2008 is shaping up to be the year of the 5-megapixel camera phone. And we couldn't be more excited.

Let's face it, the crummy, submegapixel imaging chips crammed into most phones today take awful-looking photos. The iPhone's 2-megapixel camera is an improvement, but even its photos look crummy next to a standard-issue digital camera from five years ago.

Thankfully, most handset manufacturers are realizing that a phone with an integrated 5-megapixel camera makes for a much more satisfying device. In fact, some of these gadgets look more like cameras with integrated cellular data technology than phones with added-on digital imaging sensors.

Here are a few of the 5-megapixel camera phones on display at CTIA Wireless this week. We had a chance to play with a lot of handsets at the conference, but these phones stood head and shoulders above the others.

LG Viewty

We first saw this camera at CeBit earlier this year. It has one of the finest cameras ever integrated into a cellphone. The shutter speed is phenomenal and colors are true and vibrant – even under the harsh halogens of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Samsung Soul

No, it won't be available in the United States right away (those cheese-eating, deodorant-eschewing Europeans get it first), but it does come with the requisite 5-megapixel camera. Plus it also includes a vibrant OLED display right above the keypad.

Sony Ericsson C902

This way-too-thin, way-too-pretty handset also first appeared at CeBit. It contains useful picture-taking apps like face detection and a program Sony Ericsson calls "bestpic" technology, which lets you fire off nine pictures in rapid succession and then pick the one that looks best.

Nokia N82 Black Edition

Yes, it's just like the silver N82 released earlier this year and yes, it still sports the same specs: auto focus, Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon flash. And yes, its image quality is still dead-on gorgeous. But hey: It's black!

__Samsung F480 __

This is sort of a clone of the much-maligned, perpetually delayed LG Prada phone we first saw at last year's CTIA. It's gorgeous, sports a full touchscreen interface, snaps lovely 5MP pictures with its built-in LED flash, and will be sold in the United States sometime this year.

We wouldn't mind carrying any of these handsets around in our pockets. In addition to their quality cameras, many are mated with super-speedy HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) for retrieving wireless data, quad-band capability and innovative upgrades like OLED screens. All that adds up to a lot more than just cellphones with cameras haphazardly slapped on them. For the first time, instead of hiding our camera-phone pics in the darkest, most inaccessible recesses of a Flickr account, we might feel like blowing these pictures up and actually showing them to our friends.