Hands on: hot phone shoot out: HTC, Samsung, Sony and Blackberry

Last night I had the occasion to play around with the new crop of phones put out by the industry’s big players.  It always surprises me how quickly a phone can feel great or not so great in your hand vs staring at it on the screen.  I was shocked at how quickly I hated one of these supposedly sexy models and how much I liked one I really didn’t think I would.  Here is the run down:

. One word: HOT!  This little phone is very sexy and after I figured out how to turn the bugger on, it was off to the races.  The skin over the Windows Mobile OS is the best yet in terms of speed and functionality.  I’ve played with a few of these skins and this one is rather remarkable.  The screen is very responsive, and it’s tempered glass feels very high end.  It even has a tilt game with feedback as your little ball hits the obstacles.  Overall, I was very impressed with this diminutive phone and could easily see owning this one. 

. One word: Not.  Maybe it is just me (I am sure our Sony-fanboy Adam will refute my impression) but this phone just doesn’t do it for me.  Sure the slide out keyboard felt like a Sony: finely crafted of smallish buttons that looked sharp; it is a well put together beast for sure.  But I was dumped out of the UI very quick, leaving me staring at Windows Mobile which brings me back to why I look at other phones all the time: it doesn’t feel fun, new or sexy.  Perhaps my beef is with Windows Mobile, but Sony’s rendition here seems just, I don’t know, not fun.  Not for me and I don’t think it will win over the BB crowd or the iPhone crowd; and really, who does that leave left?

After realizing I was cruising through the Sprint women’s personal phone, I quit sending text messages to her favs… This phone was rather nice in navigation, everything was laid out pretty well, the response was good and the feedback was a nice novelty.  My biggest issue came with what felt a real narrow screen.  The web and movies which automatically go to landscape felt like the edges were closing in.  Forget that some real estate is taken up by buttons that were not super intuitive: it just felt crammed and that kills the experience for me.

, no news there.  The navigation was good, the screen bright and the look is rather sexy - even for Blackberry.  This will be the one to beat from RIM.