The Gold Standard: iPhone 5s

The best iPhone on the market is, undoubtedly, the iPhone 5s [1] ($199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB). Apple's seventh-generation smartphone, which made its US debut in September, confirmed speculations that the next iPhone would have the Midas touch.

Available in space gray, slate, and gold, the iPhone 5s has just slightly different hardware from the previous generation, but includes Touch ID, which recognizes fingerprints as pass codes, as well as a larger camera sensor and two LED lights that produce a "less harsh" flash.

Essential Specs

• Four-inch Retina display, 1135 x 640, 326 ppi
• Eight MP iSight camera with 1.5µ pixels, f/2.2 aperture
• 1080p HD video, 30fps
• 1.2MP FaceTime Camera, with 720p video recording
• Eight-hour battery life on 3G, 10 hours on LTE, 10 hours on WiDi
• A7 Chip with 64-bit architecture, M7 motion coprocessor
• 4.87 inches height x 2.31 inches width x 0.3 inch deep
• 3.95 ounces
• Available on AT&T Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon
• 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi (802.11n 2.4GHz and 5GHz)
• Bluetooth 4.0

The More Affordable iDevice: iPhone 5c

To appeal to younger users and a growing international market, Apple made its more affordable iPhone 5c [2] ($99 for 16GB and $199 for 32GB, with a two-year contract) official in September. The iPhone's metal backing was replaced with a colorful, plastic-like polycarbonate material reinforced with a steel frame that doubles as an antenna.

On the inside, the iPhone 5c is a carbon copy of the iPhone 5: an A6 processor, 8MP Sight camera, and a four-inch Retina display. There's more LTE coverage available, which means that travelers can now use fast data speeds in more places around the world. A higher capacity battery also means that the 5c has 10 hours of talk time (vs. eight hours of talk time in the iPhone 5).

Android's Bestseller: Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung's Galaxy S4 [3] ($200 with a two-year contract), which runs on Android 4.2.2, is five inches tall and boasts the world's first full HD super AMOLED display. The phone has air gesture recognition and eye scrolling and recognizes touch even if you're wearing gloves.

We thought this futuristic phone had a nice slim form factor, at 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 millimeters, and it weighs only 130 grams. Unfortunately, the hardware still includes the Galaxy's signature plastic polycarbonate backing.

The rear camera takes 13MP photos with an autofocus lens, flash, and zero shutter lag and full HD 1080p video recording. The front-facing camera camera takes 2MP photos with full HD recording at 30 frames per second.

Samsung's Most Advanced Phone: Samsung Galaxy Note 3

In terms of tech, the Galaxy Note 3 [4] ($300 with a two-year contract) is the most advanced Samsung phone available.

The new Note has expanded its display from 5.5 inches to a 5.7-inch super AMOLED 1920 x 1080p screen. Despite the Galaxy Note 3's bigger display, the phone is thinner than the Note 2 at 8.3 millimeters thick and lighter at 168 grams. There's also a new 3,200mAh battery, which Samsung says will power the device for 13 hours streaming 1080p video and almost 15 hours with 720p (vs. nine hours and 11 hours on the Note 2, respectively).

Like the previous generation, users can expect the note-friendly S Pen stylus and multitasking, which are two of the Galaxy Note line's marquee features. In addition to the hardware changes, Samsung introduced category 4 LTE technology, for faster data connection, and multiple bands. The phone runs Android 4.3 Jellybean with Samsung Knox, a privacy safeguard application that, until Wednesday's announcement, was only available for business customers.

Customizable and Made in America: Moto X

Google acquired Motorola Mobility in 2012, and the Moto X [5] ($50 with a two-year contract, or $100 for custom color) is the first new smartphone made in the post-Google Motorola era.

Moto Maker [6] is a website that allows users to go beyond black and white and customize everything from the backplate to the button colors to the wallpaper.

