U.S. holiday handsets for 2009 from the nation's Tier 1 carriers
 89 million subscribers Click here for details |
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HTC Droid Eris |
Price: $99.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The Droid Eris runs Android 1.5 and features HTC's custom Sense user interface. It has a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, a trackball, 5-megapixel camera, 3.5 mm headset jack and expandable memory with pre-installed 8 GB microSD card. |
Positioning: Verizon's second Android phone is the cheaper alternative to the Motorola Droid, which--with its industrial design and marketing--might appeal more to men than women. The HTC Droid Eris, the Verizon version of the Sprint HTC Hero, is no slouch in the performance department, but those looking for beefier specs might try the Droid. |
Samsung Omnia II pictures and specs |
Price: $199.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The Omnia II runs on Windows Mobile 6.5 and features a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display. The phone has one-touch access to social networking sites, and the Opera 9.5 browser. The device also has a 5-megapixel camera, WiFi, 8 GB of internal memory and support for Dvix and Xvid movie files. |
Positioning: Another high-end Windows Mobile 6.5 phone from Verizon, this device is aimed at business users and consumers who want solid hardware. The phone’s Swype technology, which is supposed to make text input faster by allowing users to swipe across the screen’s keyboard to finish typing words, should help the phone appeal to those who have been wary about virtual Qwerty keyboards. |
HTC Imagio  pictures and specs |
Price:$199.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The device runs Windows Mobile 6.5 and sports global roaming capabilities, a 3.6-inch touchscreen display, 5-megapixel camera and is the first Verizon smartphone to access the carrier’s VCast Mobile TV service, which costs $15 per month. |
Positioning: Like its brethren at other carriers, the Imagio is Verizon's hymn to Windows Mobile 6.5, and boasts nifty support for Verizon's VCast Mobile TV service. |
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Motorola Droid |
Price: $199.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The Motorola Droid is the first Android phone running on Android 2.0. It has a 3.7-inch WVGA display, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g WiFi and a pre-installed 16 GB microSD card. The phone also has GPS, a micro USB connection and a 5-megapixel camera that sports 4x digital zoom, auto-focus and a dual-LED flash. The phone sports a free Google Maps Navigation application, newly introduced by Google, which provides spoken turn-by-turn directions. |
Positioning: Verizon has lavished an all-out (and likely expensive) marketing campaign to promote the Droid, its first Android phone. It is being pushed not only as an iPhone competitor, but a device that is sturdy, capable and fast. |
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Research In Motion Blackberry Storm2 |
Price: $179.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The Storm2 has an improved touchscreen input interface, WiFi, BlackBerry OS 5.0, pre-installed 16 GB microSD card and a 3.2-megapixel camera. |
Positioning: RIM touted this device as a significant improvement over the original Storm, which some found to be too buggy for their liking. The addition of WiFi and an improved input interface should enhance its appeal. |
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Research In Motion Blackberry Tour |
Price: $149.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The phone supports CDMA EV-DO Rev. A networks in North America as well as 3G UMTS/HSPA (2100 MHz) and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks abroad, making it a world phone. The Tour offers a 3.2-megapixel camera, media player for music and video, support for BlackBerry App World and a microSD slot. | Positioning: The BlackBerry Tour is aimed at high-end consumer users as well as those who need the functionality of a world phone. |
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Apple iPhone 3GS |
Price: $199 for the 16 GB version and $299 for the 32 GB version. | Features: Supports 7.2 Mbps HSPA, which AT&T has said it will deploy in six markets by year-end. Apple said that the iPhone 3GS features more than 100 improvements over the iPhone 3G. Among those enhancements are the phone's camera, which has been upgraded from a 2-megapixel camera to a 3-megapixel version with autofocus. The phone also has MMS capabilities, video-recording and access to Apple’s App Store, which now boasts more than 100,000 applications. |
Positioning: With the iPhone 3G dropping in price to $99 with a two-year contract, the iPhone 3GS has become AT&T's de facto premiere smartphone. Simply put, it is one of the key growth drivers for AT&T's wireless business. |
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Garmin nuvifone G60 |
Price: $299 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The phone sports HSDPA and WiFi and has the same core functions as a high-end Garmin nuvi GPS device, including pre-loaded maps of North America with millions of points of interest as well as turn-by-turn navigation. The phone also has a full HTML browser, 3-megapixel camera and a 2.55-inch touchscreen display. |
