Review of CES 2011 PDAPhones to Watch

Its fair to say that CES 2011, when it came to PDAPhones / Smartphones, was all about Google's Android. Some of this was by design, because Apple and Microsoft historically haven't used CES as a big announcement venue, and Google benefited greatly. Ironically, one of the biggest PDAPhone announcements of the year is rumored to be happening this week from Verizon when they are reported to be ready to announce the Verizon iPhone... something that will really shake up the US PDAPhone market. But for now, I wanted to summarize the best PDAPhones at CES 2011, since the announcements last week were flying at breakneck speed. So lets take a look at some of the best of the show.

Motorola Atrix

First of is Motorola's unique step to converge your desktop/laptop with your phone in the Motorola Atrix which we reported on last week. The Atrix brings a lot of horsepower with its dual core processor, 1G of RAM, and 48G of storage, but that's only part of the story with the Atrix. Motorola is adding a desktop dock and an 11.6" notebook dock that both allow the Atrix to bring Android 2.2 to the big screen. This eliminates the need for syncing and allows you to keep 48G of your life in your pocket. You can access directly on the Atrix, or insert the Atrix into either dock and then be able to use a full desktop with a full sized version of Mozilla Firefox with full support for Adobe Flash. Take that Apple! This to me is the PDAPhone to watch this year to see if this new approach takes hold or not. I'd feel better if it was someone like Apple doing this, because I can't really bring myself to think of Motorola as a laptop maker, but the hands on reports from CES were very good on how it performed.

Motorola Droid Bionic

This new Motorola Android device - the Droid Bionic - brings back memories of the Six Million Dollar Man TV show form the 70s. The Bionic builds on the Droids success with beefier specs and capabilities including Android 2.2, a dual core processor, 4.3 inch qHD display, and an 8MP camera. Verizon has really pushed the Droid line from day one as their go-to gun in the battle with Apple's iPhone, so this new model will likely benefit from that reputation, even with Verizon picking up the iPhone soon. Hands on reviews at CES showed that the Bionic is a really big device with good build quality. Its planned for release in the second quarter so it will be interesting to see if it gets overwhelmed with the iPhone wave that is sure to be reaching full speed by then. The Bionic's 4G capability will surely be a selling point.

LG Optimus Black

LG unveiled the Optimus Black at CES, and also the Optimus 2X just before CES. LG, like many of the other handset makers, is starting to build out families of Android devices to offer choice and reach all parts of the market. While the 2x is the premium high end device that competes with the HTC EVO 4G, the Black is more sleek and compact. The Optimus 2X has a powerful dual core Nvidia Tegra processor, 8 megapixel camera, 1080p TV-out to HDMI and video capture. It also runs Android 2.2, but LG has indicated it will get a 2.3 (Gingerbread) update in due time.

So in the trail of the Optimus 2X power house, the Optimus Black brings a different set of specs for a different kind of user. Compared to the 2X which has a tapered glass screen that is 10.9mm at its thickest, the Optimus Black is a mere . The Optimus Black has a 4" WVGA NOVA display that is very bright and legible and the same IPS LCD technology used in the iPhone 4 display (but at a lowere 800x480 resolution on the 4" screen). LG reports that the display achieves 700 nits of brightness compared to 500 nits for the iPhone 4 which is plenty bright. The Optimus Black also has a 2 megapixel front facing camera, bettering the 1.3 megapixel camera on other PDAPhones. Its rear facing camera is 5 megapixel and it has a single core processor and 2G of expandable storage. The Optimus Black is only 9.2mm thick, giving it the "thinnest PDAPhone" title for the time being since the iPhone 4 is 9.3mm thick. The Optimus Black seems to be a more direct competitor to the iPhone 4 than the 2X.

Sony Xperia Arc

Also building on an existing PDAPhone line, Sony has turned it up a notch from prior Xperia models and leverage some of its existing entertainment technology in the Experia Arc. The Arc will be coming to market in 2Q and will be based on Android 2.3. The display is 4.2 inches and 854x480 pixels. Sony knows how to make displays, and this one reportedly is powered by their Sony Bravia engine... although I'm not sure what that really means in user terms. Its camera will uses Sony's Exmor sensor which is the same technology used in its digital cameras, so it is sure to be produce stunning pictures, and at 8 megapixel is large enough to pretty much retire the point and shoot. What its not, though, is as important as what it is. Sony had been rumored to be producing a "Playstation phone" and this is clearly not that, but Sony did indicate more PDAPhones were coming in this line and they've been registering trademarks, including Xperia Play.

