What kind of pictures are you planning to take with it? Personally, I'll trade LCD size for an optical viewfinder. It's nearly impossible to take panning action photos with only an LCD. But with an optical viewfinder it's not hard at all. My favorite compact camera of 2007 (so far, anyway) is the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS. I used the Panasonic Lumix TZ3 a bit and I think it's pretty nice - especially with the 10x zoom. It's not really a pocket-sized camera, though. You can read our pro review for the TZ3 here:

Panasonic Lumix TZ3 Review >>

And here's my review for that Canon:

Canon PowerShot SD850 IS Review >>

The biggest zoom range I'm aware of in an actual pocket-sized digital camera is a 7x optical zom lens on the Casio Exilim EX-V7, which I also reviewed this past summer. It's also got full manual exposure controls:

Casio Exilim EX-V7 Review >>

We haven't tested any of the Nikon Coolpix S50 cameras. I am always a little nervous about that style of lens because I've seen image quality issues with them in the past. Not necessarily with Nikon, but with that internal zoom. The Casio EX-V7 has a lens like that though, and it was pretty good. Still, I think you should look at Canon if you want a pocket-sized camera. Either the Canon SD Powershots with image stabilization, or the smaller Panasonics.

Tell us more about what you want to shoot. That makes a big difference. I also want to make sure you aren't going to have false expectations about what a point-and-shoot camera can do. Fast is relative and no point-and-shoot should really be expected to be a sports camera.