This has led to an evolution in 3G phones since 2007, with more due to come out in 2009.

Listed in this blog are the mobile phones that are currently in market. Basically, they are post 2007 models. For outdated phones, visit history of cell phones.

1. iPhone, 2007. The original iPhone was released in June 2007 with an auto-rotate sensor. Its rich features helped to give Apple an almost instant healthy market share on its release. The iPhone is an Internet-connected multimedia smartphone. Because its minimal hardware interface lacks a physical keyboard, the multi-touch screen renders a virtual keyboard when necessary. The iPhone functions as a camera phone, also including text messaging and visual voicemail, a portable media player, equivalent to a video iPod, and an Internet client . The first-generation phone hardware was quad-band GSM with EDGE; the second generation added UMTS with HSDPA.

2. LG Voyager, 2007. This design was touted as LG’s take on the iPhone. Main specifications include band / mode: CDMA 800/1900 ; talk time: Up to 240 min ; integrated with digital camera and digital player. The LG Voyager VX10000 has a cutting-edge design with a brilliant touch screen and a spacious keyboard. It offers a generous features set that includes EV-DO support, V Cast Mobile TV Bluetooth, a top-notch Web browser, and an integrated GPS application. However, LG Voyager VX10000’s camera lacks extra options such as a flash and Wi-Fi. The touch screen can be clunky at times, and the streaming video quality and EV-DO connection speed can fluctuate.

3. Motorola Q9H, 2007. This fine-tuning of the Motorola Q was released in Italy and the US in 2007. The Motorola Q9h is a great messaging device with a spacious QWERTY keyboard, and also offers decent call quality and multimedia performance. The Windows Mobile 6 smartphone features HSDPA support; Bluetooth; GPS; world roaming; and a 2-megapixel camera. However, there are occasions where the Q9h can be sluggish, and its battery life drains quickly. Some users may not like the lack of a scroll wheel. Talk time: Up to 390 min.

4. Nokia E90 Communicator, 2007. This update of the first Nokia’s smartphone launched the fifth generation of the series. The Nokia E90 Communicator is equipped with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS, and has a solid set of productivity and communication features for the business user. The Symbian smartphone also has a full QWERTY keyboard and 3.2-megapixel camera. Drawbacks: the Nokia E90 doesn’t support U.S. 3G networks, and speakerphone volume is a bit weak. The handset is also heavy and bulky. In general, the Nokia E90 Communicator has a feature set as large as its size, satisfying the needs of the power business users.

5. Nokia N95, 2007. This is Nokia’s very popular smartphone, featuring a slider to access multimedia buttons and a numeric keypad. The Nokia N95 cell phone boasts a 5-megapixel camera that produces good-quality photos and videos. It comes with advanced multimedia capabilities and has a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Symbian smart phone also features integrated GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, and an innovative two-way slider design. Drawbacks: the N95 lacks support for U.S. 3G networks; standby battery life is poor; and performance is somewhat sluggish. The hardware feels a bit cheap, and the sliding mechanism could be more secure. It’s also very expensive.

6. Motorola RAZR2, 2007. This phone features the Opera internet browser and CrystalTalk technology. The Motorola Razr2 V9m offers an updated, sexy design that features user-friendly controls with vibrating tactile feedback. The feature set is generous, and its performance is admirable. Drawbacks: the Motorola Razr2 V9m is saddled with a low-resolution internal display and poor streaming-video quality.

7. LG Viewty, 2007. This is the cell phone firmly focuses on visuals. DivX Certified playback and 5 megapixel digital camera with Schneider Kreuznach optics are just a couple of the features of this simply designed phone. This phone also has an ability to upload videos straight to YouTube. Drawback of LG Viewty include lack of cover for the camera; lack of Wi-Fi; camera mode switch is a little tough to move.  In general, this is one of LG’s best phones yet. If you’re looking for a good camera phone the LG Viewty is definitely worth checking out. From the vibrating touchscreen interface to the YouTube video capabilities and photo-editing app, I liked what it had to offer and think you will too.

