When manufacturers issue new versions of phones, the revamped devices usually rank higher than their predecessors. However, Samsung's BlackJack II sports only minor improvements, such as the addition of alphanumeric keys, and as a result its less-expensive predecessor outranks it in our chart.
Palm's latest PDA phone, the Centro, combines great design with EvDO support. It's also reasonably priced at $100--but keep an extra battery handy, because the handset ran out of juice after just 4 hours in PC World lab tests.
The T-Mobile Sidekick LX received a redesign. We found, though, that it works better as a messaging device than as a mobile phone.