Back in July, Samsung unveiled two messaging-focused handsets for T-Mobile. The Samsung Comeback SGH-t559 hit the market right away, but had a clunky design and dull front panel LCD. I'm happy to report the other device, the Samsung Gravity 2, has ...

Good call quality. Sharp looks for a budget device. Solid music and video playback

Somewhat difficult to use. Proprietary headphone jack. Poor screen

Samsung checks off most of the right boxes with the Gravity 2, a budget messaging phone with a comfy keyboard, crisp styling, and good voice quality.

The Samsung Solstice SGH-a887 is a solid but unremarkable touch screen phone. If it looks familiar, that's because it's essentially the same handset on AT&T as the Samsung Highlight SGH-t749 is on T-Mobile. The Solstice trades the Highlight's garish ...

Svelte, lightweight design. Good balance of features for the price

Proprietary headphone jack. Memory card slot located underneath the battery

There's nothing spectacular about the Samsung Solstice, but it's a nice choice for anyone who wants a lightweight touch screen phone that doesn't bust the budget.

Sometimes feeling is believing. An hour's worth of hands-on time with the device has made me much less skeptical of Nokia's new N900 smartphone.

Powerful processor. High-res screen. Supports Flash in the browser. Comes with office and PIM software

Too early to tell whether the final model will be stable or affordable

The Linux-powered Nokia N900 could be a top-notch smartphone if Nokia delivers a stable experience at an affordable price.

HTC takes the best Windows Mobile phone available today and makes it even better with the Sprint version of the HTC Touch Pro2. Like the T-Mobile version of this phone, the Touch Pro2 is a powerful device with a huge touch screen and a roomy five-row ...

Roomy keyboard. Great screen. World phone. Very good media player. Lots of included software. Gorgeous new address book, calendar, dialer, and home screen applications

Windows Mobile 6.1 is still pretty old. GPS had trouble locking in. Push e-mail kills the battery

The HTC Touch Pro2 is the Cadillac Escalade of smartphones: huge, with almost every feature you can think of. Even better, Sprint's version fixes many of the T-Mobile version's flaws.

The Samsung Comeback SGH-t559 attempts to give buyers the best of both worlds: a numeric keypad and small external screen for making calls, and a hidden QWERTY keyboard with a larger LCD for more intensive messaging and Web browsing. It's also a lower ...

Includes 3G support. Solid voice quality. Decent camera and video playback. Excellent battery life in EDGE mode

Bulky. Feels cheap. Non-standard headphone jack. UI is steeped in molasses. Low-rent external LCD

The Samsung Comeback SGH-t559's 3G radio and flexible design mean it's powerful for a midrange messaging phone, but its flabby look and poor performance render it an also-ran.

The environment isn't improving on its own, so it pays to be aware. That's especially true when it comes to consumer electronics, since countless devices end up in landfills after just a couple of years. Samsung hopes to change that with the Reclaim, ...

Made from mostly recycled materials. Well-crafted slider mechanism and QWERTY keyboard. Solid music performance. Standard-size headphone jack

Short battery life. Sluggish Web browsing and video streaming. Not the greatest reception

The Samsung Reclaim is a solid messaging handset with plenty of thoughtful environmental touches.

Sprint now has two top-notch smartphones. The Palm Pre is the energetic, if still somewhat unformed adolescent. The BlackBerry Tour 9630 is the mature adult. Both have things to learn from each other. The Pre could learn a lot from the Tour's great ...

Solid build. Very good call quality. Excellent keyboard. Beautiful screen. World phone

BlackBerry Web browser still needs help. Sprint's music store should be avoided. No Wi-Fi

The BlackBerry Tour for Sprint is an excellent, no-nonsense smartphone.

Research in Motion apparently has decided the best way to conquer the smartphone market is to put their well-known OS into a dizzying array of different bodies. That's fine with me, because many of them turn out excellentFlip and Storm aside. The ...

Sleek form factor and accurate trackpad are genuine improvements. Near-perfect keyboard. Excellent value (providing you buy it at Walmart)

Very weak reception. Still no 3G or GPS

The BlackBerry Curve 8520's powerful messaging abilities and slick trackpad are well worth the entry pricejust make sure you live in an area with solid T-Mobile coverage.

The LG Xenon GR500 is a lightweight slider phone aimed at the texting generation. Unlike many sliders with a QWERTY keyboard, the Xenon is a full-blown touch-screen phone. It's styled to look like a bulky RAZR imitator, complete with a small "chin" at ...

Solid call quality. Good music and video playback. Compact for a QWERTY slider

Non-standard headphone jack. Bland UI needs a little work in spots

It's tough to fault the LG Xenon, a powerful slider phone that can handle media tasks with aplomb.

Virgin Mobile may be part of Sprint now, but they're continuing to sell their own phones for the foreseeable future. Maybe that's not such a good thing, though. Virgin's only prepaid texting phone, the Kyocera X-tc, didn't wow me with its design or ...

Only prepaid Virgin phone with a keyboard. Good downloadable Web browser and Facebook/MySpace client

Poor RF reception. Mediocre call quality. Slow Internet. Limited messaging apps. Cramped keyboard

The Kyocera X-tc's keyboard makes Web browsing, texting, and Facebook much easier, but its performance overall is lacking.