My T-Mobile contract is ending this month and I'm struggling to make a decision on what phone to get next. My last contract was with an MDA Touch (original low memory version). I struggled with it for 12 months of the 18 month contract before ditching to a Sony C702.

The Touch REALLY put me off touch screens. I'd had a Motorola touch screen phone (not Windows) and it was slow and unresponsive, exactly the same problem I had with my Touch. I know hardwarte has improved dramatically though with current handsets, but I'm a smartphone user at heart and loved my C500 and smartflip.

The handsets I'm currently looking at are as follows:

HTC S740: It's a smartphone and I've heard good things. I don't need a keyboard, but this is the only smartphone available on contract.

Touch Pro/Vario IV: The only decent handset I can see coming out of T-Mobile at the moment. I'm not sure how keen I am - it's bulky and has a keyboard I don't think I need, but I should get a good resale value on ebay if necessary.

Touch HD: Heard it's good but I think it might be too wide.

Touch 3G: The specs are luring me in, it's the same phone as my last one - but with a good processor and memory.

Samsung i8510: Yes, it's Symbian. Shoot me now.

I need my phone to have the following:

phone. This is important. My Touch dropped calls like it really didn't care.
Organiser. I need to be able to sync to outlook. I know all WM phones can do this, but its still a requirement so listed.
bluetooth. I use the phone whilst driving and so need to pair my headset.
GPS. I have CoPilot for WM which is used frequently (or at least was until I got a Sony phone, where I now use Wayfinder temporarily).
Camera. Only used for the occasional snapshot when out and about with a proper camera, but a better one might make me take more.

I don't particularly want to be flashing ROMs if I don't have to.

I need help.

T-mobile UK may not actually get round to releasing the vario IV... it was launched last may and they seem to prefer to leave it sat in warehouses and try and sell people the G1 instead.

Orange have the HD in stores... so at least you can see how big it is, compared to how big you think it is...

you may also want to add the omnia/XDA-Zest and Xperia to your list to consider

The Omnia I'm really not sure about - I've read so many reviews where some consider it really bad and others praise it as the best phone ever. I've seen it in action in CPW and the screen calibration was well off - although I'm hoping that is just poor set up by staff. Also the real put-off for me is the lack of stylus slot. I used to use the stylus a lot, and the thought of it dangling like some lipstick on the end of my phone is a real bad point.

The Xperia, I kind of like - but I've not found any decent tariffs for it where the phone is free.

I've briefly held an HD before a couple of months ago - I thought it was big, but I've read reviews saying you quickly get used to that, and at the time, I wasn't looking for a new phone for me, so didn't pay too much attention. The Vario IV should be in the O2 shops as the Sella, so I could get a feel for it in there on the off=-chance T-Mobile do release it in time for the end of the month.

just re-read my last post.... and realised i used a / instead of a ,


so if you're looking at the cheap end of the windows mobile range, the XDA-Zest has a lot of banks per buck

Great phone that simply just works

I'm not, I'm looking at the high end of the WM range, but for cheap end prices The Zest isn't convincing me - although it's relatively new. It looks chunky for a phone that doesn't have a keyboard attached, and the memory looks low in my opinion, so I'm unsure how well it would handle.

So I've heard. It has a dust issue though apparently, and only seems to be available on a good deal through mobiles.co.uk. I've read bad things about them, so I'm not sure if I want to buy through them yet. Also, it's Symbian which would mean I'd firstly have to get a new GPS program, and secondly talk to Nokia owners.

Ok, Touch HD is way too big.

S740 is looking like the favourite, but thanks to someone (mention no names, but thanks psionandy), I'm now quite considering the O2 XDA Zest... think I might need to try that one out in store before making my mind up.

Take the Omnia in consideration as well, I've had it for a couple of weeks now and I'm loving it.

If it wasn't for the GPS bit I would recommend the iPhone.
The Touch HD is good - but you say it's way to big - so that probably rules out the Omnia too. So does the fact that you don't want to Flash to often.
Not sure what to recommend - I love my iPhone but the lack of prope SatNav is, IMHO it's one major drawback (it has quite a few minor ones but so do every other phone)

Good luck.

If size is a matter, the HTC touch diamond is a good competitor for your choices.

Thanks for all your replies. I finally made my decision on Friday. My local Orange store offered me the S740 free on their £35 a month tariff - 600 minutes and unlimited texts. They also gave me £100 trade in on my old Qtek 8500/Smartflip which I exchanged for the new 500Mb monthly data bundle. I tried to get CPW to match that on the Samsung i8510, but they were useless.

I've not used the S740 much yet as I'm waiting for a number port, but I've been really impressed so far with the time I have spent with it.