The Google Nexus One is now available SIM free at Pixmania for £599 plus delivery.

Manufacturered by HTC, Google’s first own-brand mobile phone is undoubtedly a superb piece of engineering. Ergonomically, it just slips naturally into the hand with its all-round soft curves rather than the hard edges of, say the Motorola Milestone. At 130g the Nexus One is lighter than an iPhone (136g) and Milestone (170g) as well as being narrower and thinner (at 11.5mm) than these two most striking competitors.

It has a fantastic 3.7 inch widescreen, AMOLED display, delivering 720×480 pixels resolution. Arguably crisper and clearer than any other display on the market, it delivers touchscreen responsiveness definitely in the ballpark of the iPhone and, moreover, it is fast. The combination of Android 2.1 sitting above a Snapdragon CPU clocked at 1GHz with 512Mb of RAM and ROM really does enable you to zap through opening up applications and then moving between them.

Its multimedia credentials, are quietly competent rather than superb – such as the 5 megapixel, autofocus camera with LED flash and its 32GB memory card capacity. Where the Nexus One really impresses, though, is in what could be called its charisma, if it could walk into a crowded room, heads would most definitely turn. Its Teflon-coated back and sides are simultaneously rubbery and tough yet soft and almost sensuous, a strangely compelling tactile experience.

Compare Google Nexus One UK prices

Available now on Orange from £15 per month with almost £200 cash back. Or buy it on Orange PAYG and save an extra £10, just use voucher code 10BACK at the checkout.

The Samsung C3510 is an entry level touchscreen phone. It’s similar in looks to the Genio Touch but it has a downgraded specification with a 1.3 megapixel camera and no 3G.

The C3510 comes with a 2.8 screen and Samsung’s Cartoon user interface, which allows users to scroll through the colourful widgets and menus with ease. The large navigation keys beneath the screen make it easy to use and the phone has easy access to Facebook and Twitter.

Compare all Samsung C3510 deals

Exclusively available from O2 and free on all tariffs, from £15 per month.

The BlackBerry 8520 Curve is a sleek new BlackBerry with a rubberized body.

The 8520 Curve has a full QWERTY keyboard for writing emails, texts and instant messages with ease.

With BlackBerry push email, the 8520 can send and receive emails from a host of different accounts anywhere in the world.

It also features an optical trackball for sensitive and highly accurate navigation, Wi-Fi, a 2 megapixel camera and expandable memory.

Compare all BlackBerry 8520 purple deals

Originally ground up in the rumour mill and spat out as the Kurara, the first product announcement of 2010 by Sony Ericsson was actually a leak from PR agency Burson-Marsteller. No stranger to crisis management (think Bhopal and Tylenol for starters) B-M attempted to put the struggling genie back in its bottle but – too late! The good people at Sony Ericsson have confirmed the news and we now await the official launch.

So what is the Kurara? Ironically, given the genie poppers’ back catalogue it is a municipality in Uttar Pradesh. But no longer: the new handset has a brand new moniker: the Vivaz, after a collection of vintage 1960s cars from Vauxhall…or maybe not.

From its spec, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz is a smartphone to rival anything on the market, most notably with an 8.1 megapixel camera with image stabilisation and face detection and the ability to capture video in 720p HD (ultra-sharp, minimal to zero flicker). It is also said to offer autofocus in its video mode and a dedicated video capture key. The results can be viewed on the 3.2 inch, 640×360 pixel resolution (or WVGA, it’s not yet clear) resistive touchscreen.

At 107x52x12.5mm, the Vivaz is conventionally smartphone sized and nice and well weighted at only 97g (pretty amazing considering the technology within). All the usual smartphone gubbins are included, including HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and A-GPS.

Expected within two to three months, you will be able to sport the Vivaz either in Vivaz Ruby, Moon Silver, Galaxy Blue or – trying a little too hard, perhaps – Cosmic Black.

Sony Ericsson had a hard time financially in 2009, despite the Satio still being arguably the best camera phone in the world. The Vivaz could revive its fortunes and rival the Satio for its camera phone crown.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz deals (coming soon)

The new Nokia 5230 XpressMusic is now available to order and you can get £100 automatic cash back or a free Sony PSP (with FIFA 09), when you buy the phone on a 12 month contract. With Orange Racoon 30 you’ll get 200 anytime minutes per month to any network, plus an extra 200 minutes to call UK landlines and 300 texts per month. Mobile internet can be added for an extra £5 per month.

Nokia 5230 XpressMusic is a super cool music phone that shares the same design and scratch-resistant touchscreen with the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It has an excellent battery life, 3G, HSPDA and GPS. Unlike the Nokia 5800, there is no Wi-FI support with the Nokia 5230, and the camera resolution has been reduced to 2 megapixels, yet it can still record VGA video at 30 frames per second. The 3.2 inch touchscreen supports handwriting recognition and it has a built in accelerometer to auto rotate the screen.

Touchscreen aside, the music player is one of the main features. There is a dedicated audio chip to enhance the sound, a slider to instantly turn the device into a music player, a 3.5mm audio jack and built in speakers for music or the FM radio. With the Nokia 5230 XpressMusic you can download music at mobile broadband speeds, there is also the ability to transfer music to and from your device via a USB cable or Bluetooth. The 5230 has 70MB of internal memory but can be expanded to 16GB with a microSD card. Up to 33 hours of music can be played with a single charge of the battery.

Compare all Nokia 5230 XpressMusic deals

Nokia 5230 XpressMusic is a super cool music phone that shares the same design and scratch-resistant touchscreen with the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It has an excellent battery life, 3G, HSPDA and GPS. Unlike the Nokia 5800, there is no Wi-FI support with the Nokia 5230, and the camera resolution has been reduced to 2 megapixels, yet it can still record VGA video at 30 frames per second. The 3.2 inch touchscreen supports handwriting recognition and it has a built in accelerometer to auto rotate the screen.

Touchscreen aside, the music player is one of the main features. There is a dedicated audio chip to enhance the sound, a slider to instantly turn the device into a music player, a 3.5mm audio jack and built in speakers for music or the FM radio. With the Nokia 5230 XpressMusic you can download music at mobile broadband speeds, there is also the ability to transfer music to and from your device via a USB cable or Bluetooth. The 5230 has 70MB of internal memory but can be expanded to 16GB with a microSD card. Up to 33 hours of music can be played with a single charge of the battery.

Compare all Nokia 5230 XpressMusic deals