Best phones unveiled at CES 2011

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If tablet devices and Android 3.0 are hogging the limelight at CES 2011, new mobile phones aren’t far behind.

We’ve seen a flurry of new handsets that, technologically speaking, outclass the iPhone 4, Samsung Galaxy S andHTC Desire HD. Which one of these do you fancy?

Dell Venue

Also available in a Windows Phone 7-powered ‘Pro’ version, the new Venue keyboard-less Venue brushes the big screen/aged Android silliness of the Dell Streak under the carpet. This good-looking Android 2.2 phone features a 1GHz processor, a sensible 4.1-inch AMOLED/Gorilla Glass display and an 8MP camera.

Hands on: Dell Venue review

LG Optimus 2x

The Optimus 2x was actually announced pre-CES, but we’ve had a chance to play with this ground-breaking dual-core smartphone on the show floor. It’s the first phone to feature Nvidia’s Tegra 250 processor, which incorporates ARM’s Cortex A9 CPU. With a 4-inch WVGA touchscreen display, 8MP digital camera and 1080p video capture, what’s not to like?

Hands on: LG Optimus 2x review

LG Optimus Black

LG also unveiled the Optimus Black handset at CES, which lacks the dual-core grunt of the 2X but makes up for it in other areas. For example, this handset is a mere 9.2mm thick, beating the iPhone 4 for skinniness. It also features what LG calls a NOVA display, a 4-inch touchscreen that claims to be more efficient than Super AMOLED.

Hands on: LG Optimus Black review

Motorola Atrix

While Motorola has grabbed CES headlines with its Xoom tablet, its Android 2.2-powered Atrix smartphone could be a pocketable force to be reckoned with. Like the LG Optimus 2X, the Atrix is a dual-core handset with 1GB of memory, up to 48GB of storage, front and rear cameras and a stunning qHD (960×540 pixel) display.

Hands on: Motorola Atrix review

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

While we wait for some more solid information about Sony Ericsson’s ‘PlayStation phone‘, the new Xperia Arc looks to challenge the smartphone elite. Forget the ho-hum X10 and X8 models, because the Arc features Android 2.3, 8.1MP digital snapper and an eye-catching 4.2-inch ‘Reality display’ with pixel processing courtesy of Sony’s Mobile Bravia Engine.

Hands on: Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc review

ViewSonic ViewPad 4

Despite ViewSonic’s attempts to call it a ‘pad’, with its 4-inch screen the ViewPad 4 is small enough to act as a smartphone. The problem is this: ViewSonic has equipped it with technology from 2010 rather than looking ahead to 2011. So you get a 1GHz processor rather than a dual-core one; a 5MP camera, not an 8MP lens. Excitement factor? Very close to zero.

New HTC handsets for the US…

Along with Samsung, Apple and Motorola, HTC is one of the hottest mobile manufacturers on the planet and it’s unveiled several new Android 4G phones for the US market at CES.

There’s the unremarkable Evo Shift 4G, which features an 800MHz CPU, 3.6-inch display and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The LTE-friendly HTC Thunderbolt sounds more impressive. It boasts a 4.3-inch WVGA screen, Android 2.2 and Skype video calling built-in.

Lastly there’s the HTC Inspire 4G, which features Android 2.2, a 1GHz Snapdragon chip, 4.3-inch WVGA display and an 8MP digital camera.

Motorola Droid Bionic

Although never released in the UK, the Motorola Droid X has long been one of the best (and biggest) Android phones around. The new Droid Bionic model ramps up the specification with Android 2.2, a dual-core CPU and a 4.3-inch qHD display, 8MP camera and 4G/LTE connectivity.

Motorola Droid Bionic review 

Samsung Infuse 4G

This is another 4G phone for the US, but notable for its brand-spanking-new 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display that blows Super AMOLED right out of the water. It might not be a dual-core monster, but the 1.2GHz Hummingbird chip is still nippy. Add to this an 8MP rear camera and front-facing 1.3MP lens for video chat and you’ve got an impressive mobile on your hands.

Samsung Infuse 4g review 

 iPhone 5?

The launch of the dual-core LG Optimus 2X and the Motorola Atrix make the iPhone 4 feel a little… well, a little oudated if we’re honest. And if the iPhone’s speediness is being eclipsed, its Retina Display is being challenged by Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus, Sony Ericsson’s Reality Display, not to mention the qHD displays on the Droid Bionic and Motorola Atrix.

Time for an iPhone 5? Absolutely. Find out what it could feature by reading Technism Today’s iPhone 5 rumours.

Hands on: Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc review

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“We are back, Sony Ericsson is back and bringing back innovation” promised Sony Ericsson’s UK MD, Nathan Vautier at a briefing to unveil the new Xperia Arc handset.

And while for so long we’ve been used to grand promises from the joint venture, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc looks, on paper at least, to have a shot at finally living up to the vibrant billing its been given.

Running on Android 2.3, the first box is already ticked for the new phone: using the latest version of the Google OS, something SE has failed to do spectacularly on numerous occasions with the likes of the X10 and X8 in 2010.

 Design

The design is very sleek too – the curved back sloping attractively inwards rather than using the bulbous human curvature design of last year, and sits very nicely in the hand with a width of just 8.7mm at the middle.

The front keys on the phone are thankfully physical, making it easier to hit them without looking, and mixing the design of the original X10 and the Vivaz, again adding to the aesthetic.

Despite the presence of video calling functionality in Google’s Android 2.3, the Xperia Arc is devoid of a video calling function – we can’t say we’re upset, because it’s only in tablets that we think we’ll see the need for proper video calling.

One of the problems we found with the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc was the lock key. It’s accessed using the power button on the top left-hand edge of the phone and isn’t the easiest to locate and hit without looking – leagues behind the simplicity of the Google Nexus S and iPhone 4.

The HDMI-out port is located on the top of the phone too, and while we didn’t get the chance to test out the functionality, we’re promised by Sony Ericsson that HDMI-mirroring will be possible, meaning you can display anything from multimedia content to websites via your big screen.

Sony Ericsson will be bundling a mini-HDMI lead in with each Xperia Arc, meaning it will be easy to perform the connection, although DLNA is also offered if you don’t want to have to sit close to the monitor to show off your holiday snaps.

Another feature from Sony Ericsson is noise cancelling – a small secondary microphone is dotted on the back near the 8MP camera with single LED flash, which should pick up background noise quite nicely.

Despite the Arc’s slender frame, the 3.5mm headphone hack seems to fit quite nicely at the top right hand corner of the device; whether this will get in the way – as side-on ports often do – remains to be seen in our full Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc review.

The only other bit of handset furniture is the side micro-USB slot on the right-hand side (which we’re assured will be covered at final release) and the up and down keys – pretty standard stuff.

Oh, there’s a little notification light to alert you to messages and battery charging – we’re fans of its presence, but its positioning on the side of the phone seems a little suspect for easy viewing.

 Interface

The main interface of the phone is exactly as Sony Ericsson promised: a version of the Timescape UI (with a small dock of icons) and standard Android Home screens.

Where the first Xperia X10 came out with a stupidly heavy UI on top, this feels very much scaled back, and the ease with which you can drag and drop new icons on the bottom dock shows how much better the Xperia Arc is than its predecessors in terms of interface.

Browsing around was snappy and easy – no lag between the screens, which we’ll put down to the addition of Android Gingerbread on the handset, as it responds in a very similar fashion to the Google Nexus S.

The menu system looks a little simplistic at first glance, but there is a little surprise: you can edit it to your own ordered preference, or have the phone do it for you over a number of categories, making it less stock Android and more LG Optimus 2X-like.

The other little feature is the overview mode – pinch in as you would on other top-end Android phones and you’ll get instant access not to Home screens, but the widgets used therein.

