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Holiday Gift Guide 2011

Hard to believe it's that time of year again, but here we are once again facing Turkey Day and Black Friday.

With the holiday shopping season officially kicking off this week, Phone Scoop has prepared its annual buyer's guide to help you navigate through the dozens of phones that are available at each of the major carriers. We've looked at what AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless are offering and picked the cream of the crop for the discerning gift giver.

We did our best to keep prices low. Many of the phones on our list this year retail in the $50 to $100 range, though the top-tier smartphones are priced closer to $200. Keep in mind that holiday sales may drop prices even lower. In fact, retailers such as Amazon and RadioShack are already offering high-end smartphones for a penny and even for free. If a deal is what you're looking for, this is the week to get one.

Phone Scoop believes the first step in choosing the right phone for someone is to choose the right carrier. Finding the right device is important, but picking the carrier with the best combination of coverage and calling plans is often the best place to start. Also, keep in mind that many people are invested in their relationship with a carrier and might want to stick with what they have.

This year saw an interesting phenomenon: the near-death of the feature phone. Sure, plenty of basic phones are still available from the likes of LG, Kyocera, Pantech, Samsung, and Huawei, but many of the phones released this year fall into the smartphone category. Take quick messaging phones, for example. Feature phones with QWERTY keyboards and dual displays were all the rage in 2007 - 2009. They were inexpensive, and didn't necessarily require a data plan. Now, the category has essentially vanished, only to be replaced by low-cost Android smartphones that have QWERTY keyboards.

Phone Scoop believes the best way to pick phones for people is based on how that person will use their phone. As long as you know the person you're shopping for and what they tend to like, you should have no problems picking the right carrier and the right phone for him or her.

After you've picked out the perfect phone, there's still one more thing to do. When you or the lucky person you're giving a phone to has moved everything off of the old phone, don't just toss it in your junk drawer or a closet corner, recycle it. If you want to know anything about phone recycling, from reasons to do it to where to take your phone, check out our Cell Phone Recycling Guide.

Eric has been covering the mobile telecommunications industry for 17 years at various print and online publications. He studied at Rutgers Newark and University of Kentucky, and has a degree in writing. He likes playing guitar, attending concerts, listening to music, and driving sports cars.

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