All the phones featured below are making their debut this week at Mobile World Congress, an annual technology convention held in Barcelona, Spain that’s become a showcase for the latest and greatest smartphones.

No, you won’t see any iPhones at Mobile World Congress (Apple generally shows off its latest wares at its own press events), and none of the handsets in this roundup are on sale just yet. (Unless otherwise noted, by the way, specific release dates and pricing for these new phones have yet to be announced.)

Still, the six phones below—from the likes of HTC, LG, Nokia, and Samsung—represent the new state of the art for smartphones … well, for 2012, anyway.

Click a thumbnail below to start your slideshow…

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Unveiled Thursday at the IFA technology conference in Berlin, Germany, the Note comes with most of the amenities you’d expect in a high-end Android phone, including an ultra-fast 1.4GHz dual-core processor (“dual-core” means two processors on a single chip, good for speedier and more efficient performance), front- and rear-facing cameras, HD video recording, and 4G wireless networking.

But the Note’s show-stopping feature has to be its glorious screen—all 5.3 inches of it, measured diagonally.

The Note’s jumbo touchscreen also comes with its own stylus for jotting down random thoughts or sketches. The so-called “S Pen” stylus slides into a hole on the bottom of the phone.

Just to be clear, I haven’t had the chance to see the 9.65mm-thick Galaxy Note in person yet, although the gadget bloggers at This Is My Next assure us that “our jaw is on the floor” when it comes to the “amazing” screen.

That said, here’s my question: is there such a thing as “too big” with smartphones? After all, here’s how I described the recent HTC Infuse 4G, an Android phone with a mere 4.3-inch display:

…while the Infuse feels pleasingly light and thin, there’s no getting around its outsized dimensions; the phone pretty much took up my entire jeans pocket, and it felt as big as a plate when I was holding it against my cheek during (loud and clear) phone calls.

Word is that the Note (which has yet to get a price tag or release date, by the way) also feels quite slim and trim, but with its huge 5.3-inch screen, it can only be more plate-like than the Infuse.

So, here’s my question for you: how big is too big when it comes to your phone? And at what point does a huge smartphone turn into a small tablet?

(Images courtesy of Samsung)

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On the left, you’ve got the 60-inch Samsung UN60D6500, while on the right sits the UN60C6500—same size, same basic look. What’s the difference between the two?

Well, with the help of the aptly named HDTV “model decoder” from online shopping site Retrevo, we can tell that the first set is the more recent model, while the second is from last year.

The secret: the “D” and “C” smack-dab in the middle of each cryptic model number, with “D” standing for 2011 and “C” denoting 2010—yesterday’s news, in other words.

Retrevo deciphers the model numbers for several HDTV manufacturers, including Sony, Samsung, and LG.

The Retrevo guide, which you can easily print out and take with you the next time you go HDTV shopping, also tells us that “UN” stands for an LCD display with LED backlighting (for sharper contrast and deeper, darker black levels), the “60” refers to screen size, and the “6500” at the end means Samsung’s 6000 Series, a line of HDTV sets that includes features like built-in Wi-Fi and Internet-enabled “Smart TV” widgets.

Retrevo’s HDTV decoder also breaks down model numbers for Sony, Vizio, Panasonic, and LG sets, along with crib sheets for specially branded features like Sony’s “Motion Flow” (a technology that smooths out the jitter between frames, making filmed content look more like video—a really weird effect, if you ask me) and LG’s Smart TV (for Internet-enabled widgets, similar to Samsung Smart TV and Sony’s Bravia Internet Video).

Last but not least, the guide lists alternate model numbers used by such big-box retailers as Costco, Sam’s Club, and Best Buy—a gambit the big stores use to skirt price-matching policies, Retrevo notes.

Visit: Retrevo’s HDTV Model Decoder

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Background:
The “iPad 3 in 2011” rumors began as early as February, nearly a month before the recent iPad 2 was even announced. Most of the buzz had it that the iPad 3 would arrive with a higher-resolution screen than the current iPad, with TechCrunch claiming it had heard whispers of “slightly smaller” iPad waiting in the wings.

The latest chatter:
Reuters recently passed along a story from Taiwan’s Economic Daily newspaper, which has it that the “iPad3” is “scheduled” for the fourth quarter of the year—this year, apparently—complete with a display that’s “5-6 times” sharper than that of the iPad 2.

