With cell phones having gone beyond just 'that boring tring tring' and getting smarter every- day, we test twelve of the latest smartphones on the market to help you sift the wheat from the chaff and make a truly smart choice.

So your phone has a snappy music player and a camera that lends a little something extra to even the most candid shot. So what? Handsets with these features are mere minnows in the sea of smart phones that are flooding the market today. With mobile devices getting more business oriented and ensuring that you truly have your office on the go, the only problem you may face is one of plenty and selecting which device is best suited for you.

On the testing block are Nokia E61i, Nokia E90 Communicator, HTC Touch, HTC S710, HP iPAQ 512, Asus P750, Asus m530w, O2 Atom Life, Palm Treo 750, Blackberry 8820, Blackberry Curve 8300, and Moto Q 8. We list them in our order of preference. We tested these handsets based on utilities, email and browsing facilities, the ability to handle office documents, user-friendliness, performance and multimedia capabilities to put together a simple guide that will help you make an informed choice for your next phone purchase

Nokia E61i

The Nokia E61i came up trumps as the most well balanced smartphone in this comparison. With a rich set of connectivities and features, it served its primary functions as a business phone unfailingly. The phone has a superior 2.8 inch screen supporting a 16 million color resolution that displays all the contents vividly in clear and crisp colors. The metallic body is sturdy and yet lightweight. Its QWERTY keypad is responsive and is pleasingly tactile, with well-spaced keys with a rubberized feel that makes typing long messages or e-mails a pleasure.

The browsing experience on this phone was a breeze with its excellent built-in browser that rendered full pages on its large screen. While on the e-mailing side, this phone had an easy-to-configure e-mail client that supports IMAP4 and POP3. For Blackberry service users the phone has Blackberry Connect pre-installed. All these online features were enhanced by its Wi-Fi, 3G or EDGE connectivity support for a high-speed broadband experience. It came pre-installed with QuickOffice that let us create, edit and view office documents though in the case of presentation files, one could only view them. Working on long sheets of documents did not strain our eyes as the screen display was large and sharp.

For more PC news, visit PC World. Story copyright PC World Communications, Inc.