Click's Best in Show
The
Consumer Electronics Show has come and gone, lighting up the sands of
Nevada with the bleeping
OLEDs of techno wizadry from January 8th – 13th (admittedly, the
Las Vegas strip is pretty sparkly to begin with...)
And while previous years have been defined by singular innovations or technologies, paradigm shifting trends,
CES 2012 was a more temperate, measured show, with no obvious standouts but a Metric F**kton of new tech!
With announcements such as
Microsoft bowing out of their traditional key-note speeching and trends like
OLED or the ubiquitous
Ultrabook (not to be confused with Netbook, Notebook, Laptop, Tablet or Personal Computer... completely different...) it would certainly be no easy task to select just ten moments that defined the show!
So I’m not going to do that.
Instead we’re going to take a closer look at the show’s technological sub-categories and highlight
their respective best in show. This way if you find yourself pining for a new phone, tablet of vinyl player in the next twelve months, you’ll have a handy guide.
Don’t say we never give yous nothin’!
Television
Our personal gateways into worlds of distraction and entertainment, free from financial woes or the arduous wait for
Mass Effect 3,
CES 2012 had but four words on the subject of televisual displays: Organic Light Emitting Diode.
Samsung’s Super OLED TV:
With a super vivid backlit 55” screen, almost non-existent bezel, and unspeakably thin, the
Super OLED TV was a revelation to those at the show, instantaneously rendering the long-running Plasma V LCD war redundant. With dual processors and full 3D support, Samsung’s flagship won huge acclaim for a number of major outlets. The only drawback? Not available until Q4 2012.
Arrg!
Tablet
Two years on and still everyone’s reason-be-damned-must-have-no-excuses luxury item, catch all Tablet computers combine the power of a computer, portability of a Smartphone and functionality of an e-Reader in a single device. Believe but an ounce of this hyperbole and you might be excited by....
Toshiba Excite X10:
The current proprietor of the ‘World’s Thinnest’ title, the
10” Excite X10 impressed at CES featuring its 1.2-GHz OMAP 4430 multi-core processor, 1GB of memory, and a 1280 x 800 resolution IPS display. USB, SD an HDMI ports can be found across the body and
Toshiba insist battery life hasn’t been sacrificed for their 7.7mm Tablet, capable of 8 hours of browsing on a full charge. Excite-d yet?
Smartphone
Convenient as it is having the internet in your pocket, nothing beats the futuristic buzz of swiping bare fingers over black glass and making stuff happen. The world has yet to get over this touchscreen Smartphone buzz and it’s unlikely to in 2012, not if this has any say in the matter...
Nokia Lumia 900:
The old
Windows Phone may have been comparatively slow off the mark but that isn’t any reflection on the quality of the OS. Similarly it’s been a long time since
Nokia rocked the mobile world but things are set to change with the
Lumia 900. With a 1.45Ghz processor, 4.3” AMOLED ClearBlack display and 14.5 Gb of onboard space, could this be the phone to steal us away from
Android of
iOS? God knows it’s pretty enough to...
Personal Computer
Computers run the world, plain and simple. Though not in quite as theatrical a manner as
James Cameron theorised with
Skynet, there is no denying their power over the modern world. But apparently PC or Laptop doesn’t sound sufficiently impressive. As a result,
CES 2012 introduced, the
ULTRABOOK!
HP ENVY 14 Spectre:
Scratch resistant, light-weight and with a 14” display,
HP’s premier Ultrabook is made of glass. Glass! Equipped with a multi-touch touchpad,
Beats Audio, backlit keyboard,
Intel Core i7 processor, 8Gb Ram and 256Gb SSD, the thing that makes the
Spectre so, well, Ultra would have to be the fact it’s made from soddin’ glass!
Any Other Business...
Technological advancement is much wider in scope than many give it credit for. But why take my word for it when
CES 2012 brought us any number of gadgets and trinkets to illustrate this point.
Ion LP2 Go Vinyl Player:
Perhaps not one for our younger readers. Still the sad fact is MP3 players have pointedly ignored the Vinyl platform for too long and
Ion Audio have had enough! With built in speakers and a headphones port, you can convert to MP3 via USB bundled software or just crank out the tunes!
Fujifilm XPro1:
Widely regarded as the best camera of the show,
Fujifilm have spliced a pleasingly retro design with a remarkable hybrid viewfinder and interchangeable lens system, while keeping it entirely mirror less and feather light thanks to its magnesium build.
Zik Parrot by Stark: We’ve something of a soft spot here at Click for a pair of jazzy headphones. But combine them with Bluetooth connectivity, memory foam, noise cancelation, touch control ear cups and a capacitive gesture-powered touch panel and you can colour us in love!