The Consumer Electronic Show 2014 has been a pretty interesting event. We have seen the unveil of many interesting devices and many new technologies have been showcased. The electronics fair, although a closed event where ‘consumers’ don’t generally get to see the showcase, is home ground for the release of innovative products. India has finally made a dent here – with Micromax coming out with the LapTab at the event.
But the most important category is of course the smartphones unveiled at the event. While we sadly did not see the much awaited launch of the Samsung Galaxy S5 at the event, there were many interesting launches in the past three days .
We have picked up 5 smartphones launched at the CES that we liked best. Here they are:
Sony Xperia Z1 compact
Sony’s star of the past year – The Sony Xperia Z was unveiled at CES 2014. Now it is trying to start the year on a good note with Sony Xperia Z1 compact. The smartphone is almost a carbon copy of the Sony Xperia Z1 – it has a Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor, a 20-megapixel camera, waterproof design but a 4.3-inch screen and a lot of color options. Besides that the only differences are that the battery is 2300 mAh from 3000 mAh, which seems justified, it sports Android 4.3 out-of-the-box. Talk about goodness in small amounts!
ZTE Eco-Mobius
Leave it to the Chinese to beat the odds. After Huawei, ZTE is one company that makes itself count. It has taken up a new mission – producing a modular smartphone. The ZTE Eco-Mobius will allow you to mix and match from hardware to create your own phone according to your needs. You can choose from the display, the core (Processor, ROM and RAM), battery and camera. The phone will land in the market in two years’ time but even now seems better than even the similarly themed Motorola Project Ara.
Asus ZenFone 6
It has been pretty long since we heard from Asus, but CES marks a comeback after the break for the company. The Asus ZenFone seems the right way to do it. It is the company’s first independent smartphone – one that doesn’t come with a tablet dock. The phone looks pretty sharp and has great features such as Asus’ new Zen UI, a 6-inch screen, a dual-core Intel Atom Z2580 SoC, 1 GB RAM, a 13-megapixel camera and it is obviously targeted at the mid-range consumer.
Acer Liquid Z5
Acer has come out with a new budget smartphone with the Acer Liquid Z5. It is a dual-SIM smartphone with a plastic yet beautiful finish. It has a 5-inch screen, Android 4.2.2, a 1.3 GHz dual-core CPU, 1 GB RAM and a 5-megapixel camera. Obviously, the features aren’t out of the world, but the price makes up for them since it is priced at a modest $230.
Hisense X1
Hisense is a new player on the scene. It comes in with a 6.8-inch full HD screen making it more of a tablet than a smartphone. In fact, actually one can bet on it as a tab and then also use its smartphone features. The internals are pretty impressive though – it comes with Snapdragon 800 and 2 GB RAM besides Android 4.3, in-built 16 GB storage, a 3900 mAh battery (!) and a 13-megapixel camera in the back.
