Today’s Brightest Smartphones

Pete Leonard/Corbis

If the apple of your eye is a smartphone that connects you with all of the latest and most powerful cellphone features, then it’s time to celebrate: Today many manufacturers are cramming all sorts of innovations and apps into their phones, so you no longer have to rely on one manufacturer and one carrier to get a smartphone that will make you the envy of the mobile neighborhood.

Today, nearly 4 years after Apple triggered the smartphone revolution by introducing its iPhone, a few of the latest smartphones have larger touchscreens, more-responsive keyboards, faster Internet connections or faster processors than the latest version of Apple’s device, the iPhone 4

Don’t get us wrong: The iPhone 4 still is one of the best smartphones that is on the market. (See “Losing a Grip On the iPhone 4 Signal Strength.") But the newest premium features on a smartphone are no longer exclusive to iPhone or its only carrier, AT&T.

At press time, for example, there were at least 30 smartphones that use Google’s app-driven Android operating system. When we last covered cellphones 2 years ago, just one Android-based model was on the market, which meant that there virtually was no alternative to Apple’s app-driven iPhone. Today it’s much easier to buy a cellphone that serves as a computer, music player, video camera and navigation device.

It’s also becoming less expensive to own a smartphone. Yes, you typically will pay $199 with a 2-year carrier plan for smartphones that were introduced in 2010 that have the newest features. But according to the market-research firm NPD Group, the average retail price of a smartphone (including rebates) was $145 in 2009, which is the most recent year for which figures are available. That’s a 14 percent drop from the previous year.

Of course, buying a smartphone means that you also must buy your carrier’s pricey data plan to access all of the device’s features. And those prices aren’t dropping. You can expect to pay from $15 to $60 per month for a smartphone data plan in addition to the roughly $30 a month that you also must pay for a standard calling plan.

NEED FOR SPEED. What makes smartphones better than ever? For starters, manufacturers put faster processors in their smartphones, so the devices can handle more programs simultaneously. At press time, there were 12 smartphones that use 1-GHz processors. Owning a cellphone that uses a 1-GHz processor means that you can play video games or watch downloaded videos without any annoying pauses or interruptions. These processors also help smartphones to run two or more apps at the same time (known as multitasking), so, for instance, you can listen to Internet radio while you check your e-mail.

The retail cost of smartphones that have 1-GHz processors could drop in the months ahead (we’d guess by as much as $50), because more 1-GHz models will hit the market. And manufacturers are scheduled to introduce cellphones that have even faster processors. We expect to see by the end of 2010 a smartphone from Motorola that has a 2-GHz processor, but we’d be shocked if that model didn’t carry an MSRP of at least $500.

The other development that helps smartphones to work faster is the emergence of 4G cellular networks. Having a 4G network means that your connection could be at least three times faster than it is with a 3G network. But you need a 4G-compatible smartphone to realize the benefits of a 4G network, and at press time, there were only two such models: HTC’s EVO, which debuted in June, and Samsung’s Epic.