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	Home / Cell phones / Multimedia phones / CES 2009

	Buy Now or Wait for a New Cell Phone?	By Philip Berne, 14 January 2009

There weren't many cell phones at CES 2009, but there were a few worth watching. Should you make your purchase now, or wait for the new phones to arrive?

With Palm dominating the CES phone scene, there wasn't much room for competition, and most of the phones we saw were smartphone updates like the T-Mobile Shadow and T-Mobile Dash. Still, T-Mobile had a few new models on hand, and Sony Ericsson was happy to show us a couple phones that importers and unlocked gurus might find appealing.

The green phone

Perhaps the best reason to wait for a new phone is to help the environment with your purchase, and for that reason the Motorola W233 Renew is a phone worth the wait. Motorola claims the phone is carbon neutral, and the plastic shell is made from recycled water bottles. It's the first recycled phone available on a major carrier, and it isn't a slouch in the calling department either, as Motorola has gifted the phone with Crystal Talk, Moto's noise reduction tech. Instead of upgrading for faster, better, cooler features, why not upgrade to save the planet?

The watch phone

The LG GD910 watch phone is so cool, it might start it's own buying trend. We think the GD910 would make a great accessory phone. It might not be our only phone, but it would be a nice second phone when we want to keep our packing light, or when we want to impress our geeky friends. We could definitely see the LG GD910 starting a new trend of fashion-appropriate phones, where buyers keep multiple phones on hand and switch SIM cards when the mood strikes. For that reason, though, few people will need to wait for the LG GD910. It will probably be a second device, and we think customers will already own the phone they'll use primarily, or they're waiting for something else, too.

Sony Ericsson and Nokia launched new phones?

Sony Ericsson and Nokia picked up the mid-range with the Walkman W508, the Cyber-shot C510, and the Nokia 7510. The Sony Ericsson devices were announced without U.S. carrier support, but we hope to see AT&T picking them up later this year. Especially the C510 could give the mid-range a serious performance boost with its Cyber-shot camera and viewfinder. It also uploads videos directly to YouTube. The T-Mobile Nokia 7510 gets clever with its Wi-Fi, unlimited HotSpot calling, but there are plenty of other cool devices that manage this feat, and the 7510 doesn't really stand out in any way.

That phone costs how much?!

If you want to buy the Motorola Aura, you'll probably have to wait. Not for the phone to be released, it's available now for $2000. No, you'll probably have to wait for the global economy to bounce back far enough for a $2000 phone to seem reasonable. Of course, its built like a Rolex, and by that we mean it uses a sapphire crystal face and Swiss bearings. It's a gorgeous, impressively lavish device, but it's probably not the right phone for the times. Definitely not the next Motorola RAZR, that's for sure.

Our verdict: Buy Now

Go ahead, if you need a new cell phone. There are some interesting smartphones that might be worth the wait, but if you just need a multimedia phone, a basic messaging phone, or a phone that simply makes good calls, there's nothing in the CES 2009 lineup that is so groundbreaking we would suggest holding off on a purchase. In fact, we saw a slew of phones near the end of 2008 that were easy to recommend, and with the newest phones just announced, some of these might even drop in price soon. The CTIA show in April always holds new cell phone surprises, but for now, we wouldn't wait to replace that old phone if the need arises.