Hottest smartphones of 2009

Year 2009 saw a flurry of smartphones launched by various vendors to cover their flanks against the onslaught by the iconic iPhone from Apple. ' Touch' magic seemed to be picking a lot of traction. In a haste to cover their flanks, most vendors launched a number of smartphones based on touchscreen this year, some of which had features better than the iPhone.

HTC and the market leader Nokia of Finland, all launched a slew of smartphones, some of which had the potential to give tougher competition to Apple iPhone, which saw the launch of its third generation model 3G S this year. The world's largest phone maker Nokia also created buzz with the launch of a touchscreen model in its NSeries range.


Here are hottest smartphones of year 2009.

Apple iPhone 3G S


Apple launched iPhone 3G S, the upgraded model that offers faster speed and better features. iPhone 3G S can perform tasks up to 3.6 times faster than the previous second-generation model. Apple claims that it is the 'most powerful iPhone ever made.' The phone now packs an improved 3 megapixel camera along with video capturing, auto-focus mechanism and editing capabilities.

Phone 3G S also packs landscape keyboard. Users can rotate the phone to landscape mode to use a larger keyboard in apps such as Mail, Messages, Notes and Safari.

This model boasts of improved battery life. Apple claims the new model supports up to 12 hours of talk time, 30 hours of audio, 9 hours of Wi-Fi, 10 hours on video playback, and 5 hours of 3G talk time.


Nokia E72

E72 is visually similar to the E71, there have been a lot of changes under the hood. The keypad has been rearranged, the phone also has a new noise cancellation feature which helps to have clear conversations. This new high-end ESeries device from Nokia is considered the successor to one of its most successful Eseries phone-E71.

E72 boasts of a five megapixel camera and can also record acceptable videos, which can make it a formidable multimedia phone.


Nokia recently launched a new high-end device in the business segment  E72 priced at Rs 22,989.

Samsung Omnia II
 Samsung Omnia, Korean electronics giant launched its second-generation Omnia, Full touchscreen Omnia II boasts of a 3.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 800x480 and displays 65,000 colours. Measuring 112 x 56.9 x 12.5 mm, the smartphone weighs 125 gram.

It has 8GB of internal memory and can support micro SD cards of upto 32GB. Omnia II features a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and supports video recording with 720x480 resolution at 30fps (frames per second). The phone also has an additional VGA camera on the front for video conferencing. Omnia II also has the geo-tagging feature.

Running on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 backed by a robust 800MHz processor, Omnia II offers support for 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and A-GPS. Other key features include FM radio with RDS, FM Recording and a 3.5mm jack. The device boasts of 10 hours of talktime and up to 430 hours of stand-by time.

Samsung's second-generation Omnia is priced around Rs 28,990.

Sony Ericsson Satio

Sony Ericsson's stable this year was the 12 megapixel Satio. Measuring 112mm x 55mm x 13.3 mm (LxWxD), the phone weighs 126 gm. It comes with a 3.5 inch, 360 x 640 touchscreen. 

Symbian-powered Satio is powered by ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz processor and PowerVR SGX graphics. Other features include USB port, FM Stereo, HTML browser, accelerometer, support for multiple audio and video formats and Java support.

Satio comes with 128MB of onboard memory and supports microSD cards of upto 32GB. It has a 12.1 megapixel camera with Xenon Flash. It also carries Face and Smile Detection technology. Satio is 3G (HSDPA), GPRS/EDGE; packs Wi-Fi, DLNA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0; and supports GPS with A-GPS support (for Google Maps). The phone is priced at approximately Rs 35,950 in India.

HTC Touch2


HTC launched Touch2 in the Indian market. The phone comes pre-loaded with Windows Mobile 6.5 as its operating system. It features a 3.2 megapixel camera, 528MHz processor, 512MB Rom, 256MB RAM and support for additional memory via the microSD slot.

The 12.9mm thick GSM phone supports Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, GPRS and Edge. HTC Touch2 even has a built-in GPS antenna. It plays a variety of audio and video formats, which can be viewed on its 2.8-inch LCD screen and heard via the internal speakers or by headphones using the 3.5mm audio jack.

The phone weighs in at 110 gram and is priced at around Rs 24,490.


BlackBerry Storm2

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) also unveiled a new version of its touchscreen smartphone BlackBerry Storm2 as the company fights to sustain its supremacy in the smartphone market. The phone, yet to be launched in India, will be the successor to the first BlackBerry touchscreen phone Storm and does away with most of the gaping holes in the earlier version of its first touch screen.

Storm2 features a 3.25-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 360 x 480 pixels. But Storm2, like its predecessor, too doesn’t have a physical keyboard. Instead, it simulates the click of buttons with an electrical pulse when users touch the screen.

The device will come with a 3.2 megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom, image stabilisation, auto focus, flash and video recording as well as 256 MB of Flash memory. It will have a memory of 2GB which can be extended up to 32GB.


Nokia N97 mini

Nokia launched a smaller version of the device called N97 mini in India. N97 mini features a 3.2-inch touchscreen and full Qwerty keyboard built into its 14.2mm thin frame. It measures 113 x 52.5 x 14.2mm. Just like N97, mini too has a tilting touchscreen display and a customisable home screen that can be personalised with widgets.

The device packs 8GB of storage which can be expanded to 24GB with the addition of a 16GB microSD card. The mini runs on Symbian S60 OS just like its predecessor.

N97 mini features a 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and video light. There is a 4x digital zoom. The camera has a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens.

Available in three colours  Cherry black, Garnet and White Nokia N97 mini is priced at Rs 30,939.


Nokia 5530

Nokia launched another music phone in India called Nokia 5530 Xpress Music. The touch music phone is the company's second phone in Xpress Music series to be launched in India.

The phone sports a 2.9 inch TFT touchscreen display, with a 360 x 640 pixel resolution. There's also proximity sensor for automatic turn-off, accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and handwriting rotation. There's also a full-screen Qwerty key board.

Weighing 107 grams, the phone measures 4.09" x 1.92" x 0.51". Nokia 5530 Xpress Music comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash. The phone has 4X digital zoom with auto focus.

The Symbian S60 5th edition handset runs on ARM 11 434 MHz processor and has a 128MB RAM memory. Nokia 5530 has a microSD memory card slot with hot swap, up to 16GB (4GB memory card included). The phone's internal memory is 70MB.

Source : infotech.indiatimes.com