Revisiting some top handset picks for professionals

A full year has gone past and some are faced with that decision "What phone should I change to?". I assume that as a successful and internationally 'traveling' professional you will have any choice in the world. I do not assume what sort of user you are, so let's go for some quick choices:

- The road warrior: you typically don't care about a phone that allows you to do everything, but you would still like some email connectivity and some browsing. What you do care about is voice and texting...you care about it a lot and you need a long battery life and a nice looking phone that doesn't compromise too much. MY CHOICE: The Nokia E52 - well, it is one of those great phones with a battery life that is just ridiculous with close to 1 month in stand-by and around 3-4 days with extremely heavy usage of voice, email and browsing. It is a 16-key so not a fantastic email experience, but you can still get it on that tiny - and beautiful looking - handset.

- The thumb addict: you really want to message... email is your communication mean of choice, voice is important but typically not all that heavy... as you may even consider having a handset for that. You are typically not a heavy browser. MY CHOICE: The Blackberry 9700 "Bold 2" - thumb addict and Blackberry seem to go together. The 9700 is a great QWERTY Blackberry following such greats as the Curve or the original Bold. It is smaller and lighter than the original Bold and it doesn't have that damn trackball that seems to stop working every once in a while... Mind you, I am not a huge fan of virtual stick (or whatever they call it) but at least it will likely work throughout the life of the handset. The rest is pure Blackberry - great email experience, fast, ok on calls, not so good on browsing. "Why not the curve or some of the other small new QWERTY keyboard Blackberrys"... well, because this one is 3G (actually HSDPA) so it will actually work around the world... now that's international!

- The multimedia guy/gal: you want a decent phone with decent email and phone capabilities, but you want mostly multimedia - your videos, your music, browsing, etc. MY CHOICE: The Apple iPhone 3GS - ok, the 3GS wan't that much of a revolution as it was marginally evolutionary, but the iPhone is still the best multimedia handset out there. You get all the iTunes stuff to just work, you get apps (oh those games !!!) ...many, many, many apps. The browser is probably still the best around, with the exception of the Nokia N900 browser or the Firefox mobile 1.0 version for the same handset... but the N900 is a geek phone...really... trust me.

- The personalization addict: you are probably fed-up of the iPhone; after all, everyone has one. Multimedia is interesting and you do appreciate good browsing and doubletwist (that app a bit like iTunes) sorts out your problems. You are looking for a great phone, that looks good, does everything it should do - voice, SMS, email, IM, etc - and it adds some very nice looking graphics. MY CHOICE: HTC Hero - I know many would go with the "supposedly" top Android phones of the moment - the Google/HTC Nexus One or the Motorola Droid/Milestone. The fact is the Moto Droid (or Milestone) are great phones but they are more texting heavy. The Nexus is great, it feels and somehow looks like an iPhone (hey it took 2.5 years to replicate the look, so no jokes), but it runs... Android. That said, HTC's Sense implementation on top of Android 1.5 is still better than the more advanced "original" (the Nexus One runs Android 2.1): 7 screens versus 5, customizable themes that you can easily switch depending on situation / mood, great looking new widgets... Google's Android is obviously a great choice: multi-tasking allowed, good looking graphics, good performance, great application ecosystem (2nd only to Apple's).

- The multitasker: you want to have a phone that, not unlike your laptop, keeps windows around and you can see everything that is going on. You likely also want some good looking graphics, decent browser, good voice, good texting, email, etc. You likely appreciate that your accounts (those things in the cloud) can sync seamlessly. MY CHOICE: The Palm Pre or Palm Pre Plus. The "card system" to show the different apps that are running is great... it does make life look "diverse". It syncs out of the box with Linkedin, Facebook and Google... which is a great start. It is good looking and the UI also looks great.

Heading to Barcelona and the Mobile World Congress

Well, it's that time of the year again...the mobile world congress.

This year I am definitely looking forward to it: given that it is during Chinese New Year, my wife will join me and finally be able to explore Barcelona... I am unlikely to be able to explore Barcelona but at least will have her around during my birthday and Valentine's day.

The cherry on top is that we will stay at the new W Hotel. I am a big fan and this will be the 10th different W hotel I stay at. We recently had some issues at the W Hong Kong that ended up sorted after several interactions with the GM and a senior APAC VP. To be honest, they did show they care and that is all that matters. So, all and all, looking forward to the first W I visit in Europe.

Finally, looking forward to some of my local favorites, such as Moo Restaurant at the Hotel Omm, the Sagrada Familia Cathedral (yes, the one that isn't finished yet :-)), the Marina, Montjuic and its lovely (and expensive) restaurants... oh, and of course, the MWC itself. I will probably end up with a quick visit to the Hotel Arts (of course, one of my favorites) and will go for some Flamenco show (wife "oblige"). Bullfighting only in April so a no go this time, and tapas time !!!