Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

Unveiled at CES last week Sharp are coming out with a new line of 1.6”deep AQUOS LED TVs and boy do they look good. As you all know we all love a good TV at Mighty Gadget and these do indeed look the bee’s knees as most LED’s do. What makes them different you might ask? Standard screens work as we all know with a red green and blue pixel. These add a fourth pixel, a yellow one, which improves the colours one can see on a screen.

The LC-LE810E will come in 3 sizes, 32”, 40” and 46” and will support 1080p output. The next model up is the LC-LE820 which is pretty much the same only coming in the larger 40”, 46” and 60”. The daddy of the series is the LC-LE920E. Again this comes in 40”,46” and 60” but has extras!! It has Aquos Motion 240Hz to reduce on motion blur and has the latest version of AQUOS Net(that means if you live in the US you get Netflix and and Twitter working on your box)

The TV’s should be out in March over here but we don’t have any prices as yet

“Given the exceptional response to DEXT and Milestone to date, we look forward to adding Backflip to our smartphone range in EMEA…We will be making further announcements on availability and pricing of Backflip in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia beginning in Q1 2010,”

The above is a quote from Motorola about the Backflip phone it showed at CES heading our way to European shores in the next few months. The phone itself isn’t much different from Motorola’s other smartphone the DEXT(Wi–Fi, HSDPA, 3MP Camera, MotoBlur UI) The Backflip again is powered by Android and shows it on a 3.1” screen. However what sets this apart is that the QWERTY keyboard flips out a bit like the N97’s(which was the best part of the Nokia).

Just the rough date of Q1 and no pricing details expect it soon and I can’t really see it being too expensive in comparision to the other better equipped “droid” phones but a reasonable looker none the less.

The Muse is Philips fairly decent but average current PMP doing what your average PMPs do, but it looks like it’s getting an upgrade to try and make it a little less average and to compete with the Zune HD(obviously STILL not out in the UK so there’s a market hole that needs filling)

The new and improved Muse will certainly look nicer with its polished silver finish and lack of frame that the current model has. Housed in the Muse is a nice and bright 3.2” touchscreen with all your general options of MP3/MP4 playback etc. What makes it a Zune competitor is the fact it has HDMI out to offer playback on your telly. It comes with 16GB of storage and also houses an SD slot.

Launch date should be soon(I’ve read April) and will retail at around £90 - £100.

We here at Mighty Gadget cant wait to embrace the 3D revolution and all these wonderful AV gadgets that one will need. We’ve talked about the TVs and the supply from Sky/Freeview etc. Today we have a projector. The Acer H5360 has just come out and is one of the first of its kind to be on shelves for us to buy.

The H5360 is compatible with NVIDIA’s 3D vision(what it uses in its graphics chips) which dispalys two images at 120Hz for each eye. What this means is when you slap on the glasses, the images converge into one a 3D image that runs at 60Hz. The projector itself projects(obviously) a 2500 ANSI Lumens image which has a contrast ratio of 3200:1. As for resolution, 720p.

The projector is on sale now for a measly £549.99. Not bad for a brand new piece of kit so if you’re thinking ahead its not too bad an investment. If you want use out of it now however, you’ll need an NVIDIA 3D vision powered PC to use it.

Obviously CES this year shows all the goodies that are coming soon, but we cant comment on them all just the more interesting ones. One that has caught my attention in particular and hopefull will yours two is this fantastic little notebook from MSI.

With a lot of great laptops and notebooks predicted this year (like the Apple Tablet etc) one is going to need some “pulling power” to draw in the customers. This should do that job. This notebook has two 10 inch screens. The lower of the two will have a software keyboard so no more filthy keyboards. The notebook will run Windows 7 and will have a SSD as storage. MSI have also said despite the obvious power usage of two screens the book will be somewhat efficient with the juice.

However the one shown is just a concept and full details on spec and pricing are in limbo at the moment. A spokesmen from MSI has apparently said it should be ready this year so watch this space.

Now I’m a big fan of the Panasonic Lumix range(owning a TZ-65) so i’m always excited to see what cameras Panasonic are putting out. Now we will have the DMC-FS10 and FS11, the DMC-FS30 and FS33 and also the DMC-FP1 and FP3.

The DMC-FS10 and FS11(pictured) are a 12.1MP and a 14.1MP camera respectively. Both have a 28mm high quality wide angle LUMIX lens and both give 5x Optical Zoom. Turn it round and you have a 2.7” 230,000 dot LCD screen and boasts a light sensor to adjust the brightness when required. Both can shoot 720p movies at 30fps as well as 640x 480 and a wider 848x480

The DMCFS30 and FS33 again both contain a 28mm wide angle but are capable of 8x optical zoom. The only difference between the two cameras is on the flipside with screens being different. Both have a touch panel LCD screen only the FS30’s is 2.7” and the FS33 is 3”

Then we have the FP1(pictured below) and FP3. “Ultra-slim, Super Stylish Cameras with Folded Optics, Intelligent Auto Mode and Sonic Speed AF” say Panasonic. Both again with 4x Optical Zoom. The FP1 is a 12.1MP with a 2.7” screen and the FP3 is a 14.1MP with a 3” screen.

Pricing and availability are unknown and will probably be released sooner to release.

Palm has announced at CES this weekend gone that it is upgrading it’s Pre/Pixi range of smartphones (by adding a “Plus” at the end). Although the Palm Pre seemed to have come out in America a lifetime ago, it has only just arrived in the UK so I’m pretty sure those who waited and waited to get one, will be a little disappointed to hear this news.

Aesthetically speaking the phones wont be changing too much and will just be losing the navigation button on the front, but it’s inside where they’re ringing the changes. On board memory will be doubled to 16GB(but still no expansion slot). Palm have also said they will be giving a conductor for the Touchstone wireless charger in with every purchase. Palm also announced that the webOS will soon be able to pump out some 3d gaming action to which EA Mobile and Gameloft will be developing for.

The Palm Pixi Plus on the other hand(the original Pixi is still not available here in Blighty) will now be sporting WiFi which is an obvious must have on today’s smartphones.

MSI have announced that its laptop ranges will be modernised with the latest Intel Core i5 and i7 chips and Windows 7 improving them by a minimum of 30%.

The Classic ranges will come in 3 models of CR420, CR620 and CR720 and will have LED screens starting from 14” to a massive 17.3”. These will be the general all round laptop you need for everyday work and web use and will pack the i5 chips within. No details on release for these or prices yet.

The Gaming range will come in 2 models. The GX640 and GX740 will contain the more powerful i7 chipsets and will also come bundled with ATi Mobility Radeon HD graphics chips supporting DirectX 11 gaming and will really make good use of the HD screens.  Release is looking at March 2010 and prices will start at £999

The gaming lappies will also benefit from what is called “Turbo Boost Technology” which will efficiently distribute system power and resources with Intel Hyper-Threading Technology. They’re also packing Smart Cache and Graphics Media Accelerator HD to improve multimedia operation. The top end GX740 will also have 5 speakers for surround sound gaming but also a 7.1 optical out.