The HTC Desire is one of the hottest phones currently on the market and its popularity has led to shortages in stock levels. If you are planning to pick up a Desire with the intention of taking it abroad, then its roaming abilities should not disappoint. The Desire is compatible with the majority of international networking standards and its quad band compatibility means that it will operate well in both Europe and the USA. Selecting a network by hand or allowing the Desire to choose an appropriate foreign provider is open to preference and its simple, intuitive menu system with touch sensitive interactions should further simplify things.

The Samsung Tocco Lite is a popular entry-level smartphone that lacks the high end hardware of its more expensive peers, but still has the necessary software and connectivity tools to make it well equipped for use overseas. You will not have to alter any of its core settings for use when roaming, because by default it is set to seek out an appropriate foreign carrier when it is taken overseas. However, you can use its touch screen interface to make your own manual selection of a network, which may be useful if you know that your domestic provider has a roaming deal with a specific partner in your destination.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is not only an excellent smartphone powered by the Android platform, but it is also a suitably versatile travelling companion thanks to its quad band network connectivity and its ability to download at high speeds via HSDPA and 3G networks. The Xperia X10 has received critical appreciation for its roaming capabilities and you can set the phone to automatically choose a suitable alternative to your standard network provider if service is unavailable or you are out of the country with your phone. Alternatively you can use the wireless controls menu to manually select from a list of available providers.

The BlackBerry 8520 Curve is a smartphone specifically designed for the business user with fairly serious messaging requirements. Its full QWERTY keypad simplifies typing longer messages and it is optimised for email. Because the target audience will be expected to travel to different regions, the 8520 is a quad band compatible handset, which means that most international destinations will offer networks to which it can connect. The 8520 also boasts integrated wireless connectivity, which uses the universal Wi-Fi b and g standards, so internet connectivity for messaging, web browsing and email access is also possible no matter where you go.

The Nokia X6 is one of the Finnish manufacturer’s flagship smartphones and its generous 16GB of on-board memory means that it is a traveller’s dream. You can fill it with hours of music and video, allowing it to act as a multimedia hub for your time away. The X6’s touch screen display and intuitive menu system are coupled with the powerful Symbian operating system. As with all good smartphones, it is compatible with multiple network types, including 3G. It should be easy to automatically search for a partner network associated with your provider and to access most of the services that you can enjoy whilst at home.

Nearly everyone can guess the prices of business smartphones like those Blackberry and HTC handsets and they certainly are not for everyone. But Nokia’s messaging smartphones in the E-series are often priced more affordably. They even attract the more youthful crowd with a styling that comes in a bevy of body colors.

Considered the successor to the slightly more upscalish E63, the new Nokia E5 surprises Nokia’s mid markets with a handset that is sure to appeal even to budget conscious people with a wallet-friendly launch price of €180 before taxes.

Combining nearly all the features of its predecessor plus a few from the more expensive E72, the E5 pushes the envelope for value smartphones. Its Blackberry-ish form factor even comes in carbon black, calk white, sky blue, silvery grey and copper brown.

For starters, the Nokia E5 carries one of the few fixed focus cameras using EDoF (Extended Depth of Field) lens that while on paper may show the same 5-megapixel resolution and LED Flash, actually results in better looking shots, indoors and out. Compared with the E72, the E5 only loses the autofocus function.

In the display department, a QVGA resolution on a 2.4-inch TFT LCD screen with 256k colors betrays a budget handset losing the 16 million color support of the E72, its optical trackpad and scroll bar along the way.

But the Nokia E5 edges out many foot soldiers with peanut brains and comes out ahead with a 250 MB onboard memory as well as 256 MB of RAM for its Symbian OS v9.3 with S60 Rel 3.2 UI running on a powerful ARM11 CPU clocked at 600 MHz. This is the same OS and CPU on the E72 but have twice the RAM at 256 MB and twice the microSD memory expandability at 32 GB from the E72’s 16 GB.

Business phones have traditionally been weak in mobile entertainment but the E-series takes exception. The E5 features a stereo FM radio with RDS and the capable audio player for MP3, WAV, WMA and eAAC+ formats as well as the video players for MP4, H.263/H.264 and WMA video codecs. You get stereo listening options over its 3.5mm audio jack or you can go wireless stereo using its A2DP profile support over Bluetooth.

The Nokia E5 enjoys 3G network coverage on its tri band UMTS (900 / 1900 / 2100) with data connectivity speeds of 10.2 Mbps on HSDPA and 2 Mbps on HSUPA. It’s also a quad band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) on 2G with class 32 GPRS/EDGE data speeds of up to 296 Kbps. It gets hotspot support from its WiFi 802.11b/g with UPnP and DLNA for up to 54 Mbps i8nlcuding Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0 for high speed local data transfer and syncing. Its integrated GPS receiver with A-GPS support comes with Ovi Maps 3.4 preloaded with free lifetime navigation services.

Software wise, the Nokia E5 fires its social networking munitions with a Facebook status feature on the phonebook with one click access to Facebook and Twitter. As a business phones, it gets preloaded with all the messaging tools like Ovi Mail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail as well as IM tools like Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger and Ovi Chat. It also comes with MS Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveler. The Ovi Store is pre-installed for quick downloading of games and apps. Find the best Nokia E5 deals at Moby1 when you compare mobile phone deals from the latest mobile phone with free gifts.