MANILA, Philippines — It’s not a perfect world we live in. Most of the time, we don’t get what we want. This world has a funny way of messing things up. Or maybe it’s just us, and how we humans interact with each other and with everything else.

Whatever the reason might be, sometimes it seems like nobody can blame those people (and peoples?) who predict, or wish for maybe, the world’s end.

These smartphones, however, are likely to cheer everybody up, even the Mayans, enough to wish that the world would remain beyond the next nine months.

Nokia Lumia 900

 The most significant step ever by the Microsoft-Nokia partnership in their attempt at becoming significant again in the smartphone market, the Lumia 900 comes with a 4.3-inch AMOLED display. And while the smartphone comes with a “mere” 1.4GHz processor, the close-as-best-friends integration of the hardware with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 OS means the unit is just as capable as its multi-core rivals from the Android camp.

Sporting the same unibody construction its smaller siblings (800 and 710) come with, the 900 comes with a 1,830mAh battery and a front-facing camera for making videocalls. An 8-megapixel shooter with Carl Zeiss lens on its back provides the 900 with some serious photo-taking credentials.

Asus Padfone

Powered by a Snapdragon S4 processor, the Asus Padfone comes with the Adreno 225 GPU, and 16—64GB of built-in storage. Those hungry for more space will be glad to know that it includes a microSD slot. An 8-megapixel camera, equipped with LED flash and f/2.2 aperture, makes its 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display quite sensible.

Connectivity options include 42Mbps HSPA+ radio, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, and A-GPS. All these features are battery hogs. It is a good thing that the Padfone comes with a 1,520mAh battery. Users can insert the Padfone into an optional tablet frame that comes with a 10.1-inch screen.

HTC One X

The international edition of the HTC One X comes with a 4.7-inch 720p HD display protected with a piece of Gorilla Glass. It comes powered by 1.5GHz Tegra 3 quad-core processor

This 134.36 x 69.9 x 8.9mm, 130-gram smartphone runs Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) combined with the in-house Sense 4.0. It includes 1GB of RAM and 32GB of built-in storage. It has two cameras (8-megapixel rear-facing camera with AF and LED flash and 1.3-megapixel front-facing shooter for videocalling) and carries a 1,800mAh battery.

Huawei Ascend D Quad

Powered by the company’s own ARM-based K3V2 chipsets and a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, the Ascend D Quad from Huawei is one of the fastest among this bundle of smartphones. It comes with a 4.5-inch HD LCD with 720 x 1280 pixels and an “industry-leading” 32-bit true color graphic processor. The unit includes an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, as well as a 1.3-megapixel front-oriented shooter for making videocalls.

These smartphones are among the most desirable handsets for the moment. And come the morning after December 2012, many among us would be using these gadgets to share our laughter and relief as we wake up to the same old Earth.

Or we could be using these smartphones to take and share pictures of fault lines suddenly becoming hyperactive, and of distant stars and planets falling in line.