Water Off an Ugly Duck

The Casio Exilim ($280 with a two-year Verizon Wireless contract and online rebate) was the ugly duckling of the bunch -- a colleague compared it to a five-year-old Japanese cell phone -- and the most difficult to use.

Styled like a thick clamshell, the Exilim's main screen flips around 180 degrees so it can lie flat and mimic a regular camera's LCD screen. Unfortunately, the tiny 2.3-inch screen must then be navigated with little buttons on the handset's side. This was often confusing and tedious.

One of the Exilim's few redeeming qualities: It was the only one I tried with optical zoom rather than digital zoom.

Another neat feature is its water-resistant body, which I tested by dunking the phone in a pitcher of water. Indeed, it still managed to take photos, though they came out a bit distorted.

I was able to take crisp photos, but I didn't think they were as bright as on some of the other handsets. Regardless, I quickly ran out of room for them on the phone, since there is very little internal memory and does not come with a memory card. (It has a microSD slot if you want to supply your own).