9 Great Phones At CES 2012 - Part 2

9 Great Phones At CES 2012 - Part 1

Sony Xperia Ion (AT&T)

The first Sony-branded smartphone, the Xperia Ion offers a stunning 4.6-inch, 720-by-1280-pixel (720p) glass screen and a 12-megapixel camera. Under the hood is a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor that can handle PlayStation-caliber games in addition to music and video. Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is the unfortunate default OS, but Sony is promising an ICS upgrade later this year. Sony is still sorting out just which PlayStation games will work on this thing (PS1? PS2? Xperia Play? Tablet?), but it's clear the Xperia Ion will be a serious competitor on its arrival in the second quarter.

HTC Titan II (AT&T) 

America's first 16-megapixel camera phone is here, and it's a doozy. The massive HTC Titan II sports Windows Phone 7.5, LTE data speeds, and a 4.7-inch screen, and can snap photos with a resolution of 4,640-by-3,840 pixels. The rest of its specs aren't as impressive, thanks to some leftover Microsoft-specified restrictions, but you still get a fast (single-core) 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 processor, 480-by-800-pixel screen resolution, 720p camcorder, and 16GB of internal storage (albeit with no memory card slot).

Nokia Lumia 900 (AT&T)

Now this is what we were waiting for. Nokia finally shows off its first high-end Windows Phone 7 device, as the preceding Nokia Lumia 710 was too budget-oriented to inspire much buzz. The LTE-equipped Lumia 900 packs an 8-megapixel-camera, Carl Zeiss optics, and a 4.3-inch AMOLED Clear Black display. As part of Microsoft's last CES keynote, the powerful Nokia Lumia 900 may be a fitting sendoff.

Huawei Ascend P1 S (Carrier TBA)

Who would have expected the world's thinnest smartphone to come from Huawei? The Ascend P1 S is just 0.26 inches thick, which is two hundredths of an inch thinner than the Motorola Droid RAZR. The Ascend P1 S impresses in other ways too, with a 4.3-inch, 540-by-960-pixel Super AMOLED display, a 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4460 dual-core processor, a pair of cameras, and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) preloaded. No word on a carrier yet for this one, though.

Lenovo K800 (China's Unicom)

Intel's Atom chip was fine for low-power netbooks, but it has traditionally been too power-hungry for smartphones. The Lenovo K800 could change that, at least in China—and, if successful, finally brand Intel as a player in the smartphone market, after years of empty promises and false starts. The K800 is no slouch otherwise, either, with a 4.5-inch, 720p multi-touch screen, Wi-Di, and a massive battery. We're keeping a close eye on this one, as well as Intel's other deal with Motorola, which could bring us a U.S. device sooner rather than later.

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9 Great Phones at CES 2012 - Part 1

This has been a heck of a year for phones. We're fast approaching the point where smartphone users outnumber regular cell phone users here in the U.S. Consequently, we expected big things out of CES 2012—and it looks like we got them for the most part.
In fact, many of the best announcements at CES 2012 happened either just before or at the start of the show. This year's lineup of goodies includes a heavy focus on next-generation 4G LTE data networks—including from Sprint, in a marked shift away from 4G WiMAX—plus plenty of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)-powered phones, NFC chips, dual-core processors, and even 12 and 16-megapixel camera sensors all vying for the spotlight.

Apple wasn't at the show as usual. But the story still centers around iOS and Android, as those are the top two smartphone platforms now. HP killed off webOS this year. Research in Motion was a non-factor and only showed off more of the same, albeit with a few significant OS revisions. The real comeback story could lay with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5, a slick OS that's getting a big push thanks to more advanced hardware, Nokia's return to the U.S. market, and a vast increase in the number of third-party apps available. Still, it's a steep hill for Nokia and Microsoft to climb.
With all that in mind, here are the coolest, most significant phones announced at CES this year. Many of these should hit stores by the second quarter, so get ready to count off the remaining months on your current two-year contract.

LG Spectrum (Verizon Wireless)

High-definition phones are beginning to appear in earnest. The LG Spectrum sports an ultra-sharp 720p screen in a slimmer, lighter form factor than the existing (and also 720p) HTC Rezound. In addition to 720-by-1280-pixel resolution, the screen is "advanced high-def IPS," which to our eye looks brighter than other phones we've seen at least on the show floor. Text appears stunningly crisp even at tiny font sizes. It also packs a video editing program and an HD-specific app store, which the Spectrum should handle easily thanks to its 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 4G LTE network support . No Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) out of the box, but LG is promising an update by June 2012.

