Adopting new technology often requires compromise. In the case of Bluetooth headsets, we traded boring ol’ sound quality for ease of movement, freedom from cords, and a tech fantasy dating back to Lt. Uhura with a silver chess piece in her ear. In the early Bluetooth years, many made the trade and went about their lives with poor audio assuming – at some point – quality would catch up to convenience.

Fast-forward ten years, though, and the picture hasn’t changed as much as we might have hoped. While there are many more – and far better – Bluetooth headsets available today, half of the original tradeoff remains: while what the user hears has improved, sound quality on the other end of the “line” still leaves much to be desired.

For this reason, many steer clear of Bluetooth headsets, not wanting to subject family, friends, or business associates to audio dropouts or the “tin can” effect. I, too, have tried a number of wireless headsets, only to set them aside and return to the phone-between-ear-and-shoulder paradigm.

So, a few weeks ago, I decided to see if the tradeoff could be eliminated once and for all, or at least significantly mitigated. I would gather several Bluetooth headsets of a specific type – those with boom microphones that extend near the mouth for the best outgoing audio – and see if there is, at last, a Bluetooth headset that can offer bi-directional satisfaction. What I discovered was somewhat disappointing, but incredibly useful. Put another way, there are at least a couple of Bluetooth headsets available that offer phone-like sound quality, going or coming.

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I’ve been a proud iPhone user for coming up on four years now, and have felt consistently secure in that pride as I reviewed those years’ competing devices; the iPhone is as much a part of my tech life as my laptop, desktop, and TV, and though I’ve used and reviewed perhaps 30 competing phones since my first days with the iPhone 3G, there’s never been the slightest temptation to make a switch.

Until now.

The new Galaxy Nexus SCH-i515 from Samsung is Google’s current flagship phone for 2012, the latest in the Nexus family of pure-Android handsets promoted as the best of the best. And it is to this device that my iPhone can direct its first pings of jealousy. The Galaxy Nexus is the best Android phone I’ve used, and for the first time since the Android OS became available, the first to give this iPhone devotee serious gadget envy.

Put simply, if you’re in the market for an Android phone, this is the one to get.

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Last year’s Motorola XOOM was supposed to be the Android answer to the iPad; as it turned out, it was anything but. Expensive and incomplete with an overall not-quite-finished feel, the XOOM was a major disappointment, not only to me but to the tablet buying public at large.  XOOM was a bomb, particularly when viewed through its pre-release buzz.

I’d like to say that the new Xyboard (pronounced zye-board), Motorola’s U.S. XOOM successor, will fare far better, but I doubt it.  And that’s a shame because it’s superior in almost every way to its predecessor, and – in fact – to most other Android tablets. But the Xyboard is limited by its single-carrier availability (Verizon Wireless), that carrier’s ridiculous data policies, and its high up-front price.

Still, if you’re looking for a fast Android Honeycomb device with LTE onboard, and have plenty of cash, it’s an excellent choice.

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The ultra-thin Motorola RAZR was once the most sought after cell phone in the United States.  And while there’s little chance its smartphone namesake, the Motorola Droid RAZR, will ever reach the same heights, the new Android phone is high on my recommendation list for early 2012.

The Droid RAZR, like the flip-phone for which it was named, is all about thinness – and it is remarkably thin, just 0.28-inches thick for most of its body.  However, there is the Moto-bump, a thicker section at the top of the device similar to the Droid X and Droid X 2 smartphones.  In addition to being thin, the Droid RAZR is also tough; parts of its exterior shell is Kevlar and its screen is covered in Gorilla glass.

A dual-core 1.2GHhz Cortex-A9 CPU powers the Droid RAZR, making it very snappy both in general use and with more demanding apps.  1GB of RAM also makes it responsive while running several apps at once. 

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With both AT&T and T-Mobile offering Windows Phone 7 handsets since late 2010, and Sprint following suit earlier this year, Verizon Wireless has been the only carrier without a single Microsoft-powered smartphone in their lineup since the OS launched. 

But that changed in late May when Verizon added the HTC Trophy, the carrier’s first Windows Phone.

The Trophy doesn’t do much to separate itself from other Windows Phones currently available in the U.S., but it does bring a third smartphone OS option to Verizon customers. So if you’re with Verizon Wireless, and are looking to upgrade to a new smartphone – or to a smartphone for the first time -  should you consider the HTC Trophy over Verizon’s Android and iPhone offerings? 

Probably not.

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