The most exciting phones of 2010 so far

This year has seen a range truly mind-blowing smartphones arrive on shelves, already, and now it's time for the best devices out there. Let's take a look at three of the contenders for best phone of the year so far.

Nokia N900

We begin by acknowledging the most advanced smartphone in the Nokia range. Their latest smartphone is the first of a new breed; it is the first phone in history to use the new Maemo interface (which was previously to be used only in the Finnish manufacturer's selection of tablet computers). Give a warm welcome to the Nokia N900. The Maemo OS gives the Nokia N900 a finger friendly user interface, and on top of that, the handset comes with an integrated QWERTY thumbboard, and it's got more methods of interacting with the phone than ever before. It's not just about the OS, however, since the Nokia N900 is full to bursting with high-end features. A 5 megapixel camera makes for superb photos, the media playback is stunning, and with HSDPA and GPS, the Nokia N900 certainly isn't short of connectivity options.

Palm Pre

On the other hand, when it comes to the phone's interface, there's one phone canes both of the phones on this list, without a doubt: the unique Palm Pre. This is simply because the Palm Pre is built on a totally bespoke OS named WebOS, which is undoubtedly the sleekest, most user-friendly operating system that's ever been released. Along with intuitive gesture controls and finger sweeps for EVERY action with the phone, the Palm Pre also includes tight sunergy between its different apps. Book a cinema ticket using one app, and the Palm Pre immediately updates your calendar with the time. Multitask many powerful apps, and watch the Palm Pre scream along without slowing down at all. In the world of the user interface, basically, the Palm Pre is unbeatable!

HTC HD2

So, there is the Nokia N900 with the Maemo UI, and then there is the Palm Pre, which features WebOS. And finally there's the HTC HD2; it holds the record for the biggest display seen on a mobile phone. Coming in at a huge 4.3 inches, it is simply immense, and the WVGA, 800x480 resolution makes it genuinely easy to interact with things like scrollbars and drop-down menus. However, the HTC HD2 actually does a superb job of making it so you do not need to drill down into the normal Windows menus very much, because on top of the operating system, the operating system is HTC's intuitive Sense UI, where you do everything by way of a range of finger swipes and sweeping gestures. It is incredibly simple to use, and it (along with the truly awesome 1GHz Snapdragon processor) is what makes the HTC HD2 such a joy to use. Of course, it's not all about being raw processing power, a phone has to have compelling features and the HTC HD2 has them in spades, from the 5 megapixel camera, through GPS, to incredibly fast HSDPA internet access (not to mention the superb Opera Mobile web browser), which is why many people see it as the best mobile phone EVER.