why are there are so many phones x_x

Why do you need a smartphone in the first place?

Are you looking to buy just the phone by itself, unlocked, no contract? Or are you looking at a fixed contract period for Xmonths to which amount to $250 in total?

If you look at Nokia, let me explain it a little better. (This is Nokia's point of view under my opnion)

Nokia has 3 OSs - Symbian S60, S40 and MAEMO (MeeGo)

S40 are for people who only cares for basic use like texting and calling. Symbian S60 are for people who likes to explore things on their way like listening to music, taking pictures and surfing the web. MAEMO are for people who are serious at their work like building something.

Nokia is divided into users like the C, X, E and N series. These phone models determine what kind of use you need for the phones you like.

The Cseries are for people that usually want something for communication.
The Xseries are for people who adores multimedia
The Eseries are for people who are serious at their business comminucation and needs
The Nseries are for people who likes everything in their path

If we follow this pattern for other mobile phone OS, we can assume that: (in my opnion)

The iOS are for poeple who likes to explore the world of smartphone
The Android are for people who likes to discover new things
The Windows are for people who likes to maintain communication (business)
The BB OS are for people who adores good communication

Different versions determine the users expectations and needs. So in order to choose the best phone, one must look at the MAIN flagship phone and try to remove what does not meet your need.

I hope I can help you in a little way.

[quote name='Chris_Skylock' post='3020469' date='Aug 2 2010, 06:20 AM']The iOS are for poeple who likes to explore the world of smartphone
The Android are for people who likes to discover new things
The Windows are for people who likes to maintain communication (business)
The BB OS are for people who adores good communication[/quote]
BB has always been about business first and foremost

I never bothered with the smartphone thing. I have a Samsung U-600. It's criminally out of date but it allows me to talk to my friends, receive calls from potential employers (generally of the 'thanks but no thanks' variety) and it allows me to set MP3's as my alarms so I can be woken up in the morning my the Tales of Symphonia theme music. That's all I need from a phone. One day when I make it big I might look in to the smart phone thing, but at this rate phones will become sentient and take over the world before I start making enough money to buy one.

Well, wm7 sucks, actually.
I say that as a person who used WM 5, 6, 6.1 and is now using 6.5.
They killed multitasking, they made an appstore-like shop and banned installing apps got from any other places, they also made some strange looking interface which cannot be turned off.
You don't need that shit, do you?
Just take HTC Desire, or Legend, or any other device with Android 2+.
Or maybe you can look at webOS devices (palm pre, palm pixi), they look good too.

eh, it's more like i am interested in using the phone for surfing the web [of course in Wi-Fi], texting, calling and apps/games. oh and for the phone itself, i don't really want a flip phone since touchscreen phones look like i can enjoy using the phone more. QWERTY keyboards and extra but eh, i don't care much as long as it has a touchscreen .

phone is for $250 without a contract and is unlocked. i am obviously gonna end up buying at some store that has unlocked phones .

hmm... from Nokia, i'd say the S60 OS with but i can't tell what kind of series though... thanks for that though. really helped explain a LOT for me and answered a bunch of questions about which Nokia phone to get.

as for Windows Mobile, hehe, nvm then. it looked really nice for what it is, but if you describe it that way, i might as well search for some other type of phone with Android or another OS. the Samsung Galaxy Spica [i5700] seems really good and can be upgraded to 2.1. so yay .

Well I'm enjoying my g1 with all these emulators as a bonus

Iv just invested in a HTC desire and it is pretty amazing TBH even without wifi the HSPDA (3.5 G) is really fast and i use it more than my computer for surfing not to mention when FROYO finally gets released for it il have some sweet 720p video recording

oo the G1. i was about to get it for $200 on eBay, but then my mom dislikes used things. she never let me get something used unlike my dad. but she said if it's something like a phone, no used things since you don't know what could've happened to it. well it's like that for everything, so what ever, i just gotta search for something else.

zomg, that's amazing, 720p recording... i wonder if there is another phone with wifi that has 720p recording for $250...