Top 10 smartphones of 2010 ... for now

Last year I posted a couple of popular smartphone series and I will be working on a follow-up to my Clash of the Touch Titans article in a month or so when a few of the rumored/anticipated devices are out and available. Prior to this past 2009 holiday season I took a look at the smartphone selection for different carriers and with the explosion of smartphones in the market I thought it would be appropriate to put together a mid-year list of the top current and announced smartphones of 2010. We know that some kind of new iPhone will be coming soon, but we are not sure if it will be for just AT&T or also other carriers, we believe some flagship Google Android device will be coming to T-Mobile, Palm may release a new webOS device soon, and Samsung and others may release new Android devices, but all of this is still speculation and rumor so we will stick with just the facts in this top 10 list. You can check out several product photos of these top 10 devices in my image gallery, but I also highly recommend you visit your carrier store to get some hands-on time with a device before you make a huge monthly commitment.

	Image Gallery: Check out photos of the top 10 smartphones of 2010.

The prices you will see in this article are from the carrier. If you are new to a carrier or adding another line you will find excellent prices on Amazon.com and other online vendors. So you know where my personal perspective is coming from I am a long time (9 years) T-Mobile subscriber with five phones on a family plan and have had a Verizon account for about seven months. I had an AT&T account (mainly used only with data) for a couple of years and have been a Sprint subscriber for a total of about four months over the past couple years. I do have some experiences with each of the four major US wireless carriers and have also been purchasing SIM-unlocked smartphones for over 5 years. I personally will switch and pay the ETF to get a new device and jump to a carrier that offers me more for my money, but will most likely never try leaving T-Mobile with my family plan again (AT&T failed me big time when I tried that and my wife almost killed me due to the constant dropped calls).

Each carrier is different for all of us and is highly dependent on where you live, work, and play. I recommend you figure out which carrier works best for you before buying a device you won’t be happy with because of the carrier. There are many excellent smartphone options today and you honestly can’t go too wrong with any of the available choices. Like carriers, different smartphone operating systems work for different people because of their different strengths and weaknesses, 3rd party applications, and available form factors. My sister-in-law just purchased a Palm Pre Plus on Verizon after considering the HTC Incredible for reasons I am sure many others will be considering and I figured I should share my experiences with your all and help you figure out which phone might work best for you.

Enough about the disclaimers and warnings, let’s take a look at my list of Top 10 Smartphones of 2010 … so far.

Number 1: Sprint HTC EVO 4G

No other current smartphone can match the specifications of the Sprint HTC EVO 4G and early reviews confirm it is really as good as the marketing materials say it should be. Specifications of this beast include a 4.3 inch 480×800 display, 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 4G integrated wireless radio that can be used to share the Internet via WiFi for up to 8 devices, 8 megapixel camera capable of 720p HD video capture, HDMI video output, video calling capability (thanks to Qik), and Google Android 2.1 with HTC Sense. You also get free included Google Maps and Sprint Navigation, Sprint TV and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile.

The device launches on 4 June for only $199.99 with two-year contract and minimum voice and data plan of $79.99 per month that includes 450 Anytime minutes and free unlimited calls to mobile phones.

To share your Internet via WiFi you will need to pay $29.99 per month for unlimited data. By the way, the $10 extra data fee (over existing Sprint smartphones) lifts the 5GB monthly data limit so it is truly unlimited.

Number 2: Apple iPhone 3GS

I know we are getting close to one year since the 3GS was released, but it is still a fantastic device that is doing very well in sales with updates that keep making it a very good choice. Apple announced their iPhone 4 OS update that is coming this summer and the iPhone 3GS will be able to take advantage of all the new features and functionality so your one year old device will get a nice makeover. The update should be free if past policy is an indication of future policy. You can buy the iPhone 3GS for $299 (32GB) and $199 (16GB) from AT&T and these prices may drop when the new iPhone is expected to be announced in June.

There are over 200,000 applications in the Apple App Store so you can pretty much find apps and games for just about anything. Many apps are powerful and functional and games are comparable to dedicated gaming machines. There are a ton of available accessories for the iPhone 3GS so great deals can be found everywhere too. The iPhone OS is easy to learn and use so the device is perfect for new smartphone owners and Apple has done a good job of updating existing hardware.

Specifications don’t always tell the whole story, but they do offer a baseline to measure devices with. The iPhone 3GS has an ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz processor with PowerVR graphics, 16 or 32 GB internal storage, 3 megapixel camera, and 3.5 inch 320×480 display. The iPhone 3GS may not have the highest specifications, but it is quite fast, the camera takes very good quality photos and captures decent video, and no other device keyboard works quite as well on a touchscreen device.

Number 3: Nokia N8

It is pretty rare to find a Nokia smartphone offered by a US wireless carrier, but you can find several that support T-Mobile and AT&T 3G wireless data networks. The upcoming Nokia N8 is the first smartphone in the world to provide 5-band 3G support so that you can connect to 3G data networks on T-Mobile and AT&T in the USA, along with 3G networks around the world. This is truly the first world phone and has some very compelling specifications that best anything currently available.

The N8 is also the first Symbian^3 powered device. While the user interface doesn’t look much different than what we see in S60 and Maemo, it does have improvements that will probably appeal to Nokia and Symbian fans around the world and may even bring in some new fans.

Specifications include 5-band 3G data support, anodized aluminum casing in five colors, 3.5 inch 640×360 pixels resolution OLED display, 720p video recording capability, 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, internal 16GB memory with support for microSD expansion cards, HDMI port, USB , FM transmitter, 680 MHz processor, and USB On-the-Go so you can plug in USB devices to use them without a PC.

Check out numbers 4 through 7 »