Anyone else underwhelmed by the new phones at CES?

manveruppd

manveruppd

manveruppd

Associate
Joined
24 Feb 2004
Posts
1,083
Location
Leeds/Cyprus
The Bionic and Infuse look nice but you'd need ham-fisted sasquatch hands to use them comfortably - for me, even the DHD is too big. The dual-core Tegra phones are intriguing, but their benefits in both performance and battery life are still unproven, and while I'm sure that applications and games to make use of the extra horsepower will appear after there's enough people with these phones, there is arguably no need for them yet - full display reproduction via HDMI is the only feature I'd love to have, and the Bionic's WebTop mode is clever, but not a killer app (at least not until it's possible to use an Android phone as a full-featured computer - then a desktop GUI and display dock like this could be used to turn a humble phone into a proper desktop replacement computer).
Everything else announced there looks nice but not substantially better than the phones on the market now. The Playstation Phone leaks were fun, but there's no concrete information about specs or release date yet - I doubt we'll actually see it until April/May. N9 and Meego were AWOL, with not even an indication on when to expect them. All in all, I didn't really get excited about anything. :(
 
Wired did a nice roundup of all the new phones. They link to their more in-depth impressions in the article.

Don't get me wrong, I know Tegra 2 will probably make today's phones look like C64s next to a Pentium 4 (ok, I'm exaggerating:p), but until a major revision of the OS comes round there's nothing that requires all this power!
 
Was there nothing from HTC? Or do they not show up to these large multi vendor events? Would love to hear of a HTC phone, with ((S)AM)OLED screen and Tegra 2. (I can dream huh?)
 
manveruppd said:
Wired did a nice roundup of all the new phones. They link to their more in-depth impressions in the article.

Don't get me wrong, I know Tegra 2 will probably make today's phones look like C64s next to a Pentium 4 (ok, I'm exaggerating:p), but until a major revision of the OS comes round there's nothing that requires all this power!
Click to expand...

Honeycomb was the exciting part for me, and having listened to Engadgets interview with the webOS guy that is now working on Androids UI it looks like Honeycomb for phones is going to be worth waiting for. We have seen some amazing devices at CES, the Atrix is an example, but I think we will see even better at Mobile World Congress in February as well as exciting Android news at this years Google IO
 
Trifid said:
Was there nothing from HTC? Or do they not show up to these large multi vendor events? Would love to hear of a HTC phone, with ((S)AM)OLED screen and Tegra 2. (I can dream huh?)
Click to expand...

Mobile World Congress is where we will see HTC's offering I expect. Doubt they will want to be left behind by the likes of Motorola, LG and Samsung!
 
I like the Motorola phone, simply because it has a 1950mAh battery.

Obviously, wouldn't be keen on the MotoBlur crap - so not 100% sold on it.
 
Yeah, Android 3.0 was pretty interesting, but the big thing about it was the UI overhaul for tablet formats rather than new core features that'll also be usable with phones.

The battery on the Motorola is pretty impressive, but with a screen that size and a dual-core SOC it probably won't last much more than current smartphones do :)

HTC did reveal a new EVO for the US market, but no actual new phones. I reckon they're biding their time and not rushing to be first with dual core.
 
You guys are crazy! :D

manveruppd said:
The Bionic and Infuse look nice but you'd need ham-fisted sasquatch hands to use them comfortably - for me, even the DHD is too big. The dual-core Tegra phones are intriguing, but their benefits in both performance and battery life are still unproven, and while I'm sure that applications and games to make use of the extra horsepower will appear after there's enough people with these phones, there is arguably no need for them yet - full display reproduction via HDMI is the only feature I'd love to have, and the Bionic's WebTop mode is clever, but not a killer app (at least not until it's possible to use an Android phone as a full-featured computer - then a desktop GUI and display dock like this could be used to turn a humble phone into a proper desktop replacement computer).
(
Click to expand...

Those are US only phones. The Motorola Atrix is the one you should be looking at...

Ham-fisted? It has a 4" qHD (960 x 540) IPS? screen, 16:9 too so it'll feel similar to a standard 3.7/3.8" xvga.

Unproven battery life? Not this again...
manveruppd said:
...it probably won't last much more than current smartphones do :)
Click to expand...
Exactly! My Defy has an amazing battery life... :D

No need for the extra performance? Really? Take a look at the BB playbook/Atrix/X2 etc vids again, if you don't see any benefits maybe you should looking at Nokia feature phones... :p:D

Use it as a fully featured computer? With 1GB of DDR2 and the dual core A9? Why yes, yes you can... esp through the citrix client (that's all I do with my laptop)


With all the additional features (like a fingerprint scanner on the power button) it's one of the most impressive devices I've seen for ages.

