Best Mobile Phone 2006

Michael Gartenberg | December 22, 2006, 01:21 PM

Ok, let's get things started. For the last two years, my pick has been the Motorola RAZR. Faced with the choice of supermodel good looks or PhD intelligence in a boring body, I shallowly picked the RAZR. Well no more, this year was not only the year of the smartphone, it was the year where you could find a great smartphone with a killer formfactor. I looked at a lot of feature phones over the last year. Some were great like the new Motorola KRZR. Some offered some interesting secondary features like the Sony Ericsson K790 with it's fantastic 3mp camera. Some were just beyond funky, like Nokia's N93. I like the new Blackberry Pearl a lot but the keyboard kept tripping me up and as much as I love Palm OS, the Treo is starting to feel pretty bulky compared to the new devices. At the end of the day, it came down to two and I'm calling a tie. For me it was the HTC Star Trek (or known as the Cingular 3125 in the US) and HTC Excaliber (known here as the T-Moibile Dash). Both are Windows Mobile 5 Smartphones but it's their form factors that set them apart from each other. Which one you pick depends a lot on how you use your phone. 

What's Good - Both the Excaliber and Star Trek excel at what they do. Their form factors define their core function. The Excaliber is a tiny QWERTY based smartphone that easily slips into a shirt pocket but is still slim enough to make a for a great telephony experience. Add in WiFi and you're pretty much covered for connectivity. The Star Trek, on the other hand, looks more like a next generation RAZR than a smartphone. It's sleek, thin and a great traditional fliphone that only reveals smartphone features when you want them. In short, it's the phone I've been clamoring for the last two years. Both are excellent choices depending on what your usage model is. HTC did a fantastic job merging form and function.

What's Missing - In the Dash, not much. I'd like to see it running on a higher speed data network but even on T-Mobile's EDGE I can still do heavy duty email and even use my Slingbox client without a problem. The only issue for the 3125 is the odd connector HTC used, this thing really needs mini-USB. While some criticize Windows Mobile, for me, it's at the moment one of the best solutions for a smartphone platform. While I still like Palm OS a lot, the lack of multi tasking is a real issue for me.

What's Next - While this years designs were amazing, there's even more goodness to come in 2007. I've already seen some mind-blowing designs from a few folks, but that's a post for next year.