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If you are like me, you were hoping to be bowled over by this years fresh crop of phones being unveiled across the Atlantic at the MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona, Spain.  The biggest question on my mind is this: who is raising the bar?  When the Apple made it clear the rumors of their entry into the phone market were true, many analysts predicted they couldn’t hack this tough road.  Since those predictions, we’ve waited for a response.  Is there anything debuting this year that will make us stand in line for?  Here are the contestants:

Nokia’s N96 - Many would agree, this is the phone to beat, with tons of features.  But does it have a “superstar qualities”?  The official news on this broke yesterday and I am still pretty excited about it:

Featuring a sexy 2.8” display, the N96 not only has 16GB internal memory but adds a microSDHC slot for even more storage.  And storage you will want thanks to its DVBh live mobile TV and 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss lens.  It also sports A-GPS and Nokia’s mapping software.  Rounding out the list are 3D Speakers and WiFi.  Hot.

Next up, meet the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.  Built by HTC, this phone looks mighty impressive.  Our Robert Nelson had this to say:

Just to start it’s running Windows Mobile 6 with a full slide-out arc-sliding QWERTY keyboard with 4-way key and optical joystick. The X1 along with the XPERIA lineup will be focusing on the growing need for mobile web communication and multimedia entertainment. The X1 features has a metal-finish body with a 3-inch wide VGA 800 x 480 touchscreen display, GPS, Wi-Fi, A2DP Bluetooth, a 3.2-megapixel camera with a microSD card slot for additional storage.

How about a cheaper touchscreen phone?  That seems to be what HTC was thinking on the new P3470.  Svelte good looks and a presumed lower price are its features, but at what cost to performance?  Our Robert Nelson points out the lack of a 3G capable radios seems like a loser but adds:

Overall it seems like the P3470 will offer a decent set of specs along with being a nice looking phone, much better than that spy shot image we first saw back in January. The HTC P3470 features a 2.8-inch QVGA display, 200MHz CPU, 256MB ROM, 128MB RAM, Bluetooth 2.0, microSD card slot and a built-in GPS with TomTom Navigator 6.

And then there is the LG KF700there is the LG KF700.  Giving you the option of 3 ways to input data: touchscreen, numberpad and shortcut dial; can that be a winning combo?

In addition to its swanky touchscreen and slide out number pad, LG says it’s users needed another way to interact with the phone.  The idea is, this phone has so many features, that easy navigation is key.  LG says users don’t want to diddle their time away in complicated menus, so the 3 input options allow users to figure out which method suits them best.

Any of these make you want to wait for one?  Even just buy one vs. anything else on the market?  Heard enough about folks comparing everything to the iPhone or just me comparing everything to the iPhone?  Have your say in the comments below.

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