If HTC or Apple demoed this phone you'd all be freaking right now :p Poor old Motorola :(
 
You can't blame people for not being all over Motorola, they hardly make an effort over here in the UK.

Cut down versions of phones launched in the US, locked boot loaders and MotoBlur..
 
sarge78 said:
Those are US only phones. The Motorola Atrix is the one you should be looking at...

Ham-fisted? It has a 4" qHD (960 x 540) IPS? screen, 16:9 too so it'll feel similar to a standard 3.7/3.8" xvga.

Unproven battery life? Not this again...

Exactly! My Defy has an amazing battery life... :D
Click to expand...

My bad, I thought the comment about the generous battery was about the Bionic, hence my comment that it probably needs it with its bigger screen. Is it the Atrix that has the larger battery then?

No need for the extra performance? Really? Take a look at the BB playbook/Atrix/X2 etc vids again, if you don't see any benefits maybe you should looking at Nokia feature phones... :p:D

Use it as a fully featured computer? With 1GB of DDR2 and the dual core A9? Why yes, yes you can... esp through the citrix client (that's all I do with my laptop)
Click to expand...

Well, to be fair that guy's running a remote desktop client, so it's not really the phone doing the work, is it? ;) It would run equally well on a single-core phone! But yes, I fully agree with you that the extra power WILL be needed to make phones usable as proper desktop-replacement computers - I acknowledged it in my post. All I was saying is that the software to do that isn't there yet as you don't have office applications that are as fully-featured as desktop apps. But when you do (which'll probably be within the next year or so, since upcoming phones will have the horsepower to run such apps), then I'd definitely consider a dual-core phone.

If HTC or Apple demoed this phone you'd all be freaking right now :p Poor old Motorola :(
Click to expand...

That's not fair, I'm always rooting for the underdog (I've had HTC phones ever since they were so unkown they wouldn't even put their brand name on their handsets!) and Moto has a long and distinguished history of innovation. What they did with that dock thing is absolutely marvellous: not only did they go to the trouble of making a whole new GUI for Android customised for keyboard and mouse operation (a first in itself!), but the phone seems to switch between it and the normal touchscreen UI instantly and seamlessly!

All I said was that the kinds of apps that you'd need to dock the phone and use a keyboard to do some serious work on simply aren't there yet, but it's no doubt a significant step forwards and will hopefully pave the way to Android being taken more seriously as an enterprise OS within the next year or two.
 
Hang on so with that motorola you can basically do a remote connect to your pc anywhere in the world, and run it straight to a monitor.

That is pretty impressive, though im not a fan of motorola phones bar the droid of course.
 
@ OP: No, I wasn't.

If you wasn't, then I'd advise waiting until the Mobile World Congress starts and finishes (14 - 17 February).
 
manveruppd said:
No, that's with the Citrix client, which I'm pretty sure you can install on any Android phone, right?
Click to expand...

Yep, but they've never been productive like a laptop (no mouse, still some lag, native phone res etc)
I think this Citrix client is based on the ubuntu build not Android? It's proper desktop software, like firefox 3.6/file explorer etc. :eek:

I only ever use a virtual desktop at work + a laptop for connection, so this is massive for me (i.e. a proper laptop replacement)
I'll be stuffing my home PC in a cupboard somewhere and sticking a dock on my home/work desk, the Atrix will be the only 'computer' I'll see/touch for weeks on end! Brilliant! :) (and something to stream content to the lounge... I would put a dock there too but no one else could use it without me + phone calls/emails during a movie = bad! :p)

manveruppd said:
That's not fair, I'm always rooting for the underdog
Click to expand...

No criticism intended :) I guess the Atrix is more directed at business users.

Locke said:
@ OP: No, I wasn't.
If you wasn't, then I'd advise waiting until the Mobile World Congress starts and finishes (14 - 17 February).
Click to expand...

The other phones won't be any different regarding specs/performance/software/form factor, so what are you guys expecting for your next phone? Just more bling? :D or stock Android/WP7?
 
Last edited:
Yeah I consider smart phones to be a gimmick - like 3D and netbooks.

Call/Text is 90% of what you use a phone for - yet people pay a 5000% (ish) premium for that extra 10%.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom