What to expect from smartphones at Consumer Electronics Show 2014
By Dan Kricke
What a difference a year makes. Smartphone offerings from the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show were paltry at best. Outside of announcements from the likes of Huawei, Sony and ZTE, there simply wasn’t much publicity on new smartphone tech a year ago. But during this year’s annual show, which kicks off Jan. 7 in Las Vegas, smartphones seem poised to get their fair share of attention. Here’s a peek at what we’re excited to hear more about.
T-Mobile enters phase four
T-Mobile has been on quite a run lately. After eliminating two-year contracts and international roaming charges, while letting customers upgrade their phones twice a year, the carrier might just be ready to do away with early termination fees, offering up some great savings to customers who switch to T-Mobile.
Galaxy S5 announcement
Rumored to feature a 64-bit chip and 16MP camera packed into a metal body, the S5 could be poised for an unveiling at CES 2014. While there’s speculation that the S5 won’t debut until MWC 2014, Samsung may showcase an additional handful of new phones to make up for the Galaxy’s absence.
Li-Fi the next Wi-Fi?
Users accustomed to the usual 4G signal next to their phones might be seeing a Li-Fi or Light Fidelity signal in the near future. Li-Fi is a new technology that transfers wireless information via light emitting diodes. Researchers have already demoed transfer speeds of 150 Mbps and it looks like SunPartner Technologies and Oledcomm will debut a Li-Fi smartphone prototype at CES.
Bigger, badder phones
It hardly qualifies as news, but this year’s CES also will feature phones with bigger screens and higher resolutions than ever before. While users can already choose from phones like the 5.9 inch HTC One Max and 6-inch Nokia Lumia 1520, rumor is we’ll see even bigger phones from other manufacturers. Meanwhile LG is primed to offer 4K-like ultra HD displays and the Galaxy S5 is rumored to feature a 560-pixel density.
As enticing as the above tidbits are, they’re only the tip of the iceberg for what lies ahead for smartphone tech in 2014.
Read more articles about CES 2014 here.
Other articles you might also like:
