Best buy is holding a one-day promotion Wednesday that will allow customers to snap up several top smartphones for free.

On August 17, the Motorola Atrix 4G for AT&T, the Nexus S 4G for Sprint, and the Samsung Fascinate for Verizon will be free with a new or upgrade purchase and two-year contract. The offer is good at best buy, best buy Mobile specialty stores, and online at BestBuy.com.

“Our goal is to make it as easy as possible to match people to the smartphone options that are right for them, and we love being able to offer in-demand phones at a great price – free,” Scott Anderson, head of merchandising at best buy Mobile, said in a statement. “We’ve worked very hard to deliver a superior experience in the store and throughout the life of these phones, and will continue to give people a great excuse to come visit us for their mobile needs.”

The Motorola Atrix, which was released in February, is a powerful cell phone that transforms into a laptop or desktop PC. It’s one of the first dual-core Cortex-A9, Nvdia Tegra 2 smartphones available in the U.S., and comes with a 4-inch, 960-by-540 display that PCMag described as “gorgeous.” an initial test showed the device to be somewhat buggy, though a recent update fixed most, though not all, problems. for more, see PCMag’s full review of the Motorola Atrix and the slideshow below.

This is the second time in as many days Best buy has been giving away the Nexus S 4G, meanwhile. The slab-style smartphone shipped with Android 2.3, aka Gingerbread, and featured a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen, 1-GHz processor for showing 3D graphics, VGA front-facing and 5-megapixel rear-facing cameras, and support for near-field communication (NFC). in his review, PCMag mobile analyst Sascha Segan said the Nexus S 4G will appeal to Android purists and software developers, but it otherwise falls short of smartphone category leaders in almost every way. for more, see his full review of the Nexus S 4G for Sprint.

The Samsung Fascinate, meanwhile, is part of the company’s Galaxy S line of smartphones and was released about a year ago. The Android-based phone includes a 4-inch, 854-by-480 Super AMOLED touch screen. it has a 1-GHz processor and was updated to Froyo back in April. PCMag found it to be “another great choice for Verizon Wireless customers.” for more, see our full review.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

Free Motorola Atrix, Nexus S 4G, Samsung Fascinate at Best Buy Wed.

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SAN FRANCISCO – 

With scores of smartphones available, one obvious way for them to stand out is with size. Two new phones take that to extremes: HP’s tiny Veer 4G and Samsung’s massive Infuse 4G.

Both have the foundations of good smartphones, including great operating software and the ability to run on AT&T’s high-speed “4G” network. but their sizes present some major weaknesses, too.

Spending some time testing these phones made it clear that size does matter. Picking a phone that’s too large or too small can make the experience dismal.

I started on the smaller end of the spectrum with the pint-sized Veer, which comes in black or white and is cuter than a cache of cat videos on YouTube.

Styled like a mini version of its bigger sibling, the Pre, the Veer is about the size of a stack of credit cards with a bright 2.6-inch screen on top. the screen slides up to reveal a small keyboard. its battery is rated for a not-so-generous maximum of five hours of talk time, and it includes 8 gigabytes of storage. It costs $99 with a two-year service contract with AT&T.

The Veer is so tiny that it doesn’t even have a built-in headphone jack, a standard smartphone feature that must have seemed too big to cram into its little package.

Instead, its magnetic charging port doubles as a connector for a headphone adapter, which is included. I kept worrying that I’d lose the adapter – until I realized I could just stick it on the fridge.

The Veer uses the webOS operating software, which was developed by Palm before Hewlett-Packard co. bought it last year. the webOS is clean, intuitive and smartly designed. you can see open applications as little “cards” that you can slide across the screen, tap to enlarge or flick to dismiss. There’s also a search feature for quickly searching data stored on the phone and on the Internet.

The Veer’s tiny screen, however, made my hands feel enormous, which they aren’t for someone who is barely 5’3″. I also felt clumsy holding the phone, especially with the keyboard closed, as it felt too small for my hand. like a slippery bar of soap, it almost flew out of my hands several times as I tried to slide open the keyboard. Calls sounded OK, but it was weird holding such a tiny nugget of a phone up to my ear.

The phone includes access to HP’s App Catalog, which has Foursquare, Facebook and some other popular apps you’d find on the iPhone or a phone running Google inc.’s Android software. There are only about 6,000 apps in all, though, so the selection is much slimmer than iPhone’s or Android’s. you won’t find an app for eBay or the “Words with Friends” game here.

The Veer seems most well-suited for “snacking.” You’ll be fine looking up a restaurant, checking email, updating Twitter or any other simple task.

