The 5 Best AT&T Smartphones

Yesterday, we took a look at what we consider to be the five best Verizon smartphones on the market right now. Today, it’s time to take a look at the competition as we run down what we consider to be the five best smartphones on Verizon’s chief rival, AT&T.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the rear view mirror, it’s almost time for the final month of 2012 to begin. This year has been full of smartphones launches and those looking to pick up a new smartphone in the month of December are going to find the market stocked with choices. That’s going to likely present a problem to some people but fortunately, it’s a great problem to have.

One of the carriers that will be vying for shoppers attention is AT&T, one of the largest cellular providers in the United States and one that is growing its network on what seems like a weekly basis..

While Verizon is still king when it comes to 4G LTE, AT&T has been making strides in rolling out its new high-speed network. It currently has 4G LTE live in over 100 markets across the U.S. including several metropolitan areas. And while it may not have the same 4G LTE footprint as Verizon, it doesn’t mean that it’s lacking in 4G LTE smartphones. In fact, AT&T has a rather vast selection of devices.

The carrier has rolled out several new phones in the past few weeks including one of the best Android smartphones to date as well as a couple of Windows Phone 8 devices that likely have perked the interest of consumers in the market for something new. But which are the best?

Here, we run down the smartphones that we feel are the best available, right now, on AT&T’s network.

iPhone 5

The iPhone 5 remains one of the best phones on AT&T's network. Apple's latest creation not only has a larger screen then previous models, but it finally also brings 4G LTE data speeds to the table. With the iPhone 5, Apple has bumped the screen size up to 4-inches, added 4G LTE, made the rear camera even better, bestowed iOS 6 upon it, given it an HD front-facing camera, and changed up the design adding aluminum in place of the glass. It's a slick addition to the iPhone family and it's arguably the best iPhone ever made. The price of the AT&T iPhone 5 is congruent with all the others, checking in with a $199.99 starting tag for the 16GB model.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 In early November, AT&T finally launched the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Samsung's latest and greatest phablet. The 5.5-inch monstrosity is a content consumers dream as it features one of the largest displays found on a smartphone with an S-Pen stylus to boot. AT&T's Galaxy Note 2 also packs a quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 8MP rear camera, 4G LTE data speeds, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box making it a worthy contender in the carrier's vast arsenal of devices. The carrier does charge $299.99 for the Galaxy Note 2, but fortunately, Amazon sells it for a much more desirable price.

Samsung Galaxy S3 Another staple of AT&T's network is the Samsung Galaxy S3 which, after nearly six months of being on shelves, remains one of the best options on the carrier's 4G LTE network. With its dual-core processor, spacious 4.7-inch HD display, upcoming Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update, solid cameras, and high quality design, the Galaxy S3 is still a force to be reckoned with and a device that should be near the top of just about every smartphone shopper's list. Helping its cause is a price tag that has seemingly been dropping ever since the phone launched.

HTC One X+

AT&T's latest device from HTC, the HTC One X+, is everything that consumers loved about the original HTC One X and more. HTC decided to release the upgraded model to compete with the likes of the Galaxy Note 2 and iPhone 5 and it has definitely put out a phone worth noticing. The HTC One X+ takes the best of the original HTC One X for AT&T including its LCD-2 and its nice thin design and then ups the ante with some solid improvements. Those include a quad-core processor, 64GB of on-board storage space, and a larger battery. Oh, and it too comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box. All of that for $199.99 makes it a device worth consideration and one of the top devices on AT&T.

Nokia Lumia 920

Finally, to round out the list, we have the Nokia Lumia 920 which for its price, is a steal of a Windows Phone 8 smartphone. Like the Lumia 900, AT&T is again offering Nokia's flagship Windows Phone smartphone, in this case the Windows Phone 8 powered Lumia 920, for cheap. The Lumia 920 costs a mere $99 on-contract, far cheaper than most flagship devices. For that price, users will not only get 4G LTE speeds, but also a spacious ClearBlack display, a beautiful design, a fantastic PureView camera that works amazingly well under low light, a fast processor and of course, Windows Phone 8.