Three mobile phones walked away with a title at the 2008 annual European Imaging and Sound Association awards as being voted the best in their selected fields. The Walkman-series flagship Sony Ericsson W980, the multimedia powerhouse Samsung G810 and the HTC Touch Diamond were the deserved and maybe lucky winners in one particular case.

European Music Phone 2008-2009

Panel – Mobile Devices

Brand – Sony Ericsson

Model – W980i

The Sony Ericsson W980i took the trophy for number one music phone by some margin and in my opinion quite rightly so. Thanks to it’s sleek and stylish black design, the amazing number of supported audio formats and overall high level of functionality and performance it came head and shoulders over the rest of the competition. It is simply the latest triumph in the long line of successful Sony Walkman-series handsets.

Quick Description

The W980i is loaded with 8 GB of internal memory, a 3.2 Megapixel camera which is very impressive for a music based phone, an FM tuner, Bluetooth stereo, and a music player that operates even with the phone flip-lid closed. One smart innovation is the built-in FM radio transmitter, which broadcasts music playback to a standard car radio, even transferring artist and track details via RDS. Obviously the W980i comes with all the perks of previous models such as dedicated music button etc. however two excellent NEW features are the SenseMe and Shake control. These group tracks by mood enabling track changes and entire playlist shuffling with just a simple flick of the wrist.

European Smart Phone 2008-2009

Panel - Mobile Devices

Brand - HTC

Model - Touch Diamond

The HTC Touch Diamond beat off tough competition from the likes of Sony Ericsson’s G900 and Samsungs new ‘Omnia’ to land the title of smart phone of the year. HTC have taken a great leap forward in touch screen innovation with the release of the Touch Diamond and the ground breaking 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D which provides animated access to contacts, messaging photos and music.

Quick Description

The Touch Diamond is a handset that is certain to attract undivided attention from gadget enthusiasts from all over as it is packed with innovative new ideas and features. Underneath the Touch Diamond’s glossy, stylish case contains an operating system based on Windows Mobile v6.1 Pro, enhanced by the new 3D TouchFlo interface. However putting all the flashy image and words aside, the diamond is a serious performing handset. It supports HSDPA Mobile Broadband download and upload speeds, includes Wi-Fi support and Bluetooth 2.0 and to top it all off a 3.2 megapixel camera, 4GB of internal memory, an FM radio and GPS navigation.

European Photo Phone 2008-2009

Panel - Mobile Devices

Brand - Samsung

Model - SGH-G810

Taking gold in the camera phone category this year was maybe surprisingly the Samsung G810. There is no doubt it is a top phone however few have even heard of this model so I think I’m going to have to disagree with the nice people of EISA as I have my own favourite in this department. Yes it has a 5 megapixel camera, 3x optical zoom, xenon flash and numerous camera-style functions however so do many other 5 megapixel cameras in recent times. My personal favourites for sheer camera quality are the 8GB Nokia N95 and also due for release on august 29th exclusively to Mobiles.co.uk is Samsung’s imaging powerhouse, the Samsung i8510 which boasts an 8 megapixel camera!!

Quick Description

One of the highlight features of the multi-talented Nokia N95 smartphone is its 5-megapixel camera. To optimise the quality of photographs, Nokia has equipped the N95 8GB with top of the range Carl Zeiss optics and Tessar lens. The phone is capable of producing high quality images that can be printed out in standard 6×4 photo size or larger, just take a look at the image inset if you don’t believe me.

The N95′s shooting ability is enhanced too by its autofocus system, macro shooting, and built in flash with red-eye reduction, to mention a few of an impressive list of helpful little features.

The Nokia N95 8GB’s video shooting capabilities aren’t too shabby either; it can capture MPEG-4 video in VGA quality at 30 frames per second, delivering images that are among the best quality yet produced by a mobile phone.