Unlocked Smartphones

The Bottom Line: With its eco-friendly design and spiffy solar panels, the Samsung Blue Earth is more than just a gimmick; it's also an appealing cell phone with character.

Specs: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband ) / HSDPA 900/2100 (Dual Band), With digital camera / digital player / FM radio, 119 g

The Bottom Line: With the design improvements and enhancements of Windows Mobile 6.5, the HTC Touch2 makes for a nice smartphone for first-time users. Unfortunately, it's not bound for the U.S. and may not be worth its unlocked price.

Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 440 min, With digital camera / digital player, 3.9 oz

The Bottom Line: While better designed than the Traveler 127, the Pharos Traveler 137 still suffers from performance and navigation issues.

Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 240 min, 4.9 oz

The Bottom Line: If you can stand the Hero's occasional sluggishness, it's a fantastic smartphone packed with great features. We like its distinctive looks, and its innovative user interface brings Android much closer to being as fun and good-looking as the iPhone OS, while being far more customizable. Occasional lag and Android's rough edges mean it's not quite an iPhone killer, but it's definitely fighting in the same class.

Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 470 min, With digital camera / digital player, 4.8 oz

The Bottom Line: While the Nokia N97 is packed with features and offers the freedom of an unlocked phone, its clunky touch interface, sky-high price tag, and outdated operating system make it hard to recommend when there are better touch-screen smartphones on the market.

Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 400 min, With digital camera / digital player, 5.3 oz

The Bottom Line: While the Nokia N97 is packed with features and offers the freedom of an unlocked phone, its clunky touch interface, sky-high price tag, and outdated operating system make it hard to recommend when there are better touch-screen smartphones on the market.

Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 400 min, 5.3 oz

The Bottom Line: The HTC Touch Cruise offers road warriors and travel lovers great navigation features in a compact smartphone; we just wish it had a better screen.

Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 400 min, With digital camera / digital player, 0.2 lbs

The Bottom Line: The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers an attractive design and feature set, but the touch-screen phone has some shortcomings compared with the competition.

Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 540 min, With digital camera / digital player, 3.8 oz

The Bottom Line: The Nokia E63 offers a more wallet-friendly price tag compared with other unlocked smartphones and does so without sacrificing too many features; we just we wish the call quality and camera were better.

Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 660 min, With digital camera / digital player / FM radio, 4.4 oz

The Bottom Line: The Nokia E63 offers a more wallet-friendly price tag compared with other unlocked smartphones and does so without sacrificing too many features; we just we wish the call quality and camera were better.

Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 660 min, With digital camera / digital player / FM radio, 4.4 oz