8. iPhone 3G, 2008. The iPhone 3G was made even more desirable by all the apps that could be purchased for it in the AppStore when it was released in July of 2008. The Apple iPhone 3G offers critical new features including support for high-speed 3G networks, third-party applications, and expanded e-mail. Its call quality is improved and it continues to deliver an excellent music and video experience. Drawbacks: the iPhone 3G continues to lack some basic features that are available on even the simplest cell phone. Battery life was uneven, and the 3G connection tended to be shaky. Also, the e-mail syncing is not without its faults.

9. Nokia N96, 2008. This GPS-enabled entry in Nokia’s smartphone line features a sleek, compact design. The N96 cell phone has an impressive 16GB of internal storage. It also has a Micro SD slot that can accommodate cards up to 2GB. Nokia promises that you’ll be able to watch 40 hours of video using the internal storage alone. Of course, you’ll need to charge the battery during your video marathon; video playback is capped at 4 hours of viewing time because of battery life. Other features include a digital music player, a 3.5mm headset jack, an FM radio, support for podcasts and Internet radio, e-mail, text and multimedia messaging, USB 2.0, stereo Bluetooth, and a GPS receiver with maps and turn-by-turn voice directions.

10. LG Secret, 2008. The outside of the LG Secret, a 3G slider phone, is constructed from carbon fiber. Also features the world’s slimmest 5.0 megapixel camera on a smartphone. The phone has solid build quality; 3G with HSDPA; video-recording features; DivX support up to VGA resolution; fun preloaded motion games. The drawbacks include pretty tough control buttons; hard-touse touch interface; screen washes out in sunlight; glossy surfaces attract fingerprints. The bottom line is that this be a stylish camera-phone with some entertainment features, but LG seriously needs to rethink the user interface of the handset, not just rely on pretty looks alone.

11. Samsung Instinct, 2008. The Instinct was introduced as the “iPhone killer” from Samsung at a price as low as $129.00. The Samsung Instinct mobile phone offers a slick, intuitive design and a heavy load of powerful, innovative, and easy-to-use features. It particularly shines as a messaging and GPS device. However, the Samsung Instinct lacks Wi-Fi and instant messaging, and its call and video quality were erratic. In addition, I think its internet browser could be refined for more convenient use. Its internal memory is rather small and its digital camera lacks editing features.

12. BlackBerry Bold, 2008. Blackberry’s “middle ground” solution for those who wanted a 3G phone and a QWERTY keyboard. The RIM BlackBerry Bold boasts one of the sharpest displays we’ve seen on a smartphone and offers great multimedia performance. The smartphone also brings HSDPA support, more productivity tools, and an updated OS. Other goodies include Wi-Fi; GPS; Bluetooth; and strong e-mail support with full QWERTY keyboard. But I do think the Blackberry Bold is a bit bulky and over priced comparing to other smartphone. The Web browser isn’t as easy to navigate as its competition, either.

13. Samsung Behold and Samsung Gravity, 2008. Samsung Gravity, the black one  in the image is their first to feature a slide-out keyboard that has proved popular in other brands. Samsung Gravity is a simple messaging phone with a well-designed QWERTY keyboard, a 1.3-megapixel camera, a music player, and a microSD card slot. Unfortunately, it may have disappointing call quality from time to time. In terms of Samsung Behold, the pink phone in the image, I think it offers superior image quality over the Apple iPhone 3G and the BlackBerry Storm.

14. Motorola Krave, 2008. Motorola Krave design features a transparent flip that acts as a secondary touch surface to access additional features. The Motorola Krave ZN4 has an eye-catching and unique design with an innovative and responsive touch interface. It offers a bevy of high-end features and rates favorably in call, photo, and streaming video quality. Drawbacks including: browser and QWERTY keyboard take acclimation, there are very few camera editing features, lacks Wi-Fi, and full exchange support is not available at launch.

15. Nokia E63, 2008. This model was built as the budget business smartphone. This sleek looking Nokia E63 cell phone offers a full QWERTY keyboard and full e-mail capabilities. The Symbian smartphone has integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G support. It’s also one of the more affordably priced unlocked phones. However, this smartphone was not integrated with GPS. I think its call quality could be improved. Also, the camera doesn’t produce the best pictures. There’s no side-mounted volume rocker.

