CES Day One Recap: Smartphones Come Out Strong

Nokia
Finally bringing premium WP7 to the masses, LTE and AT&T are a great mix for the Nokia Lumia 900, a slightly larger 4.3 inch follow-up to the popular Lumia 800. The Nokia Lumia 900 brings a larger battery and a front-facing camera into the picture. Will the Nokia Lumia 900 take the crown from the HTC Titan II this quickly?

Sony
Marking Sony’s divergence from its previous partner, Ericsson, the Sony Xperia ion is a 1.5 GHz beast that totes a 4.6 inch 720p display. Unfortunately, the Ion still comes with Android 2.3. With an upgrade to Android 4.0 though, this elegant smartphone could appeal to many.

Finally upgrading its popular smartphone to the world of dual core, Sony brings out the Sony Xperia S, a smaller version of the Xperia ion for AT&T. The Xperia S comes with a 12 megapixel Exmor camera that should hopefully offset its Android 2.3 chops.

LG
Verizon and LG announce a slightly more affordable LTE smartphone in the LG Spectrum, with a 720p IPS screen and 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, priced on contract at only $199. While unfortunately still running Android 2.3, this smartphone could be a good pickup for sports fanatics, as it comes with an HD ESPN Score Center App.

With just a sampling of the announcements on the first day of CES 2012, much more is set to come from CES, including more amazing products and much progress in the smartphone battlegrounds. HD displays and LTE seem to be the big players this year, but we’ll see what other trends continue throughout the week.