If you have an existing contract, you can probably upgrade to iPhone 4 or an Android phone for less than 200 dollars.
A rule of thumb when going for Android phones, don't get North American made ones, get Asian made ones from HTC/Samsung. As far as gaming goes, you're much better off with an iPhone; it's not even close. If you're into phone modding and stuff, you're better off with an Android phone - but you should know what you're doing - I have bricked a Samsung Galaxy and a Nexus One while fiddling around with the mods. Be prepared to have a lot of applications that may not work correctly (similar to BREW and Java Micro Edition platforms) due to developers not taking the time to optimize applications for each configuration and resolution. Stay away from the G-1, despite it being one of the more popular ones, it's a really crappy phone (mine just stopped working, it wouldn't turn on anymore) and I found it clunky and irritating to use. Nexus One was my favourite, it has a really excellent camera, 5 megapixels.
HTC Desire is essentially the upgrade to the Nexus One, it is on the same level of hardware, but to use an analogy is like a DSi XL comopared to a regular DSi.
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