Quite a few brand new handsets were on display in Las Vegas. Find out which phones you should keep tabs on in the coming months.
| Motorola ROKR E8 |
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 If you're looking for a good music phone on T-Mobile, check out the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music phone, which was slim and responsive with great dedicated music keys, instead of the Motorola ROKR E8, which has no keys at all. There wasn't much to like about this phone. The menus were a jumbled mess; the music player was hurt by the strange scroll wheel design and slow hardware; and, to be frank, the touch-panel-that-feels-like-buttons kind of creeped us out. This is a gimmicky phone, and though we have nothing but compliments for the great call quality and loads of onboard storage, the overall experience isn't worth putting up with. Plus, the phone will retail at launch for $200, the price of an iPhone, when better music phones can be had on T-Mobile for much less. Release: July 2008. Price: $200.
Pros: Unique design for true button-haters. Great call quality. Good battery life. Lots of onboard memory.
Cons: Touch instead of buttons doesn't make this phone better. Poor menu design. Strange scroll 'crescent.' Unresponsive controls hamper music experience.
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| Asus P527 |
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 If anything, the Asus P527 has us more interested in Asus' next phones for the U.S. market. The phone shows a lot of potential, especially in the top-notch navigation software, and the attention to battery life. Unfortunately, the phone borders on being unusable after only a brief period awake, as open apps pile up and crash the Windows Mobile interface. Even without all the open programs, the phone is so underpowered, with a slow processor and a dearth of RAM, that the best of Asus' custom apps won't even load reliably. Still, with all this potential, we're curious about what's next out of Asus' stable, including the upcoming Lamborghini phone. That one has to be faster, no? Release: March 2008. Price: $550.
Pros: Excellent navigation software. Nice feature set, with some good extra apps thrown in. Light phone. Great battery life.
Cons: Terribly underpowered. Can hardly run included software. Dedicated buttons aren't intuitive, don't open some necessary apps.
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| Motorola MOTO Z10 |
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 We were initially impressed by the kick-flip form on the MOTO Z8, but the Z10 feels a bit half-baked. The phone felt rickety in our hands, the polished accents felt cheap, not, well, polished. We're curious about what Motorola might have done with Symbian UIQ, now that they own half of the company, and we're obviously impressed by the phone's camera and video features. But perhaps the kick-flip form needs more time in the oven. Release: October 2008. Price: $500.
Pros: 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus. Innovative kick-flip form. Updated UIQ multimedia smartphone interface.
Cons: Phone felt flimsy in our hands, and a bit large. UIQ has frustrated us in the past. No American 3G support.
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| Sony Ericsson W760 |
Specs » Gallery » |
 If the Sony Ericsson W580i was a solid music phone (it was), the Sony Ericsson W760 is a solid 3G phone all around. The great music player hasn't gotten any worse with age, though we'd like it to get a little better. The best part is how much the W760 benefits from U.S. 3G access. Calls sounded great on AT&T's HSDPA network, and Web browsing speeds were very good. Even better was the tethered modem support, a nice surprise for a phone that seems to be all about music. The PC Suite let us synchronize our Outlook contacts and calendar, which was another nice surprise, and they kept coming. Don't expect much from the gaming capabilities and you won't be disappointed. Don’t expect much from the camera and you'll be pleased. Navigation was a miss, more of a bonus than a worthwhile feature, but there was such a nice mix of near-hits and Bulls-eyes that the phone comes out a winner in the end. Release: June 2008. Price: $360.
Pros: Fast network speeds. Solid music player. Great call quality. Good PC sync capabilities. Good Web browser.
Cons: No IM for messaging, nor IMAP for Gmail. Music app could use some polish. Media Manager needs improvement. Music phones are better with 3.5mm headphone jack.
