2009 has seen some astonishingly brilliant smartphones turn up on the market, and now it’s time to find the cream of the crop. Let’s have a look at the main contenders for most incredibly phone of 2009.

Nokia N900

We begin with the most advanced smartphone in Finnish manufacturer Nokia’s catalogue. Their latest smartphone is the first in a new breed; it is the first phone in history to use the new Maemo operating system (heretofore seen in the Finnish manufacturer’s selection of tablet computers). Say hello to the Nokia N900. The Maemo OS gives the Nokia N900 a touch friendly UI, and not only that, but the handset has got a built in QWERTY thumbboard, meaning that it has therefore got more methods of interacting with the phone than ever before. It isn’t solely about the UI, though, since the Nokia N900 is packed to the gills with high-end features. A 5 megapixel camera makes for superb photos, the media playback is stunning, and with HSDPA and GPS, the Nokia N900 certainly isn’t short of connectivity options.

Palm Pre

However, in the world of user interfaces, one phone destroys both of the other handsets in this article, hands down: the unique Palm Pre. The reason for this is simple: the Palm Pre is designed on an entirely custom OS known as WebOS, that is easily the sleekest, most intuitive UI that’s ever been released. As well as intuitive gesture controls and finger sweeps for EVERY action on the phone, the Palm Pre also includes tight synergy between its different apps. Book a movie ticket on one app, and the Palm Pre immediately updates the calendar with the time. Multitask lots of powerful apps, and watch the Palm Pre scream along without any effort or lag. When it comes to the user interface, basically, the Palm Pre just cannot be beaten!

HTC HD2

So, we have the Nokia N900 with the Maemo UI, and then there’s the Palm Pre, which uses WebOS. And then you have the HTC HD2; it holds the record for the biggest display seen on any mobile phone. At a whopping 4.3 inches, it is truly vast, and the WVGA, 800×480 resolution makes it genuinely easy to use things such as scrollbars and drop-down menus. However, the HTC HD2 actually does a superb job of making it so you don’t need to drill down into the normal Windows menus very often, because sitting atop the operating system, the interface is HTC’s brilliant Sense UI, where every interaction happens through a range of finger swipes and sweeping gestures. It is truly intuitive, and it (along with the truly awesome 1GHz Snapdragon processor) is what makes the HTC HD2 such a pleasure to use. Of course, it’s not all about being raw processing power, a phone needs to have decent features and the HTC HD2 has them in spades, from the 5 megapixel camera, through GPS, to incredibly fast HSDPA internet access (not to mention the superb Opera Mobile web browser), which is why many people see it as the best mobile phone EVER.