Shay and I will be bouncing some thoughts from each day of CES back and forth to share some more casual perspectives on the goings on here in Vegas. Like the overwhelming sense of enormity the first actual day of the show brings…
Nick: OMFG. Nothing prepared me for the enormity of this place. I’ve spent the bulk of the day pounding the show floor and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.
Had a really good morning though. I had the roundtable with Sir Howard Stringer, where he revealed nuggets like Sony are planning a tablet and there are OLED screens on the way for business. After that I had a quick tour of the Sony booth, where I got to try out their Headman prototype – I was expecting crapness but instead walked away with a hole in the back of my head where my mind had exploded out of. Seriously impressed by the picture quality and immersiveness of the 3D. And I didn’t get a headache in the brief time I used it either!
Shay: Have you got all FOUR maps to find your way around this place? It’s like a ‘complete the set’ thing. I was having flashbacks to E3. It’s like E3^2 in there! But it did mean I had a pretty good bead on how things would flow. I spent my day getting some detailed insights in the new LG gear, interspersed with some quick runs around the Central Hall.
Got a look at the Motorola Atrix, which is another mindbender — Smartphone that docks to act like a laptop is just so, so smart. Though in the battle of the dual-core mobiles, both claiming to be world’s fastest, I’d give the nod to the Optimus 2X. Both are uber fast, but the 2X seems to be a little snappier when flowing around the UI.
It’s late, so just one question. A simple one. What’s kicking more ass this year? TVs, Tablets, or Mobiles?
Nick: Honestly, I don’t think any of them – I think the biggest ass-kicker so far has been the second-gen Core i7 chips from Intel. There are so many question marks around so many of the mobiles and tablets still, and TVs are continuing the same developments from last year, really. But Sandy Bridge is an amazing accomplishment that’s pushing all of the above forward, although that might be in a round about way.