Top high-end smartphones

The smartphone has become an integral part of modern life, offering a multitude of apps, web browsing, instant messaging, email, and, oh yes, calling. But when you are looking for the best of the best, what are your choices? Here are a few of the favourites round the office.

Samsung Galaxy S II

Crowned as Best Smartphone of the year at the Mobile World Congress, it goes without saying that there is much to like about the excellent Android 2.3-running Samsung Galaxy S II. The dual-core Cortex A9 1.2 GHz processor with a full 1 GB of RAM makes light work of graphic intensive applications, while its features are further enhanced by 16 GB of storage, a sharp 8 MP camera and full HD video recording.

Combine this with a beautiful 4.3" Gorilla Glass display (480 x 800 pixels, 217 ppi) and a hipster jean-friendly 8.5 mm body, and you have yourself imobilepost’s Top Smartphone of 2011.

Motorola RAZR XT910

Sleek is the keyword when it comes to the RAZR, thanks to a body that measures a wafer-thin 7.1 mm (compared to the S II’s 8.5 mm). But the Android 2.3-running RAZR certainly does not sacrifice substance for style, since it has a few valuable tricks up its sleeve. Most notable of these is Motocast, which allows you to access files, movies, pictures and music stored on your home PC from almost anywhere. Also worth a mention is the excellent 4.3" screen (540 x 960 pixels, 256 pixel per inch), a dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9, 1080i video recording, all combining to make the RAZR a noteworthy successor to the original series.

Apple iPhone 4S

While everyone was expecting the iPhone 5, Apple decided that, for now, a speedier iPhone 4 is enough. The 4S looks exactly the same as its older brother, but is noticeably faster. This is due to the same A5 chipset that does duty on the iPad 2 (incorporating a dual-core 1 GHz Cortex A9 processor), while a new dual-antenna design speeds up internet browsing. Also onboard is Siri, a voice-based digital assistant that can help with a number of tasks (we got bored with it quite quickly), while Apple improved the already great digital camera, plus upped the video recording to 1080p. With a gorgeous 3.5" screen (640 x 960, 330 ppi), you can’t go wrong with the iPhone 4S.

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9900

RIM’s BlackBerry Bold series has carved itself a very strong niche in the smartphone world, with the Bold 9900 being the best (and smartest) in the current line-up.

It’s the first touch-and-type Bold device, meaning you have the trustworthy physical keyboard, but now with the benefit of a touch-screen to play around with too. The 2.8" screen (640 x 480, 287 ppi) is a pleasure to work on, while BlackBerry 7 OS is 40% quicker than OS 6 due to Liquid Graphics. The phone further offers some new features, such as NFC and voice-activated search. At 10.5 mm it’s also the thinnest BlackBerry out there, allowing us to easily punt this as the best device from RIM yet.

Samsung Galaxy Note

Is it a smartphone or a tablet? We are going to throw Samsung’s brilliant Galaxy Note in with the rest of the smartphones, simply because we had a lot less hassle carrying this around than what we initially expected. With a brilliant 5.3" screen (800 x 1280 pixels, 285 ppi), one would expect this hybrid device to be big and bulky, but the fact that it is only 9.65 mm thick makes it (almost) pain-free to carry around. It’s blisteringly fast (thanks to a dual-core 1.4 GHz ARM Cortex A9) and comes with the S-Pen stylus to help with writing and sketching. And with a scheduled Premium Suite (incorporating Android Ice Cream Sandwich) upgrade in the works, the Note should soon become even better.