There comes a time in one’s life when one must answer difficult questions. If there is one thing I don’t like about Google’s Android operating system for mobile platforms is the fact that it forces me to answer tough questions. I have tried to look for the answer in this table, however the answer lies deeper than that.

One of these questions is which phone is better among the three? I’ve been pondering this for a while and I still have no definitive answer. Frankly, after weeks of research, I am only close to taking Motorola Milestone out of the race. I know many people out there will suggest I take out the Acer … but I won’t.

Now let me explain.

First of all, I am mainly a home user. I turned to these phones for two reasons: one is that I got used to having a wi-fi device with me at all times, listen to music and use a few applications, games and so on. I used to have an iPod Touch (very good device) and a mobile phone. Now I’m tired of having two things in my pockets: I just want one. The other reason is that I’ve started to code for the Android platform and I’d like to actually have a device to work with.

Basically for me it’s important to have a good mobile phone, with wi-fi access, a load of applications to choose from, gps, good sound, 35mm jack for headphones, that is snappy and with decent battery.

So how do the contestants fare against my needs? Well, to start with the current underdog, Motorola Milestone (or the Droid, with Android 2.0), is a fair choice. It offers a great GPS application, multitouch screen (not sure what are the benefits in practice since while Android does support multitouch on version 2, there aren’t apps that work with it), 16 millions colors on the screen, decent sound, not to mention the much appreciated around the Internet QWERTY slide keyboard.

But there are reasons why the Milestone is not good for me. The processor runs at 500Mhz and it’s the slowest of the three. That means sooner or later it will lag behind in running applications. The battery isn’t brilliant (it’s better than Nexus but poorer than Liquid). It’s damn heavy (at 165 grams) and I don’t like heavy phones (even if they would make me coffee in the morning). The camera isn’t the best of the bunch (I have my own SLR but it would be nice to have a usable mobile camera). This Motorola product is clearly aimed at the business world.

The Google Nexus One (by HTC) has a lot running for it too. An AMOLED touchscreen with 16 million colors, great integration with many Google services,  supports wireless-n standard, has a great 1Ghz processor which runs on 512MB of RAM. Not to mention it looks great.

But the Nexus One has issues too. Its battery is the poorest of them all, beating only Apple’s iPhone (by 30 hours in the specs which translates to perhaps 2 extra hours of real-life battery). Also, it’s damn expensive and the high price is mostly due to the hype than actual quality. What good is a phone that you have to recharge every two days?

At last, Acer Liquid remains in doubt too. It has a nice design, large screen and great battery that comes close to my current phone (which lives nearly 7 days of average use without recharge). Also, its performance benchmarks beat the hell out of the Motorola Milestone Droid and the beating will become more severe once Acer will upgrade to Android 2.1 in March. Also it is quite light for its size (at 130 grams). Probably the best advantage is that it’s the cheapest of the bunch.

The fact that the Acer Liquid runs a 1Ghz processor underclocked at 768Mhz can’t be easily placed as an advantage  or downside. It is much snappier than Motorola’s Droid Milestone and it can probably be brought back to the 1Ghz speed (with the cost of battery life, of course). Compared to the Nexus One, it has only 256Mb of RAM (while the Nexus uses 512MB).

Acer Liquid’s downsides are the screen which only bears 256k colors (like a regular color phone nowadays), the fact that it packs Android 1.6 (although an upgrade was announced in March) is not thrilling and neither is the lack of a quality GPS application.

In the end, the question is whether to pick a moderate performance phone and a fair price (Acer Liquid) or to go for the better but more expensive Nexus One. Sure, there are many great things on the way (such as the Sony-Ericsson Xperia X10) but if we were to keep waiting for the best, we would wait forever. As for me, I’m waiting to see if I could catch a good deal on an Nexus. If I don’t then I’ll probably stick with the Acer Liquid.