10 best smartphones to gift!

With Christmas and New Year approaching, it is once again time to make endless trips to shopping malls to select the best gifts for the holiday season.

To make the painful experience, well, less painful, here are the 10 best smartphones to give this year.

Click NEXT to see the top 10 smartphones to gift...

1. iPhone 4S

The iPhone 4S is a touchscreen slate smartphone developed by Apple Inc.

It is the fifth generation of the iPhone, a device that combines a widescreen iPod with a touchscreen, mobile phone, and internet communicator.

It retains the exterior design of its predecessor, iPhone 4, but is host to a range of improved hardware specifications and software updates compared to the previous model.

Integrated software and hardware changes support the introduction of new user interface and functions by Apple.

Highlights include a voice recognizing and talking assistant called Siri, personal computer independence, cloud-sourced data (iCloud) and an improved camera system.

A selection of the device's functions can be controlled by voice.

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2. Samsung Galaxy Nexus

The Galaxy Nexus is a touchscreen slate Android smartphone developed by a partnership between Samsung and Google.

The phone and operating system were developed collaboratively by engineers from both companies.

It is the third-generation successor to Google's previous flagship phones, the Nexus One and Nexus S.

It has a curved HD (1280 720 pixels) Super AMOLED display, an improved camera system, and Google's new version of its Android operating system, version 4.0, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich.

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3. Samsung Galaxy S II

The Samsung Galaxy S II is a smartphone running under the Android operating system that was announced by Samsung on February 13, 2011, at the Mobile World Congress.

It is the successor to the Samsung Galaxy S, with a different appearance and significantly improved hardware.

The Galaxy S II was one of the slimmest smartphones of the time, mostly 8.49 mm thick, except for two small bulges which take the total thickness of the phone to 9.91 mm.

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4. HTC Rezound

The HTC Rezound is the company's first smartphone showing off its partnership with Beats Audio.

The phone has improved sound quality thanks to the Beats tech and even ships with a pair of Beats Audio ear buds.

The Rezound also has a 4.3-inch 720p display, which will be great for watching videos.

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5. Motorola Droid Razr

The Motorola Droid Razr is an Android-based, 4G LTE-capable smartphone designed by Motorola.

The Droid Razr is the thinnest smartphone in the world at only 7.1 mm thick at its thinnest point (it does, however, have a 'bump' on top that's 11.1 mm thick) and includes a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Advanced display, covered in a Gorilla glass screen and a Kevlar back plate.

It is powered by an OMAP 4430 SoC with dual 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor cores.

Its 8 megapixel rear facing camera can record 1080p HD videos. It comes with 1 GB of RAM and runs version 2.3.5 of the Android OS.

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6. Motorola Droid Bionic

If the Razr doesn't do it for you, you may want to check out the Motorola Droid bionic instead.

The Bionic began as one of the most talked about smartphones when it debuted at CES in January 2011.

But months of delays caused Motorola to go back to the drawing board and redesign the phone from the ground up.

The result was pretty good. The Bionic has a 4.3-inch qHD display, Verizon LTE, and a solid 8 MP camera that shoots 1080p HD video.

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7. Samsung Focus S

The Samsung Focus S is a slate smartphone which runs Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 Mango operating system.

Focus S is very similar to the new Galaxy S II Android phones, but runs the latest version of Windows Phone, version 7.5 Mango.

The Super AMOLED display pops, just like it does on the Galaxy phones and the OS is snappy and responsive.

If you're looking for a strong alternative to Android or iOS, this is your phone.

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8. HTC Sensation

The HTC Sensation is a smartphone designed and manufactured by HTC Corporation that runs the Android 2.3 Gingerbread software stack.

Officially announced by HTC on April 12, 2011, the HTC Sensation was launched by Vodafone in key European markets including the United Kingdom on May 19, 2011 and by T-Mobile in the United States on June 12, 2011 (marketed as the HTC Sensation 4G).

It was the first official HTC phone to sport the HTC Sense 3.0 user interface.

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9. Motorola Atrix 2

The phone features many of the same specs as the first Atrix, but this time Motorola is marketing it towards the average user, not just those looking for a superphone.

It's number one pick if you're looking for an Android phone on a budget.

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10. Motorola Photon

The Photon runs a customized interface similar to the standard Android interface with several additions.

Motorola provides custom widgets to toggle settings for airplane mode, bluetooth, wireless 4G access (WiMAX 2.5 GHz), and WiFi access as well as resizable widgets for functions such as the calendar, social networking, a world clock and more.

The Photon's customized interface has seven home screens and four main onscreen buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Of the bottom buttons the left three buttons may be customized to run a programme of the user's choosing, while the right-most button opens the app drawer.