The 'Consumer Electronic Show' ) is a major technology-related
trade show held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada.Not open to the public, the
Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new product announcements.
2012 :
The CES 2012 was held form Jan 10 - 13.
Microsoft also said that it was the last time they took part in the CES exhibition.
Tablets:
Without an Apple presence at CES, it was a chance for other manufacturers
to shout about their tablet devices. But there's not the mad rush of
iPad rivals that you might expect. Poor sales of Android tablets seem to
have made the big electronics giants more cautious.
The Bests :
Acer Iconia Tab 700
Will come packing Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) and a huge quad-core processor
Lenovo Ideapad2 :
running Ice Cream Sandwich and the quad-core Tegra 3-powered
IdeaPad K2 (see below), which looks like a supercomputer pretending to be a clipboard.
CES 2012: Phones
While most manufacturers will be saving
their big phone launches until Mobile World Congress in February,
several new smartphones have been been spotted on the plush Vegas
carpets.
Having
absorbed Ericsson into the Sony hive mind, the newest Xperia handsets are the first to break cover without any Ericsson branding.

The
Sony Xperia S
(pictured above) is essentially a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc with HD - a
4.3-inch Reality Display (1,280 x 700 pixels), a 12MP camera and the
promise of an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in Q2.
You can also say hello to the new
Sony Xperia Ion, a PlayStation-certified, dual-core (1.5GHz) smartphone with 16GB of internal storage and a 12MP rear camera.
Elsewhere, HTC has upgraded the Titan for duty on AT&T. The
HTC Titan II
is the same 4.7-inch, 1.5GHz Windows Phone that you might be
indifferent to. But it's been souped up with a 16MP snapper, wide angle
lens, dual LED flash and LTE support.

The US also gets the Nokia Lumia 800 dressed up as the
Nokia Lumia 900. What's new? It's LTE-powered, larger screened (4.3 inches) and has a better front camera.
The
LG Spectrum also catches the eye with a 4.5-inch IPS LCD that rivals the Retina display on the iPhone 4. While the the
Huawei Ascend P1 S and Ascend P1 trumpet Super AMOLED screens and the thinnest chassis on the market. It's only 6.68mm thick.
Intel
has regularly missed the boat when it comes to mobile, but that doesn't
stop it trying to catch up. The chip colossus has used this year's CES
to publish its
reference design for smartphones, which stipulates a minimum spec for any manufacturer who wants to use its Atom chips.

Need an example? You're in luck. Lenovo has partnered with Intel to produce the
Lenovo K800,
an Android-powered Atom-phone with a 720p 4.5-inch display, 8MP camera,
NFC and HDMI. It's good. And quite noticeably zippy. But Intel will
need better phones than this to establish Atom as a credible mobile CPU.
The future of mobiles in 2012 arguably lies with quad-core handsets like Fujitsu's 1.2GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core
super phone prototype.
Is it 'super'? Really? The inclusion of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream
Sandwich), a 1,280x720 4.6-inch TFT LCD, 13.1MP rear-facing camera and
4GB of RAM would suggest a big, fat "hell, yeah!"
CES 2012: Laptops
Think the laptop is dead? Far from it. Acer launched the 13.3-inch
Aspire S5 during its CES 2012 press conference and promised
Windows 8 Ultrabooks in the second half of the year.
Forget netbooks, chromebooks and desktop replacement systems.
Ultrabooks
that pay design homage to Apple's skinny Macbook Air are the new laptop
form factor of choice. Without any other stand-out gadgets, they've
quickly become one of the stars of the 2012 show.
Lenovo, for example, has unwrapped its good looking
IdeaPad U Series ultrabooks at this year's show - the 13-inch U310 model weighs in at 1.7kg and is only 18mm thick.

Intel believes that tablets can't replace laptop computers and that we'll be even happier with a
convertible Ultrabook that runs Windows 8 (and is powered by Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge Intel CPUs. Obviously).
HP's Ultrabook effort is the good-lookin'
Envy 14 Spectre,
which incorporates a roomier 14-inch (1,600 x 900 pixel) panel and is
only 21mm thick. Under the hood there's an Intel Core i5 or Core i7
processor, and a 128GB hard drive.
Samsung, meanwhile, joins the Ultrabook club with its
Series 5 devices, which will be availble in 13- and 14-inch variants with 2nd generation Intel Core i5 engines and Radeon HD graphics.

Samsung also rolled out the
second generation of its Series 9 laptops with a refined 'aerodynamic design'.
LG has also jumped on the Ultrabook bandwagon, showcasing the slender
LG Z330 and LG Z430 Super Ultrabooks. What's 'Super' about them? We're not sure.
The
13-inch Z330 features a Core i7 processor, a SATA3 SSD and boasts a
skinny frame that's an astounding 14.7mm thick. The Z430 is a little
bigger with a 14-inch display and dual SSD/HDD storage.

