RRP: $TBA

The Wildire, hitting Australia via Telstra in August, but already available overseas, is quite possibly the Tamagotchi of the smartphone market. It's cheap, it's light, but it's also a joy to use.

We'll have to wait for the local release to give a final verdict, but it seems the Wildfire is the phone for those looking for a cheap entry to the Android market, while also getting a simple, fairly intuitive interface.

Image courtesy of HTC.

RRP: $849

If you're looking away from the safe, padded hands of Apple, but still want to take a piece of the familiar iOS with you, the Galaxy S is your phone.

The interface is almost identical to that of the iOS, except it comes with all the added Android extras: widgets, home screen wallpapers, and more. It runs Android 2.1, and, most importantly, slaughters the iPhone on battery life.

Image: Samsung

RRP: Currently Unavailable

The Backflip is an example one of those bizarre cases where something is named after its most distinctive feature. The Backflip almost literally backflips as part of its regular use.

Instead of featuring a slide-out keyboard, or going the traditional clamshell route of ramming the keyboard and screen together, the phone actually opens more like a book, with the backs of the keyboard and screen touching when in the closed position.

Unfortunately, performance isn't that great, and it's really designed as more of a compact feature phone than a fully-fledged mobile computer, but for those who want to dip their toes into the smartphone market, this isn't a half-bad place to start.

Image: Motorola

RRP: Unavailable in Australia

The Droid X, at this point only available in the US on the Verizon network, is the true man phone. Where the Wildfire is slim and petit, and the iPhone a unisex fashion accessory, the Droid X is the Android handset you use to squish lesser phones with.

The drawcard is the 4.3 inch screen, which is great if you want to use it as a video-playback device, in particular. However, there have been some concerns about the amount of extra software loaded onto the device that can slow it down.

Did the muscly man-phone just come over all bloated?

Image: Motorola

RRP: $599

The Legend is essentially the bigger brother to the Wildfire. It sports a better screen, with a higher resolution, but still has that familiar HTC Sense interface, and most of the same features.

It does also have a meatier processor packed into that lithe frame, which will help the apparent speed of the device, but if you're looking at this phone, it's really because you want the larger screen, and you don't mind plonking down a few more dollars to get it.

Image: HTC

RRP: $799

The Dext is one of the older Android handsets still on the market today and was designed to mainly focus on social networking. You know, those Twitter and Facebook things.

The problem is, its release in Australia was a little late, meaning more mature handsets were already doing the rounds. Lesser performance speeds, a stodgy keyboard and old, old Android 1.5 let it down in today's market.

Image: Motorola Dext