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As the pressure to create a phone as popular as the iPhone continues, manufacturers are just getting it wrong when it comes to touchscreens.

There are a multitude of touchscreen mobiles out there but only a few are actually pushing the right buttons with consumers. We looked into 19,000 reviews for 226 phones in the last 12 months to find out how they’d been rated by shoppers. In the bottom 10, a whopping 50% were touchscreens.

In contrast, only 2 of the top ten were touchscreen models. The top-rated phone with a score of 8.8 out of ten is the Nokia 5220 XpressMusic with a conventional key pad. Apple’s iPhone is the highest scoring touchscreen phone with a score of 8.3 out of ten.

Here’s a look at the top 10 mobiles, launched in the last 12 months, as rated by consumers

1.      Nokia 5220 XpressMusic

2.      Nokia E71

3.      Sony Ericsson W595

4.      Nokia 2680

5.      Nokia 3110 Classic

6.      Samsung M150

7.      Apple iPhone 3G 16GB - touchscreen

8.      LG KC910 Renoir - touchscreen

9.      Nokia 6600 Slide

10.    Nokia 3600

And the bottom 10

1.        HTC Touch Diamond - touchscreen

2.        Sony Ericsson T303

3.        Samsung Armani - touchscreen

4.        Sony Ericsson C702

5.        Nokia 6124 Classic

6.        BlackBerry Storm 9500 - touchscreen

7.        Samsung i900 Omnia - touchscreen

8.        Nokia N96

9.        Samsung U600

10.      Samsung F490 - touchscreen

And here’s what some reviewers are saying about touchscreens:

“Touchscreen is a little hard to use if your fingers are not slender and pointy.”

“The ‘virtual’ keyboards are rubbish, takes ages to type anything…you could always employ a five year old with small fingers. They should have used a stylus.”

“Jerky software, not fluid. Crashes often.”

“If you have nails can be a bit tricky on the keypad as it is heat sensitive and so must be pressed with the finger tip as a nail will not make it work.”

“I found the touchscreen hard work and the physical ‘pressing’ was made more difficult by the fact that your finger, however slim or fat, tends to ’spread’ when you have to press.”

So if any manufacturers are listening, take a look at some of the touchscreen reviews and address the issues shoppers have with current models.

Following on from our Christmas present guides, we’ve decided to focus on a popular gift - mobile phones. There are so many on the market these days that it can be a nightmare to read up on each one. But don’t worry, we’ve done it all for you.

We’ve read all the reviews for over 200 mobiles and picked out the most popular - the ones people are looking at in the run-up to Christmas, and the most highly rated phones of 2008 - focusing on what people think after they have bought and tried out their phones. We’ve also got our recommendation for the best value for money mobile.

So, I bet a lot of you will be thinking that the iPhone must be a key player in this year’s favourite mobiles but surprisingly, it’s not in the top 10. Problems with application crashes and battery life meant that people rated this year’s 3G iPhone lower than you might have expected. It gets a score of 8.2/10 which is even beaten by its predecessor, the original iPhone, which scores 8.3/10.

The UK’s favourite phone of 2008 is actually the BlackBerry Bold 9000. Here’s what some reviewers had to say:

+ Great keyboard for e-mailing and texting. Cracking screen which is nice and bright and videos look lovely on it. The sound from the internal speaker is really good. Just a great phone overall.

- Out of the box battery life is bad but gets better with regular charges.

+ The Bold is undoubtedly the most impressive Blackberry yet. One of its greatest advantages is that in spite of many new features, it feels very familiar. Web browsing is almost broadband speed.

But what about the most popular phone? The phone that everyone’s looking at in the run-up to Christmas this year is the Nokia N96. But although it’s created a lot of hype, it actually gets marked down by reviewers for poor battery life and software problems. It’s also a little expensive at around £500 for Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) customers, but it does do the business with its design and features. One reviewer writes “great picture and video quality, very easy to find your way around, fantastic features…looks good”.

So let’s take a look at the most popular phones, which are getting lots of atention, and those that actually get rated the highest when consumers take them home:

TOP TEN MOST POPULAR MOBILE PHONES IN LAST 30 DAYS:

1. Nokia N96

2. Samsung F480 Tocco

3. Blackberry Storm

4. Sony Ericsson C902

5. Samsung Omnia

6. Samsung J700

7. Samsung Soul U900

8. BlackBerry Bold 9000

9. Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

10. LG KF750 Secret

TOP TEN HIGHEST RATED MOBILE PHONES OF 2008:

1. BlackBerry Bold 9000

2. Sony Ericsson W980i

3. Apple iPhone 3G 8/16GB

4. Samsung F480 Tocco

5. Sony Ericsson K660i

6. Fly SL600

7. Sagem my411C

8. Samsung J700

9. Samsung Steel

10. Sagem my300C

If you had your heart set on buying someone, or yourself, a stylish yet affordable phone this Christmas, we think the Samsung F480 Tocco is the one to go for. Whilst other phones with similar features tend to get poor scores for battery life, the Tocco impresses with 7.7/10. Here’s what some other phones score for battery life:

Nokia N96 - 5.8

iPhone original - 6.8

iPhone 3G - 5.6

BlackBerry Bold 9000 - 6.3

The Tocco also impresses with its design and features and is £150 for PAYG customers or free on some contracts.