Holiday Gift Guide 2008 (US)

Introduction:

At around Christmas, the edifying stories and fairy tales become increasingly popular. That’s why we decided to tell you one, too. Its main character is the good old family (personal) Budget.

The Budget passes through two critical moments in the year. One of them is in the summer, when the eagerly anticipated vacation approaches and we want to spend it at some far-way destination, paying prices 2-3 times higher than the regular ones. Your spirit rejoice, your loved one is happy, your kids (if any) are euphoric, while poor Budget is slimming down as if he has been subjected to some new diet, allowing him only water and raw eggs to feed on.

However, this is nothing compared to the torment that the Budget has to endure when December arrives with its endless holidays. Then you have to make allowances not only for your better half and your kids, but also for your closest relatives and friends. In other words, towards the end of the year you have to become the equivalent of Santa Claus (without the reindeer) or a Shopping Superman, rushing to the stores accompanied by your loyal assistant, the Budget. This traditionally begins the day after Thanksgiving, known as "Black Friday".

You may be wondering what the moral of this sad story is. To tell you the truth, we are also not sure If we were heroes from  the fairy-tales we would have told you that you would be repaid for your efforts ten fold by the sparkling eyes of your loved ones, when you’re giving them your present. However, last Christmas one of my colleagues found out the painful way that his mother-in-law wasn’t a fan of ‘this particular Nokia model’ and besides, that she had mastered aikido (with walking stick elements). He had plaster all over him for a month.

In order to save you from such unpleasant situations, we decided to write this guide for you. It summarizes our experience, related to  the best  options when it comes to mobile phones – the area we’re most competent in. The suggestions on the next pages are not in any particular order, as they are not categorized or listed from best to worst. They are just list of devices which all should be a great gift. If you want to see our opinion which are the best options in the different categories, please refer to our Top Phones - Editor's Choice Guide. 

We hope that the next few pages will be useful for you...

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