Thu, January 12, 2012
The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has just kicked off and a torrent of interesting new devices have been announced including the world’s slimmest smartphone tablet and laptop and an Ultrabook with a glass lid. Unless noted, pricing and release dates have not been announced.
The world’s thinnest laptop
Acer’s 13" Aspire S5 Ultrabook is the world’s thinnest laptop. It measures 15mm at its thickest point and weighs in at less than 1.35 kg. It features a high-speed Thunderbolt port, Acer’s Instant On technology (which can wake the laptop up in 1.5 seconds), and the ability to access and wake up the computer remotely via a smartphone or tablet. The Acer Aspire S5 will start shipping in the second quarter of 2012.
The world’s thinnest tablet
Toshiba has stolen the title of world’s thinnest tablet from Asus’s quad-core Transformer Prime Android tablet with the announcement of its Excite X10 tablet. The 10” Excite X10 tablet is thinner than a pencil (and most smartphones) with its 7.7mm profile. The sleek-looking Excite X10 (also known as the AT200 in the UK) proudly claims to be the lightest tablet on the market too, weighing in at just 0.54kg. Inside there’s a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, dual 5MP and 2MP cameras, a Micro USB port, a Micro HDMI port, an SD card slot and a 10” 1280x800 pixel display. The Excite X10 is priced at $530 for the 16GB version and $599.99 for the 32GB version.
World’s slimmest smartphone
Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer Huawei’s Ascend P1 S smartphone is the slimmest in the world. The Android-powered device has a profile of just 6.68 millimeters and boasts some top-of-the-line features including a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED 960x540 Corning Gorilla Glass display, a fastest-in-class dual-core 1.4GHz processor and Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. There’s also an 8MP camera with dual-LED flash, a 1.3MP front-facing camera and 1080p video capture capabilities. Huawei is also releasing a second handset called the Ascend P1 that fits a slightly bigger battery into its slightly thicker (7.69 mm) frame. The Huawei Ascend P1 S is rumored to be priced at around $400 but official prices have not been announced. Both the Ascend P1 S and P1 will be available in Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America, Australia, the Middle East, and China from April 2012.
An Ultrabook with a lid made from glass
HP is presenting an innovative laptop at CES that uses Corning’s lightweight, scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass in the place of a laptop lid. The multi-surface glass notebook, called the HP Envy 14 Spectre, is a thin, streamlined device with a profile of 20 mm. It features a high-resolution, rich-color Radiance Display and high-performance audio technology Beats Audio and wireless audio streaming. It includes 256GB of storage, features rapid start-up and boot times and a built-in webcam, and lasts up to nine hours on one charge. The HP ENVY 14 Spectre notebook PC will start shipping in the United States on February 8 with a starting price of $1,399.99. It will launch in Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom in early March.
World’s first Smart TV to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
Lenovo is entering the Smart TV category with fanfare and has unveiled the world’s first Smart TV to be powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the K91. The 55" Smart TV is powered by QualComm’s 8060 Snapdragon dual-core CPU and blends the lines between traditional TV, Video On Demand and internet applications. Other features include a built-in 5MP webcam, facial recognition for parental control, cloud storage and file sharing between the TV and a tablet, smartphone or PC. The K91 will go on sale in China first before getting a worldwide release at a "later date."
Nokia’s flagship WP7 device built for the US
The beautifully designed Lumia 900 is the first of Nokia’s WP7 smartphones to feature LTE 4G connectivity and sports the largest display ever seen on a Nokia WP7 device -- an expansive 4.2-inch AMOLED ClearBlack Display. It has the same polycarbonate unibody design as the Lumia 800 before it but has a bigger screen, a thinner profile and a more powerful 1.4 GHz processor. The 16GB device runs on the Mango + LTE build of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 operating system and has an enhanced 8MP camera, a Carl Zeiss lens, a dual LED flash, and features 720p/30fps video recording. The Nokia Lumia 900 will initially be sold exclusively through US carrier AT&T. The phone is expected to arrive in the "coming months."
A Droid smartphone with the longest-lasting battery yet
The Razr Maxx is a new edition to Motorola's popular Droid family of Android devices. The 9mm thin Motorola Razr Maxx smartphone is close to 2mm thicker than its Droid Razr sibling but manages to squeeze a huge 3300mAh battery into its chassis, meaning that you will be able to play games and surf the web all day, or talk for up to 21 hours straight without having to find a charger. The 32GB phone will be available "in the coming weeks" for $299.99 on a two-year contract.
World’s thinnest LTE smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard
The Motorola Droid 4 lays claim to being the world’s thinnest LTE QWERTY smartphone (but it's almost double the thickness of the Huawei Ascend P1 S) with its 12.7 mm profile. The powerful Android-based device sports a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, a five-row QWERTY keyboard with edge-lit keys, an 8MP camera with 1080p video capture, and government-grade encryption. The Droid 4 will be available "in the coming weeks."
(Agencies)
