Top 5 smartphones with killer looks and performance

We help you with a list of five phones that will make your friends jealous (unless they have one of the other four from this very list!).

For someone buying a phone in this category, budget isn't a very strict criterion. What matters a whole lot is performance, good looks and the oomph factor.

The phones in this list are chosen simply in terms of their stand-out-in-a-crowd rating! May you buy the phone that best suits your personality.

1. Motorola Razr

This is the phone that really surpasses them all. It is wearing Kevlar, and we think it should be deployed for service either in Afghanistan or Iraq!

Incidentally, Kevlar is the material that is used in bulletproof vests that military personnel wear.

Razr looks absolutely gorgeous, even more so because it is the slimmest phone at the moment, if you discount the part that houses the 8MP camera.

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The width of the phone is a bit of an issue, because of the wide bezel around the screen. Can be a bit problematic to hold and type with the same hand.

Our performance tests proved that it isn't a slouch when it comes to performance either. Whichever way you look at it, you can't deny that it is one good-looking phone.

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2. Apple iPhone 4S

It looks exactly like the iPhone 4, and that caused a lot of anger to spread around the World Wide Web. We don't think it is a bad deal, considering the iPhone 4 is one of the sleekest phones around. But it doesn't really distinguish your iPhone 4S from the neighbour's iPhone 4.

Not very light, but sits snuggly in the hand and very comfortable to use. Hardware is bumped up as well -- faster processor, improved graphics, better camera, more minimum storage and a slightly bigger battery.

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The iOS 5 updates adds goodies like iCloud storage, notifications bar and the friendly personal assistant Siri. The only thing that goes against it is the price, but do the fans really care?

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3. Samsung Galaxy Note

Trust us when we say this -- we were very surprised to find that the Galaxy Note was the fastest among all our Android phones in the comparison test. With the best benchmark scores around, the Note does make us wonder -- is it really a smartphone, or a small tablet.

The big screen makes the touchscreen experience even more comfortable, and the S-Pen is a utility that may use sometimes to modify images, mark notes on web pages etc.

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For its size, the Note is surprisingly comfortable to hold and use. For this price, we have to recommend it. This one grabs the eyeballs because of its sheer size!

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4. BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900

We cannot stop raving on about this one. By far the sleekest BlackBerry smartphone we have seen. RIM has made a looker, with dollops of functionality added to the package.

We also cannot stop praising the amazing QWERTY keypad -- extremely comfortable to use, well spaced out and affords a better key size than most phones.

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The touchscreen display is quite good as well. This is a must have for anyone whose organisation demands he/she use a BlackBerry phone, or just plainly wants to use BBM in style!

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5. HTC Sensation XE

It was a toss-up between the XE and the Samsung Galaxy SII for the final spot, but the HTC Sensation XE wins it. Thanks to the classy design mixed with a bit of red signifying the Beats Audio special edition, the already classy Sensation began to look even better.

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With the 1.5GHz processor driving the OS, performance is very good. HTC Sense has been slightly tweaked further, and the big change is that it is smoother than the one on the Sensation.

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