There's certainly one theme that dominated CES 2010 in the cell phone and smartphone category and that's Android.
LAS VEGAS--CES 2010 didn't produce quite a showstopper like last year's
Of course, there was plenty of buzz about it even before CES started, after the official announcement of the
Beyond the Nexus One, AT&T committed to launching five new Android devices in the first half of 2010, including the Dell Mini 3. Motorola also introduced its latest Android smartphone, the Motorola Backflip, which won our Best of CES award in the cell phone category for its fresh take on design. We go our first hands-on with the Android-powered Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and we learned about OS updates to existing Moto handsets.
Outside of Android, Palm continued its tradition of making product announcements at CES and introduced the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus for Verizon. The company also unveiled details for WebOS 1.4, which will come out sometime in February and add video recording and Flash Player 10.1 for all WebOS devices. T-Mobile also made it official and said it will bring the HTC HD2 to its lineup this spring. Whatever your preference in OS, it looks like it's shaping up to be another busy year for smartphones.
LG introduced two new messaging phones: the LG Lotus Elite (another nominee for Best of CES in the category) and the LG Rumor Touch, which are sequels to the Lotus and the Rumor 2, respectively. Both Sprint phones now have touch screens and updated features. The Rumor Touch has a 3.0-inch display and a slide-out keyboard, but the Lotus Elite caught our eye with its unique design and dual QVGA displays.
We also took a closer look at the Casio Brigade and LG's line of global smartphones. LG also said it would release more smartphones for the U.S. market. As for Bluetooth headsets, Jabra introduced the Jabra Extreme, which promises more aggressive noise-cancellation.
In a big change from previous years, Samsung had a quiet show. The company showed just its
That concludes the cell phone and smartphone highlights of CES 2010. Be sure to read our full coverage for many mobile tidbits.