CES in Pictures: A Few Cool Cell Phones

We didn't see a ton of new cell phones at CES--vendors mostly showed off their holiday-season products--but here are the best of the new and upcoming arrivals.

By Yardena Arar, PCWorld

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Motorola Rokr E8: A Chameleon Phone and MP3 Player

Motorola introduced only two new phones, but each packed a lot of technological innovation. The Rokr E8's interface is almost completely based on lights beneath a glassy surface. Press the music icon, and the phone keypad vanishes, replaced by traditional MP3-player control keys. Turn it off, and it goes dark except for the scroll wheel. Due sometime in the first quarter of this year, the quad-band GSM/EDGE phone comes with the Song ID music-identification application and a built-in FM radio.

Moto Z10 Puts a Film Studio in Your Pocket

As a phone, the Z10 slides open at an angle (Motorola calls it a kick slider) so that it cradles comfortably against the face. But its real innovation is in its on-board video editing software. Created by Arcsoft, the program looks very much like a desktop application, with a timeline (for dragging your clips), support for an audio track, and 15 transitions. It supports HSDPA broadband data networks as well as GSM/EDGE, so uploading video to ShoZu, Yahoo, or YouTube won't take too long.

Moto Z10, Part 2: A Powerful Still Camera, Too

Here's a photo of the Z10's camera side. In addition to capturing 30-frames-per-second QVGA (320 by 240) video, it functions as a 3.2-megapixel still camera, capable of taking up to three photos per second. Motorola says it can power up in 1.5 seconds, a lot faster than most camera phones; as a result, you're less likely to miss a nice shot while waiting for it to start functioning.

Sony Ericsson's Chic Phone Shuts Up When You Shush It

Another interesting tech innovation is Sony Ericsson's handsome Z555, a clamshell with a brilliant, diamond-patterned exterior and a motion sensor (the diamond in the upper-right corner) that responds to gestures: If a call comes in at an inconvenient moment and you've forgotten to mute the handset, just wave over the sensor to quiet it down. The Z555 has an external display--an OLED screen that shines discreetly through the glassy surface that covers it--to let you see who's calling (which will help you decide whether you need to use the gesture-control feature). Sony Ericsson plans to release a pink version of this stylish phone in time for Valentine's Day.

A Speedy Walkman for the North American Market

Sony Ericsson also introduced the first Walkman phone to support HSDPA in North America. The W760, a slider shown here in phone mode, is also a quad-band GSM/EDGE phone, so you can make calls on it in most of the world. It has built-in stereo speakers, and since it also packs a GPS chip, you can use it for navigation, too.

A Flippable Walkman: Sony Ericsson's W350

A second Walkman phone making its debut at CES is the lower-end W350. This triband phone flips open at the bottom, yet still measures only 10mm thick. It comes with a Track ID music-identification feature that's similar to the Music ID app in the Rokr E8.

Samsung Goes for Style in a Pair of Designer Handsets

You can't help but wonder what negotiating went on in deciding which brand name would go first when Georgio Armani and Samsung decided to collaborate on a fashion phone. Either Armani won--it's called the Georgio Armani-Samsung phone--or they just settled on alphabetical order. The handset has a touch screen, plays music, and captures stills with a built-in 3-megapixel camera. But North American fashionistas will have to wait to get their hands on this superslim, credit-card-size GSM/EDGE phone: Like Samsung's other new handsets, it's available only for the European market.

Samsung Sings a Bang & Olufsen Seranata

Samsung's second new fashion phone, the Seranata, is the result of collaboration with Bang & Olufsen. Distinguished by its rounded upper half and its superskinny profile, the Seranata supports high-speed European HSDPA, GSM, and EDGE data networks. It's also a music player, and the large aluminum wheel is for scrolling through tracks stored in memory.