HTC Evo Shift 4G

HTC has been a dominant player in the PDAPhone market predating all the current platforms that lead today, and so its no surprise to see them at CES. The HTC Evo 4G has been a huge hit phone for Sprint in the battle to "take on the iPhone", and so why not give it a slider keyboard? Everyone is going with the candybar form factor to mimic the iPhone, but I kind of liked my sliders in the past... especially coupled with today's thinner starting point they can be very functional for those that don't like touch typing on a touchscreen.

But, HTC didn't just slap a keyboard on the Evo 4G here... the Evo Shift 4G is a completely different device. First off, it has a much smaller screen at only 3.6" compared with the Evo 4G's 4.3" display. This helps make the Evo Shift 4G not seem as bulky as it might have with the large display. Also gone is the front facing camera, and the 8 megapixel camera of the Evo 4G is dropped to a 5 megapixel camera on the Evo Shift 4G. The lack of a front facing camera to me is the biggest questionable item here. If they had not dropped it, this would essentially be a similarly spec'd device to the iPhone, but with a keyboard and 4G. There are many iPhone owners that would love to have a keyboard and 4G. My guess is that they are thinking that you don't need video chat if you have a QWERTY keyboard? It will be interesting to see how this is received.

HTC Inspire 4G

HTC's Inspire 4G looks and feels a lot like the Evo 4G. It has the 4.3" display, a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, and 8 megapixel camera, and 4GB of internal storage. It is running Android 2.2, and is coming to AT&T to help them fill out their Android line up. The first half of 2011 looks to be a time when AT&T and Verizon depart from their iPhone vs. Android battle and both fill in their PDAPhone product lines to look more similarly. My thought is that this can't bode well for AT&T in the long run unless they can get their network game to a place where they don't keep getting beat up for coverage issues and dropped calls. Since the transition to LTE is just getting going, they have an opportunity to change that game. I will be curious to see how the advertising changes between these two since they won't be able to do the Droid vs. iPhone battle.

Samsung Infuse 4G

The Samsung Infuse 4G is going for the "bigger is better" theory with its 4.5" Super AMOLED Plus display which it claims to have 50% more subpixels for better viewing outdoors. The size of this thing brings back memories of the old Hitachi G1000 which was great, but you felt like you had a calculator held up to your phone when using it. This one will test the limit of how big is too big for many users. It is very thin though, so maybe it would be more like a small tablet up to your ear??? It runs on Android 2.2 like most of the models introduced at CES. It has a single core 1.2Ghz processor and an 8 megapixel camera.

Vizio

Vizio is the one "new" player that I've included in this wrap up because I think they have the ability to shake up the market a little bit like they did in the TV space to become the top producer of LCD televisions in just a few years. As I reported early last week, their new Via Phone has pretty good specs, but its more about what they hope to do with the ecosystem that mimics Apple than it is about the hardware. Their aim is to be the lower priced iPhone and drag along the whole Apple model with it. That is a huge undertaking, but so is taking on Samsung and Sony to lead the LCD TV market.

Microsoft

The CES 2011 show could have been a great place to showcase a bunch of new "game changer" Windows Phone 7 devices, but instead Microsoft focused more on recapping their progress and focusing on their next software update. I came away with the thought that the most important thing for Microsoft was for them to demo their slick new feature - "copy and paste". Its nice that they are adding it, but its really not a headliner at a big show like this. They also spent a bit of time on games and the Xbox Live integration, which is more of a headliner if they pull it off. It just shows how far Microsoft is behind Google and Apple in this horse race.

RIM and HP

There wasn't really much to say about RIM's Blackberry or HP's Palm devices at CES. RIM spent the whole show pushing their tablet, the Playbook, which is not something that fits the PDAPhone Market. I'm sure we'll hear more from HP and Palm in the coming months... just because they sat out CES doesn't mean they don't have PDAPhones coming that we'll be interested in.

Apple

Which brings us to Apple... the company that really is singly responsible for bringing PDAPhones to mainstream when they announced the original iPhone. Apple doesn't like the big trade shows and chooses to make their big announcements on their own schedule when they are the only thing in the spotlight. They've even pulled out of participating in MacWorld, a huge trade show that is completely about Apple's products. So its not a surprise that they didn't have anything to say at CES. But the biggest PDAPhone announcement of 2011 is the one that is going to be a surprise to no one when it happens tomorrow - the Verizon iPhone. In my opinion, Apple has played this Verizon vs. AT&T game out for its maximum benefit. They have sold a ton of iPhones into the US market via AT&T, but many folks don't care for AT&T's network. Now they are probably going to be selling a lot of iPhones to those same people when many defect from AT&T and run to Verizon. So at a point when their market is starting to see some saturation, they are going to open a new floodgate.

2011 is going to be a great time for PDAPhones as we see the big carriers start to reach maturity in their comparable offerings across iOS and Android, and Windows Phone and Palm are coming along in the second tier to hopefully introduce even more competition.