It becomes harder each year to come up with these lists. It’s almost impossible to predict with great certainty which phones definitely make it in the top 5, as the competition out there is truly fierce; but here goes. Comments and thoughts are most welcome!
The Xperia Arc is a return to form from Sony Ericsson. The slim design and 2.3.2 Android operating system make it fast and stylish. The screen looks impossibly thin with absolutely no visible pixels and it is great for viewing outdoors. It also weighs a mere 117g.
The 8 MP camera takes really awesome photographs too, not bad for a phone on the lower end of the Android Smartphone pricing scale.
Sony Ericsson have clearly made the bold move to specifically target their fashion conscious buyers.
One can get easily confused with the number of HTC phones out there; Desire, Wildfire, ChaCha, Sensation and many more. The Sensation is arguably the greatest rival of the great Galaxy S2, and the concept of one screen with few buttons, seems to be one that works rather well.
The Sensation has a beautiful display screen, with a very slight contour to it, allowing you to place it face down and providing an extra layer of protection. The exquisite multimedia experience provides a movie and TV show streaming device and the slick Gingerbread Android make this a seriously cool phone.
Such a pretty phone and a great follow up to the original Samsung Galaxy. No wonder the guys at Apple are getting upset, notice any similarities yet?
With Android’s 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, this phone has arguably the best screen with a 4.3 inch Super Amoled Plus display. It’s really fast too, with a dual-core 1GHZ processor, 21Mbps HSPA+ support and 8 MP camera.
One cannot deny the growth and power of the Blackberry in the South African market. The monthly fee of R60 for unlimited Email, messaging and internet are a real winner.
The Torch 9800 was a close contender, when it came out with the added benefit of a touch screen as well as a slide out QWERTY keyboard, with a better camera and operating system than the older versions. The even sleeker, full on touch screen 9860 is now also available.
But the latest 9900 is Blackberry‘s way of reverting back to what truly worked for them; no gimmicks, just a slimmer, faster phone, with perhaps the best tactile QWERTY keyboard around with optional touch screen; and it looks not too dissimilar from the classic 8520s of old.
A technical glitch resulted in millions without free communication for 3 days running. Let’s hope that South Africans have forgiven the recent ‘hiccup’ caused by Canadian based company RIM.
1) iPhone 4S
Could it really be anything else? The iPhone 4 was a revelation and the 4S is no different. The anticipation of this phone was unbelievable; poignantly released just a day before Steve Jobs untimely death.
The iPhone 4S packs an A5 processor, 8MP camera, dual core graphics, super fast IOS 5 operating system, iCloud, over half a million available apps and a personal voice enabled assistant in the form of Siri to name just a few of it’s latest features. Rumour has it that it will be officially available in South Africa in early December, and they have been sold on recent bidorbuy auctions for as high as R12000!!
