Since their launch onto the mobile phone market just a few years ago, smartphones have come on in leaps and bounds. Now offering more features than ever before, and to a higher specification than ever before, never have mobile consumers had it so good. 2008 offered up a bumper crop of brand new designs and we were there to pick out the best for you to choose from.

Nokia E71 For those who prefer their smartphones to be a one-piece, this is the slickest model available. For a one-piece, the QWERTY keyboard is wonderfully spacious, allowing for comfortable typing. But the real draw here is the size. This is the slimmest smartphone around by a long way, and we love it for that.

Not only is this smartphone good to look at, it also has an ease of use that puts others to shame. The operating system with the E71 is the Symbian S60, so you know you are getting a powerful piece of equipment too.

HTC Touch Pro This slick black number is a Windows Mobile device utilising HTCs TouchFlo 3D interface. This userface is wonderfully easy to use, and with full Exchange support it is also terrifically flexible. All the usual suspects come with this model, Bluetooth, 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS, as well as a 3.2MP camera.

This is a slide smartphone design whereby the QWERTY keyboard slides out from the body. With designs like this the body is always bulkier, so this is not one for those who favour the small-is-beautiful motto. However, if you are serious about using your smartphone for typing work, you will struggle to find a more comfortable keypad on the market.

T-Mobile G1 This is the first Android handset to hit the smartphone market, and although the design is not mind-blowing, the software certainly is. Creating a new mobile operating system from scratch was a great idea as it means that the phone is built with the most modern networks in mind, and it allowed Google the chance to develop its internet connection capabilities right from the start.

This may just be the beginning of Android systems, but we are already keen to see what there this will lead. With this current model, we were impressed by the way in which we were instantly alerted to incoming IMs and emails too, as well as the way the phone handles large batches of data without crashing or slowing.

Blackberry Bold The Blackberry Bold was launched after much anticipation, and it was well worth the wait. A thoughtfully-designed improvement on previous Blackberry models, this unit is weighted and sized just right to tick all of the ergonomic smartphone boxes.

Operating numerous applications simultaneously is a breeze, the speed is quite breathtaking. As for the phone features, it has all you would expect from a Blackberry, only all are delivered to a higher spec than ever before. The keyboard is spacious and comfortable, the weighting is perfect, in short it is really satisfying to use.