Cell phones.(RATINGS)(Buyers guide)

After choosing a carrier, your main decision is whether to buy a basic or advanced phone. Choose a basic phone if you're interested in no-frills, mainstream telephony. They usually have simple keypads for easy operation, and are often inexpensive ($50, or less) or free with a two-year contract (though peculiar carrier pricing can sometimes make them more expensive than advanced models).Most basic phones have low-resolution (VGA) cameras. More useful technologies, such as Bluetooth for wireless headsets, are becoming more common.

Step up to an advanced phone if you want a music player, a higher-resolution camera, and the faster Web browsing and file downloads of a high-speed data network. Advanced phones typically have memory-card slots (the card's often extra) for storing your pictures and songs, or transferring them to and from other devices.

AT&T and T-Mobile models had higher overall scores than Verizon and Sprint Nextel largely because of their longer battery life, a hallmark of the GSM-network. On the other hand, Verizon and Sprint Nextel phones, which run on CDMA networks, tend to have better voice quality, particularly for listening.

Guide to the Ratings

Overall score is based mainly on voice quality, ease of use and talk time, and sensitivity also is considered. Due to test upgrades, results may vary from past Ratings. Ease of use considers display and keypad readability under different lighting conditions, as well as the number of step-saving functions for making and receiving calls. Listening quality reflects what you hear; talking quality, what's heard by other phones. Tests were conducted in noisy and quiet environments using live phone calls indicated by carrier used. Talk time (hours) is an average from tests with strong and weak network signals; time may vary with data applications. Sensitivity reflects voice quality when receiving a weak signal. The scores are relative among the phones only within the carrier group, not between carriers. Alltel price indicates which Verizon phones are also available from Alltel, and what Alltel charges for them. But the performance scores apply only to the Verizon phones. Price is based on a two-year contract in early March 2007 from the indicated carriers, including rebates.