Top 10 phones for July

July was an interesting month as it was probably one of the rare occasions where we had representations from four of the major phone makers in our Top 10 list. In pole position was the Nokia E71 smart phone which shot up to the top after its debut in late June. Sony Ericsson came in a close second with its C902 Cyber-shot, moving up from 6th position. New to this list were the Samsung SGH-F480, LG Secret and the Nokia E66, while the Nokia N82, 6300, 3120 classic and the Samsung Soul dropped favor with the crowds.

Note: Results are based on readership as well as data collected from retail outlets (Mobile Square and WhyMobile) and the major mobile operators in Singapore including:

MobileOne

SingTel

StarHub

	1.	Nokia E71       CNET Asia rating: 8.7 out of 10 The good: Slim and stylish design; solid build quality; full range of wireless features; works right out of the box; snappy performance; excellent battery life. The bad: Counter-intuitive camera autofocus; media browser could do with a little upgrade; Easy Dial feature not available. The bottom line: The Nokia E71 is easily one of the best QWERTY smart phones that combine strong features as well as a good balance between business and entertainment, at a competitive price. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	2.	Sony Ericsson C902 Cyber-shot   CNET Asia rating: 6.7 out of 10 The good: Fashionable, lean form factor; lots of camera features; flashier user interface; HSDPA. The bad: Stiff, angled keypad; poorly located volume buttons; no Xenon flash. The bottom line: The C902 Cyber-shot is mostly let down by some poor design implantations, but is still a decent camera-phone overall. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	3.	Nokia 6500 slide   CNET Asia rating: 7.7 out of 10 The good: Solid build quality and one of the best sliders available; Carl Zeiss optics for the 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera; quadband GSM with dual-band UMTS; A2DP. The bad: Autofocus doesn't work in video mode; no backlight adjustment feature; phone doesn't auto keylock after closing the slider. The bottom line: The Nokia 6500 slide is an excellent basic camera-phone based on the S40 platform, though some tiny issues prevented it from getting a higher score. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	4.	Nokia E51       CNET Asia rating: 8 out of 10 The good: Slim, solid design; stainless steel construction; multiple dedicated buttons and shortcut keys; excellent tactility; HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth stereo A2DP; generous 130MB of onboard memory; snappy performance. The bad: Rose Steel version attracts fingerprints easily; preinstalled Quickoffice is read-only version; no front-facing camera for video calls; average image quality. The bottom line: Simple is good, and that's what the E51 is. It may not have a fancy design, but the E51 excels in nearly all other aspects with a truckload of connectivity features, good performance and attractive price point for an enterprise phone. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	5.	Samsung SGH-F480   CNET Asia rating: 6.6 out of 10 The good: Compact size; solid build; cool widgets interface; HSDPA; Bluetooth stereo; microSD expansion card slot. The bad: Vulnerable to fingerprints; software can be improved; lacks Wi-Fi. The bottom line: The F480 is a stylish touchscreen handset with a wealth of features, but its user interface could do with a little improvement. Review | See full specs | Rate this