The mobile phone terrain has undergone a massive change and 2010 witnessed a plethora of outstanding handsets. Nokia made graceful appearances all over the past year with youth-centric phones while Motorola focused mainly on the Android platform. Keeping up with its tag line ‘Life’s Good’, LG allured users throughout with exciting handset announcements and releases. Amidst other creative heads, Apple captured the technological world with its overwhelming ‘i’ device. Smartphones will certainly usher in the mobile revolution and companies should indeed be prepared for stiff competition in 2011. We now take you through a quick recap of last year’s top mobile phones.
By introducing new refined designs all through the past year, Motorola reaffirmed its position in the mobile world. Users could perk up their stylish personality by snapping up Motorola handsets such as the Backflip, Quench, Cliq, Flipout and Droid X. The Google Nexus One was the first ever handset from a company that was already giving the mobile OS segment quite a run for the money. It undoubtedly impressed many with a stunning AMOLED display, speedy performance and gorgeous appearance.
The past year, Sony Ericsson splashed out ingenious mobile phones and dressed their adorable handsets with graceful traits. In a market saturated with large displays, the company enumerated that there is adequate place for petite handsets like the wee-sized Xperia X10 Mini which put forth an optimistic impression with its incredible audio capabilities and excellent UI. On the other hand, the Xperia X10 Mini Pro came along with a QWERTY keyboard which was secured onto the base and definitely added extra bulk to it. The Sony Ericsson Vivaz handset also stepped in with its charming appearance.
Nokia efficiently sustained the massive mobile phone market and enriched the year 2010 with interesting innovations. The Nokia X6 16GB, N900 and E73 flaunted tantalizing attributes and impressive features. Motorola unmasked the elegant Milestone XT720 to cajole mobile enthusiasts with a sleeker design, a 3.7-inch touchscreen and an 8MP camera with Xenon flash.
Flaunting its colossal canopy of innovations, BlackBerry embraced the past year with various handsets such as the Pearl 3G and Storm 2 9520. The Storm 2 9520 exhibited a great deal of convenience. With an easy-to-use interface, the Pearl 3G was a powerful smartphone with magnificent performance and multimedia features.
The HTC Wildfire packed in some prominent specs and a variety of useful features into a stylish, minimalist design. HTC unraveled the Smart handset to wipe off competition in terms of impeccable interface. The pocket-friendly HTC Smart came in with the enchanting Brew mobile platform and solid build quality. The super sleek Samsung Galaxy S was packed with a crisp 4-inch Super AMOLED display and 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird application processor. The Wave reflected the company’s attempt at delivering a rich, connected and innovative smartphone experience with its brilliant screen and TouchWiz 3.0 user interface which proffered a tactile user experience.
The bustle of splendid handsets for the year didn’t end at that. The iPhone 4 also added sparkle to the array. The overall design screamed elegance and the retina display truly made a difference. The iPhone 4 flaunts great capabilities, making it a comprehensive and commendable upgrade over its predecessors. Palm is constantly enriching the mobile experience with new features and innovations. The Palm Pre Plus has a full keyboard hidden underneath the neat 3.1-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen. The Palm Pixi Plus touts to be a candybar form factor handset that features a QWERTY keyboard, a touchscreen display and the fascinating webOS platform. The Garmin-Asus A50 phone efficiently merged complementary resources and offered a cluster of feature-rich and advanced attributes. With the launch of Cookie Fresh and Plus, LG positively alleviated the hurdles of accessibility, experience and affordability.
In early August, the mobile terrain witnessed RIM launching the BlackBerry Torch. The device blended in a mix of touchscreen and QWERTY, operating on the latest BlackBerry 6 platform. Up next was another BlackBerry offering in the form of 9300 that shipped with BlackBerry 5 while awaiting an OS upgrade. Dell stepped in subsequently with a tablet cum smartphone offering a 5 inch touchscreen display christened, the Streak. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 made it to the ranks coming through O2 based on Android.
The year also saw Samsung entering the forte of operating systems with its bada platform. The first smartphone operating on it was the Samsung Wave 723. Coming in after that was another Samsung product, the Epic 4G boasting of being the only 4G Galaxy S smartphone. Subsequently, the mobile world witnessed the entry of another beauty from the Xperia lineup, dubbed, the X10, hitting stores through AT&T. Leveraging on its forerunner’s success, was the Motorola Milestone 2 powered by Android 2.2. An enticing beauty then sprouted up with Nokia emblazoned on its head the N8 running on Symbian^3.
Three other devices announced by Nokia that operated on the same platform were the E7, C6 and C7. The Chic and Optimus One were two gorgeous devices that hit the world in the month of September from LG. The BlackBerry Curve 3G stunned the mobile terrain with its curvaceous form factor, which was later even seen in a dazzling shade of fuchsia. An enhanced HTC Sense user interface was embedded in the Desire HD and Desire Z. In order to satiate handset owner’s thirst for innovation, Motorola unraveled its Quench XT3 Touch Tablet powered by Android 2.1.
Bringing out the fun of QWERTY keypads was the elegant Nokia E5, flaunting a 5 megapixel camera. Alluring the audience with its 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen was the Samsung Mesmerize operating on Android 2.1. The year 2010 appeared to be extremely important for Microsoft since it launched the Windows Phone 7. We witnessed several smartphones coming through various carriers and handset manufacturers based on this platform. The lineup of WP7 handsets included the Dell Venue Pro, Samsung Omnia 7 and five beauties from HTC namely, HTC 7 Mozart, Pro, Surround, Trophy and HD7.
RIM stepped aside from its conventional form factor and experimented with a clamshell device that was a mere rumor until the BlackBerry Style 9670 was announced. Similar to Motorola Flipout’s design, Nokia unraveled the X5 running on Symbian S60. Lastly, the wintry white washed month of December brought out some freshly baked Gingerbread cookies. Google released the latest version of its operating system, the Android 2.3. The search engine giant then teamed up with Samsung to launch the Nexus S with a 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen Contour Display using Gingerbread.
If the Nexus S impressed us with its innovative screen and software, the next device that came up in mid-December overwhelmed us with its hardware. The LG Optimus 2X boasting of Tegra 2 processors monstrously pushed up the level of innovation. Delivering 1080p HD video playback, it appears to be a complete entertainment package.
The year that was packed in some fabulous goodies in the form of handsets and platforms. Operating systems like the Android 2.2 Froyo, BlackBerry 6, iOS 4, WebOS 2.2, Symbian ^3, Windows Phone 7 and lastly the Android 2.3 hit the mobile industry with supersonic force. As we step into 2011, we expect it to pull the covers off even more excogitations in the forte of mobile communications. As we bid adieu to the past year that brought us several delectable treats, here’s wishing you all a very Happy New Year. Whilst, we coyly hope that the next year will bring us better and more powerful beasts in the form of smartphones.