Samsung bills the B3310 as a 'compact socialiser', although we prefer to think of it as a gregarious dwarf. Offering GPRS, Edge and Bluetooth connectivity, a choice of several bright colours, and a very low price point, this phone is well and truly aimed at the teenage market. You can pick it up for free on a £10-per-month, 24-month contract, for £60 on a pay-as-you-go deal, or for about £90 SIM-free.

The Pantech Impact (available for $50 with a two-year AT&T contract; price as of January 25, 2010) provides a solid camera and a full-QWERTY keyboard, but its sensitive touchpad, oddly placed keys, and complicated phone-call mechanics keep it from being a top messaging phone.The flip phone, which measures 4.2 by 2 by 0.5 inches, is a bit bulky. At 4.5 ounces, it doesn't seem to weigh much in the hand, but it definitely can sag in a pocket. The 240-by-400-pixel display measures just over 2.6 inches--somewhat small compared with the screens of other phones, but about the same size as a BlackBerry's display. The screen and the QWERTY keyboard hide on the inside of the flip top.

The coveted "Google phone" is finally here, but the HTC Nexus One ($180 with a two-year contract with T-Mobile, or $530 unlocked; prices as of January 12, 2010) isn't quite the superphone that Google intimated it would be. It lacks some valuable features--like multitouch and Outlook calendar syncing--that we've seen on competing models, and the Android keyboard can be difficult to use.

The Palm Pre Plus ($150 with a two-year contract from Verizon; price as of 1/20/10) is really more of an update of the original Pre on Sprint than a completely new product. Even so, the subtle hardware tweaks combined with Verizon's speedy network makes it an overall improvement from its predecessor. Some quirks remain, however, with the keyboard design and the sluggishness of the software.