CES 2008

Motorola Rokr E8

(Credit: Motorola )

Another CES is in the bag, and we've successfully fled Las Vegas for San Francisco. Though fewer new cell phones debuted at the show than in the past couple years, we can say that the 2008 show was all about quality over quantity. Also, when compared with the last couple of years, we had some serious competition for the Best of CES award in the cell phones and smartphones category. But after it was said and done, the Motorola Rokr E8 took that prize. Its innovative morphing keyboard gave it the needed mojo to lap the Sony Ericsson W760 super world phone. It was a good fight, and we hope we'll see a similar high-pitched battle in 2009. Motorola also introduced a high-end video phone with the Moto Z10 and it gave us two new entry-level models with the W230 and W270.

Sony Ericsson W760

(Credit: Sony Ericsson)

Besides the W760, Sony Ericsson introduced two other new cell phones. The Z555 is a design-centric handset with a new "gesture-control" feature, and the W350 is a low-end Walkman model. Though Samsung didn't offer any new phones for North America, it did show some exisiting models it wasn't planning to bring here including the i450 and the SGH-G800 5-megapixel camera phone. Also sitting pretty in Samsung's booth was the company's Armani phone.

Nokia didn't have anything new, either, but we did see the Nokia 3110, which is made partially from renewable materials. Nokia also had a couple cell phone speakers in its booth, and Samsung showed speakers of its own. And over in the most far-flung booths on the show floor, Neonode was offering its N2 phone, and Haier offered the dual SIM-card HG-N99.

We managed to spot a few notable phones at the LG booth. We saw the LG AX565 and the LG Scoop, coming out for Alltel later this year. We also noticed a mysterious touch-screen phone that some representatives have hinted would be the new LG Vu. Of course, LG also showed off its Europe-only models like the LG KS20 and the LG Viewty, both of which we can't get in the U.S. just yet. Probably one of the most interesting things we saw from LG is the prototype model of a watch phone, which will have Bluetooth as well as text messaging.

Although there wasn't a ton of smartphone news to come out of CES 2008, it doesn't mean the show was a complete wash. In fact, we saw several noteworthy announcements and some interesting trends at the annual tech extravaganza. First, Nokia introduced a North American version of the coveted 8GB Nokia N95, which is available now unlocked for a whopping $749. Several Windows Mobile devices landed on carriers' doorstep as the Verizon Wireless SMT5800 made its debut and Alltel Wireless added the HTC Touch to its lineup. Finally, while not technically a smartphone, Sony released the revamped Sony Mylo Communicator 2, a Wi-Fi-enabled messaging and Web-browsing handheld for all the future smartphone owners of America.

There were almost too many Bluetooth headsets to cover at this year's CES, but we did find a few noteworthy new ones. Jabra, for example, debuted a very sexy-looking Jabra JX20 Pura, which is made from anodized titanium and designed by a renowned European designer. There was also the Jabra BT8040, which is one of a few mono headsets that has A2DP so you can listen to phone calls and streaming music in a single headset. As for stereo headsets, Motorola came out with the Motorola S9-HD, which is similar to the Motorola Rokr S9 headset from last year, but it is now enhanced with high-definition audio.

Invisio Q7

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET Networks)

The most interesting headsets from the show, however, came from Invisio. The company debuted what it is calling the world's smallest Bluetooth headset in the form of the Invisio G5, a tiny little thing that comes with a portable charging case. It also showed off the Invisio Q7, a headset that has a patented Bone Conduction technology that can convert vibrations from your jawbone so that your caller will only hear your voice. We were so impressed with this Bone Conduction technology, that we nominated the G7 for best of CES.

Red BlackBerry Pearl 8130 for Verizon

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Pretty in pink (apologies for the blurry shot)

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Catching Verizon Wireless and Sprint off-guard, Research in Motion showed off some upcoming colored models of the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130 for the respective carriers at CES 2008. The red version will go to Verizon, joining the silver Pearl 8130, while the powder-pink model will land at Sprint along with the purple Pearl. No specific release dates were given, but I'd guess the launch dates aren't too far away--February at the latest.

As I get ready to leave CES and Las Vegas, I wanted to give a shout-out to the device that truly powers the convention: the smartphone. Doesn't really matter whether it's Treo or Blackberry, everyone was calling, texting and emailing all day long. At such a techie summit you could talk in any public space with impunity. I would have been lost from my CNET compatriots without it. [Side note, my iPhone had "no service" within the convention center but my Blackberry was fine, both on AT&T.]

So at the end of they day, as they take down the huge plasma TVs, and turn off the flashing lights, I keep thinking that sometimes its the basics that get you through the day:

(photo credit: Amy Tiemann)

The Case Logic Pocket with an attached carabiner. It's like a little sleeping bag that fits most phones or small devices. This would have helped me find my Blackberry or iPhone without rooting around my bag the whole time.

And second, the Turbocharge Tc2 portable cell phone charger, so that you're never caught short without a charge. One AA battery and you're good to go. At CES they announced new models including one for iPhone and another with a built-in rechargeable battery.

