The best smartphone OSes of 2008 - still awesome in 2009

Three operating systems have made the jump from 2008 to 2009 in style, and as we approach the end of THIS year, let's take a look at phones offer the best incarnations of Symbian, Windows Mobile and Android.

Samsung i8910 HD

First up, we have the Samsung i8910 HD, and it has one big advantage over the other two. Whilst it has an 8 megapixel camera, the Samsung i8910 HD is also the first phone to record true 720p HD video. Never before has a phone been able to capture video at that massive high resolution, and coincidentally (or is it coincidence? Maybe not...), the Samsung i8910 HD captures high-def video at the exact quality that Youtube display high-def videos at. It's very possible that the Samsung i8910 HD was designed with its main feature being the ability to get yourself on Youtube, in high-definition. Combine that with the sumptuous 3.7 inch screen, and a huge 8Gb of internal memory, and it's very clear that the Samsung i8910 HD deserves to be one of the phones of the year!

HTC HD2

There's little doubt that Windows Mobile is one of the big operating systems in the world. However, to get the best out of it, you really need a phone with a fast processor, a big screen, and a custom user interface on top, the wonderful Sense UI. Well now, there's a new kid in town, called the HTC HD2, and it fulfils all three of those criteria. Not only that, but as well as the custom interface, it has the biggest screen of any mobile phone, and the fastest processor, coming in at 4.3 inches, and 1GHz, respectively.

The HTC HD2 is quite simply the most powerful Windows Mobile phone out there.

HTC Hero

So, for Symbian, the best choice is the Samsung i8910 HD. And then, for Windows Mobile, there's the HTC HD2. Android is trying to take over the world, and its best home is the beautiful HTC Hero. It has all the good stuff that made the first Android phone (the G1) good, but puts it all in a touchscreen-only body, which is both sleek and sexy. Since the keyboard has been removed, the HTC Hero also has a full, onscreen keyboard, and a sumptuous new interface called Sense. You also get the Android Marketplace, which lets you download and install third party apps to your HTC Hero, and it ends up creating a smartphone that really can morph into whatever you want it to be.