16. Sony Ericsson W760i, 2008. The cell phone comes with a “Sensme” music feature. It also has other features that a Walkman phone has. Overall, the Sony Ericsson W760i has an attractive, easy-to-use design with a well-stocked, music-friendly feature set. It also offers broad world phone support, an accelerometer, and reliable performance. But Sony Ericsson W760i’s menus are the slightest bit sluggish; some of its navigation controls were a little too crowded. In addition, it lacks a camera flash. I am also somehow concerned about the long-term durability of its keypad buttons.

17. LG KC910 Renoir, 2008. The LG Renoir features an 8-megapixel camera with xenon flash and Schneider-Kreuznach optics. There are many reasons to love the LG Renoir. The 8-megapixel camera is a winner and the touch screen interface is one of the best. I think its very close to quality of the iPhone. Without a 3.5mm headphone port on the handset or substantial internal storage, it’s hard to recommend the Renoir for music lovers and it’s definitely not a phone for business people.  It’s not pretending to be, either. The Renoir does exactly what it sets out to do and stands out as one of favorite camera phones by many users.

18. LG Arena, 2009. This is the first phone that comes with LG’s 3D S-Class user interface. This UI reorients with the rotation of the phone and allows you to scroll film-reel style through available applications. The Arena keeps its promise of being a media monster, but doesn’t amount to much more. It may be  a better portable media player than a mobile phone. The variety of supported media file types is superb, the camera is great and its screen is one of the best around. It reads like a phone that should offer a class-leading web experience. The only problem is its browser might be too clumsy for anything more than simple browsing.

19. BlackBerry Curve 8900, 2009. Released in February 2009, the RIM Blackberry Curve features an improved trackball and a screen with higher resolution screen. In general, BlackBerry Curve 8900 offers a sleeker design and a vibrant display. The smartphone includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, and brings new productivity tools, a full HTML Web browser, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. There’s also support for the BlackBerry App World and AT&T Navigator. But there is a pretty serious drawback – it doesn’t support  3G.

20. Sidekick LX 2009. This 3G incarnation of the Sidekick includes improved support for social networking applications. T-Mobile’s Sidekicks have been cult favorites stretching all the way back to the original grayscale model when it launched nearly seven years ago. Though the unusual form factor with the addictive spring-loaded pivoting swivel has largely prevented it from attracting a mainstream audience, the countless teens and twenty-something who’ve latched on to the Hip top ecosystem have cited many of the same reasons for loving it since day one: an easy, foolproof UI, push email, high-quality customizability, decent web browsing capabilities, and a stellar messaging-optimized layout.

21. Samsung Magnet, 2009. The Samsung Magnet is a cheap alternative cell phone for pricier smartphones with much of the same functionality and a cool design. The Samsung Magnet features a full QWERTY keyboard, support for multiple e-mail accounts and instant messaging. Samsung magnet also comes with a slim design, and Bluetooth. It’s call quality is excellent. I think there are couple drawbacks for this particular mobile phone. First, it’s keyboard buttons are a little bit stiff to press; second, it only has a VGA camera.

22. LG Xenon, 2009. Another slide-out QWERTY keyboard and compact design. Comes with AT&T’s Navigator, AT&T’s turn-by-turn GPS service. The LG Xenon has an attractive touch-screen display, a great QWERTY keyboard, customizable standby screens, plenty of shortcuts, and lots of features like 3G speeds, quad-band support, a 2-megapixel camera, GPS, and more. However, the LG Xenon is lack of POP or IMAP e-mail support; its touch screen has a slight curve; the Web browser might be a little clunky; and you’re limited to only six widgets to customize the home screen.

23. Samsung Propel Pro, 2009. The sliding QWERTY keyboard and slick design make this mobile phone an attractive entry by Samsung. The Samsung Propel Pro offers a full QWERTY keyboard with various e-mail solutions. This Windows Mobile smartphone also has 3G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Its call quality is pretty good, the picture quality of its camera is very impressive. Drawbacks: this Samsung smartphone is rather bulky compared with other competing phones; its keyboard is a little too cramped. Another thing I don’t like is that Samsung uses a proprietary jack for headphones and AC chargers.

