The story of the year when it comes to the cell phone scene is undoubly the large influx of smart phones, and more specifically touch screen smart phones, onto the cell phone market. Not to say I am complaining; My 3g iPhone and I have one heck of a love affair going.

That being said, I thought it would be good to set up a top 5 list of 2008 cell phone releases. So without further adu...

Release Date: July 11, 2008

You almost don't have to say anything about this phone. But in a nut shell, well thats what it is. It is a multiband world phone, a mobile emal exchange with imap/pop capabilities, ipod, pda, ruler of the web, and a ton more.

In other words, the batter life STINKS! And the call quality is less then to be desired. But It comes with the territory with all the features included.

This cellphone is provided through att, with the 8 gig being $199 and the 16 gig being $299. While the initial prices are relatively low, add in the montly service fee's and you got yourself quite a monthly phone bill.

Overall however the iPhone is hard to beat leaving it at the top of our list of 5 best cell phones of 2008.

Release Date: Q4 2008

This phone is a huge surprise for 2008. I surely did not expect LG to release such a good smartphone that even rivaled the iPhone. Incite runs the latest version of the mobile windows operating system (v6.1) and it is an absolute marvelous cell phone to use. Of course the touch screen isn't as good as the iPones but the call quality and ease of use, plus a 3.0 megapixel camera make this phone a gem. And the battery life is better then a day per charge.

This cell phone retails from AT&T for $199 after mail in rebate.

Release Date: November 21, 2008

This is probably the controversial pick of the article. But RIM's new Blackberry Storm made a valient first effor at the touch screen craze. A lot of the people that reviewed this phone had issues with the touch screen. I for one did not, therefore I can not be as harsh as some of them have been.

The Blackberry Storm's touchscreen is one big machanical button that clicks everytime you touch it. The touch scrolling is a little sensitive, but once you get used to the screen, it is as addicting as our #1 choice the iPhone.

So far online app downloads are limmited. The Battery life is average: Figure on getting a full day's use per charge. It has overseas capapbilities, however the charges may be higher then other worldband phones.

Verizon is selling the Storm for $199 after mail in rebates.

Release Date: Q2 2008

The Nokia e71 is an absolute gem. It does not have a touch screen (although look for Nokia to release a new touch screen in '09), but it seems to have just about anything else you could desire. The e71 is actually smaller in person then in the pictures, and the keyboard while being rather tiny has wonderful usibility. And it has just about every smartphone capapbility you could ask for. Users can even set up 2 seperate home screens; One for work and one for play. And it works with Microsoft email exchange as well as IMAP and POP compatible.

The battery life borders on 3 days off 1 charge. Thats days, not hours. Unfortunately Nokia is not yet offering this cell phone in the United States, but it can be purchased unlocked from Nokia's website for $442.

Release Date: September 9th, 2008

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip best known as the "BlackBerry Flip," does nearly everything that its bigger brothers can do, yet it does them slower and with a little better overall experience. The Flip is the smallest smartphone RIM has, and it runs on the 2.5g networks. In other words it is slightly slower then the 3G phones we've already discussed.

This cellphone does not support GPS, and the camera only sports a 2.0 Megapixel resolution. On the contrary it IS a BlackBerry so it exceeds expectation when it comes to handling your corporate email and just about everything else. The Flip is also the only cellphone on the list that is under $100 offered by T-Mobile after rebates. At that price it is a steal among smartphones.