The iPhone dominates the smartphone category as the best designed device, according to Kiplinger’s January 2008 issue. However, for those who are curious, several competitors are fighting back, and while none equal the iPhone overall, ome may be a better fit in some cases.

"But each suffers from an electronic case of the Veg-O-Matic syndrome. You remember the infomercial -- the appliance that could slice, dice, cube and make fries, just the way you like ’em. Too many features crammed into too little space sometimes meant mush for dinner. Likewise, smart phones often feel as if they’re 3 ounces of electronics crammed into a 1-ounce box," Jeff Bertloucci wrote.

With a well done, accompanying slide show, Mr. Bertloucci ran down the list of popular competitors to the iPhone’s excellent overall design.

The Nokia N95 was found to have packed every conceivable feature into a phone that has a screen too small to watch videos. It’s unlocked out of the box, however very expensive ($US700). It runs down its battery faster than any other phone he tested.

The AT&T Tilt. It’s built by HTC, has a slide out keypad, and a good display. It has GPS navigation. The bottom line, however, was: "AT&T’s Tilt doesn’t match the iPhone’s elegance and ease of use. The Tilt’s Windows Mobile 6 software will seem familiar to PC users, but the interface is clunky at times."

HTC Touch. Dubbed the Attack of the Clone. The screen isn’t as crisp as the iPhone and it comes standard with a mere 0.5 GB of memory. Mr. Bertloucci’s conclusion: "But the HTC Touch is no iPhone."

Blackberry Curve 8320. "If e-mail’s your thing, the BlackBerry beats the iPhone hands down," the author noted. However, some of the features seemed like afterthoughts to him. The 2.5 inch screen isn’t big enough for watching videos. Nice twist: it can make VOIP calls over a local Wi-Fi network.

In the end, in the author’s opinion, none of the phones matched the iPhone overall. However, the Blackberry Curve is still the enterprise leader for it’s e-mail capabilities.