SIZE MATTERS

The 3.5-inch iPhone 4 display is totally last season. 2012 means more mobile entertainment and larger screens, up to 5.3 inches for the recently released Samsung Galaxy Note. Even the iPhone 5 is rumored to have a 3.7-inch display.

3.9-inch

1.) Nokia N9
B18,900: MeeGo / 8MP camera

4-inch

2.) LG Optimus Black
B12,900: Android 2.2 / 5MP + 2MP cameras

4.2-inch

3.) Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S
B15,990: Android 2.3 / 8.1MP camera

4.3-inch

4.) HTC Sensation XE
B18,900: Android 2.3 / 8MP + VGA cameras
4.) Samsung Galaxy S ll
B18,900: Android 2.3 / 8MP + 2MP cameras

5.3-inch

5.) Samsung Galaxy Note
B22,900: Android 2.3 / 8MP + 2MP cameras

GLAM GEEKS

After the D&G, Prada, Armani and Dior phones a while back, more luxury-branded hand-helds are finally becoming available. So even though the technology may get old, the coolness factor will last (a few weeks anyway).

6.) LG Prada 3.0
Probably the most successful collaboration, LG Prada 3.0 is the third generation of the Korean-Italian smartphone. Unlike its beautiful-but-dumb sister, the sleek-designed 3.0 runs on Android 2.3 OS, has its own black-and-white user-interface and features two cameras (8MP and 1.3MP). B19,900.

7.) Jil Sander Mobile
LG has recently rolled out a new Windows while teaming up with German fashion house, Jil Sander. Like the brand’s minimal character, Jil Sander Mobile comes in black, with a blue trim, and runs on Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, featuring a 3.8-inch touch screen and 5MP camera. Retail price in UK is £300 and hopefully we’ll have it here soon.

TALK TO ME

8.) iPhone 4S
Voice command on mobile phones is not new, but Siri, only available on the iPhone 4S (from B20,900) took it to a whole new level. Create emails, send text messages, organize appointments and even answer silly questions, just by chatting up your virtual P.A., whose voice recognition is almost perfect, regardless of accents. Windows Phone’s TellMe (www.microsoft.com/tellme), Vlingo (www.vlingo.com) or Google’s Voice Actions (www.google.com/mobile/voice-actions) are currently trailing far behind, but we’re guessing 2012 will see them all play catch up.

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM

We all scream for Ice Cream Sandwich, the newest Android Operating System (OS 4.0). Currently only available on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (see above), it is the ultimate cloud computing, Google-empire-friendly tool out there. Customizable and powerful, geeks can’t get enough of it. The rest of us, may still prefer a good old iPhone.

CASH, CREDIT OR NFC?

Started by Nokia in 2004, NFC stands for Near-Field Communication and is now finally picking up some steam in Thailand. NFC devices can communicate together if they are within centimeters of each other. That allows for some old tricks: swapping contacts, creating a personal Wi-Fi hotspot. But much more importantly, it is expected NFC will soon become widely used for mobile payments—something we’ve seen in Japan for a long, long time. At first, mobile payment will be made available for KBank credit card cardholders who can pay their bills with their AIS’s NFC phones at more than 1,500 shops nationwide.
9.) BlackBerry Bold 9900
B19,900: BlackBerry OS 7 / 5MP camera
10.) BlackBerry Bold 9790
B14,900: BlackBerry OS 7 / 5MP camera
11.) Samsung Galaxy Nexus
B19,900: Android 4.0 / 8MP camera
12.) Nokia N9
B18,900: MeeGo / 8MP camera
13.) Nokia C7
B9,790: Symbian Anna / 8MP camera
14.) Nokia 700
B9,900: Symbian Belle / 5MP camera