Backstage Crew: Day one: Rory

Once you've finished wiping your fingerprints off this very sleek offering from those masters of chic, LG, use it to wipe the drool from your chin. This thing looks hot! When the huge screen is inactive, the front panel creates a perfect mirror, as you can see from my crystal-clear reflection. The brushed aluminum back means that when you're using its 2-megapixel camera, it looks like you're using a camera rather than a cellular, while the GSM model's back has a very stylish, Arabic-looking swirly design on it. Far from being all style and no substance, quality lens producer Schneider-Keusnach has partnered with LG, providing the device with its lens (he's after a bit of Karl Zeiss's limelight!). The Shine has a neat, rolling navigation feature on the front, too, making navigating its menu a breeze.

Backstage Crew photos taken with a Canon PowerShot SD30 Digital Elph and made possible by

I really like the idea of being able to pull out this neat little Internet device to look up something quickly, rather than toting a great, bulky laptop. For people who cart around a laptop primarily for this purpose, I'm sure their vertebra would beg them to make the change. The N800's also quite handy for watching streamed or downloaded video. A really nifty, concealed, rotatable, VGA Webcam pops out of the tablet's side, enabling you to chat with other friends online or to capture images. With Internet calling, instant messaging, and e-mail, you could do without having a cellular at all, provided you never left Wi-Fi coverage. You can use the N800's full-screen, QWERTY keypad with your fingers rather than a stylus, making it easier to input text.

Backstage Crew photos taken with a Canon PowerShot SD30 Digital Elph and made possible by

This could be described as Sony's answer to the N800, though there are loads of features that make it stand apart: a proper keypad for text entry to start with, and a funkier design that comes in a variety of colors. No camera, though. It has 1GB of built-in memory, expandable with Memory Stick Duo. The device will be used to watch downloaded media as much as Web browsing. It boasts a battery that allows eight hours of video playback--you'll run out of stuff to watch before it dies.

Backstage Crew photos taken with a Canon PowerShot SD30 Digital Elph and made possible by

This is my new favorite phone in the whole world, so I was chuffed to discover it will be available Down Under very shortly. The Nokia N95 has a massive screen and an awesome Web browser, and it's HSDPA enabled, so it offers a great Internet experience--I'm going to be unbeatable at pub trivia nights. As I spoke with the Nokia representative, she honed in on our location before my eyes with its built-in GPS navigator. There's a pretty good camera, too; with 5 megapixels, it rivals many standalone cameras. I also need to mention its bizarre, sliding form factor that goes both ways, revealing the usual numeric keypad one way, dedicated music keys the other.

Backstage Crew photos taken with a Canon PowerShot SD30 Digital Elph and made possible by

Now this one's not much to look at, but it's cheap as chips. Motorola makes a concerted play for the mass market in the world's key growth regions with this very basic but sensible model. Designed to combat issues of literacy, it boasts an intuitive menu and, when used as a prepaid phone, automatically tells the user how much credit they have left after each call. It kind of looks like a calculator, though, with its monochrome screen and large, flat form factor.

Backstage Crew photos taken with a Canon PowerShot SD30 Digital Elph and made possible by

The Rokr boasts iTunes, surround-quality sound, and the ability to stream your playlists from your computer, making for a great listening experience. However, with only 512MB of memory included, you might be updating it regularly. The lack of a numeric keypad leaves room for a great big 2.4-inch touch-screen display--hence the included stylus. Razr users won't be familiar with the user interface, though, with its newfangled Mobile Linux Java platform. But it seems very basic, with four shortcut keys up top giving access to messages, contacts, phone keypad, and menu--sort of like a smart phone gone all funky.

Backstage Crew photos taken with a Canon PowerShot SD30 Digital Elph and made possible by

I turned this one around about five times trying to figure out which way it goes. But that's the thing, it doesn't really have a back or a front. Samsung's Ultra music phone compromises the size of the screen on the phone side for a much larger screen on its "media" side. But since the F300 has stereo Bluetooth, FM radio, and some sort of snazzy, Bang and Olufson digital amplifier inside, music lovers will forgive this imbalance.

Backstage Crew photos taken with a Canon PowerShot SD30 Digital Elph and made possible by

I just loved the look of this thing--and that's all I'm going to love, it seems, since it's only available in Korea. More than just a weird-looking format, though, this cellular has something that will really make use of its twisty head: mobile TV through satellite DMB. This means you can watch TV on it directly from the regular TV broadcaster; you don't have to go through your carrier or pay any data or subscription charges.

Backstage Crew photos taken with a Canon PowerShot SD30 Digital Elph and made possible by