The Phones Show 159 (CES News, 2012 Predictions)

[JARN01D]

Hey Steve, don't recall ever seeing a Phones Show review of the Nokia N9. Think we can see an official SL comparison of the N8 & N9 before their collective end of life?

[stevelitchfield]

@JARN01D Can't get hold of them here, short of buying one at £500... 8-( Watch this space, I may have a guest reviewer trying his hand though....

[andylarge2m]

Pretty much agree with your predictions Steve. Like you, I seriously hope 2012 is the year of the Xenon flash on smartphones!

[heinrichbeckmann]

the huaiwaoowui or whatever its called looks a good device new orange phone maybe:?

[okl1970]

Great show with thoughtful musings for 2012. Symbian will be sadly missed with many fond memories (just like Psion). After Belle update is in, N8 will be with me for more than 1 year. I rarely bring my P&S camera along now with N8 taking over all the work. It is probably the last great Nokia Symbian phone. I've traded in all my phones so far, maybe I'll keep it when I next buy a Nokia WP. Symbian really had no chance once Nokia screw up S60 to S3. If Belle or even Anna had been released in 2010.

[okl1970]

@okl1970 Maybe you do one show with your thoughts on the manufacturers - Nokia, Samsung, HTC, Apple, Motorola, LG etc.

[jamoiholland]

Great CES round-up; is it safe to go back to Google Reader now it's finished?! Only thing of note missed was the Razr Maxx; 3300mAh battery, and whilst Verizon only hopefully a GSM/HSPA variant will come to this side of the pond, and hopefully other manufacturers will follow suit.

Android skins probably won't go in 2012; mostly it's only geeks moaning, not enough to make manufacturers think again, when the skin is something they love differentiating on. Google will need to enforce "no skins".

[stevelitchfield]

@jamoiholland Anything which is CDMA only tends to make my eyes glaze over, since it's completely irrelevant to 95% of the world.... 8-)

[jamoiholland]

@stevelitchfield Yeah true, but my hope is that as the Raxr made it to GSM, so hopefully the Razr Maxx will too. And more importantly if the Razr Maxx does well (even if only on Verizon) that other manufacturers will follow suit, and bump up the mAh up for the extra 1 or 2mm on device thickness!

[filthyj24]

@jamoiholland Motorola xt910..It's the gsm razr.

[valdeze]

and xenon flash, there is just no comparison

[airjaff]

nokia need to hurry up an realse an n8 successor! There are will be a few phones coming out soon that have better sensors then the n8... Maybe the fujitsu phnone!

[tazamul]

nokia is my favourite manufacturer and android is my os of choice...if only nokia picked android i think they would be in a much much better position.

[ceterafan123]

Ah, my highlight of the week! Thanks Steve!

[irgendwerjoker]

@gavrilaeugen I hate this megapixel craze. There is much room for improvement when it comes to mobile phone cameras, but usually any ccd with more than 6mpx just won't get enough light with these small lenses. Of course there is a lot of engineering, and a lot of post-processing algorithms, but in the end, very often you just get more noise. Some 16mpx compacts nowadays do worse photos than 5 year old 6mpx compacts...

[redshovel]

Great show Steve. A great quick CES smartphone round up for those of us with better things to do than listen to Leo Laporte for 48 hours and some well thought out predictions for 2012!

[irgendwerjoker]

Again thanks again for a great show. I think lack of support and updates and in general fragmentation will hinder Android's growth a bit. I still think there is room for a more truly supported platform, one where you can be sure you will still get updates for your phone after 6 months - this could be Windows Phone....

[rdomloge]

Can't agree with you about skins - the consistency across Android devices is only significant to reviewers. Skins are here to stay because they are a crucial way for manufacturers to differentiate themselves. I realise that reviewers across the board are complaining about skins and extolling the virtues of Vanilla Android, but the sales figures show that you are in the minority. The downside to skins is that updates from Google take a long time to filter down, but only a small minority care

[gavrilaeugen]

xperia s will beat the n8 what do u think steve ?

[stevelitchfield]

@gavrilaeugen Doubt that, overall... Might get close in daylight though.

[gavrilaeugen]

@stevelitchfield maybe this year the "average" camera will be 12mgpx , last year was the 8mgpx , the belle update ? do u know a specific month ? :D

[arjunmenon]

@stevelitchfield @gavrilaeugen No way. The N8 will still remain the best overall camera phone - especially with night shots at pubs and clubs. The HTC Titan 2 has a brilliant 16 MP camera. Ask @tnkgrl Myriam Jorie. None of these phone manufacturers believe in "Xenon" Flash. I only wish they listen to Steve. Nokia, who neglected Xenon after N82 listened to Steve I guess and that was way the N8 was so successful. I hope Nokia tie up with Google and port Android ICS in their next camera flagship.

[Lvaneede]

The predictions sound about right.

Im just waiting for Belle on my N8