We've also looked at handsets running on several mobile OSes to establish whether Palm's WebOS is really able to juggle six or more open apps at once and whether Google's Android is really the fast, stutter-free experience it's reputed to be.

We considered call quality and contacts, too, finding out how easily you can find the number for the person you want to dial and how good each smartphone is at its most essential purpose.

Connectivity and the web-browsing experience also played their part in our tests, as did battery life. Nor did we discount those all-important extras: the camera, media player and apps that allow the phone to be personalised.