Well, it's been coming for centuries. Byzantine monks prophesised the battle between three phones, with each looking for touchscreen supremacy... and now we bring you that battle. We hope the edge of your seat is comfortable...

Home screen

The place where it always all begins: the home screen needs to look good, or else you'll just get lost in a sea of options.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (we'll be calling it the Tube for simplicity) has an innovative four-photo option on the front screen - each person's details are updated with Facebook status, photos from Flickr or texts and calls. The menu key gives easy access to the normal grid Nokia lovers will be familiar with.

The iPhone's home screen just makes sense. No innovation, just simple icons all in front of you. No space for more? Well, just slide the screen along and see the next set.

The G1's Android home screen is innovative too, but incorporates the smart ideas of the iPhone. Icons can be moved around; open applications can be pulled down from the top of the screen, and a swipe to the right gets you into Google search. It also just makes sense, but in a more complex way.

The verdict The G1's interface is nice and simple with some good bells and whistles, and the swishing and swooshing means it edges the iPhone's simplicity and the Tube's innovation.

Media

Every handset worth its salt these days (how much is salt worth exactly?) can do all manner of tricks and features... if it can't play tunes, show movies and showcase your photos, what's the point eh?

The iPhone is a handset for media, given that it's an iPod touch plus (or the iPod is an iPhone lite). Movies are a dream to watch, photos are easy to flick through thanks to the touch screen and music uses Apple's great cover flow system.

The G1 doesn't even come with a video player in the box - photo viewing is average at best and music playback is a bit bog-standard compared to its peers. Must do better for Android... but the development community will probably be on the case quick-smart.