But trying to use it extensively for a single task is difficult and not worth the trouble. although Web pages looked sharp on the screen and videos streamed well over AT&T’s “4G” network, I didn’t really want to read full news articles or watch clips on such an itty-bitty screen. My fingers felt cramped on the tiny keyboard, so I didn’t have the patience to send extensive messages.

While the Veer is too small, in some ways the Infuse is too big. This Frankenphone has a brilliant 4.5-inch display, more massive than nearly every other smartphone on the market. It made a great media player, but it felt awkward to make calls on since it is so wide and tall.

Typing on its large virtual keyboard was often error-free, though sometimes uncomfortable because the phone felt so large in my hands.

It’s not big all over: the phone is a bit thicker than an iPhone, which seems pretty thin given its enormous display. And it’s fairly light, too, at 4.9 ounces, which is just a fraction of an ounce bigger than Apple’s device.

The phone is fast. It opened apps quickly and responded well to my taps on the screen. over AT&T’s 4G network, it was fine at streaming videos and loading webpages. the Infuse is rated for up to eight hours of talk time, so there should be plenty of juice for checking emails, updating Facebook and making calls (which sounded decent).

It’s probably best at playing videos, which I really enjoyed doing on the Infuse because its screen is so sharp and big. More so than many smartphones, the display seems appropriate for watching TV episodes or even full-length films (which you can rent or buy from the built-in Samsung Media Hub).

One cool perk: It includes an HDMI adapter, which fits into its charging port so you can connect the phone to your high-definition TV with an HDMI cable and watch videos on the larger screen. the adapter also has a charging port on it, so you can charge your phone simultaneously.

The Infuse’s 8-megapixel camera is good, though I sometimes had trouble focusing it. It had a bright flash and a number of adjustable settings. you can always add a camera app from the Android Market if you want more options such as color filters. There’s also a much lower-resolution camera on the front for taking photos or videos.

The Infuse has 16 GB of internal memory and 2 GB more on a microSD card. It costs $200 with a two-year AT&T contract. the phone runs version 2.2 of Google inc.’s Android software, which is available on plenty of other devices but isn’t the latest version for smartphones.

I’m a fan of compact electronics, and I’m a sucker for a big, bright touch screen. but these phones both felt too extreme for me.

When it comes to smartphone sizes, I’ll stick with a medium for now, though.

Review: For smartphones, what’s too big or small?

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See the article here:Best of Smartphone Experts, 17 April 2011

SBSToronto.ca » Best of Smartphone Experts, 17 April 2011

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I found lots of comparisons on youtube for HTC Evo 4g vs "Droid X", but I have the original Motorola Droid, and am thinking of switching to sprint, who offer the Evo 4g as their flagship smartphone. perhaps the other part of this question should be "Sprint vs Verizon". I'm pretty sure I can get the same plan and features with Sprint for about $100/mo vs the $135/mo I'm currently paying with VZW. Also I heard that Sprint uses Verizon towers, can anyone comment on this or on coverage/reception and call droppage between the two carriers? I'm in NC. thanks for any help

Sprints plans a a bit better and cheaper. the EVO is also a bit better. It has a front-facing camera for video-chats which the Droid-X lacks.

Motorola Droid vs HTC Evo 4g?

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Launched in 2005 to replace the iPod Mini, iPod Nano has quickly become the most popular Walkman brand, despite the introduction in 2007, the iPod Touch which is still a top range. It is true that the Nano small, unlike the older iPod Classic, still has many strengths, including its small size and colorful dress that make it a very attractive player. Proof of its success is undoubtedly the star of the 2009 series between an iPod Touch that evolves as technology and an iPod Shuffle which merely reproduces colors. Without changing so drastically last year, the new Nano is enhanced with a video camera (strangely absent from the Touch) and a few aesthetic improvements or internal.

One player finally maturing?

Since its introduction, the iPod Nano has undergone many changes in its functionality as in design ranging from one year to another in the form of screen size or materials used. the fifth version of the player seems to finally bring some stability with a model who wants a significant evolution, but gently, the previous model. a double-edged observation: if the iPod Nano fifth of the name is an attractive player, has he sufficient reasons for an owner to iPod 4G, cracking again? We try to answer these questions.

iTunes: a revolutionary V9?

Along with its new line of music players, Apple also introduced the new version of iTunes, described by Steve Jobs of the most important development of iTunes for a long time. In fact, iTunes 9 makes several changes in its interface as in that of its online store, a few new features such as shared library between authorized computers or reorganization of applications for the iPhone or iPod Touch and a new format virtual album, meant to restore “LP” their visual side lost with dematerialization. the complementarity between the iPod and iTunes have made Apple’s success so far, we focus also on iTunes 9, a figure definitely in the air.

Best mobiles -: 5G iPod nano and iTunes V9.0, the test of music.

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