By Francis Agaba

In no particular order, these are the top Smart phone makers, Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Blackberry and HTC. Of late, Blackberry has been sliding from the top position which it once dominated. This is due in part to bad decision making on the part of management, and also the gradual shift of customers from the once dominant Blackberry platform to Google’s Android and Apple’s IOS operating systems. Blackberry recently hired a new CEO. Only time will tell if they will regain their lost glory. So what features differentiate super-phones? For starters, dual core processor, at least 1GB of RAM, a good battery and all the connectivity options expected from a smart phone. Touch screens do not necessarily define a smart phone. Touch screens are nothing more than input devices. Though some people are under the impression that a smart phone must have a touch screen, this is not necessarily true. Most of the phones in this round up have touch screens but the Blackberry Porsche Design edges its way into the top tier of super-phones.The phones that appear in this article are the top of the line devices vying for your hard earned Francs. Samsung Galaxy Note It features a 5.3 inch SUPER AMOLED capacitive touch screen, dual core 1.4GHz processor, 16/32GB internal storage, 1GB of RAM, 8 mega pixel camera with LED flash, Android 2.3.5 operating system, 2500mAh battery, 21mbps internet speed. Other features include, Digital pen, Bluetooth, GPS, WIFI, hotspot, FM radio, barometer, and proximity sensor.Iphone 4/ 4SIt features a 3.5 inch retina display capacitive touch screen, 1GHz processor, 8/16/32GB internal storage, 512RAM, Apple OS4 operating system, 7.2mbps 3G internet, 5 mega pixel camera with LED flash, 1420mAh battery. Other features include, WIFI, Bluetooth, compass, GPS, micro-sim, gyroscope, TV out and Apple’s icloud service Iphone 4S: All the features are identical to the iphone 4 save for the dual core processor, 14.4mbps internet speed, 1432nAh battery and IOS5 operating system. Samsung Galaxy SIIIThe Galaxy S3 is powered by Samsung’s quad core Exynos processor clocked at 1.4GHZ and 1GB of RAM and Android 4. Storage is available in 16/32/63Gb capacities with the option to expand the space with a memory card of up to 64GB. The phone has a huge 4.7inch super AMOLED capacitive display with a resolution of 720X1280. In terms of connectivity, this beast supports HSPA+ (21mbps), WIFI, DLNA, WIFI hotspot, Bluetooth , GPS and USB. It has an 8 mega pixel camera capable of full high definition video recording. Other features include FM radio, a 2,100mAh battery, and the ability to hook up to a TV. The Galaxy S3 also comes with 50Gb of free online storage courtesy of drop box.Blackberry Porsche Design The most distinguishing feature of this phone is the price. Seriously, at £2000 (1,859,211 Francs), this is by the far the most expensive smart phone on the market. This bad boy is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, 768 MB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage. It features a 5 Mega Pixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. On the Connectivity front, you get 14.4Mbps.HTC One –XThis is HTC’s re-entry into the top end of smart phones. In the last couple of years, HTC has been losing market share due to releasing too many products on the market. These were confusing customers and were hurting HTC’s bottom-line.HTC decided to re-invent themselves with the HTC-One line of smart phones. The One-X is the highest rated phone in the line up. This beast of a phone is powered by a Quad-core 1.5 GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and runs Android OS, v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). It also features an 8 mega pixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. It has 32 GB of internal storage and 1 GB of RAM. Connectivity is rated at 21 Mbps. Other features include WLAN, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot.Nokia PurevueThis is not your average Nokia phone. It is the only phone with a 42s pixel camera. This is not a typographical error, 42 mega pixels. Nokia designed this phone to be an imaging device. It is capable of taking better than high end cameras as well as recording video in high definition. However, the PureVue is not powered by Windows Phone due to the fact that it has been in production for 5 years. The phone is powered by a 1.3 GHz ARM processor, with 16 GB storage, 1 GB ROM, 512 MB RAM. It features an AMOLED capacitive touchscreen and WIFI, Bluetooth and DLNA. Connectivity –wise, it boasts of HSDPA 14.4 Mbps.www.afrogeek.tk