Cell Phones

We at Cell Phones.org have taken some time out of our day to comprise a list of the Top 25 mobile blogs for your reading pleasure. Bear in mind we said “mobile” blogs - we focused only on these and tried to cut out the more broad “gadget” blogs altogether. We’ve organized these roughly based on a number of factors - traffic high among them - but also the value of their posts and level of editorializing. At any point if we had something to remark on concerning the site, we jotted down some thoughts below an entry.

Use this as a guide to some great mobile news around the ‘Net. Enjoy!

1.    IntoMobile

Simple yet with a slick design, this should be your first stop for mobile news on the web. Crazy amounts of updates abound. If it’s about mobile communication, you’ll probably find it here.

2.    GSM Arena

One of the big papa’s of mobile sites. This site enjoys high traffic and a very high page rank, but the home page feels very cramped and the text is too small. However, it is feature packed and there are plenty of hands-on reviews and previews to be had, and the forum - while completely uninspired in design - has frequent discussion.

3.    SmartMobs

SmartMobs is a more thoughtful site less focused on individual product releases and more on the culture of mobile communication. Unique and definitely worth a look.

4.    textually.org

Simple and easy to read (so long as your eyesight is good), textually.org covers a broad range of topics, from phone accessory releases to how mobile phones interact with social networking applications, to fun stories such as a recnt topic on Japanese shrines that bless gadgets. Fun and quirky, this one should be under your bookmarks.

5.    Esato

Esato is subdued with its gray and black tones, providing ease of use in reading. However, the news presentation leaves more than a little to be desired. Hop on over to the forums though - activity is blistering and there are tons of messages to peruse. (An impressive archive of over two million, in fact.)

6.    All About Symbian

This one should be self-explanatory - the world’s largest site covering the        Symbian OS specifically. More niche, but it could be up your alley.

7.    Mobile Crunch

Not too much unneeded window dressing here, and no forums, but Mobile Crunch keeps it real with updated news professionally written, and some useful hands-on product testing before release.

8.    MobHappy

This one should be on your reading list. Consistent stories that are well-written, thoughtful, and pretty darn long on average. The blog doesn’t just rely on product releases and reviews for content, so we were pretty impressed.

9.    The Mobile Weblog

This one doesn’t keep up with some of the above big boys as much on sheer volume of content, but updates are still recent and the site gets a lot of hits for a reason.

10.  Phone Scoop

A relatively simple site with up to date news and a decent forum, but the news write ups are too formulaic and the posts could be spiced up with photos. However, the phone product sidebar does the trick. Phone Scoop is highly ranked and does a lot of things, but none of them terribly well.

11.  Phonearena.com

I’m a fan of the design of this page. The header graphic reminds of Phone Scoop, but the site is more full-featured and better looking, with a busy yet clearly defined highlight system, plenty of hands-on and highly detailed handset reviews, and a forum that, while smaller in overall size, has very high recent posting activity. News is also highly present, although the blurbs on each article are more than a bit short.

12.  MoPocket

MoPocket offers some smart editorializing amidst regular news updates.

13.  Open Gardens

It doesn’t look like much, but there is some authoritative writing and some intriguing ruminating on mobile communications to be had here. The author certainly seems informed, and isn’t content to just reword press releases all day.

14.  Mobile Mentalism

15.  Mobiledia.com

Mobiledia features a clean design and informative reviews, as well as a beefy and frequented forum worth your time. However, the news is often just a copy-and-paste from press releases, which is a big pet peeve of mine and a no-no. High marks for the reviews and forums, low marks on the news.

16.    Mobilewhack.com

MobileWhack isn’t a ritzy-glitzy site, but there is tons of news here. In fact, this should be one of your first stops for news each day, and they do live coverage of events, such as the Sept. 9th Apple “Let’s Rock” conference. No forums here, but that isn’t the site’s purpose.

17.    Mobileburn.com

I don’t like the way MobileBurn’s news module is presented, as it’s less dynamic and doesn’t provide much for ease of use in browsing, but the site still has several things going for it. A nifty flash highlight system tops the front site, and the forums are well frequented among main cell topics - however, don’t bother going here for any off-topic discussion.

18.    Darla Mack

Well updated, and far and away the cutest design of the mobile sites we’ve seen. The header alone provides a nice dose of personality that some of our other entries lack.

19.    Slashphone

Slashphone features a competent news module system for easy browsing, although perhaps a happy middleground between the short blurbs they allow before the “break” and the full post being visible would be nice, seeing as no matter how short the article, users are going to have to click through to the “more” page to get the benefit of the full piece. Also, the forum community is sadly clearly an afterthought.

20.     SprintUsers.com

Self-described as the largest Sprint-only 3rd party resource on the web, the forums are indeed hopping, but the rest of the site leaves a little to be desired. Design is bland and boring outside the flash enabled highlight system (which could have been done better), and the news coverage is very weak - then again, I guess there’s only so much you can write on Sprint. A good resource for Sprint users, however.

21.    Mobile Gazette

A tired web design with spotty news updates characterizes Mobile Gazette, but so does the informational and competently written product releases, complete with nifty “at-a-glance” charts. Forums are absent.

22.    MSMobiles

MSMobiles.com is a rather bland site with an old-school look. The text is certainly readable, at least, and the forums see some decent activity.

23.    Mobile Review

A decent looking site with a plentiful amount of well-written reviews and news, although I’d prefer seeing a news module of sort sort present on the home page; as it stands, you have to navigate away from the front site to reach day-to-day news. Forums are certainly worth a look.

24.    Howard Chui

Howard Chui is a site with a good slate of reviews, but no news. However, this should be your stop for forum discussion, as this is far and away the largest we’ve found. The forums are ridiculously active from hour to hour, and there are over 11 million existing posts. Uninspired design, but inspired discussion!

25.    Imran’s Everything Cellular

Not the most attractive site, but some up to date news and the ability for users to submit and view user reviews.