I’m over 8 months into my latest mobile contract, which means an upgrade is less than a third of a year away, but, unusually for me, I have no idea what my next phone is going to be. Usually at this point in the year, I’m desperate to chuck the old thing in for virtually anything… but this time around, (1) my existing handset, the MDA Touch Plus / HTC Touch Dual has proved remarkably resilient against decay or technological out-innovation and (2) all the new devices I might consider have been stubbornly refusing to include keypads. My current phone has HSDPA, a 2MP camera, Windows Mobile 6, a touchscreen and a keypad. I’d like the successor to have most of the above (I’m more open on operating systems with the launch of Android) PLUS GPS (maybe, see earlier post…), Wifi, a higher resolution camera and maybe even a flash.

Front runners? The HTC HD (not announced on any UK networks yet AFAIK, no keyboard), the T-Mobile G1 (tempting, but can I cope after the pain that was the HTC Tytyn 2 – I need a keypad, not qwerty!) and maybe some variation on the HTC Diamond. Garrh – none are ideal – don’t people like physical keypads on smartphones anymore? I’m hoping that HTC comes out with a successor to the Touch Plus with the enhancements that I’m after. Maybe even one running Android… That would be ace, though sounds like they’ll be banking on the G1’s success for a while…

Any recommendations from anyone out there? How’s the new SE Experia X1? What about the Samsung Omnia? Or should I just stay with my existing phone, try to negotiate a discount on the tariff and hold out for the duration of the economic crises/credit crunch/soufflé deflation of the financial markets? Thoughts on a comment appreciated.

This post was inspired by my learning some new features on the HTC designed skin on Windows Mobile, ‘Touchflo’, that really makes me enjoy using it as a camera too.

Oh – T-Mobile is an agency client, but I don’t know anything you don’t and I couldn’t leak it on here if I did… Consider yourself disclaimed.