The facts:
During the big iPad 2 press event back in March, Apple’s Steve Jobs made a point of calling 2011 the “year of the iPad 2”—not the iPad 2 and a new iPad to be named later.

Also, Steve Jobs pretty much scotched rumors of a smaller iPad late last year, telling investors during a conference call that the iPad’s 9.7-inch display is “the minimum required to create great tablet apps.” Tablets with smaller 7-inch screens like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the HTC Flyer, meanwhile, are “DOA, dead on arrival,” Jobs insisted.

here’s the thing:
The steady drumbeat of an iPad 3 in 2011 refuses to go away, but personally, I wouldn’t count on a new iPad until about March or April of next year. And while it’s a safe bet that the iPad 3 will boast a sharper, “retina”-style display (similar to the eye-popping screen on the iPhone 4), expect the revamped iPad to have the same size display as the iPad 2; in other words, no iPad “Nano.”

What about you: Do you think we’ll get an iPad 3 before the year is out? Like the idea of a smaller, seven-inch iPad?

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Available from AT&T for $199 with a two-year contract, the Infuse 4G’s 4.5-inch screen—a full inch larger than the iPhone’s 3.5-inch display, measured diagonally—is guaranteed to turn heads. Based on Super AMOLED display technology (which replaces the backlighting used on standard LCD phone screens with light-emitting pixels, resulting in vivid color and improved contrast), the Infuse’s jumbo screen is bordering on tablet size, and it’s perfect for surfing the web, showing off snapshots, or playing games. Keep in mind, however, that the display’s 800 by 480 resolution is a little shy of “retina display” status, meaning you’ll spot some jagginess in text and images if you look closely enough.

iPhone 4, meet Infuse 4G.

Impressively, the Infuse’s massive screen won’t weigh you down. Weighing in at just 4.9 ounces, the Infuse 4G is just a hair heaver than the iPhone 4G, yet the phone feels lighter due to its overall size (5.15 inches long by 2.77 inches wide, and a mere 0.36 inches thick). But while the Infuse feels pleasingly light and thin, there’s no getting around its outsized dimensions; the phone pretty much took up my entire jeans pocket, and it felt as big as a plate when I was holding it against my cheek during (loud and clear) phone calls.

The Infuse doesn’t come with a dual-core processor—the hottest new thing in bleeding-edge smartphones, good for improved multitasking performance—but the phone’s single-core 1.2GHz more than held its own, managing to deliver smooth, peppy performance.

That said, I was a bit disappointed in the Infuse’s 4G data speeds. Don’t get me wrong; the Infuse still managed to cruise along at about 1.5Mbps downstream on AT&T’s HSPA+ network, but my iPhone 4—which only does 3G on AT&T—was nipping at the Infuse’s heels, averaging about 1.3Mbps downstream and even peaking at 2Mbps at one point. When it came to latency, however (the time it takes for a packet of data to make a round trip between your phone and a given server), the Inspire 4G won hands-down, squeaking out an average time of just 130 milliseconds, versus 280ms for the iPhone. (Your mileage will vary, of course, depending on your location and current network performance.)

Snapshot from the Infuse 4G's 8MP camera: good, not great.

The Infuse comes with an 8-megapixel camera with an LED flash and auto-focus (near the upper-end for the latest crop of smartphones), plus the ability to record video at resolutions up to 720p (ditto). My test snapshots looked pretty solid, with outdoor shots faring the best; indoor snaps looked predictably noisy, particularly in areas with poor lighting.

My biggest gripe about taking photos with the Infuse had to do with the phone’s microSD card, which is hidden behind the handset’s battery—meaning you’ll have to shut down and restart the phone to remove the memory card. That said, you can always use the included cable to connect the Infuse directly to your PC’s USB port for transferring photos, music, and other files.

As for battery life … pretty good, with the Infuse managing to soldier through my testing without dying in the middle of the day.

Here’s the thing: The Infuse 4G is an ideal Android-based handset for anyone looking for a smartphone with a big, big screen and reasonably peppy performance. Speed demons, however, may be disappointed by the handset’s just-OK data speeds and its lack of a cutting-edge, dual-core processor.

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