A British company Astera3D has taken a step in the right direction by producing online 3D rotating images, as per the one below:

By clicking on the rotate buttons you can look at the phone from any angle so that you can see how the phone looks. by playing with the buttons at the bottom of the image you can even remove the back cover and see how the battery removal works – so instead of trying to work this out over the phone with customer support lines, you will be able to see it in action yourself.

The technology works by using a series of photographic images spliced together in a movie and it works great – so maybe the playing field between online mobile phone retailers and the high street has been levelled a bit more.