The Legend is the updated version of the very popular HTC Hero mobile and is the first to feature an all-in-one aluminium casing. The hard, cool one piece unibody gives off a sense of durability; this is a phone that will last and take the knocks.

As nice as looking at something is, you need it to perform as well and the HTC Legend does not disappoint. The brightly lit and coloured 3.2-inch geo-screen is very responsive. They changed to an optical joystick after the much criticised trackball system and placement of all the plugs and buttons has been well thought out.

Technologically they have included some innovative attractions; the “leap” feature allows you to see all your home pages at once and the “friend stream” has been specifically created for all the social network lovers out there, giving an easy view of all preferred sites.

There is a decent quality media player and 5 mega-pixel camera, FM radio tuner and 3.5 mm jack point. The Legend also has great connectivity with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB and GPS, along with 512MB of memory. 

HTC has put a lot of thought into the Legend and it is more than just an updated Hero. Its style and content will make it one of the top phones of the year for sure.

Motorola mobile phones have been criticised in the past for their bulky operating systems; the Android technology in the Motorola Dext reverses this reputation in one go. The mobile phone is 4.49 by 2.28 by 0.62 inches. It features a 320 x 480 pixels main display resolution on a 3.10 inch screen. Its camera has 5 megapixels resolution and the video camera has an auto focus, digital zoom, geo tagging and white balance. It features a full QWERTY keyboard, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and up to 256 MB RAM memory.

Positive elements about the Motorola Dext are the stylishness of its touch-screen, its keyboard, which is relatively unknown to feature in Android mobile phones and the incorporated Motorola interface MotoBlur, which collates social media data easily to the touch-screen. In case the mobile phone has been lost, its data can be wiped remotely.

Some of the downsides of the mobile phone are the small, difficult to read script on some keyboard characters, such as @ symbol, and the fact that the Motorola Dext can run out of battery power relatively fast.

There are nearly 5000 Motorola Dext deals on offer, all of them contract ones.

The HTC Nexus One is an Android mobile phone developed by Google and Android Inc as the next step in its mobile phone software evolution. Android mobile phone technology is open source, allowing users to create and share files and applications.

The HTC Nexus One measures at 4.69 by 2.35 by 0.45 inches, and weighs 4.59 ounces. It has an impressive 10 hours battery life of talk time, 12 days standby time. Its screen resolution is 480 x 800 pixels, with the screen measuring 3.7 inches. The touch-screen uses capacitive technology.

The inbuilt camera has a high quality resolution of 5 megapixels, with LED flash technology, auto focus and geo tagging. The video player supports MPEG4, H.263 and H.264 files. The music player supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WAV, AMR, OGG and MIDI files.

The software is Android 2.1. Internet browsing is through HTML and the mobile phone has microUSB, 2.1 stereo Bluetooth and A-GPS.

Key HTC Nexus One reviews points include the sharpness of the picture quality. Google has added a fly through version of Google maps, which looks stunning on the screen. HTC Nexus One deals are mostly contracts starting at around £35.

The Milestone was the first phone to run Android 2.0, Google’s operating system and it makes a huge improvement.  You don’t need a separate application to support Exchange mail making it simple to set up your email, although Gmail is still handled on a different application.  You can add other Gmail accounts and they’re all displayed in the same inbox but it would be handier to have Gmail and Outlook operate from the same email application.

The Milestone, unlike the Motorola Dext, does not include Motoblur making the social networking features much more limited but the Android 2.0 operating system makes up for this omission.

With the Android operating system, you do have access to the thousands of applications from Android Market.  Applications are simple to locate and install, and the majority of them are still free, so you can add loads of features and games to your handset.

The camera is 5-megapixels and comes with zoom facility, LED flash and the ability to record videos.  The music player supports all file formats and comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack.  You can add a memory card so that you can store more of your favourite tracks and videos.

Like other Motorola phones, the Milestone is a slim 14mm but the cost of this to the user is that typing accurately is difficult on the keyboard’s flat keys.

The Pulse feels like a big phone, and might not be comfortable for all hands, but it looks good, and the size is necessary to accommodate the large screen – a full 3.5”, which makes video a glorious experience, even thought the resolution could be a bit sharper. Canvas doubles the number of home screens on the phone to six, with the option of adding more if the user desires.

Strangely, given that this is powered by Google, there’s no search icon – instead, users have to enter terms into the search box on the screen, although there are icons for most other things. The range of apps for the phone, whilst nowhere near as wide as Apple, is still pretty impressive, meaning a user should be able to get something for every desire.

Android gives an excellent browsing experience for consumers, but the touchscreen itself could definitely be more responsive, although it’s far better than some. The lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack is a real oversight, and the camera doesn’t have a flash, another big omission. Still the T-Mobile Pulse is a very good, and reasonably priced, smartphone.

The HTC Tattoo fits well in the hand, and the casing can be changed – a sweet little touch, but not major, even if it lets users customise their phones a little. With seven home pages there’s plenty of information available, and it’s easy to scroll between them and configure them as the user desires. It’s even possible to have Twitter updates on the phone, while Gmail contacts are synched with Facebook contacts to allow pictures of people by their names. In other words, it has all the capacity of a more expensive unit.

In spite of the resistive screen, the virtual keyboard is very efficient. Like most HTC mobile phones, the Tattoo comes equipped with both GPS and Wi-Fi, and, thankfully, a 3.5mm headphone jack.

In spite of the price, HTC could have done a better job on the camera. Yes, it is 3.2 megapixels, but not having a flash puts severe limits on picture taking.

Without doubt, a lower price is going to make the HTC Tattoo popular, and it does everything more expensive models do, and generally does them just as well. Those who can live with its smaller screen, a not-so-great camera and resistive screen will be very satisfied.

The answer is that it does a very good job, although it is very much a work in progress. That said, there has been a lot of thought put into the phone. With both pull-out and onscreen keyboards, it offers the best of both worlds to users, and the regular keyboard is large enough to make typing easy, rather than a cramped chore.

This is meant to be a smartphone, though, and by tying it into everything that Google has to offer – from search to Gmail to Google Maps – it comes in with a running start, since all that back structure is firmly in place. Android also allows users plenty of leeway when it comes to customisation, and apps can be loaded onto the screen as shortcuts, while the touchscreen is smooth and fast. The App store isn’t as big as the one Apple has, but it’s constantly growing, and some of the apps are very good indeed. The only downside is that you can’t add them to your mobile phone bill.

Although it functions very well indeed, the design isn’t all it could be. It feels heavy and a little awkward, and there are a number of omissions, including stereo Bluetooth and a 3.5mm headphone jack. But as a first offering, the G1 is a powerful start, and one for those who want to be different.