Deciding on just which mobile phone to buy can be a brain-numbing experience since devices come in all shapes, colours and sizes, along with all the extra bits such as GPS, camera, and the list goes on. If you prefer life a little simpler, there is fortunately,one specification that has only two check-boxes: touch-screen or no touch-screen.

Believe it or not, there are many mobile users who have a very strong preference over one or the other, just as there are those who swear by Palm, choose nothing but Symbian or love the convenience of Windows Mobile.

Leading the pack in touch-screen phones is the latest from Korean maker LG. The people who brought you the Prada phone, Shine and best-seller (still) the Chocolate, have added another must-have, the LG KU990 or Viewty. Say it fast and you'll be telling people around you that you have a "beauty", and it certainly is.

The new mobile phone bears some resemblance to the Prada, all dressed in black, as well as the Apple iPhone with its large touch screen. The virtual keyboard also bears a strong resemblance to what Apple has on offer, except LG offers haptics technology, sending a vibration each time the keyboard is tapped.

The beauty of the LG KU990 is definitely in the brains of the device. The two years of R&D in South Korea has resulted in a surprisingly light phone that packs a camera capable of taking videos at 120 frames per second, that means s-l-o-o-o-w motion playback of the video taken. This world's first in mobile phones, offers amazingly clear and smooth playback although the super slow playback however left me a little bored at having to wait around for the action to happen, yes, this feature is not for those with a short attention span.

Better for such to spend their time with the still camera that has a whopping 5 megapixels lens and manual options you'd find in a high end camera. Here, it's not just white balance, but setting the ISO, as well as an image stabiliser and a 'smart light' that brightens poorly-lit subjects without the need for a flash. Once you've taken your pictures you can add little touches, such as a scribbled note or doodles, before sending the shots off. You can also share the photos via Google that's built into the phone.

The extra-fast 3.6G connection also makes it a breeze to use the one-touch key to upload to YouTube, the DVD quality videos taken on the phone. Singapore is the first Asian market to see the Viewty on sale and LG is certain that the touch-screen device will prove to users that the Korean firm can be a leader in cutting-edge mobile technology that's also user-friendly.

Another Asian mobile manufacturer that's been grabbing attention is HTC. The Taiwanese firm which broke out of the shadows as an OEM for partners such as HP and O2 in 2006 to launch the HTC Touch in mid-2007 has followed on the success of its slim, touch-screen phone with the HTC Dual.
This, as its name suggests, offers the dual benefits of a touch-screen and a key-pad. The keypad is hidden neatly under the generous touch-screen, sliding out for those who want to key in phone numbers or short messages. To access the rest of the programs on the Windows Mobile 6 phone, users just have to slide their finger up, down or sideways. Add to that routine, the finger flip -to move from one document to another, and the swirl which will rotate photos which you can also zoom in and out of.

Those who prefer to be 100% touch-screen, will be glad to know that a new range of HTC Touch phones are now available, in attractive shades ranging from leaf green to burgundy as well as double the memory (256MB of ROM and 128MB of RAM),and new virtual keypad for easier data input.

The HTC and LG Viewty put up a stiff challenge to those who claim that touch-screen phones can't offer the screen clarity of a non-touch screen phone. However, there can be no doubt that in terms of long-term use, touch-screen phones may have less of an edge since a screen that's cracked or with dead spots will render the device useless.

Making the switch to a phone without a touch-screen can be very hard, but as Palm executives put it during the recent launch of the Palm 500V, all it takes is a few hours. That's true, especially since during that cold turkey period, you'll get tired of slapping yourself each time you touch the screen to find nothing happening! Thankfully, the latest pair of smart phones that don't offer touch-screens are easy to use and cut down your moments of feeling silly to almost zero.

The Palm 500V running on Windows Mobile 6 has all the essentials you need including mobile TV, Windows Live, as well as Organiser (calendar) and Microsoft Mobile Office. It is by far the lightest Palm (120 grams) and with a very clear Transflective colour screen. The 5-way navigation panel and handy quick launch keys are bold, hard to miss and easy to use. However the keyboard can be a little stiff for quick typing. The Treo 500V packs 3G connectivity and 256MB of onboard memory that's expandable with a MicroSD card.

With almost the same specs, including screen size is the MotoQ 9h. Although the Motorola is much broader than the Palm (118mm versus 61.5mm), it is very much slimmer (11.8mm) and with a layout that's just a touch friendlier.

The draw lies in the QWERTY keyboard which has firm, broad and well-spaced keys for a comfortable type. Thought appears to have also been put into the user's experience as the one-touch shortcuts that flank the QWERTY keyboard are really all that a user will want and need. The phone comes with a 2megapixel camera equipped with flash and zoom options, as well as the option to not just save or email your shots, but to instantly send it to your blog via the Opera internet browser on 3G. Also useful is the shortcut to Yahoo!Go and McAffe Virus Scan programme.

Making a choice between the Palm 500V and MotoQ 9h may be difficult, however the balance tips slightly towards the MotoQ 9h because it is very easy to get used to, even if you're more used to a touch-screen phone.