Game-changing smartphones

Bonnie Cha, Senior Associate Editor October 23, 2008

I've been covering smartphones for several years now, and I'm not going to lie ... I'm one lucky gal. I get the inside track on upcoming models and of course, I get to play with some of the hottest gadgets in the tech world. However, it's been just as interesting to watch the space change. Over the years, I've seen a quite few standouts that have influenced the smartphone market, whether it be for their design, feature set or technology, and wanted to call them out. I realize everyone might not agree with me, but these are my picks and the reasons why.

I wasn't even at CNET when the Kyocera 7135 came out, but I covered it at my previous job and remember thinking, "What is this? A cell phone and PDA? Cool!" I know the Handspring Treo models came out before it, but it was the first smartphone I had seen and really stuck out in mind. To me, the 7135 is the smartphone equivalent to the Motorola StarTAC. Speaking of Treos, the Palm Treo 650 really seemed to get the formula right in terms of form factor and functionality. The combination of the touch screen, full QWERTY keyboard, and Palm OS really made it the ultimate all-in-one device for business users.

Next, there's the original Motorola Q. The Q was more about the design than anything else. At the time, it was the "thinnest QWERTY device in the world" and the form factor attracted a lot of users and spawned a whole new category of smartphone design. Again, I realize the RIM BlackBerry Pearl wasn't the first model from Research in Motion--hardly. BlackBerrys had long-earned a reputation for being corporate friendly with its strong e-mail capabilities, but the Pearl was the first model to break out that business mode with its slim, cell-phone-like design and multimedia features and bring it to the hands of general consumers.

Last but not least, the Apple iPhone and T-Mobile G1. Whether you love or hate Apple, the company set a new standard with the iPhone. From its multitouch screen to the integrated multimedia features to the ease of use, the iPhone acts as a benchmark for all other touch-screen smartphones. Included in that group is the T-Mobile G1, and while it didn't quite stack up to the iPhone in terms of design and intuitiveness, the G1 did impress with the Google Android operating system. There's huge potential for the G1 (and any Android devices after it) to become powerful minicomputers as developers create more applications for the open platform.

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