Cloud based data management

Product Round-up At the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona earlier this year, Google chief Eric Schmidt famously said that he expected Android smartphones to be as cheap as normal phones as soon as 2013. The current sub-£200 Sim-free sweet spot in 2012 means you can expect large screens and a variety of processors. Yet don't expect iPhone 4S Retina display crispness, those large screens inevitably come at a lower resolution.

Still, even cheaper displays are suitably responsive these days and you can expect decent cameras and as standard. A major consideration for touchscreen handsets should be ease-of-use and Android's user interface is maturing into a worthy rival to Apple's iOS. Moreover, manufacturers are free to tweak as they see fit, providing their own interface modifications to differentiate the user experience from vanilla Android instals.

While the most basic Android phones have few enhancements, here the focus is on models in the £100-£200 price range that offer that little bit extra. There are plenty of cheaper Android handsets out there and we'll be looking at the sub-£100 models next month.

Alcatel One Touch Ultra 995

The Ultra 995 offers a massive amount of spec for your money and albeit running Android 2.3, is well-equipped for its promised Android 4.0 upgrade. The 480 x 800 pixel 4.3in screen, 1.4GHz processor and 5Mp camera are all at the top end of expectations for this price tag. Build is impressive too – not the most unique in terms of style but slim (9.7mm) and the Ultra 995 is stuffed with useful pre-installed apps and a 4GB SD card.

The 3D style user interface is clear and works well and the HDMI socket (cable not included) and DLNA functions are a pleasant surprise. Aiming at the Orange Monte Carlo, the Alcatel wins the battle with ease. There’s very little to complain about aside from the lacklustre internal speaker.

HTC Desire C

HTC signed a deal with DropBox this year, so you get 25GB of free on-line storage for two years with the Desire C. It's a pint-sized HTC smartphone and a slicker take on the Galaxy Ace and Galaxy Mini 2. The impressive unibody design is accompanied by a great start-up guide and useful pre-installed apps.

The 5Mp camera produced good results although there’s no flash. The 3.5in 320 x 480 screen suffers in daylight and needs a brightness tweak but it’s forgivable as the only smartphone on test with Android 4.0, as standard, which runs well on the 600MHz processor. Beats music tech is novel rather than impressive and the 4GB storage will need a MicroSD card boost, as the Desire C is a great music player. While ICS on-board is a big bonus, if it weren't for the screen resolution and brightness, the Desire C would have been Ed's Choice.

Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery

Next page: HTC Wildfire S