Top 10 Best New Smart Phones

Best New Smart Phones – #1: Samsung Galaxy Note (AT&T)

What's The Big Deal: A 5.3-inch screen. Arguably the most controversial phone to hit the street in a while, the Samsung Galaxy Note is notable for its enormous 5.3-inch Super AMOLED screen. Why controversial? Is it too big for a phone and two small for a tablet? One wag referred to Note as a "phablet." Plus, you need an "S Pen" – a stylus – to take advantage of some of its tablet features such as S Memo, a multimedia application designed to capture notes that could combine photos, drawings, typed-text and hand-written notes. An interesting idea, but a stylus seems a technological step backwards. Spec-wise, Note runs Android 2.3, is powered by a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, includes 16 GB of memory, Wi-Fi, an 8 MP camera on the back and a higher-res-than-usual 2 MP camera in the front. I'll hopefully have more on Note after I get some hands-on time with it next week. Note is available in carbon blue or white from AT&T for $299.99 with the usual two-year contract.