Silicone or plastic? How about both. The bulk of the case-and we do mean bulk-is a gadget burka that swaddles all but the touchable parts of the screen in scratch-parrying clear plastic. The back is then dotted with shock-absorbing silicone pucks. We ...

This textured-rubber overcoat feels great in the hand, and it guards the spoils of your two-year contract for a mere quarter C-note. Too bad fishing it out of your pocket means that everything else is coming out, too-the surface is catchier than Toto ...

The Clarifi serves up solid all-around protection. And it has what every elitist smartphone with a crappy cam deserves: a monocle. A built-in macro lens slides over your camera's eye to boost its close-up skills. A sweet blend of matte and glossy ...

A GPS receiver in a cell phone? What'll they think of next!?

Capable navigation system, including real-time traffic. Fine, sharp audio quality. Copious input options. Onboard maps and GPS software offer extra security for those venturing into the boonies.

Expensive (though about par for an unlocked phone). Operating system badly designed and too slow on the whole.

Barack Obama would love to get his executive mitts on the new BlackBerry Curve. Just like our new prez, RIM's latest smartphone is full of change. But unlike Mr. Obama, not all the change is promising. 

Slick, sexy design mashes the best of the Bold and Curve 8830. Brilliant, high-resolution screen is one of the best we've seen on a RIM device. Full HTML-rendering on websites. 3.2-megapixel camera is even better when paired with video-recording ...

3G is MIA. Despite the powerful 512-Mhz processor, the software still lags. New website and software don't perform as well as they should. Phone quality was mixed and loud speakers fail to compensate for somewhat distorted music playback. 

The INQ1 phone is acting just like a Palm Pre. Well, sort of.

Brightly hued, easy to use, easy-to-sync OS pairs perfectly with your Facebook account. Skype integration is thoughtful. Thoughtfully spaced keys make texting, entering URLs rather pleasant. Camera takes photos that are sharp enough to be a profile ...

Humdrum hardware punctuates novel OS. Not offered in the United States ... yet. Battery life is clinically depressing when surfing the web, using Skype.

Some people have really bad phone skills. You'll ask a question and they'll take forever to answer, or they just sit there on the line, making you think the call dropped. (Hello? Hello?) Now imagine a phone that does that. You tap a button and nothing ...

Great-looking screen and a full keyboard make a good first impression. 40 ringtones (that aren't all Korean karaoke pop) and a loud ringer give you plenty of choice for your sound. Bluetooth, WiFi and AT&T GPS round out the feature set.

A consistently slow, drowsy response time will not go over well with the ADHD set. Works OK with a stylus, but the screen only works half the time with finger presses. Clunky adapter takes the place of a dedicated headset jack. The phone only wakes up ...

Samung's SGH-i907 "Epix" has been one wily and elusive smartphone. Earlier this year Samsung gave the world a peek and a promise that it'd pop up in AT&T stores. Of course, now that it's hit the streets we're a tad conflicted. Yeah, there's a lot to ...

Fast, reliable performance across a multiple applications. Optical mouse makes navigation a breeze. Phenomenal battery life across virtually every application. Quick, responsive touchscreen. You want connectivity options? We got 'em: WiFi, EDGE, HSPDA ...

320 x 320 screen looks ridiculously low-res and paler than the typical Wired editor. Nonstandard headphone jack kills any music chops. QWERTY keypad feels cramped, stiff. Disappointingly choppy video performance. Anemic speaker volume for both music ...

We've been waiting since CTIA to get our mitts on a fully baked X1. As the full-featured flagship of Sony Ericsson's multimedia phones we had high hopes for the device. The spec sheet reads like a recipe for excellence: multiple high speed data ...

Full featured yet surprisingly sturdy. 800 x 480 touchscreen is both highly responsive and razor sharp. Rockstar battery life for calls, standby and even web use. Decent data speeds over 3G and WiFi. Tweakable status lights range from discreet to ...

Essentially a lazy, fragmented and expensive implementation of legitimately good ideas. QWERTY pad feels unnecessarily flat and lacks arrow keys. Optical joypad is waaaay too recessed to be useful. Lengthy pitches for Sony Ericsson, Xperia and WinMo ...

If another electronics-maker slaps a pink paint job and some floral prints onto one of its products and then tries to pass it off as a gadget for the fairer sex, this geeky girl is going to be pissed. Come on guys, use your heads a little to think ...

A thoughtful, well-designed piece of hardware - it's not like LG just slapped some lipstick on a pre-existing handset and called it a "phone for the ladies." One Click access and fleet-footed internet connection look great on large, highly detailed ...

Try touch-typing on that keypad - just try it - your text messages will look like Borat composed them. Fun Frames is the Jessica Simpson of photo editing tools.