What is the Best Cell Phone?

A question we get asked all the time is, "What is the best cell phone?"  As you can imagine, this is a loaded question since the best cell phone for you is going to be dependent upon what you're looking for and how you plan on using your new mobile phone.

To be clear, I have an AT&T iPhone 4 and a BlackBerry Storm.  Day in and day out, when it comes to multimedia, maps, mobile web browsing, watching videos, shooting videos, taking pictures, thumbing through pictures, and having access to endless apps, the iPhone 4 is the best cell phone for my needs.

That being said, the iPhone 4 is not at the top of my best cell phone list when it comes to email functionality.  The BlackBerry Storm is, hands down, far superior in terms of interacting via mobile email.  Emails are pushed instantly to my BlackBerry Storm (no syncing is necessary) whereas the iPhone 4 is slower and more cumbersome in its email capabilities.

In spite of the huge technological advances that have been made in tech gadgets over the past few years, smartphones, tablet pc's, and the best cell phones can't be all things to everyone.

What is the Best Cell Phone Screen Size?

Personally, I fall into the category where I'd like to see larger cell phone / smartphone screen sizes, since I spend a lot of time on the road and pocket portability is a must.  I have an excessive need for mobile computing and the smaller screens can be frustrating to navigate, view, and operate on.  In this regard, the HTC EVO or the Motorola Droid X provide for some of the best smartphone experiences, since their screen sizes are upwards of 4.3 inches.  However, to power the bigger screens, battery life suffers greatly.  If you're on the road, don't have access for charging, are not carrying an extra battery or extended battery, the larger screen size will be useless if you can't even power on your cell device.  Again, you can see the pros and cons that the cell phone manufacturers have to take into consideration in working towards striking a balance on providing practical functionality while trying to integrate cutting edge technological advances.  And, in doing so, a feature you'd like to see on your ideal smartphone may be available on one smartphone, but not on another due to the compromises that need to be made.

Best Cell Phones and Physical Keyboards

If you text or email a lot, a physical keyboard, such as the one that comes with the well known Motorola Droid and similar smartphones is a feature that you're going to give some serious consideration to.  However, if you opt for a physical keyboard, you're going to trade in a sleek form factor for some bulk to make room for the sliding keyboard feature.  Another option would be to go with a cell phone like the BlackBerry Bold or BlackBerry Curve where the keyboard is built-in to your smartphone and exposed for easy access.  Unfortunately, even though this feature is great for typing emails and sending text messages, it comes at the cost of having to sacrifice screen size - a lot of screen!  The ability to watch videos, surf the web, and similar tasks become very challenging.  Due to these limiting factors, these type of smartphones no longer rank amongst the top cell phones.  When you look at RIM's slipping market share, it's quite obvious that their smartphones in form and function have not kept up with the standard that is now expected from the general consumer.  In business enterprise applications, they still rank at the top.

What is the Best Cell Phone Operating System?

Cell phone operating systems are yet another major difference that you need to consider when determining what is the best cell phone for you.  If mobile email capabilities are a must, BlackBerry smartphones and their BlackBerry OS is where you need to start your best cell phone search.  At this point, I would look past RIM and their BlackBerry devices if email functionality and business enterprise operations are not of importance to you.

If you want a well rounded smartphone that excels in multimedia capabilities, maps, web browsing, and the likes, then you're going to want to go with Apple's IOS or Google's Android OS.  The tech gadget gurus will debate iPhone vs Android all day long.  If you're familiar with Apple products, lean towards buying an iPhone.  If you don't like Apple, but want access to the best apps and an industry leading smartphone experience, Android powered smartphones provide the stiffest competition for Apple.  With the strides Google has made over the past few years, many tech gurus would even argue that Android smartphones have more built-in capabilities since Adobe Flash is supported, endless customization is possible without having to jailbreak your phone, and true background multitasking and messaging notifications rank best in class.

Last, but not least, there's even Palm's Web OS (now HP) and Windows Mobile OS platforms to consider.  At this point, I would not opt for a Web OS powered smartphone as HP has taken over the reigns and will need to integrate Web OS and improve upon its current capabilities.  The same goes for the Windows Mobile platform.  Even though the potential is there, outside of specific tasks and usability features, neither operating systems match up to Apple's IOS or Google's Android.  I'd opt for BlackBerry's OS, too, before choosing to go with Web OS or Windows Mobile.  Again, even though they offer rich multimedia platforms, their operating systems are lacking, in my opinion Windows Mobile much more so than Web OS, and their App Stores pale in comparison to Apple's App Store or Google's Android Market, too.  Since the market share is so heavily skewed towards Apple and Google Android smartphones, the developers have chosen to focus their attention on developing Apps that will be visible to a much larger audience and have the ability to generate serious revenue for their app development efforts.

What is the Best Cell Phone on Each Wireless Carrier? 

Okay, now that the basics have been addressed in terms of what you need to consider when trying to decide what is the best cell phone, here is a a list of what I consider to be some of the best cell phones on the market today.  Check it out.  It's a top ten list of best cell phones specific to Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint so you can determine what is the best cell phone for you!