Holiday Gift Guide: Smartphones
Monday, December 3, 2012 at 8:15AM 
It’s a great time for buying smartphones as the range of models this year is simply staggering and with the arrival of 4G-LTE as a high speed data standard, the advent of NFC (Near Field Communications) for mobile payments plus improved cameras, more memory and better performance make these smartphones the presents to knock anyone's holiday socks off.
Thinner than ever, the iPhone 5 is even lighter and more powerful. New for this year is the arrival much awaited 4G-LTE data connectivity, an improved 8 megapixel camera and a larger 4-inch Retina Display enabling a new row of icons yet still making it possible to navigate the iPhone with one hand. The iPhone 5 also introduces the new Lightning connector, so grab a few of those for stocking stuffers since the old dock connector is history.
The jewel-like iPhone 5 features a faster A6 processor and 1GB of RAM and various apps are being adjusted to make the most out of the larger screen size. Already in high demand, this is expected to be one of the biggest sellers this season.
Too expensive? The iPhone 4S is still a standout device and has a ton of cases and accessories already available.
This is the most powerful Android smartphone in Canada right now and a study in functional yet minimalist design. The Optimus G may not look as fancy as a lot of its competitors but it has a dignified and smart design and a lot of power under the hood. A quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage gives this device notebook-levels specs in a smartphone and the 8MP camera and crisp 4.5-inch IPS HD screen endow it with serious multimedia cred. This is one of the best phones in the market today, great work LG.
Other key features include the ability to play HD video on a layer while you work on other apps plus the Quick Memo feature makes it possible to captur and annotate anything on screen for sharing. The Optimus G will be able to project video and images wirelessly to Miracast enabled devices like HDTVs. I have used one for weeks and the battery life is also quite impressive.
HTC One X +-
HTC’s unibody polycarbonate design, clean lines, stunning screen and improved specs make the One X + a kickass holiday present for anyone. How did HTC improve on their best model? They made it 67% faster with a 1.7GHz quad-core processor, gave it 2X more storage with 64GB internal memory and managed to give it "up to 50% more" battery life than One X which is already considered one of the best phones this year,
Known for its superb camera (shoot stills and HD video simultaneously), sculpted slim design and powerful performance, the HTC One X+ should be on every Android user’s wishlist.
This juggernaut features a 4.5-inch TrueBlack display, a superb 8.7 megapixel PureView camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a floating lens mechanism for image stabilization. Nokia has also included a full menu of its augmented reality and navigation apps to this bona fide pentaband (will work on most GSM carriers) world phone.
Running Windows Phone 8, the Lumia 920 may not have access to as many apps as competing iPhones or Androids but it has enough for most people and the clutter-free and intuitive tile based interface of Windows Phone 8 suits many user's needs perfectly.
4G-LTE, NFC, Inductive charging and Nokia’s suite of apps including the best free turn-by-turn navigation we’ve seen on a smartphone. Sure, it is big and burly but the Lumia 920 makes Windows Phone 8 a formidable OS and it is also the toughest smartphone around. Too bad it is only available on Rogers.
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