This year will be a landmark year in mobile phone history, if only for the mega launch of the much-hyped. Apart from the expected - usual increase in camera phone megapixels, the closing of differences between computers and smartphones, and the inevitable slew of designer phones aimed to dent eye and wallet in equal measure - the few devices that would actually make a profound impact on the way we use cell phones figure in this list of chosen five.

HTC Dream
This has got to be the most anticipated device of the year. For those not clued in, the Dream is the code name of the device HTC is designing to run the revolutionary Android platform from Google. Poised to be a totally touchscreen device, the phone will have smartphone as well as multimedia features – from GPS to office suites to push mail to 3D gaming. Of course, most of them will depend on applications developed by Google. Most significantly, the phone is expected to be an economic choice as almost all the software on it will be open source. If implemented successfully, it might just end up redefining the cell phone market.

Nokia N-Gage 2
No, this is not the much-hyped and much-delayed gaming platform Nokia has been nattering about for the past few months but an actual hardware device. Nokia has made no claims in this regard but has evidently filed a patent for a phone that will be primarily designed for gaming. It looks a bit like Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) but shows no sign of a keypad, so we can assume it is a touchscreen. Will it be based on Series 60 or will it be UIQ? Most importantly, will it only play games designed for the N-Gage platform or run routine Java games too? Too many unanswered questions but an intriguing device all the same.