It’s a novel feature, and one we feel we could grow to like, as these are the things you often have to place far away from the default screen to fit in correctly.

 Camera

The camera on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc is another headline grabber – using Exmor R technology will offer better response in low light situations, although in our neon-lit room it was hard to test that.

The shutter speed seemed pretty quick in our snap tests, although we’ll need to give it a good range of views to have a go on before we make any quick judgements, as all that extra tech could delay snapping ability quite easily.

 Internet

The internet browser on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc is definitely a step up from what we’ve seen before from the alliance, but it merely brings it up to speed with the rest of the Android gang rather than racing ahead.

For instance, we’re relieved to see multi-touch on board, and while pinching and zooming sees the letters all rejig, you need to give them another tap to force them to fit to the screen.

But at least they stay in the right formation after that, and it seems the addition of Flash video doesn’t slow things down either – hopefully that next-gen Qualcomm chip at the heart of things can keep matters ticking along nicely.

 Messaging

The keyboard wasn’t any great shakes, if we’re honest; the default Android version on the Nexus S is way better and more accurate, and we couldn’t access it on the Xperia Arc.

While the offering on board is OK, it’s nothing special and a rather large amount of accuracy could be found, despite our best efforts at quick typing. We’re sure you can get used to it, but the auto-correct doesn’t seem as intuitive as its rivals.

Good news again – Exchange is on board by default, so no need to faff about with a separate Moxier Mail application for contacts or messages.

 Media

Finally we tested out the media player – well, to be exact, the movie player. The Mediascape application has been replaced with a widget, which still has the infinity icon to find more information on certain songs, but is now no longer a maze of functionality as it was previously.

Without headphones we couldn’t properly test the music, but out the stereo speakers it was strong and powerful – enough to annoy the hell out of all other commuters if that’s your thing.

But onto the video player – it’s sensational. Definitely up there with the best in the industry, such as the Samsung Galaxy S, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc looks like one of the top video-playing phones around.

The only thing we had an issue was the colours looked a little washed out at times, but SE promises this is still something that needs to be optimised to work correctly before launch.

We’re trying to find the full list of codecs supported – if this can manage DivX we could be onto a real winner.

The motion was smooth, the resolution pin sharp – in short, everything worked as we’d hope it would. The only problem we can see is storage: only 8GB in the box and less than 500MB internal? That’s going to fill up quickly, we can see.

 Early verdict

Overall impressions of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc? Impressed, although with a tinge of trepidation. We’ve been burned before; Sony Ericsson has promised the world and then failed to deliver timely updates or offered us rotten battery life.

But the style and performance we saw in this early hands on was enough to fill us with hope – the sheer fact Sony Ericsson was willing to show it this far away from launch means a step forward has definitely been taken, as at the same point in its lifetime the X10 was a woeful mess at a demonstration.

We’ll reserve judgement until our full Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc review comes out in the near future, but until then we’ll hope SE has finally worked out that good phones make for happier consumers when the UK release date of March 2011 rolls around.

Sony Erricson Vivaz Pro Review

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The Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro is a phone that's designed for the 'power-user' - there's no other way to look at it given that it's pretty much a Vivaz with a full QWERTY keyboard on the back.

The only other obvious change is a lower resolution camera bolted on the back - 5MP rather than 8MP, but it still records in HD.

The phone itself is designed to fit dinkily in the hand, and compared to the original Vivaz it's an impressive effort - if you weren't aware it's packing a keyboard it's unlikely you'd know it at all.

The QWERTY keyboard slides out with a slightly rough motion - it's not as slick as other devices we've played with, although the slide mechanism opens with a nice clunk if you use it in both hands.

The phone feels a little plasticky in the hand as the chassis is devoid of any metallic casing, instead relying on a curved plastic exterior. It makes sense that Sony Ericsson has taken this route, as it's likely quite hard to get metal to follow the 'curvature' of the human hand, as this handset is designed to do.