Other Ultrabook contenders include the
HP Folio 13
and the Dell XPS 13, a gorgeous device that could seduce you with its
looks before you even thought to ask about the specs. Oh yes, the
specs... a 13-inch display, narrow 316 x 205mm footprint, Intel Core i5
or i7 processor, 4 gigs of memory and a 128/256GB SSD.
But the prize for strangest laptop surely goes to
Intel's Nikiski see-through notebook.
It isn't an Ultrabook (although a thinner version is planned), but it
does feature a clever glass touchpad that doubles up as a touchscreen
when you close the lid (see below).
CES 2012: HDTVs
Despite
the popularity of tablets and smartphones, CES has always been about
TVs. Bigger TVs, thinner TVs, Full HD TVs, 4K TVs, OLED TVs and smart
Internet-connected TVs. CES 2012 is no different.
One of the stars of the show is LG's new 4mm-thick
55-inch OLED 3D HDTV,
which has got Vegas crowds dribbling down their free promotional
T-shirts. Only 4mm. That's thinner than your smartphone. It's quite
simply stunning and still shots don't do it justice.

Not to be outdone (although it clearly has been),
Samsung also has a 55-inch OLED telly of its own. Check out our
photos and video.
Could
this finally be the year that OLED becomes more than a
headline-grabbing technology demo? Our fingers are crossed. Again. Just
like last year...
As for Sony, it pressganged Hollywood star Will Smith to look impressed by its prototype
Crystal LED
technology. Fusing LCD and OLED, the futuristic TV works by packing in
six million LEDs to give it OLED levels of clarity, colour and
brightness.
In the
battle of the BIG screens,
LG and Sharp duked it out for the 'largest 3D TV of the show' award.
Sharp came close with its 80-incher, but LG just nabbed the gong with
its
84-inch ultra definition (3,840 x 2,160 pixel) set. The 1mm bezel "enhances the illusion that the 3D is borderless".

And
if you think 4K2K TV is impressive, wait until you clap your eyes on
Sharp's prototype 8K panel, which boasts 7,680 x 4,320 pixels. That's 16
times the resolution of HD.
Of course, the next generation of TVs will also be smarter. Sony has plans to play around with
Google TV STBs, LG also has a
Smart TV running Google's Android telly system, while Opera has unveiled more about its
television app store.
While we wait for a Siri-powered Apple iTV, Samsung and LG have both been pimping
Kinect-style gesture technology as a replacement for the remote control.

In
fact, LG's system uses an add-on camera (pictured above) that looks
suspiciously similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 peripheral. Samsung's tech
uses the camera that's built into its 8000-series HD TVs.
Panasonic, meanwhile, enlisted the help of Justin Timberlake to launch
MySpace TV, which will feature on new Viera HDTVs. Does anybody still use MySpace? And can any of them afford a TV? We're not convinced.
Panasonic also has a big OLED TV in the works, but it just wasn't ready for this year's show.
CES 2012: Gadgets
What
else have we been impressed by at this year's CES? Sure there have been
novelty USB sticks, remote-controlled iPhone-copters and Microsoft had a
tweet choir during its keynote. But here are the gadgets that have
really caught our giant, Sauron-esque eye...
For a peek into the future of cloud computing, look no further than the
OnLive Desktop for iPad. Want to use the Microsoft Office Suite on your tablet? OnLive is happy to oblige.

JVC has announced the
world's first handheld 4K camcorder. The GY-HMQ10 can take 3,840 x 2,160 footage at 24 or 50p.
Pico
projectors may not have the lustre they had when first released but
there's certain companies which keep churning out the pint-sized product
again and again. Check out the
Optoma PK32.
If you want Apple's AirPlay but don't want to spend hundreds replacing the speakers you've already spent hundreds on.
CES 2012: Cameras
Photographers
will doubtless be intrigued by Fujifilm's newly designed X-Trans
16-million pixel APS-C CMOS sensor. Built into the new
X-Pro 1 mirrorless camera,
Fuji claims that it is capable of delivering resolution of the same
quality, if not superior, to a full-frame sensor. Here's our
hands on: Fuji X-Pro1 review.
We've also had some hands on time with the
Canon G1 X, which boasts a 14.3MP CMOS sensor, 4x optical zoom, raw shooting and Full HD video recording.

CES is also overflowing with compact cameras. Panasonic has introduced
five new models
to sit in its Lumix range. They include the 16.1-megapixel FS45 and
14.1-megapixel FS40 models; 16.1-megapixel Panasonic Lumix S5; the
14.1-megapixel SZ7 and the 16.1-megapixel SZ1.
Sony has added
three new cameras to its enduring CyberShot range - the DSC-W610, DSC-W620 and DSC-W650. While Samsung has been showing off its
WB850F and WB150F high-end compacts.
Olympus, meanwhile, has announced
five new compact cameras,
including a rugged "Tough" camera. The TG-320 is shockproof, waterproof
and freezeproof, and is, according to Olympus, "virtually
indestructible".