CES: Mobile Phones

In case you hadn’t heard, the Consumer Electronics Show is on in Las Vegas.
So we’re going to take a look at some of the mobile phones the world will see this year because I know you’re all obsessed with them. I’m obsessed with them too. It’s okay. We’re all obsessed together.

In case you hadn’t heard, the Consumer Electronics Show is on in Las Vegas. Charlie is there and working on a special CES version of the Cyber Shack that we’ll be bringing to you over the airwaves. But for now, it’s just me and my lonely keyboard in Sydney (*sigh*) topping you up with some of the stuff CES is introducing to the world of technology this year.

So we’re going to take a look at some of the mobile phones the world will see this year because I know you’re all obsessed with them. I’m obsessed with them too. It’s okay. We’re all obsessed together.

Nokia have got a range of stuff on offer and no doubt we’ll be seeing more stuff specifically targeted at our region as the year goes by (as it is for all of these companies) but one of the stand-out devices we should be seeing is the Nokia 3110 Evolve, a new handset made from 50 percent renewable bio-materials with a charger that uses 95 percent less power required by the Energy Star standards technology complies with. With stereo Bluetooth, a mini USB port, expandable memory via the microSD card slot to compliment the music player on board, and a 1.3 megapixel camera, it’s a mid-range GSM phone that might just set a new standard for green phones.

Samsung are big batters too with their SGH-G600 (which you’ll probably know as the G600 or a variant of it when released) which is a thin slider phone loaded with a 5 megapixel camera, microSD, and all the fix-ins. It’ll give many a high-end phone a good run for its money.

If you’re obsessed with phones that accompany fashion brands, the Giorgio is taking on the Prada with Samsung’s Giorgio Armani. The specs are a little bit better from Samsung over the LG with a 3 megapixel camera as well as haptic feedback so it doesn’t feel like you’re just hitting a screen. It’ll be expensive but won’t it look nice with that Armani suit…

Motorola are like Apple when it comes to creating styles and they’re doing it really nice this time around with the Rokr E8, a flat panel phone without buttons that uses vibration to emulate button presses. Think of it as a slick glass covered touchscreen that can change looks depending on what you’re doing and will vibrate when touched to give off the impression you’ve pressed a button. Very cool, and it features a Linux operating system with support for Windows Media Play 11, a 2 inch display, 2gb of internal memory and a whole lot more.

Motorola also have the Moto Z10, a phone with a difference. I’ve heard people labeling it as the “banana phone” and you can sort of see why with that curve in its frame, but this phone will be all function. Featuring quad-band and 3G, it’ll record video at 30 frames per second and then let you upload it right to YouTube. If you’re a budding filmmaker-on-the-go, you’ve got your phone.

Sony Ericsson are taking their Walkman phones and applying everything they know about style into a slick new set that even give Motorola a good run for its money. Why, you ask? Well take a look for yourself.

For the budget conscious users, you can now look as stylish as ever with the Sony Ericsson W350a, a new flip phone which sees Sony Ericsson taking a more Ericsson-oriented approach (like that of its earlier T-series phones). The flip comes down when you’re on a call and goes back up when off the phone protecting the keypad. Adding to this design, your music players keys are on the outside of the flip. It’s also stylish to boot with four colours adding to the array of Bluetooth, the 1.3 megapixel camera, e-mail ability and more. Being a Triband GSM phone, it’s sitting in direct competition with the Nokia 5310 and it’ll be interesting to see which comes out on top.

On the slightly higher end of the scale, the Sony Ericsson W760 is a 3G phone with the works. Quad-band, HSDPA, Walkman music player with the Shake control from the W580, a 3.2 megapixel camera… it’s all here. And it’ll be available in rocky silver, fiery red, and intense black.

LG are dialing things up a notch by giving us a vision of the future. Sure, there have been phones built into watches before, but by and large they were all pretty much crap. This time, LG have got a prototype of a watch phone on display. Maybe something for the future. Who knows.

I wasn’t a big fan of the Prada but LG look to improve on that with the LG Viewty, a new touchscreen phone that comes loaded with features like a 5 megapixel camera with support for relatively high ISO 800, 120 frames per second video recording, DivX Video playback, and the ability to upload videos to YouTube. It still doesn’t look to be a 3G phone which is a shame but maybe by the time is reaches our shores, LG will have changed their mind.

And here are some of the phones & accessories we’d be lucky to get on our shores:

The Invision Q7 is a Bluetooth headset unlike any you’ve probably ever heard. Sure, it looks like every other Bluetooth headset and it delivers audio through an earpiece just like a lot of other headsets do, but instead of using a regular microphone, the Q7 uses a bone conduction microphone to pick up on the vibrations in your jaw and translate them into sound. That means you won’t pick up external noise from wind, cars, or that annoying guy behind you.

Fancy a bath… with your phone? Sanyo have a waterproof digital TV phone that we probably won’t ever see outside of Japan (*sniff*) that uses a digital TV tuner.

And the OpenMoko Linux phone which is a pill shaped flat phone that this year will feature a faster processor, WiFi, and hardware for 2D & 3D graphics. Hmm… I want one.

Sources: CNet