The screen is a 3.3-inch resistive effort, with three plastic buttons on the bottom to open the menu and answer/terminate calls.

However, as you can see in our pictures, the terminate key has snapped in half, and not even through any misuse such as dropping it - it was just day-to-day pocket dwelling that caused the damage.

On the right-hand side of the phone there are two buttons for the camera, one for the snapper and one to open the camcorder. The up/down key is designed to be a zoom button, clearly, as Sony Ericsson has given us a little clue by putting a magnifying glass on the side.

You see what we did there? Magnifying glass, clue... oh, don't worry.

The other side of the phone is pretty sparse, save for a rubberised micro USB slot and the 3.5mm headphone slot.

The latter is rather annoyingly placed, as it means you have to put the phone in your pocket sideways to use headphones unless you want to break the end of your cans off.

We can see why Sony Ericsson has done this with the Vivaz Pro, as the top is just too curved to hold a 3.5mm slot, but still, it's a little irritating.

The back of the phone has the camera (surprisingly) which, as you can see, has also got a hairline crack through the middle.

This damage happened within a week of use with the phone - we could just be unlucky with our model, but we've tested over 100 phones here and we've rarely seen this much damage.

The lock/power button is also located on the back of the Vivaz Pro - we assume this is meant to be the optimum position to hit when holding it in the hand.

However, it's a small button with very little travel, so trying to unlock the phone is a little too hard one-handed; we frequently found ourselves having to bring in another hand (thankfully, we had one spare) to help out.

While the Vivaz Pro is nicely proportioned, it doesn't feel too high quality in the hand and the position of some of the buttons is a little suspect for easy operation.

In the box

Sony Ericsson has put a decent amount of goodies in the box for the Vivaz Pro - there's an 8GB microSD card in there for starters.

On top of that you get a USB microSD adaptor for your computer (another nice touch) as well as a micro USB lead with wall plug adaptor for powering or connecting your phone up that way.

There's also a manual in there too - but given the Vivaz Pro has a pretty good help system throughout the phone it's not really needed.

Other than that we're only given some average headphones that double as a handsfree kit - you'll be upgrading these as soon as possible if you want quality audio.

THE NOKIA X7

Video and images seemingly showing Nokia’s unannounced X7-00 smartphone has emerged ,  with the touchscreen Symbian^3 handset playing Need For Speed Shift as well as navigating though the usual Nokia menus. The leak, from the Czech  forums [registration required], tips the Nokia X7 as having a polished metal body, 360 x 640 display and an 8-mega pixel camera with dual-LED flash.

The display size is unspecified, but it looks to match the Nokia E7 at 4-inches. Onboard memory is 450MB with 245MB of RAM, and there’s a microUSB port and fixed battery. The X7-00 has four speakers, one at each corner, and is reportedly “very loud”.

There’s also a 3.5mm headphone socket on the top edge, and a new, angular casing design. No word on release date or pricing at this stage.

GALLERY 

NOKIA X7-00

THE NINTENDO 3DS

                                   

Size (when closed):

Approximately 5.3 inches wide, 2.9 inches long, 0.8 inches tall.

Weight:

Approximately 8 ounces.

Look:

Final design is TBA.

Top Screen:

3.53-inch widescreen LCD display, enabling 3D view without the need for special glasses; with 800x240 pixel resolution (400 pixels are allocated for each eye to enable 3D viewing).

Touch Screen:

3.02-inch LCD with 320x240 pixel resolution with a touch screen.

Cameras:

One inner camera and two outer cameras with 640x480 (0.3 Mega) pixel resolution.

Pre-Installed Software:

TBA

Nintendo 3DS Game Card:

2 GB Max. at launch.

Wireless Communication:

Can communicate in the 2.4 GHz band. Multiple Nintendo 3DS systems can connect via a local wireless connection to let users communicate or enjoy competitive game play. Systems also can connect to LAN access points to access the Internet and allow people to enjoy games with others. Will support IEEE 802.11 with enhanced security (WPA/WPA2). Nintendo 3DS hardware is designed so that even when not in use, it can automatically exchange data with other Nintendo 3DS systems or receive data via the Internet while in sleep mode.

