Many of us have been disappointed at the somewhat slim selection of quad core Android devices currently on the market. Last year’s CES turned out to be a letdown for many of us, but this year has promise in spades. Before we talk about some of the more exciting Android offerings, let’s briefly discuss everyone else.
Of course Nokia and Microsoft will continue to peddle the newest Windows 8 phones. The Nokia Lumina 900, which was described by many experts as “meh” was announced at CES last year. However, Nokia has already announced the Lumina 920 and 820 phones, so there shouldn’t be anything mind-blowing coming from everyone’s favorite Finnish OEM.
Remember, Apple doesn’t attend CES because they aren’t confident in a dependable supply of black turtlenecks in the desert of Las Vegas (Fun Fact: Steve Jobs had his turtlenecks made from fresh turtle). There will probably be a plethora of new apps and accessories for iOS devices announced at CES, but honestly, who cares?
Expect many new Android devices to be discussed, rumored and even announced over CES 2013, but don’t be surprised if some of the bigger OEM’s like Samsung decide to hold their own launch events in London or New York. It makes sense that some companies want to avoid getting lost in the shuffle during CES. It is certainly a hectic week, and with all the announcements and new technologies being shown off, even a large company can find its launch being overshadowed by the noise. It is expected that we will see more and more Android tablets and phones launching with Android 4.1 or 4.2, and hopefully this will lead to a bigger portion of the Android eco-system running the awesome new features that are included in Jelly Bean.
We can expect more quad core devices to be announced and demoed this year. We already have the HTC One X, the Samsung Galaxy Note II and the LG Nexus 4, and all of these devices have seen some measure of success. But remember that more power, if it isn’t managed and harnessed properly, isn’t necessarily a good thing. One of the bigger concerns is that more cores on a processor generally means a larger drain on the power consumption of that processor. We all want a thin, light phone with a quad core processor, LTE, and great battery life, but the wait for this mythical handset might not be over until some time next year (hopefully).
For both of our readers who care, RIM won’t be announcing the Blackberry 10 at CES. The Blackberry 10 will be launched on January 30th. The Blackberry 10 might seem like far too little far too late from RIM, but there are a few people who are still clinging to the ol’ crackberry, so hopefully the launch of the Blackberry 10 will bring a ray of sunshine into those people’s lives.