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| Nokia N95 8GB NAM |
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 The Nokia N95 8GB has only improved since we last saw it, but so have our expectations grown as well, and we've come to feel stronger about great interface design and a fast, reliable bit of desktop synchronization software. This isn't the iPhone killer, in fact it's the exact opposite of that device. The Nokia N95 is packed to the gills with features; it does just about everything we've ever seen a phone do, at least in this country. But it lacks an intuitive, fun interface, and the desktop software, though improved to the point of being usable, is a far cry from Apple's seamless, reliable iTunes experience. It's a tough call between the two, and as phone geeks, we'd love to own the feature-rich N95, though we wouldn't hock our iPhone to buy one. In the end, we're glad both phones are out there, because they each represent the goal that the other should strive to achieve. Release: March 2008. Price: $650.
Pros: Feature-packed, now with loads of internal memory and faster networking. Camera, GPS navigation and media functions are among the best in class.
Cons: Big, square phone without much style. No touchscreen. Interface is uninspired and aging. No QWERTY.
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| Neonode N2 |
Specs » Gallery » |
 Even Neonode was surprised that we had heard of them, but we've been following this tiny touch screen phone since it was announced last year. It doesn't use normal touch sensors, instead it relies on an infra-red grid to map where you've touched it. In practice, this worked fine, though it wasn't perfectly responsive. Also, Neonode expects users to control much of the phone through gestures, but the screen was a bit cramped to combine gestures and touch icons. Also, screen quality was a bit disappointing, and the screen is far too small to be useful as anything but a novelty device. Play music? Sure, why not. Messaging and browsing? No chance. Release: June 2007.
Pros: Very small. Interesting, gesture-based touch input. Open software model.
Cons: Too small to be useful, definitely not an iPhone competitor.
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| Sony Ericsson W350 |
Specs » Gallery » |
 The Sony Ericsson W350 looks fantastic, but its performance doesn't quite live up. Perhaps we've been spoiled by the high-end Walkman experience we've had on other Sony Ericsson phones, like the Sony Ericsson W580i, but as a bargain phone, with a low-resolution screen and some flimsy hardware, the Walkman experience just doesn't work. We love the design, but when the tiny buttons and difficult controls make using the device more difficult, that love begins to wane. Worst of all, the Sony Ericsson Media Manager is the most difficult media transfer software we've used with a modern music phone, which makes the phone's prospects even more grim. In spite of the design, the phone packs some decent Web browsing and camera features, so its not a total wash, but if you're buying this phone for the music, you're probably better off investing just a bit more in a better Walkman phone, or looking elsewhere. Release: June 2008. Price: $1.
Pros: Attractive design. Easy to synch with Outlook contacts and calendar. Good camera. Fine Web browser.
Cons: Typing and navigation difficult, even in messaging and music functions. Media Manager is buggy and difficult to use. Music experience needs drastic improvement to match other Walkman phones.
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| Sony Ericsson Z555 |
Specs » Gallery » |
 Okay, so clearly Sony Ericsson is aiming at picking off some of Nokia's fashion phone crowd. The Z555 would be pretty mid-range, if it weren't for the unique geometrical styling on the face, clearly reminiscent of the Nokia 7900 Prism. We got to take a look at the black version, but a garish pink will be available as well, because you can't make a fashion phone in black without making one in pink. Ah well, if you like the design, look for it at Sony Style or online, because we can't see a U.S. carrier picking this one up any time soon. Release: February 2008. Price: $200.
Pros: Cool, unique geometric design. Um, probably won't slip, thanks to diamond-plate pattern.
Cons: Very mid-range. No real stand-out features like Walkman support or Cyber Shot-level optics.
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| LG Viewty |
Specs » Gallery » |
 The LG Viewty is a somewhat half-baked touchscreen phone. LG tries some interesting ideas, like handwriting recognition, but in our brief time with the device, we found the handwriting completely unreliable and frustrating, with our finger or the included stylus. Still, the phone packs serious camera and video chops, including video recording at 120fps for some nice slow-motion effects. Don't get excited, though, as the Viewty is only available in Europe. Release: January 2008. Price: $550.
Pros: Nice 5-megapixel camera, good video recording capabilities. Cool touch interface.
Cons: Unresponsive handwriting recognition. No U.S. carrier support.
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Philip Berne, Matthew Ruiz, Edward Distel and Sindre Lia contribute to the CES 2008 coverage.
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