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2009 - when the interface is king

This year, how you interact with your phone has become as important as the phone's list of features. Let's check out three of the coolest interfaces of the year.

HTC Magic - Google Android

Google Android is one of the big buzzwords of the year, and the newest phone to use it, the HTC Magic, is winning an army of fans round the world. One of the main reasons for that is the interface, with finger friendly controls, and sweeping animations as you move between screens. On the front end, though, what makes the HTC Magic particularly special is that it uses widgets. With these, you can customise the HTC Magic in any way you feel like. Instead of just changing the wallpaper, it'll also let you pick the icons on screen, and position them anywhere YOU want. The HTC Magic takes customisation to the next level, and is easily one of the nicer interfaces in the mobile industry.

Samsung i8910 HD - Symbian

However, it isn't the prettiest. Using the same ethos of movable widgets, the TouchWiz UI on the Samsung i8910 HD has one crucial advantage over the HTC Magic: it's far, far better looking. The basic idea is the same with the Samsung i8910 HD, but the screen you see looks so much sexier. Much of the functionality is akin to the HTC Magic, but as the Samsung i8910 HD has an AMOLED screen (which is bigger than the Magic's), it is easily one of the best looking interfaces out there.

Palm Pre - WebOS

However, the best is yet to come. The Samsung i8910 HD might have a truly beautiful interface, and the HTC Magic has tight Google Apps integration in its interface, but the Palm Pre is prettier than the i8910 HD, and more functional than the Magic. With WebOS, everything on the phone is done by a range of finger sweeps, and gestures, making it the single sleekest mobile interface in the entire world. The Palm Pre also has synergy between apps which is much tighter than any previous phone, and that's why, despite it having the smallest screen on this list, the Palm Pre has the best user experience of all three phones.

About the Author:

Expert on mobile phones, having worked in the industry for over 7 years.