For contacts, the best way is to sync them to your GMail account. Settings->Accounts and sync Then when you add the same account on the new phone, it will sync them automatically.
For settings without root, I'm not sure.
If you are willing to root, Titanium backup is very good. It will save the settings onto the SD card. Then with the new phone, install the application and you should be able to restore the settings off the same SD card.