Positioning: The nuvifone represents Garmin's first efforts in the smartphone space. However, the phone, introduced almost two years ago, could face significant pressures due to the already crowded landscape and navigation functions offered by a range of competing vendors, including Google's new, free Google Maps Navigation application. |
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HTC Pure |
Price: $149.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The quad-band HTC Pure runs Windows Mobile 6.5, and has a 3.2-inch touchscreen display and a 5-megapixel camera. It also features a built-in FM radio, gravity sensor and ambient light sensor. | Positioning: The Pure is, pure and simple, one of AT&T's proof-of-concept Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. The HTC device is not incredible, but by no means lackluster. |
HTC Tilt 2 pictures and specs |
Price: $299.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The HTC Tilt 2--similar to the HTC Touch Pro 2--has a 3.6-inch touchscreen display that can be tilted, a large Qwerty keyboard and a 3.2-megapixel camera. It also has HTC’s Straight Talk conference calling feature, which allows users to set up a multi-party conference call by accessing contact information in the user’s email inbox. Users can access the phone’s speakerphone by simply turning over the device. |
Positioning: Like the Pure, the Tilt 2 is another Windows Mobile 6.5 device from AT&T. However, because of its keyboard and the Straight Talk feature, this one is geared specifically for enterprise users. |
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Research In Motion BlackBerry Bold 9700 |
Price: $199.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. |
Features: This upgraded version replaces the original Bold’s trackball with an optical trackpad, and also has a faster browser and a slimmer and lighter profile. The Bold 9700 runs on BlackBerry OS 5.0, has a 624 MHz processor, 256 MB of flash memory, GPS, a 3.2-megapixel camera, a 3.5 mm headset jack and a microSD slot capable of holding up to 16 GB. |
Positioning: The Bold 9700 is an upgrade to RIM's flagship BlackBerry, and is intended to represent the pinnacle of RIM's smartphone offerings. Unlike Apple, RIM has worked to target a variety of market segments with high- and mid-range devices in several form factors. |
 47 million subscribers Click here for details |
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HTC Hero |
Price: $179.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate (Best Buy Mobile is selling the phones for $99.99 through December). | Features: The Hero features runs on Google’s Android OS and features HTC’s Sense user interface. It has a 3.2-inch HVGA display, GPS, a digital compass, gravity sensor, 3.5 mm stereo headset jack, WiFi, a 5-megapixel, autofocus camera and expandable microSD memory. The Hero also has a dedicated search button that allows users to search contacts, emails or other functions on the phone. | Positioning: The Hero is Sprint's first Android phone, and is one of the three premier phones for the carrier's holiday shopping season (alongside the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Tour). |
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Palm Pixi |
Price: $99.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate (Amazon.com has it for as low as $25). |
Features: The Pixi, Palm’s second phone to run its webOS operating system, is a candybar-style phone geared toward messaging, and comes with a full Qwerty keyboard, a 2.63-inch multitouch touchscreen, a gesture area like the Palm Pre, a 2-megapixel camera, GPS, an accelerometer and 8 GB of internal storage. |
Positioning: The Pixi is a kid sister to the Pre, and is definitely geared toward a more mass-market audience interested in messaging. With retailers slashing the device's price down to $25 with a Sprint contract, it might just attain that appeal. |
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Palm Pre |
Price: $149.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The Pre runs Palm’s webOS operating system, which allows users to run multiple applications at once and combines contacts lists, calendars and email inboxes into single views. The Pre has a 3.1-inch multitouch touchscreen display and a slide-out vertical Qwerty keyboard. It has 8 GB of storage, built-in GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth, as well as a removable battery, ambient light sensor, accelerometer, a 3-megapixel camera with flash and a 3.5mm headphone jack. |
Positioning: The Palm Pre is one of Sprint's premier phones, and the main answer by the carrier to the iPhone. In its advertising and messaging, Sprint has highlighted the device's ability to multitask--a nod to the iPhone's inability to do so--as one of the gadget's key strengths. |
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Research In Motion BlackBerry Curve 8530 |
Price: Not available. |
Features: The BlackBerry Curve 8530 has a 528 MHz processor, GPS, WiFi and a 2-megapixel camera. |
Positioning: The Curve is RIM's mainstream, mid-range messaging device. Sprint has highlighted the phone's dedicated music keys as a key feature. |
