Following on from my previous article, where I was providing short overviews of the movers and shakers in the mobile phone market this Christmas, we'll now turn our attention to the remaining three of my five top picks for the end of this year.
Apple iPhone (8gb exclusive to O2)
Apple's prestige in computing and the music world through its iPod seems to have translated well in the mobile phones industry.
Despite iPhone's specifications drawing some fire for being a bit behind the times, with a 2 megapixel camera compared to the 3.2, or even 5 megapixels other mobile phones bring to the party - and no 3G data - it still holds its own with an innovative touch screen interface.
It also doubles up as one of the most ubiquitous MP3 players in recent times, the iPod. Featuring the latest version of the iPod MP3 player means that the user-unfriendly media functions of other mobile phones are dwarfed by this phone.
The iPhone has other quirky features such as dimming the backlight if it detects the user has the phone to their face in a call and being able to watch videos in widescreen on its 3.5in screen by simply holding the phone sideways.
While in no way perfect, the iPhone is a very stylish and credible mobile phone which many people will find appealing.
LG KU990 Viewty (All networks)
The LG "Viewty", much like it's other similarly crazily-named models - Shine, Slide, Chocolate?! - is drop dead gorgeous. The design is in league with the iPhone, adopting a large touch screen in favour of keypads and slim design.
Many people are hailing this phone as what the iPhone should have been, with a 5 megapixel camera and even DivX video playback.
It looks so similar to the iPhone that it could be its twin. As well as this, the camera's video function has an interesting and potentially hilarious addition in that it can shoot videos at 120fps, meaning that when played back you get perfect slow motion playback.
The phone also can take MicroSD memory cards which are fast becoming the industry standard with sizes up to 8Gb for photos, music and videos.
With only a few years in the industry under its belt, LG has fast made an impression. Its mobile phones are designed specifically to the style-conscious, so much so that Prada lent its name for one of the earlier iterations of this model. With its perfect balance of style and substance, the future of LG in the mobile industry seems positive.
SonyEricsson K850i (O2, Orange)
SonyEricsson has always been at a slight advantage in the mobile market. Being derived from two equally successful technology firms, Sony and Ericsson, it has had a lot of experience to draw upon.
This has been evident in its line of Walkman phones of late, as well as Cybershot from which this handset is the latest version of.
The K850i is, like most other handsets a 5 megapixel camera phone, so the pictures are guaranteed to be top quality. It also possesses both Xenon and LED flash as well as a BestPic function, so there need never be a bad photo again.
Whilst not strictly a Walkman phone, it still functions competently as an MP3 player, with the ability to download podcasts as well helped by high speed HSDPA data rates. Like most of the other mobiles in these articles, it is a fully functional 3G mobile phone with a pinhole camera on the front of the phone for video calls.
The keypad, whilst inventive, has received mixed reviews with some people claiming the keys are too small and the directional pad embedded in the number pad a bit awkward. Despite this the phone is still attractive coming in two colour ways: black with luminous green and black/silver with velvet blue.
So this is just a selection of the many feature packed mobile phones on offer on pay-monthly and pay as you go mobile phone tariffs.
Now more than ever, mobile owners are able to get great deals on devices that replace many of our old MP3 players, and digital cameras, as well as our mobile phones.
With many phones part of cashback offers too, now is as good a time as any to upgrade to a new mobile. So treat yourself this Christmas and check out the many mobile phone deals on offer!
