Cell Phones / Expert Reviews

Rather than setting this at the usual price point of $299.99 that we’ve grown to see with Verizon’s top-shelf Android smartphones, it’s blessed with an even better $199.99 on-contract pricing, which is perhaps one of its most appreciated offerings. Even though LG has made some great strides on... More

If you are a power user and are sick of continually charging your battery, you should take a look at the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX. Its talk and standby times are the longest that we've seen on a smartphone, and the device has plenty of high-end features to quench an Android user’s thirst, with its... More

At the end of the day, I’d say this is probably my favorite new 4G LTE phone, mostly because it actually makes LTE a viable option. Past that, it’s quite beautiful, reliable, and well-built. You won’t scratch the screen by dropping it a few feet (thanks to that Corning Gorilla glass)... More

The Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX takes everything about the original RAZR and improves on it dramatically. The biggest niggles to me with the original RAZR were battery life and less-than-stellar radio performance. The RAZR MAXX is a much better data device than the original RAZR over both 4G and 3G, and... More

The Droid Razr Maxx greatly improves upon what was perhaps the biggest weakness of the Droid Razr: battery life. If you plan on watching a lot of video or doing some heavy duty gaming on your phone, the Razr Maxx is a good match for you. If you’re looking to save money, however, you might opt for the... More

The Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx is an excellent smartphone (up from “very nice” for the Droid RAZR). Overall, both RAZR phones are very similar and but the nearly double-sized battery capacity makes the user experience much better as it removes the battery “anxiety”, and the Motorola software allows... More

Yes, the $199 LG Spectrum has a high-quality 720p display, fast 4G LTE speeds, and a sharp camera. However, the industrial design doesn't impress as much as the ultra thin $199 Droid RAZR, and we prefer the Super AMOLED display and newer and sleeker Android 4.0 software on the Galaxy Nexus. The heavy-handed... More

LTE speeds, dual-core processing power, and the phone's terrific HD display add up to an excellent smartphone. And there are the LG Spectrum's other charms--the great design, the HD apps, and LG's customizable gesture support. Plus, that 8-megapixel camera takes some nice outdoor shots, and the $199.99... More

From a consumer standpoint, the LG Spectrum is a pretty nice device, hitting all the bullet points. The specs are high-end, the cameras are good. It'll be getting an update to Android 4.0. And LG's user interface provides a great starting point for building your own homescreens. Or it'll be entirely... More

The LG Nitro HD succeeds in spite of its UI skin because it has great hardware, a great display, fast LTE speeds, and only a few other phones on its network that can claim the same. Even that phone was a pretty blatant imitation of the Galaxy S II, though, and frankly, I wish LG had stuck with that strategy... More

The question on everyone's mind must be how the Bold 9790 will coexist with the Bold 9900. And they're not asking nicely either. People are fuming in the comments and most of them seem to see no point in having two so very similar handsets released fairly soon after one another.
We don’t pretend... More

In many ways, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is the smartphone the Droid Razr should have been. Adding a powerful battery yet keeping a slim and trim size makes this excellent Android handset extremely tempting. I really wish the phone came running Android's latest and greatest Ice Cream Sandwich instead... More

The LG Spectrum offers everything you'd expect on a top-notch Verizon Wireless cell phone, including 4G LTE data speeds, a true high-definition (720p) display, and a powerful camera and 1080p camcorder. Our tests revealed a few significant flaws that weren't immediately apparent given the Spectrum's... More

From a technical and innovation standpoint, RIM's current product lineup is running on fumes. In an era when all that keeps the company going is the existing goodwill of its most dedicated users and a vault of cash reserves, it can't afford to release products that further alienate its customer base... More

This might not be a phone for power-Android users, but it's a likable enough handset for most use.
It will certainly appeal to those who want a phone that can do more than their old Nokia thing that they haven't upgraded for years, and it should do so without scaring anyone making the switch. HTC has... More

You might conclude that we don't like the 9790. But that's not it at all. In fact we are just more disappointed at the mistakes BlackBerry has made with it. Yet again we have a phone with a lovely screen, great battery life, and a superb keyboard. All in a package and small enough to fit easily in our... More

The BlackBerry 9370 from Research In Motion excels at the cell phone basics: The battery life is excellent, the signal performance is very good, and voice calls sound loud and clear. As a piece of hardware, the controls are mostly good with a few exceptions (icky-feeling side buttons, stiff keys). The... More

The Lumia 710 isn't as nice as the 800 but then we know that it isn't supposed to be. This is about making Windows Phone 7 affordable, and on that front the 710 is perfectly pitched.
With the Lumia 800 around the £35 price point on contract, we suspect that you'll be able to get the Lumia 710... More

Samsung believes the Note is the ultimate expression of versatility and convergence, allowing you to leave all other devices at home. I partially agree with that assessment: yes, it represents the very cutting edge of technological convergence, but no, it won’t replace more specialized tools. A... More

We would have been more interested with the BlackBerry Curve 9370 if it came out last summer, but with it being released months after the Curve 9350 and 9360, it is really outdated. Not only that, but we believe the $100 on-contract price is asking more than it should be. If you currently own the Curve... More