There’s a battle taking place between hearts and minds. It’s being fought by phone manufacturers who are seeking to appeal either to your heart, with cute, fashionable mobiles, or else to your mind, with powerful but less attractive handsets. We don’t generally expect supermodels to be masterminds (genetics couldn’t be that unfair), and the same is true with mobiles. If you opt for a little beauty that’s so cool and slim you can barely detect its presence, then don’t expect the latest features, such as video calling, a high-specification camera or fine music-playback features.

Anyone who seriously relies on a phone to get them through the day wants a brainy phone. They range from full- on smartphones, which can run software programs and often offer a full qwerty keypad, to those with high-end features such as a decent camera, larger screen, advanced organiser and third-generation (3G) connection for downloading multimedia files or e-mailing large attachments. Such a phone is more a reliable aide than a glamorous companion.

Jon Corke, the editor of What Mobile magazine, sees a trend here: “The recent success of Motorola’s Razr, a handset that isn’t particularly blessed with features, suggests that the look of the product is what appeals most to consumers — a triumph of form over function. Finding the right combination of the two is the holy grail for mobile manufacturers.”

Many expected brainier phones to have taken over by now, especially 3G handsets. Instead, the public has largely given them the cold shoulder and flocked to petite beauties that bat their eyelashes, no matter how impractical they may be.

Despite grave shortcomings in the clunky Motorola operating system, the Razr sold like hot cakes. The phone’s distinctive design has since been mercilessly copied, from its flat metal keypad through to its ultra-slim profile. Makers all want to sell the sweetest eye candy possible, head-turners whose functions often prove to be limited and low grade.

Watch out for the flirt that fails to deliver: the offer of music and video without enough memory to store more than a few measly tracks. If entertainment matters to you, look for handsets with a card slot, and factor in the extra cost of at least a 512MB memory card. Likewise if the camera is good and you want to shoot pictures at the highest resolution.

Features on fashion phones can also be merely cosmetic, such as the impractical, touch-sensitive surfaces, instead of buttons, on the latest models from LG and Samsung, both under review today.

LG claims that, since the launch of the Chocolate phone in early June, 2m have been sold worldwide. That’s a big spoonful of chocolate love. Thomas Husson, from Jupiter Research, says: “Design is more important for manufacturers than before, especially among younger owners, for whom their phone is a part of their identity.”

There are, conversely, newer phones that are exceptionally easy to use, such as the commendable Vodafone Simply handsets, which look a little plain but have redefined the term “user-friendly” with novel touches to make life easier.

Choosing a phone shouldn’t come down to the quality of the keypad, though it’s amazing how many phones let themselves down in that respect, which is why, even if it comes with glowing recommendations, it is important to feel a phone in your hand before buying it. Are the keys big enough and spaced widely enough to make dialling and texting comfortable? If a fashion phone has an etched metal keypad, do the keys travel enough that you know you’ve hit them? Fancy-pants phones can be sophisticated enough to boast a basic camera, though surfing the web is a feature that they rarely manage well, because their screens are too tiny.

It’s fair to say that even clever phones are developing better looks. Whereas 3G models with features such as video calling and high-speed data transfer for faster web browsing were once huge, ugly brutes, many have slimmed down to become the size of conventional mobiles. Even if you don’t need the advanced features, it’s worth considering a 3G phone because networks are so eager to switch customers to phones with these potentially lucrative features that they are offering generous renewal subsidies. Husson points out that by last December there were 4.5m users of 3G phones in Britain, making it the second-biggest 3G market in Europe after Italy. And he stresses that it is cheap voice- and text-based tariffs, rather than wallet-stretching video calls (50p/min or more) or other multimedia services, that are driving the take-up.

How do you decide a winner in the battle between form and function? The makers of the brainier handsets argue that a smidgen of extra heft is necessary for many features to work. Certainly, keen texters appreciate properly sized keys, and business users value a qwerty keypad. The brainier the phone, the lighter the load of other gadgets you need to lug through the working day. Meanwhile, all the beauties must do is look alluring.

SUAVE MUSIC MAESTRO
Sony Ericsson W300i — free with contract, or £162 from www.theorder.co.uk

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