Guide to comparing smartphone handsets

Where once smartphones were the domain of the business exec and serious gadget geek, recent developments have seen a huge variety of models flooding the market.

There are now smartphones to suit every style and budget, so we're here to help you through a sea of jargon to make sure you get the handset that is right for you (if you're confused by any of the terms used here, please visit our smartphone glossary).

What follows is a breakdown of each of the main characteristics you may consider when choosing your smartphone: remember that each handset also has its own dedicated review and specification table available when you click on its picture.

Also, we will not be talking about deals in this guide: for more on prices, data limits etc, please see our guide to smartphone deals.

Smartphone manufacturers

A lot of people like to stick with a tried and tested handset supplier and if you're new to the smartphone arena, the good news is you're probably in luck - pretty much all the traditional handset manufacturers have thrown their hats into the smartphone arena.

If you're not already aligned with a particular brand, here's a few pointers:

  • For business: If you're looking for a business smartphone the strongest players are BlackBerry and, to a lesser extent, HTC. These manufacturers create devices strong on office applications and push email, with good keyboards and connectivity. Smartphones is their key domain and they make handsets that reflect this (see our business smartphones guide for more).
  • For pleasure: If watching video clips, surfing the net and taking pics is more your thing, the traditional mobile handset makers tend to lean more in these directions - and then of course there is Apple. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG all make great multimedia smartphones now, alongside the likes of Acer and Motorola. HTC is also a leader in this field, with touchscreen and UI technology at least on a par with Apple.

Smartphone operating systems (OS)

Where with mobiles it used to be an easy choice between manufacturers for many, the advent of 'open source' operating systems (which other manufacturers can use) has somewhat blurred the boundaries.

You may be a HTC man or a Samsung girl, but are you a HTC Windows man, or a HTC Android one? You can now see the same operating system working on the handsets of a variety of manufacturers.

In some cases, it is simple: Apple and BlackBerry each have their own OS that you will only find in their smartphones. If you like those manufacturers, your choice should still be relatively simple.

The rest use a variety of open source operating systems, the most common of which are:

  • Android: This operating system was developed with Google's backing, so while relatively new on the scene it has already made a big impact on the market.
  • Windows Phone: Microsoft's OS, with many elements people will recognise from their home PCs.

There are no right or wrong answers here - it really comes down to what you're comfortable with. We suggest you ask your friends, family and colleagues to show you around their phones, or pop into a store to get a demo - then buy online for a better deal!

Form factor

The look and form factor of a smartphone can often be more than a cosmetic decision. Here are some key examples.

Flip, candybar or slide: With the popularity of touchscreens and QWERTY keyboards on smartphones, the flat, wide candybar form is currently the norm: you either have a large touchscreen with an on-screen QWERTY (such as the iPhone), or a smaller screen with an actual QWERTY keyboard below (such as the classic BlackBerry Bold). 

These look great, but aren't ideal for small hands. BlackBerry has introduced the Pearl range, which includes both a flip and a thinner, deeper non-QWERTY variation. Sliders are also available, where a thinner deeper design still incorporates a slide out QWERTY keyboard. These are made by all the traditional handset makers such as LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

Touchscreen or keypad: While the great touchscreens on the likes of the HTC HD2 and Apple iPhone are joys to behold, the on-screen QWERTY keyboard can be a bit of a pain to use. The flip side is a smaller screen, or slider, for a proper QWERTY with actual keys.

This really comes down to priorities again: many will trade the real keypad for the chance for a nice big screen for games, the internet and TV, but if you're going to be typing a lot of texts, documents and emails, that novelty may get old fast!

Overall size and weight: Finally, you may want to consider size and weight. Some new smartphones have touchscreens larger than four inches, but will that feel comfortable in your palm? And if you talk on the phone a lot, you'd be surprised how quickly a heavy handset will start to weigh down on you and feel uncomfortable.

Smartphone features

Each of the handsets has a 'specification and features' list on its page. Below is a brief summary of what you will find there and how to interpret it:

  • Mobile internet: Here you will see whether this handset has 3G and Wi-Fi capabilities. for more information, see our connectivity guide.
  • Size: Here you'll see the screen size (measured diagonally corner to corner, like televisions and monitors) and the screen resolution. As a guide, a standard PAL television is 768x576 pixels, while a 1080i HD television is 1920x1200 pixels - the iPhone 4 is 960x640. You may also see the handsets dimensions and weight, where available.
  • Features: Here you will find some useful information on battery life, both talk-time and standby. It will also list how many megapixels the camera is (the more the better, with five being a good benchmark for a decent photo in good light conditions), whether you can also shoot video, with it has sat nav capabilities (via GPS), and if it has Bluetooth (a means of transferring data over very short distances, normally phone to phone with two people close together). Finally, we're not aware of a smartphone that isn't also an MP3 music player, but not all have an FM radio - you'll also find that out here.

You should read each phones review for further details. For example, a camera may be five-megapixel, but does it have flash and autofocus?

Thanks for the memory

If you're wanting to make your phone work hard, how large is its processor and what about memory for all your files, films and tunes?

You should find these details in the phone's review. Modern smartphone processors range from around 0.4GHz to more than 2GHz - a massive difference that can make a real impact if you're using multiple applications. In this case, more is definitely better, although if you don't intend to push your phone to the limit, you can save some cash by scrimping on processor power.

Perhaps more important is storage memory, or RAM. Some smartphones, such as the iPhone, will have a large built-in storage capacity, while others will rely on microSD slots for small removable memory cards.

In both cases, you could be able to pack your phone with 32GB of memory of more, enough for more than 40 films or a mass of music and other files. Anything less than 8GB of total memory and you may want to review whether it will be enough to meet your needs - again, many people won't need anything like this amount (for example, if you have a separate MP3 player and have no intention of watching films on your phone!).