Motorola Droid 4 (Verizon Wireless)

The Motorola Droid 4 may be the nicest QWERTY Android phone yet, with a sleek slider design, a laser-cut five-row QWERTY keyboard with sharp edge lighting, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, and (finally) 4G LTE data speeds. It also works with Motorola's array of Webtop mode accessories, including 10- and 14-inch Lapdocks, an HD Docking Station for the living room, and a Vehicle Navigation Dock. This one could push the remaining BlackBerry users—the ones dedicated to their hardware keyboards—over the line to Android if RIM doesn't right its ship soon.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Sprint)

The first flagship Ice Cream Sandwich phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, jumps over to Sprint, adding back the Google Wallet capability that Verizon Wireless had disabled along the way. The oversized 4.65-inch Super AMOLED screen and dual-core processor are impressive, but in this case take a back seat to LTE—Sprint's brand new, next-generation 4G network that it's powering up in 10 cities by the middle of this year.

LG Viper (Sprint)

The Galaxy Nexus may have the spotlight, but the LG Viper could be Sprint's Q-ship for 2012. It may snag even more buyers, thanks to its more manageable 4-inch screen size, brushed metal back panel, and lower price than the Galaxy Nexus. It only runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) out of the box, but its LTE radio, dual-core processor, and NFC compatibility mean it still has the future in mind.

9 Great Phones At CES 2012 - Part 2

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Huawei uncloaks sleek, slim, sexy Smartphones

Chinese telecom giant Huawei has unveiled a pair of high-end Android smartphones, including one that it dubs "the world's slimmest smartphone" – and at a mere 6.68mm, it's a skinny li'l fellow, indeed.

The Huawei Ascend P1 S, like its 7.69mm sibling, the Ascend P1, runs Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich. Both are powered by a dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 Cortex-A9 processor running at 1.5GHz, joined by an SGX 540 graphics engine.

Both handsets have a 4.3-inch, 960-by-540 Super AOLED qHD display protected by Corning's hardened Gorilla Glass, and the PS 1 manages to stuff that display into a body that's just 6.48mm wide. At that width, the metal-frame bezel on the right and left of the display is exceptionally thin.

Both phones provide a broad range of UMTS/GSM 3G and HSPA+ 4G connectivity capabilites, and Huawei chairman Richard Yu promised his audience at the phone's rollout on Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that his company's 20 years-plus experience in mobile infrastructure gives them a leg up in providing quick, clear connections. "We know the network," Yu noted, modestly.

Yu also claimed that the new handsets' 1670mAh and 1800mAh batteries will provide a 30 per cent increase in battery life over competing smartphones, and that their OMAP processors make the devices "the fastest in their class."

The phones are also equipped with Dolby Mobile 3.0 Plus 5.1 surround sound. "Now you can take your home theater music system away with you – a really fantastic user experience," Yu boasted.

Also notable is the software provided along with the phones' 8-megapixel, 1080p HD video–capable, rear-facing camera (a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera supports video calls). Among other tricks, the software offers face-distortion fun à la Apple's Photo Booth, panoramic image-stitching, in-camera image editing, low-light enhancement, and improved close-up images.

One feature of the camera and its software that we found especially intriguing is the ability to automatically take five shots of a group of people and have the phone's face-recognition technology choose which image includes the best shot of each subject – eyes open, for example – in the five-photo group and combine them into a single image.

Other specification nuts and bolts include 4GB ROM and 1GB RAM (expandable to 8GB with a microSD card), Bluetooth 3.0 HS, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, HDMI, dual-microphone noise reduction, PDF and PowerPoint editing, dual LEDs for its rear -facing camera, and the near-ubiquitous compass, accelerometer, and gyroscope. You can choose black, white, or "cerise" – aka red.

Yu didn't announce any carrier partners, but said that the Ascend P1 and P1 S would be available in April. Although carrier-subsidy deals have yet to be cut - or, at least, announced - he estimated that the phone would likely be priced at around $400. Both phones will be available in China, Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America, Australia, and the Middle East at launch.

In the limited time we had to handle the P1 S, it seems that Huawei is jumping into the high-end smartphone market with both feet, and landing in a quite attractive location – the phone is solid, sleek, swift, and sexy. There's a manufacturer of a relatively chubby (9.3mm) and less-capable smartphone in Cupertino, California, that might want to look to its shiny-shiny laurels.

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