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Research In Motion Blackberry Tour |
Price: $149.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The phone supports CDMA EV-DO Rev. A networks in North America as well as 3G UMTS/HSPA (2100 MHz) and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks abroad, making it a world phone. The Tour features a 3.2-megapixel camera, media player for music and video, support for BlackBerry App World and a microSD slot. |
Positioning: The BlackBerry Tour is aimed at high-end consumers as well as those who need the functionality of a world phone. |
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Samsung Intrepid |
Price: $149.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. |
Features: The phone runs Windows Mobile 6.5, and has a 2.5-inch touchscreen, 3.2-megapixel camera, WiFi, a full Qwerty keyboard and a microSD slot capable of holding up to 32 GB of storage. |
Positioning: Like the Pure and Tilt 2 over on AT&T, this is Sprint's first Windows Mobile 6.5 phone and has all of the bells and whistles users have come to expect from HTC. |
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Samsung Moment |
Price: $179.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate (Best Buy is selling the phone for $99.99 through December). |
Features: The Moment runs on Google’s Android platform and has a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen display and an optical joystick for navigation below the display. The phone runs on an 800 MHz processor, has a 3.2-megapixel camera, WiFi, a full Qwerty keyboard and a 3.5 mm headset jack. |
Positioning: Sprint's second Android device does not break any new ground in terms of its user interface. However, Samsung has highlighted the device's processor speed as a key differentiator. |
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Motorola Cliq |
Price: $199.99 with a two-year contract. | Features: The Cliq is the first device to feature Motorola's proprietary user interface, MotoBLUR, which lets users customize their device home page so they no longer have to open and close applications. MotoBLUR allows users to sync their various social networking activities. For example, users can post one status update across a range of social networking services. Another widget allows users to see messages from various sources--including emails, text messages and social networking messages--on the home screen. The Cliq also has WiFi, a slide-out Qwerty keyboard and a 3.1-inch HVGA touchscreen display. Other offerings: a 5-megapixel camera with video capture and playback, a 3.5 mm headset jack, a music player pre-loaded with Amazon's MP3 store and a pre-installed 2 GB microSD memory card with support for up to 32 GB of removable memory. |
Positioning: T-Mobile and Motorola have aimed this device at users who are deeply engaged in social networking, essentially saying: "This is the phone for you." The entire MotoBLUR interface is geared toward that use-case. |
Research In Motion BlackBerry Bold 9700 pictures and specs |
Price: $199.99 with a two-year contract. |
Features: This upgraded version replaces the original Bold’s trackball with an optical trackpad and also has a faster browser and a slimmer and lighter profile. The Bold 9700 runs on BlackBerry OS 5.0, has a 624 MHz processor, 256 MB of flash memory, GPS, a 3.2-megapixel camera, a 3.5 mm headset jack and a microSD slot capable of holding up to 16 GB. The phone also supports WiFi calling via UMA, a feature T-Mobile is touting heavily. |
Positioning: The Bold 9700 is an upgrade to RIM's flagship BlackBerry, and is intended to represent the pinnacle of RIM's smartphone offerings. Unlike Apple, RIM has worked to target a variety of market segments with high-, mid- and low-range devices in several form factors. |
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Samsung Behold II |
Price: $229.99 with a two-year contract. |
Features: The Behold II combines Android and Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz user interface. The phone has three different home screens to drag and drop widgets to, and also features a cube menu to get access to music, photos, videos, the Web, YouTube and Amazon's MP3 music download service. The phone sports a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen, WiFi, a 5-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1 and support for both personal email and corporate email with Exchange ActiveSync. |
Positioning: T-Mobile's fourth (and most expensive) Android phone is aimed at users who want high-end hardware and a solid multimedia experience. The device also is another step into the Android market for Samsung. |
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myTouch 3G Fender Limited Edition |
Price: Not available. |
Features: The Android-powered, HTC-built smartphone has guitar-inspired wood-grain finish, a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen display, no physical keyboard and a 3.2-megapixel camera. The phone also has a 3.5 mm headset jack, pre-installed 16GB microSD card and exclusive pre-loaded video and audio clips by iconic musicians. |
Positioning: The gadget is aimed at those who like the myTouch 3G but have a little bit more of a music lover inside of them (or least an appreciation for fake-wood phone exteriors). |
