Whether you are a music enthusiast, a mobile professional or just an average commuter, it's important to find a handset that best suits your lifestyle.
To help you get started, we have included several phone recommendations for various focuses in people's lives. All you need to do is to identify with the lifestyle that best fits you and you'll find our recommended handsets. Take a look at our mobile phone buying guide for more general tips on mobile phone plans, specific hadset features and form factor considerations.
Basic user
You want a cheap, basic emergency phone for talking, texting, and not much else.
Motorola MOTOFONE F3
For its target market -- budget users and those who don't want bells and whistles -- the MOTOFONE is an excellent phone option. Those who require more pizzazz will quickly grow irked at its shortcomings, however.
Sagem my401c
The Sagem my401c is a good choice for those looking for a sweet-and-petite budget handset with a number of entertaining extras.
Executive
Bringing the office with you? You'll need good contact synchronisation, a speakerphone, Bluetooth, multi-band capabilities for travelling, email, and a QWERTY keyboard to prevent texter's thumb. In short, you need a smart phone.
RIM BlackBerry 8800
The BlackBerry 8800 offers several improvements to its predecessor, including GPS and the Pearl trackwheel, although it doesn't support 3G.
Palm Treo 750
Here's a dollop of irony: the best Windows Mobile smartphone has been created by Palm! A bevy of OS enhancements and access to Telstra's Next G mobile broadband network easily make it the best Windows Mobile device we've ever used.
Dopod 838 Pro
An extremely well-equipped Pocket PC PDA-phone, Dopod has made sure that the 3G-enabled 838 Pro balances features with power so it doesn't leave you hanging when you need to access applications like Skype. Due to its size and weight, however, you'll need a bag if you're going to carry it around.
O2 Xda Zinc
With a faster processor, the Xda Zinc has a slight performance edge over the Dopod 838 Pro but falls short by a slight margin in terms of aesthetics. Unless you're looking for a QWERTY handheld, there are more options out there.
Midrange user
You seek a balance of style and substance, but don't need all the bells and whistles.
Nokia 6288
The 6288 improves on the 6280, but while it performs well, it lacks a standout feature to pull in the punters.
Motorola RIZR Z3 V6
The featureset is a little basic, and the menus need an update but the RIZR is a snazzy-looking slider phone with all the essentials in place.
Samsung D900 (Ultra Edition 12.9)
Samsung's D900 proves that's it's entirely possible to take an existing phone design and put it on a serious slimming diet.
Nokia 6233
The 6233 is a reasonably priced 3G handset that despite the absence of video calls performs excellently in the vast array of features it does possess. Ultimately, the 6233 is a smallish classically-designed handset that is easy-to-use, and which builds upon the success of previous models like the 6230i, but packs a little more punch.
Fashionista
Your phone is an extension of your personality - as much something to admire as to use.
Motorola KRZR K1
A clamshell mobile phone that has the right look, but is let down by a terrible menu interface and display.
LG Shine KU970
You'll spend a lot of time keeping it clean and the scroller makes texting tricky, but the Shine is still a covetable piece of metal.
Nokia 7370
The Nokia 7370 is a trendy-looking phone designed to appeal to fashion-conscious users looking for a decent selection of multimedia features.
LG Chocolate K800
While Motorola's RAZR still manages to trigger ultra-thin fashion clones, LG has moved in a different direction with the Chocolate KG800, an understated and stylish mobile phone with a beguiling design twist.
Multimedia
With the faster download speeds of 3G networks, some phones now support streaming video. One- and two-megapixel camera phones are becoming more common as well. For gaming purposes, look for a phone with a vibrant colour screen, a joystick-type navigational button, and Java support for downloads.
Nokia N93i
The Nokia N93i 3G smartphone isn't a major step over the previous N93, but it has all the features to please most power users including Wi-Fi and a 3.2-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens.
Sony Ericsson W810i
An excellent phone with plenty of storage space for photos. The camera is above average for a mobile phone, as are the supplied headphones. While there is no need for W800i users to upgrade to this model, the W810i offers an impressive feature set for those considering the purchase.
Nokia N73
Nokia's N73 is one of the best camera phones we've seen this year, with a wide range of multimedia and business features tucked under its belt. Responsiveness, however, is not a strong point.
Sony Ericsson K800i
The best camera phone of 2006 so far, the Sony Ericsson K800i outshines all others in term of features and user-friendly design. Aside from a few squabbles with the extra bulk, the K800i makes it easy for first-time 3G users and is an ideal companion for anyone wanting to take happy-snaps on-the-go.
Traveller
If you're always on the road, or jetsetting around the globe, consider a handset that has a long talk time and support for a variety of networks. A built-in MP3 player is a bonus.
Nokia E65
Easily one of the best looking handsets on the market with a good assortment of features including Wi-Fi, quadband support and Quickoffice, but the E65 is better suited to those after business chic rather than business geek.
BlackBerry Pearl 8100
Consumers that have already been lured by the BlackBerry's popular email functions will love the new-look Pearl, but may be disappointed when comparing it to other high-end consumer devices with 2-megapixel cameras and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Nokia 6131
Tailored specifically for a more business orientated market, Nokia has adopted the less-is-more strategy for its exterior design. While not specifically designed to be one for the fashion set, it has all the basic multimedia features covered off, and it looks great.
Early adopter
Early adopters don't mind splurging for the latest and greatest features and form factors as soon as they're available (not all of these phones are out in Australia yet).
Bang & Olufsen Serene
Bang & Olufsen's new Serene handset turns the concept of a mobile phone on its head -- literally.
ASUS P735
The Asus P735 is a PDA-phone with several attractive features including business card scanning, 3G connectivity, and PowerPoint presentation control.
Nokia N95
It's hard to pigeonhole Nokia's flaship multimedia device, the N95, as a mobile phone. Due in April 2007, it combines a quadband handset (with support for 3G and HSDPA networks) with a GPS navigator and mapping application, 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi connectivity, a Web browser and a whole lot more.
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Peter Young
08/08/2006 02:04 PM
Mate what about trades people?? What about users with poor eyesight? What about users who need to read text messages in bright sunlight? Waht about an aqautic environment? Sorry but your criteria are nowhere near wide enough.
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Gus
10/12/2006 12:31 PM
Search for any phone which can be read in sunlight and all you get is this page asking for exactly the same thing. Check the stats. There is a demand for devices that work outside of a dimly lit nightclub.
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