On the fence about shelling out for an iPhone? Or maybe Apple's piqued your interest in the state of mobile phones and you're wondering what else out there might be worth a look? Here's a quick rundown of iPhone's features as compared with some of the other high-end handsets currently available for use in the US. Following the chart is some crazy expert analysis.

The iPhone is the future of the Mac franchise. That's not to say that Macs are going away, but I really think that multiscreen and "Mobile OS X" represent two keys to Apple's future (imagine OS X with widget and networking support on iPods, and multitouch-enabled Macs, for starters). iPhone is a first-gen Apple product, so it holds both a lot of promise and comes with its fair share of frustrations. As a next-gen iPod, it's all that and a bag of chips (if you can live with 8GB of storage). As a cell phone, it's capable but lacks some amenities that phone power users are used to: Hands-free dialing and MMS messaging come to mind first. Apple fans and gadget junkies will fall in love with the gorgeous screen, great UI, and whiz-bang multitouch functionality. Smartphone users will balk at the price tag, slow data speeds, virtual keyboard, and crippled Bluetooth implementation (no laptop tethering, voice dialing, or stereo support). As with all things Apple, expect iPhone to get interesting around the third generation, or when spin-offs (nano? shuffle?) are debuted.

Helio's Ocean is the best choice for messaging-addicted multimedia fanatics. While it's rather thick and chunky, it packs a full QWERTY keyboard, HTML browser, and on-board support for more forms of Email and IM than you could possibly use. Ocean plays music, plays video, and surfs the Web at near-broadband speeds using Sprint's EV-DO network. I found it too bulky to carry around, and while I liked the UI in general, a few annoying quirks and bugs really got to me after a few weeks with Ocean. Still, if you're one of those hipster kids who wants to be always connected, Ocean is probably the fastest, fullest-featured handset in the States right now. And $300 isn't so bad relative to what high-end phones cost these days.

Nokia's flagship phone, the N95, is the best cameraphone in the world right now (though Sony Ericsson just announced their 5MP model, set to ship this Fall). While some have chided it for poor battery life and somewhat shaky construction, I found the N95 to be easy to use and easy on the eyes, if a bit thick in the pocket. For $750 you expect a lot out of a gadget, and N95 delivers with a Full HTML browser, WiFi, GPS, a camera you can actually make prints from - that also records near-DVD resolution video - and a full-featured media player. The downside? Like iPhone, N95 users in the States are limited to EDGE data speeds. Well, that and the fact that you could almost buy a refurb'd MacBook for the price of an N95.

Unless you're a cell phone junkie, you may not have heard of HTC. But if you've used a T-Mobile MDA or Dash, or a Cingular 8125 or 8525, then you've used an HTC phone. Some of the best Windows Mobile phones around are made by HTC, and their Sprint-branded Mogul is one of the first US-spec handsets to ship with WM 6. Yes this is a Mac site, and no I'm no trying to tout the virtues of Windows in any form. But Mogul is a fast, powerful phone with nearly everything a business user could ask for, plus a 2MP camera and media player with Stereo Bluetooth onboard. You can use it as a modem to get near broadband speeds on your laptop anywhere within Sprint's EV-DO newtwork. It's got a touchscreen, scrollwheel, and QWERTY board. But it's a little bulky and, sigh, runs WIndows.

Lots of folks are comparing iPhone's launch to the debut of the original RAZR, a then-cutting edge mobile that also sold for $500 when it first came out. Motorola recently annnounced the true successor to RAZR - the RAZR 2 - but until that starts shipping, Verizon's RAZR Maxx Ve represents the state of the RAZR here in the US. It's a full-featured media phone, but it somehow pales in comparison to newer flip and slider phones from LG and Samsung. Still, for a carrier-subsidized handset that plays music and video, it's a decent choice.

If you're looking to stay tethered to Email wherever you go, it's hard to go wrong with a BlackBerry. There's a reason so many business users are addicted to their BlackBerries: The Keyboard. The BlackBerry Curve (AT&T) incorporates RIM's trackball-based input system with a media player and 2 MP camera - it's the most fun you can have on a BlackBerry this side of the Pearl (which is smaller, with a shrunken keyboard).

HTC recently unveiled the "Touch," a touchscreen Windows Mobile phone with a gesture-based UI. It looked really cool at first, but is more or less a standard WM6 phone with a nifty touch-UI sort of layered on top - kind of like a more functional but less cool iPhone. Their "Vox" S710 is a neat smartphone, though - it looks like a small candybar phone, but has a QWERTY pad hidden in a slide-out drawer for email and texting on the go.

Sprint's been on a roll lately, and the new Muziq by LG is a slick, slim flip phone with external music controls, and compatibility with Sprint's Music Store. You know how you can buy songs from iTunes on your computer for 99 cents each? That same 99 cents on Sprint gets you a song delivered direct to your music phone and a higher-quality version waiting to be downloaded to your computer when you're back home. If Apple's serious about the cell phone market, look for them to do something similar with iPhone & iTMS before too long.

Samsung has a few super trick smartphones waiting in the wings, though it's unclear if any of them will ever make it to North American shores. The Ultra Smart F700 features a 5 MP camera, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and touchsreen back by a gesture-based user interface. It's no Apple, but it does look kind of like iPhone with a keyboard hidden underneath. Rumor has it that the F700 will be available somewhere in the world later this Summer - of course, you can actually buy an iPhone right now.

And then there's Sony Ericsson. My personal day-to-day phone is still an SE w800i Walkman phone. It's been on the market for around two years now but still packs a 2MP camera and full-featured music player. SE makes great phones, though they tend to make the greatest ones for use overseas, not here in the states. No matter, check out the K790a if you want a 3.2mp camera with Xenon flash, HTML Web browser, and music player at last year's prices. The w880i doesn't best my w800i by much on the specs front, but it's super slim and housed in sexy brushed aluminum. And then there's the recently announced trio of drool-worthy SE handsets that will be out sometime later this year as unlocked GSM models: The K850 features a 5 MP camera, the w960 is a touch-screen music player phone with 8GB of onboard memory, and the P1i is a smartphone with a touchscreen, WiFi, 3.2MP camera, and QWERTY keyboard - too bad it lacks any form of US-compatible high speed data.