The 4.7-inch Android device has a 720p AMOLED display and 10MP rear-facing camera (2MP front-facing). It's powered by 2GB of RAM and weighs 130 grams. Motorola really focused on maximizing its battery by introducing a technology called "active display," which lights up only a small portion of the screen to show users notifications.

The Moto X can last up to 24 hours on a single charge, according to Motorola.

Another distinguishing feature about the phone is that it is assembled in the USA — Fort Worth, TX, to be exact.

The Phone Made For Android Kit Kat: Nexus 5

Android 4.4, code-named KitKat, is voice-friendly (just say, "OK Google," to start a command), displays media in an immersive full-screen mode, and boasts faster multitasking. The new Nexus 5 [7] ($349 for 16GB or $399 for 32GB) has a bigger display at 1920 x 1080p at 445 ppi and faster processing speeds.

The Nexus 5 also introduces LTE to the Nexus line for the first time (better late than never, we suppose).

Best Android Hardware: HTC One

The all-aluminum HTC One [8] ($200 for 32GB and $300 for 64GB, AT&T only) shed its plastic shells for a premium heavy metal look.

• Android Jellybean (4.3)
• 4.7-inch 1080p display
• Quad-core Snapdragon 600 (1.7GHz)
• 143 grams
• 5.1 x 2.68 x .36 inches

Standout Features

• UltraPixel Camera
• Vine-like video service, HTC Zoe
• Flipboard-like personalized live stream HTC BlinkFeed
• HTC Sense TV, a cloud-based interactive program guide for smart TVs
• 25GB of free Dropbox storage for two years

Rear-facing camera:

• f/2.0 aperture
• 28mm lens
• Smart Flash: five levels of flash determined by subject's distance
• 1080p full HD video for front- and rear-facing cameras
• HDR video and slow motion recording

Front-facing camera:

• 2.1MP
• 88-degree wide-angle lens with HDR

The Best Camera Phone: Nokia Lumia 1020

Mobile photographers, have you met the mega-megapixel Nokia Lumia 1020 [9] ($200 with a two-year contract)? The Windows Phone has a 41-megapixel camera, a 1/1.5-inch sensor, and 7712 x 5360 resolution, which means that Nokia means business when it comes to photography.

• Display — 4.35-inch AMOLED 1280 x 768 screen
• Processor — 1.5GHz Dual-Core
• Rear Camera — 41MP with 10x optical zoom,1/1.5-inch sensor, f/2.2
• Front Camera — 1280 x 960 pixels, f/2.4
• Video — full HD 30p at 1920 x 1080
• Memory — 32GB internal memory + 7GB free cloud storage; 2GB RAM
• Dimension — 130.4 x 71.4 x 10.4 millimeters, 158 grams

The Water-Friendly Android: Xperia Z

We first met the Sony Xperia Z [10] ($480 without contract) at CES 2013, where the Android phone (runs 4.1 Jellybean) wowed us with its water-defying capabilities. The phone can be submerged in three feet of water for up to 30 minutes — and survive. The audio, micro USB, and SIM ports are covered, and tempered glass and anti-shatter film cover the entire body of the phone.

The 4G LTE-capable Xperia Z has a five-inch 1080 x 1920 full HD display and runs on a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor with 2GB RAM. The rear-facing camera captures 13MP images and is the first ever with high dynamic range capability for video. At 7.9 millimeters slim and weighing about 140 grams, the Xperia Z is a lightweight device despite its larger dimensions.

Longest Lasting Battery: Droid Maxx

The Verizon-exclusive Motorola Droid Maxx [11] ($150 with a two-year contract) has a 3500 mAh battery that allegedly holds up to two days' worth of power.

• Display — five inches
• Processor — 1.7GHz Dual-Core
• Rear Camera — 10MP RGBC camera with quick capture
• Video — 1080p HD video capture, up to 60FPS; front-facing: 2MP Full HD Recording
• Memory — 32GB internal memory; 2GB RAM
• Dimensions — 5.41 x 2.80 x 0.28 inches, 5 ounces