If you are anything like me, picture capability is one of the main concerns when it comes to buying a refurbished cell phone. Sending and receiving picture messages is the most fun part of owning a modern cell phone, so you want to make sure that you get what you are looking for as far as the camera of the phone you choose. The most important categories to look at when shopping for a cell phone to picture text with are the camera’s megapixels and features, the size of the cell phones display, and the amount of pixel resolution that the display can handle. Here is a breakdown of how the most popular refurbished cell phones’ cameras and displays compare. The models being compared are the Blackberry Curve, the Blackberry Pearl, the Palm Pre, the Palm Centro, the Palm 700, the Palm 650, the HTC Touch, the Sidekick LX, and the Sidekick Slide.

Taking and sending great pictures from a cell phone is all about the camera’s megapixels. When it comes to the megapixels of a cell phone’s camera, the Blackberry Curve stands high above the competition with a resolution of 3.2 megapixels. The Palm Pre comes in second with a 3.0 megapixel camera. Both of these cell phones have flashes for their cameras, but the Blackberry Curve also has image stabilization, auto focus, and a digital zoom. The HTC Touch comes in third at 2.0 mega pixels, and the Blackberry Pearl, the Palm Treo 700, the Sidekick LX, and the Sidekick Slide collectively take fourth with cameras of 1.3 megapixels. The Palm Treo 650 comes in last in this category with a 0.3 mega pixel camera.

It’s hard to view a great picture if your cell phone has a tiny screen. Screen sizes are measured diagonally. The Palm Pre takes the top spot of screen sizes with a screen of 3.1 inches, and the Sidekick LX is a close number two with a 3.0-inch screen. The HTC Touch and the Palm Treo 700 both have a 2.8 inch screen. Next is the Treo 650 with a 2.7 inch screen. The Sidekick Slide comes in next at 2.5 inches followed by the Blackberry Curve at 2.44 inches. The Blackberry Pearl comes in last in screen size at 2.2 inches.

The size of the screen isn’t everything, though. You need a screen with a high combined resolution if you want the picture to look good on your screen. Again, the Blackberry Curve comes in at the top spot with a combined resolution of 172,800 pixels. Second is a tie between the Palm Treo 650 and the Palm Pre, which both have 102,400 pixels. Next is the Sidekick LX at 96,000 pixels, followed by another tie between the HTC Touch and the Sidekick Slide at 76,800 pixels. The Blackberry Pearl has 62,400 pixels and the Palm Treo 700 has the least amount of pixels at 57,600.

All of these are important factors to consider when purchasing a refurbished cell phone if you are concerned with the quality of the pictures that it will take and how picture messages will look on the screen. Just to give you an idea of how these popular refurbished cell phones (at a fraction of the price) compare to arguably the two most popular new cell phones the iPhone and the Blackberry Storm, here are their specs:

The iPhone has a 3.0 megapixel camera with autofocus. It’s screen is 3.5 inches and has 153,600 pixels. The Blackberry Storm has a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto flash and auto focus. Its display is 3.25 inches and contains 172,800 pixels.