Game Controls:
Touch screen, embedded microphone, A/B/X/Y face buttons, + Control Pad, L/R buttons, Start and Select buttons, "Slide Pad" that allows 360-degree analog input, one inner camera, two outer cameras, motion sensor and a gyro sensor.

Other Input Controls:
3D Depth Slider to adjust level of 3D effect (can be scaled back or turned off completely depending on the preference of the user), Home button to call system function, Wireless switch to turn off wireless communications (even during game play), Power button. The telescoping stylus is approximately 4 inches when fully extended.

Input/Output:
A port that accepts both Nintendo 3DS game cards and game cards for the Nintendo DS™ family of systems, an SD memory card slot, an AC adapter connector, a charging cradle terminal and a stereo headphone output jack.

                       

Sound:
Stereo speakers positioned to the left and right of the top screen.

Battery:
Lithium ion battery details TBA.

Languages:
TBA

Parental Controls:
Parental controls similar to the Nintendo DSi system will be included.

MY REVIEW

Nintendo 3DS is the true successor of Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's PlayStation. It totally stole the E3 2010 show with its stereoscopic 3D display. The most attractive feature of Nintendo 3DS is you do not need any glasses to see the 3D effects.

Nintendo 3DS Display:

The bottom screen of Nintendo 3DS is a 3.02-inch normal touch panel, whereas the upper screen is slightly larger than the lower screen. The 3.53-inch upper screen display uses lenticular technology. It means that you can get the 3D effect of 3DTV without those hideous glasses. It is like seeing a miniature world through a very small window. It has a pin-sharp 3D effect and a resolution of 800x240 pixels, but it is effectively split into 400x240 pixels per eye. It will not strain your eyes and you will not get any ghosting effects like movies. It is certainly better than 3D Sony Bravia with the clearest and cleanest 3D.

Graphics in Nintendo 3DS:

Nintendo 3DS has a graphical power boost and graphically it will surpass the PSP without any effort.  When we saw the famous PS2 title called Snake Eater running in Nintendo 3DS, the remake version looked superior to the original PS2 version even in its early form. PilotWings Resort game demo showed the incredible depth of the small screen. While flying a game in the 3D environment the ground looks far, far away, while your plane and the objects near it stood out. Making acute judgments in your games is made easier. It is easier to fly under the bridges and through the hoops because you are armed with real life depth perception.

3D is one of the many clever tricks offered by this little gadget. The box has an accelerometer and a gyroscope sensor which means you can detect the positional and tilting movement like Wii Remote. Nintendo 3DS has an enhanced wireless communication feature, which seeks out and communicates with the other 3DS units. It also allows you to trade details like items or scores with other players. If you want this feature in the current DS you have to run it in a special mode of communication.

Nintendo 3DS Hardware:

You can see two camera lenses on Nintendo 3DS's outer casing. It appears strange but you can take photos with 3D effects at a resolution of 640x480 pixels. The augmented reality demonstration in this device is even more impressive. It recognizes a Nintendo sticker and on screen it creates a 3D dragon. You can also move the 3DS and recognize the dragon from any angle. The third camera in this device lets you take 2D photos. It has a 3D slider similar to a volume slider that lets you adjust the 3D depth. The Slide Pad contains an analog control, which is far more comfortable and usable than the analog stub in the PSP.

Nintendo 3DS is one of the most exciting gaming hardware with incredible 3D effects. You can expect some revolutionary games which uses this device's many clever features.

Matt Anton is an avid player and journalist of video games. He enjoys blogging about all things in the tech industry, specifically related to game news. He is best known, however, for his contributions at http://GameFriends.com - The Video Game Social Community for Gamers. Nintendo 3DS Release Date Expected release date is Q1 2011 Nintendo 3DS Price Price is expected between $150 – $200