iPhone, Palm Pre, Droid: Picking a 2009 Top 10

With the year winding down and the holiday season approaching, it’s not too early to name the top smartphones of 2009. After all, you might want some help with your holiday electronics shopping.

The Palm Pre, the iPhone 3G S and the Motorola Droid from Verizon have all made a big splash this year. But there are seven others worthy of making a Top 10 list of ’09, according to Digital Trends, which ranked this year’s crop based on what it calls “professional reviews and user ratings.”

The Web site puts the Droid at the top of its list, calling it “the redeemer of Motorola handsets and King of Android phones.” The site likes the Droid’s touchscreen appearance, its QWERTY keyboard, built-in voice-prompted Google Maps, MP3 player and more.

Next up – the iPhone 3G S. The Apple smartphone gets praises for a “bounty of improvements to the classic version.” 32GBs makes it lovable, as do its fingerprint-resistant coating, Wi-Fi, picture resolution and more.

Third on their list is the hotly debated Palm Pre. The site says you can overlook its clunkiness because “it’s packing a lot of power under that shiny hardware.” The Pre’s fast operating system, e-mail and messaging capabilities and outstanding camera are all cited as reasons to get this phone.

Digital Trends has seven more phones on its list, and many more reasons why each phone made its Top 10.