The Consumer Eletronics Show is like the Super Bowl for gadget geeks. The event is held every January at the Las Vegas Convention Center and it allows electronic companies to showcase their newest inventions and gizmos. There have been many cool new products unveiled at the CES already this week — here are the highlights of the first few days.
TVs
The hot new trend in televisions is organic light emitting diode or OLED. With this new technology, huge screens can be super skinny. For instance, Samsung and LG rolled out their super-vivid 55-inch OLED televisions that are thinner than some smart phones. Don't go running with your wallet to your local electronics store just yet, though. Currently the only commercially available OLED television is the Sony XEL-1, an 11-inch model that debuted at the 2007 CES with a price of $2,500. (Other TVs you'll never have is this 84-inch "ultra resolution" television.)
Why does the Samsung ES8000 Smart TV contain a dual-core processor and support for multitasking, as well as a built-in camera and microphone? Because you'll be telling and motioning to your television what you want it to do. This unit has Samsung's “Smart Interaction” services, which includes face, gesture, and voice recognition capabilities. That's right, now yelling at your TV will actually accomplish something.
Do you want your living room to be a movie theater? Maybe you need a Vizio CinemaWide TV with a 21:9 (2.37) aspect ratio, the first devices of that kind to be available in the U.S. Vizio showcased three models of the super widescreen displays: 50-inch, 58-inch, and 71-inch.
Cameras
Want a point-and-shoot camera with the performance of a top-notch SLR? Then you may want the new Canon G1 X. Only one issue: it will set you back $800.
Tired of going into Photoshop and attempting to fix your friends' ugliness? Worry no more because the Olympus VR-340 has a built-in beautifier. This $150 16MP camera offers a "Beauty Mode with Makeup," which will take your less-than-handsome friend and offer you 18 pre-programmed tweaks. Why go to the gym, when your camera can eviscerate that gross double chin of yours?
Tablets
Razer's prototype Project Fiona isn't you're typical tablet. This tablet was made with the gamer in mind. The concept tablet has mini-joystick and other gaming controls on the side of the unit.
Spring time is coming, so it's time to slim down. And at .3 inches, you can't get much thinner. Toshiba's Excite X10 Tablet is super skinny and only 1.18 lbs. It features a 10.1-inch, 1280x800 resolution screen, a dual-core 1.2 GHz TI OMAP4 CPU, 1GB RAM, and Honeycomb 3.2.
You can now buy a tablet for less than $100. That's right, the Ainovo 7 Basic will set you back only $99.
Laptops
Check out the new HP ENVY 14 Spectre — it's not your father's laptop. It's beautifully designed and shows off with the lightweight, scratch-resistant midnight black glass on the lid, display, palmrest, and ImagePad. It offers touch-sensitive glass displays that can change their function and morph into the tools the user requires. This thin Ultrabook is a mere 20 mm thick and features a high-resolution, rich-color Radiance Display. You can get your very own on February 8 for a starting price of $1,399.99.
Dell is expanding into the Ultrabook business with their Dell XPS 13 laptop, a thin and high-performance laptop. Dell's super-thin, high-performance laptop will attempt to compete against the Apple MacBook Air. The new machine has a 13.3-inch screen and weighs 2.99 lbs.
Smart Phones
Nokia attempts to revive their presence in the the U.S. handset market with their highly anticipated Lumia 900. The unit will run with Windows Phone 7 and its 4.2-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display is the the largest display ever seen on a Nokia WP7 device. The guts in this baby are pretty impressive, a powerful 1.4GHz processor, 16GB of internal storage, and a 8MP camera featuring a Carl Zeiss lens. The Lumia will be available on AT&T in the coming months.
Sony has not been a big player in the smart phone market, but they hope to change that with their sharp-looking Xperia S. It features a large 1280 x 720 4.3-inch display, 1.5GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 12 mega pixel camera.
If you like Motorola phones on the Verizon network, than we have a treat for you. Motorola rolled out three handsets at the CES. The Droid 4 has been dubbed "the thinnest and most powerful 4G LTE QWERTY smartphone" on the planet. The Droid Razr Maxx will feature 21 hours of talk-time in a small package. For you fans of Prince, there's the Razr, now available in a stylish purple color.
