As many of you guys know, I’m a total phone geek. (Seriously, look at my posts. ) I’m currently on the AT&T network and I own the iPhone 3GS. Later this year, I’m willing to switch to a new phone and have some phones that I’m willing to get. There’s a good variety of good smart phones on the AT&T network and I’ve picked 5 phones that might be my next upgrade.

*Note: I’ve tried out all of the phones that I’m going to talk about in this post.

#5. HTC Aria- Price: $129 w/ 2 yr contract

Pros:

1) My first favorite thing about the Aria is the design. The HTC Aria is very small and pocket friendly. It has a very nice matte finish on the back and has four screws, which gives the Aria a nice industrial look.

2) The second thing I like about the Aria is Android. Android is an open-source mobile OS that I’ve been DYING to try out. It has the best notification system, almost unlimited customizability, and Google integration.

3) The third thing I like about the Aria is it’s speed. The phone features a 600MHz processor and 384 MB of RAM. Although this is no SnapDragon, it’s still pretty darn quick. Swiping through home screens, scrolling, and overall system performance was pretty good for it’s size.

Cons:

1) The thing I really don’t like is it’s screen. It’s 3.2 inches with a resolution of 480×320. With the small screen, the typing experience was very cramped in portrait and browsing the web with the screen is lackluster.

2) The second thing I don’t like is the construction. The phone is light mainly because it’s mostly made out of plastic and it feels a little cheap.

4. Palm Pre Plus- Price: $99 w/ 2 yr contract

The Palm Pre Plus is Palm’s phone with their own webOS platform. It isn’t the most popular phone in the world, but it deserves some credit.

Pros:

1) The first thing I like about the Palm Pre is it’s portrait keyboard. I absolutely love portrait sliders. (I have a post about why I like them) The keyboard might look a little cramped, but it’s still pretty decent. It’s a lot more tactile than the original Palm Pre and it’s slightly bigger.

2) The second thing I like about the Pre is webOS. I LOVE webOS in many ways. I find it very intuitive and revolutionary. Particularly it’s multitasking system. In my opinion (could be a fact ), Palm’s execution of multitasking is probably the best out there. When you exit out of an app, the app will zoom out into a card. If you would like to close the app, simply swipe up on the card.

Cons:

1) The thing I noticed right away with the Pre is it’s performance. Performance on the Pre was pretty slow, especially when you have a bunch of applications open. Apps like the browser, mail, maps, and even the calculator opened slowly. I just hope that Palm release a Pre with a SnapDragon or a high-end CPU.

2) The second thing I don’t like is a problem that I have with the Aria. That problem is the small                                                                              screen. It’s basically the same reasoning as the Aria.

3. iPhone 4- Price: $199 w/ 2 yr contract

The iPhone 4 is Apple’s 4th gen iPhone. It’s the biggest overhaul in the iPhone family and packs a lot of features in one small device.

Pros:

1) The first thing you’ll notice with the iPhone 4 is the screen. The iPhone 4 has the “Retina Display”, which has an amazing resolution of 960×640 with a crazy 362ppi. With that kind of ppi, the screen is amazing. First, you can’t see the pixels at all on the icons, text, and graphics. It basically looks like it has been painted on to the phone. The Retina Display also uses the LED and  IPS technologies, which are found on the iPad. Overall, you have to go into an Apple Store and experience it.

2) The iPhone 4 has a new 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and it records video in 720p at 30 fps. Although the megapixel count isn’t as big as the EVO’s, but it by looking at the photos from the iPhone 4, they look awesome. What’s cool about the iPhone 4 is that it support’s Apple’s iMovie app for the iPhone. You can do full-blown editing on an iPhone app.

Cons:

1) The thing I despise about the iPhone 4 is it’s glass front and back. Although it gives the iPhone 4 a very nice and sturdy design, it’s extremely fragile. If you drop the phone on it’s back, it’s guaranteed to shatter.

2) The biggest issue with the iPhone 4 is iOS. Yes, you heard me, iOS. I know it’s very easy to use and seamless, but it’s getting old. As a power user, I demand better multitasking, better customization WITHOUT hacking, and a good notification system. I just want to talk about those demands for a second. First off, let’s talk about the multitasking. I personally don’t like Apple’s implementation because you have to make your app to work with multitasking. That basically means that not all apps in the App Store will support it, unless the developer is not lazy and goes to Xcode to add the multitasking API. I understand Apple is trying to keep system performance quick, but I’m willing to sacrifice that for true multitasking. Let’s talk customization. Customization on iOS is very minimal. You can basically change the wallpaper and that’s it. I know you can jailbreak it, but I personally don’t like hacking. The third and final thing is notifications. This is a biggie. Apple’s notification system has to be the worst implementation in the world. If your friend sends an IM, it interrupts what you are doing, which can get really irritating.

2. BlackBerry Torch- $199 w/ 2yr contract

Now, I bet you weren’t expecting this at all. In my opinion, the Torch is my 2nd favorite phone. I’ll go over why.

Pros:

1) The Torch’s screen is 3.2 inches and has a resolution of 480×360. Now, this isn’t the highest resolution, but the screen is really bright and vibrant. Also, the touchscreen responsiveness was pretty good.

2) The second thing I like about the Torch is the trackpad, touch screen, and keyboard combo. It’s a really nice combo because you don’t have one way to operate the phone. I think the trackpad will come in handy, when you are using this phone with one hand.

3) The third thing I like about the Torch is BlackBerry OS 6. To be honest, I was never a fan of the BB OS, but when I played with OS 6, I loved it. I liked it because of how the slick the UI looked, how it handles notifications, and how it integrates all of your social media in one app. I also liked the media player. It’s not the best thing in the world, but I think it’s good enough for what I do and also, it has Wireless Syncing!

Cons:

1) The web browser on the Torch is ok. The browser is web-kit based, supports full HTML, and multitouch. It sounds promising, but the experience is a little sluggish. Sites like TechCores took about 15 seconds on a Wi-Fi network. If you are trying to load New York Times, you’ll be waiting till Christmas. (Not really )

2) When I played with the phone for a while, I noticed that the phone can get a little sluggish. I’m not totally sure what the CPU is clocked at, but I think it’s around 600MHz.

1. Samsung Captivate- $199 w/ 2 yr contract

The Samsung Captivate is AT&T’s first high-end Android smartphone. This phone is my #1 phone and this will be my next phone purchase.

Pros:

1) The screen on the Captivate is stunning. It’s a 4 inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 800×480. The resolution isn’t as high as the iPhone 4, but the text still looked pretty good. What’s great about AMOLED is that it doesn’t use any power when it’s displaying blacks.

2) The second thing I like about this phone is the speed. This phone is just blazingly fast. It has the 1GHz Humming Bird processor, which is similar to the A4 chip and has 512MB of RAM. Swiping through home screens, scrolling, and overall system performance was pretty good.

3) The third thing I liked about the Captivate is it’s design. The Captivate is only 9.3 mm thin and has a carbon fiber like battery cover on the back. The design reminds me of a squished BlackBerry Storm for some reason.

4) The forth thing I like about this phone is Android. Android is an open-source mobile OS that I’ve been DYING to try out. It has the best notification system, almost unlimited customizability, and Google integration. But, Samsung just makes the experience even better with their TouchWhiz skin. In my opinion, this is better than HTC Sense. It’s less in-your-face and it’s a lot lighter. The UI is very iPhone like and has some cool widgets like Daily Briefing, which gathers local news, weather, and stock quotes in one widget.

Cons:

none!

What’s your favorite phone? Do you like your current phone? If so, what is it? Please put your answer in the comments.