24. LG Rumor2, 2009. This mobile phone was built with a strong e-mail function. The Rumor2 supports Lotus Notes while its predecessor didn’t. In general, the LG Rumor2 has an easy-to-use design with a vibrant display and a spacious keyboard. It offers solid call quality and extensive e-mail and messaging support. However, it’s equipped with a low-res camera and doesn’t have 3G support. In fact, the LG Rumor2 offers no improvements over the original Rumor other than the support for corporate e-mail. It’s navigation controls, along with  numeric keypad buttons, are rather slick to me. The e-mail syncing of this mobile device is not quite stable.

25. Motorola Renew, 2009. This eco-friendly phone is the world’s first carbon-neutral cell phone. Made with recycled water bottles, this cell phone is cost effective, yet comes with abundant features. Call quality of this Motorola Renew W233 mobile phone is pretty good too. Certainly, there are some drawbacks on this mobile device. First, the Motorola Renew W233 has a low-resolution display; second, it offers only few features; and third, it doesn’t have a side-mounted volume rocker.

26. HTC Touch Diamond2, 2009. HTC made the LCD display screen as large as they could at 3.2″ for their next incarnation of the Diamond. In general, the HTC Touch Diamond2 boasts a sleek design with a larger and sharper display than its predecessor. Its enhanced TouchFlo interface really makes navigation much easier. This Windows based mobile smartphone also comes with Wi-Fi, GPS, a 5-megapixel camera.  Its overall performance is good. But this cell phone model still has no US 3G support. I feel its onscreen keyboard is a bit cramped. In addition, this smartphone doesn’t have a standard headphone jack, which I dislike the most.

27. HTC Magic, 2009. This mobile device might become HTC’ next entry to support Google’s Android operating system. So it’s also called Google Ion. No US carriers have committed to use this model.  but T-Mobile has been rumored to be the carrier of record. Vodafone has exclusive rights to the phone in all markets where they provide services. The HTC Magic has a sleek, attractive design with a gorgeous display, tactile controls, and an easy-to-use interface. It has other features including stereo Bluetooth, seamless integration with Google apps, Wi-Fi, quick access to music and application downloads, and a broad degree of customization. Call quality is excellent and the 3G speeds are zippy. However, there are also something I didn’t like. It doesn’t have full Outlook-syncing support. It doesn’t use standard headset jack. Its Video quality can be unstable sometimes. Its HTML browser interface is not as good as its rivals. HTC Magic’s camera-editing and personal-organizer options are slim. I also found out that the landscape keyboard option isn’t available in all applications.

28. Palm Pre, 2009. This cell phone just launched on June 6 in the US through Sprint. It features the ability to keep multiple applications open at the same time. The Palm Pre is a multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Palm, Inc. with a multi-touch screen and a sliding keyboard. It is the first to use Palm’s new Linux-based operating system, webOS. The Palm Pre functions as a camera phone, a portable media player, a GPS navigator, and an Internet client, with functions of text messaging, email, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. The Pre has received very positive reviews from technology critics, winning CNET’s Best in Show, Best in Category: Cell Phones & Smartphones, and People’s Voice for 2009.

29. Nokia N97, 2009. Released in June of 2009, Nokia N97 features a touch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, and 32GB of internal flash memory. This Nokia smartphone also offers 3G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS and comes equipped with a 5-megapixel camera. Nevertheless, I do think N97 has a pretty big drawback. Its touch user interface doesn’t seem to be well integrated, which can be inconsistent and confusing, especially when comparing with its competition. Many people would prefer a capacitive touch screen instead of resistive.

30. Samsung i8910 Omnia HD, 2009. Released just this month, Samsung i8910 cell  phone delivers the first high-definition video recording. Samsung i8910 comes with a 3.7″ AMOLED capacitive touch screen having a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels, capable of displaying up to 16 million colors. It has an 8 megapixel camera with 720px HD video recording at 24 fps. Other imaging assets include geotagging, face detection, smile detection and Wide Dynamic Range setting. The i8910 Omnia HD runs on the latest Symbian S60 5th smartphone touch UI, with Samsung’s TouchWiz interface. On the connectivity side, the device offers Wi-Fi with DLNA, Bluetooth 2.0, a standard micro USB port, a 3.5mm audio jack and TV-out. A GPS receiver with A-GPS is included, along with the optional Samsung Mobile Navigator by Route 66.