Alltel HTC Touch

(Credit: Alltel)

Alltel Wireless has just announced the immediate availability of the HTC Touch smartphone with pricing starting at $199.99 with a two-year contract and after rebates and discounts. The Alltel HTC Touch has a number of the same features as the other versions of the phone (unlocked and Sprint's), such as the TouchFlo interface, Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition, and a 2-megapixel camera. They've also added a fourth "cube" to the menu interface where you can access some of the carrier's exclusive applications such as Voice2TXT (converts voice mails into text), Games from Magmic, Sharpcast Photos, and Axcess Shop. The HTC Touch joins Alltel's other smartphone offerings, including the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130, the Palm Treo 755p, and the Motorola Q.

Asus P527

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Asus introduced several smartphones for the North American market at CES 2008, including the GPS-enabled Asus P527. In addition to the built-in SiRFIII GPS chip, the device has a preloaded application called Travelog that lets you record and share your travel pictures, routes, and more with your friends and family. There's also a program called Location Carrier that can send your position to others via text message.

Aside from the GPS capabilities, the quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE/GPRS) phone runs Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition and features a 2-megapixel camera, 128MB Flash/64MB SDRAM, a microSD expansion slot, Windows Live integration, and a business card reader. The P527 has a candybar design and has a 2.6-inch, 65,000-color touch screen and alphanumeric keypad. The Asus P527 should be available this quarter and will cost about $527 unlocked.

Nokia N95 8GB

(Credit: Nokia )

If you've got any of that holiday gift money left, you might want to hold onto it for this sucker. Nokia announced at CES 2008 that it will be bringing a North American version of the Nokia N95 8GB this quarter, all for the bargain price of $749 unlocked (zoiks!). The good news is that the Symbian smartphone supports our 850/1900MHz HSPDA bands, so you can just pop in a AT&T SIM card to enjoy those 3.5G speeds. Of course, there's also the 8GB of onboard memory but be aware there's no microSD expansion slot on this version. All the other features are similar to the Nokia N95 North American Edition, which includes a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. The North American Nokia N95 8GB will be available for purchase through online retailers and at Nokia's flagship stores in New York and Chicago.

Verizon Wireless SMT5800

(Credit: Verizon Wireless)

Today, Verizon Wireless added a new smartphone to its lineup, and it looks to be a goody. Manufactured by HTC, the Verizon Wireless SMT5800 takes after the HTC Vox in design and boasts a compact cell-phone-like form factor yet manages to pack in a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. There's also an alphanumerical dialpad on the exterior of the device.

The features are pretty much standard fare. It runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition and has a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0 (with support for the A2DP profile), and EV-DO. Onboard memory is 128MB Flash/64MB RAM and comes equipped with a microSD expansion slot. The Verizon Wireless SMT5800 is available online starting today and will be in stores on January 21 with a price tag of $249.99 with a two-year contract and after rebates and discounts.

We expect that CES will be a lot different from what it was last year, mainly because Macworld isn't happening at the same time. So instead of racing to cover a possible update to the iPhone, we'll be able to spend all of our time covering what's going on in Las Vegas.

Best of CES 2007: Cell phones and smartphones

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Touch this
The iPhone wasn't the first cell phone to offer a touch screen, and it certainly won't be the last. At CES, and in 2008, we're sure well see more touch-screen handsets like the recent LG Voyager and Venus. Also on the design front, it appears the thin phone trend may be waning just a bit, and we're hearing rumors that we'll see new phones with crazy keypads. We'll have to wait and see.

T-Mobile 3G?
As any cell phone geek will tell you, T-Mobile is the only major carrier to lack a 3G network and a music downloading service. But in the past couple of months, T-Mobile put out two cell phone with 3G capability, the Samsung SGH-T369 and the Nokia 6263. Though we expect that a formal announcement of a wireless broadband network can't be too far behind, our gut tells us T-Mobile won't announce it at the show with so much else going on. But it could happen.

Unlocked phones
With the recent announcement from Verizon Wireless, it finally seems that unlocked phones are becoming a major force in the United States market. At CES, we suspect that unlocked phones will be plentiful. On a similar note, there should be more CDMA/GSM handsets like the Motorola Z6c.

Smartphones
Looking back, 2007 was another big year for smartphones. The release of Windows Mobile 6 brought a healthy helping of new devices from HTC, Samsung, and Motorola, among others, while Nokia, RIM, and Palm provided much competition with new models of their own.

The announcement of Google Android and the Open Handset Alliance has blown open the doors and made it a very exciting time for the cell phone industry. We don't anticipate the mass-market release of any Android smartphones just yet, but perhaps we'll get to see some prototypes and check out some applications. We'll also bring you a closer look at some announced-but-not-yet-released devices (at least in the States, anyway), such as the Nokia N82 and the HTC Touch Dual. Last, but not least, we expect to see more entry-level, consumer-friendly models as smartphones gain popularity with a wider audience.

Best of CES 2007: Verizon Wireless V Cast Mobile TV
What we said last year: Verizon Wireless joins with MediaFlo to create a truly innovative and watchable TV-on-phone experience. V Cast Mobile TV offers full-length, live television programming on selected handsets via a dedicated UHF signal. There's little of the pixilated, choppy effects of 3G video streaming, and audio/video syncing and channel switching are zippy.

What we think now: We continue to love V Cast Mobile TV. After three phones, it's still the best cell phone video around. We just wish it was running in more metro areas, the Bay Area in particular.