If you are into a lot into gaming, I can recommend the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. It has a gamepad, so it is perfect for emulators. Playstation games all run smoothtly, N64 games sometimes have small lags. Needless to say Gameboy and stuff runs completely lag-free, too.
Some apps are optimised for the XPeria Play, so they can be played with the gamepad, but for me personally, the emulators are already enough reason to get it.
I think it's around 350€ now.

If you don't want to game a lot on your phone, but rather text much and/or surf and/or do much social networking, you should get a cheaper one.

I haven't looked into all the models recently, but I can say you shouldn't take a phone as slow as the HTC Wildfire (or even its successor although I only got the original one), because that is really annoying how much is lags and needs to render a website (not download, it's actually slow at RENDERING it). Also, don't get a screen with only a 240x320 resolution, because it is really annoying how much you have to zoom into websites to read something properly.


And one thing I recommend regardless of the purpose of your phone: Don't buy a phone with capacitive buttons! It's annoying if you want to tap on the screen but accidentally hit the home key.

Also, make sure the phone has a Dpad. Some don't have that anymore. But it's especially useful when you are typing and want to move the cursor. Each time I held an iPhone in my hands, I was annoyed by the fact the I could only move the cursor with the touchscreen which is very unprecise...


You man also want to check if your phone can be rooted, before you buy it. Even if you're not interested in rooting your phone now, you might be later.

And if you're buying a new phone, better get one that already has the newest version (currently 2.3 "Gingerbread").